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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 6, 2000)
Page 2 The INDEPENDENT, December 6, 2000 b V/AX£i> ¿ mocbatj GoRC as ■ n ié f IMI>£ACH CL.W72ta/?/ 4 4 4 4 4 » 4 4 •* 4 * * * lYz/r bibA/'r Holiday preparations can be very painful The Christmas holidays have great meaning and are great fun, unless your income makes it only too clear that you aren’t going to be part of the celebration. This is one reason that organizations such as Vernon ia Cares are so very important. Cash donations are needed to supplement the food drives. The cash is used to buy items that are not usu ally donated, items such as fresh meat and produce, toiletries and, at Christmas time, something special for families in need. In today’s job market, many jobs are unfilled, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t working. More than half of the Oregonians who need help from emergency food banks have jobs; the jobs simply don’t pay enough to take care of rent, transportation, utilities, child care, food and other ordinary expenses. These are the working poor; they aren’t lazy, they’re under paid. Another way to help is with a donation to the United Way in your county. United Way’s funds don’t go to in dividuals, they go to agencies that help individuals, agencies that must be preapproved by volunteer Unit ed Way board members. These funds go to Vernonia Cares, senior centers, Girl and Boy Scouts. They help people in need, whatever the need may be, with sup port to existing organizations that are in the people helping business. United Way helps support families victimized by violence; it helps the homeless and those who can’t keep up with their utility bills. How about making someone’s life a little easier this year. Please donate generously. Clatskanie Fire Chief Dick Long and Vernonia Cares Director Lisa Edgar remind everyone that the annual United Way fund drive is underway. Long and St. Helens Fire Chief George Dunkel are co-chairs of this year’s campaign. fie e iû e v r liif GoiitioZ. S td fT A tH e f k it M t y C A tt TBé we Cûuz/T W A i of Ï4 4 4 4 4 4 4 TH é V o ic e To Be V p ii» ! B aby basti * 4 * * Meetx of T t t e TAKE à J - h « fmal . 9 ffw ac Atx vares - copa / T ! IF ir A _______ ___________________________________ ___ ûofsa / t ¿ é egee- F#«'* u / uioa J j e 4 P af / T o F C uba !? cozy camp for this arduous hunt. Knowing there is a warm, dry camp to come back to at night is essential if a hunter is to be able to hunt to his For many of us, this year’s big game hunting full potential during the day. Opening day was season is just a memory. I spent over half a typical, with a lot of hunters shooting. I had a month in Eastern Oregon, and that is always a nice five or six point walk up behind me, yet I positive experience. Though I didn’t bring any was not able to get a shot at him, as he turned thing home, I learned some new country and inside out when I turned around and started had a great time. I also spent six days with my walking his way. I saw a bull across the canyon, son as he tried to harvest his first bull elk here in which was too far to shoot, then watched as Ken the Saddle Mountain unit. Unfortunately, our took this animal when he walked into what was freezer didn’t get an addition of this year’s meat, actually two bulls. Later in the morning, I shot and the hunting experience was not what I and, unfortunately, wounded, a smaller bull high would have hoped for. in the back and was not able to catch up with Having changed hunting areas for deer, this him. I hope the shot was not lethal and, by the year found my dad, Don Tiffney, and me learning looks of the sign, it probably was not. this new, secret, hunt unit. Deer hunting in this The highlight of the trip for me was following unit reminded us of hunting as it used to be in an obvious bull track which went around obsta the Murderers Creek unit of the ‘60s and early cles, through depressions in the landscape and 70s. There were lots of deer and lots of bucks, utilized any available trees as screens. This bull unfortunately, the number of larger bucks was had some previous experience and was using it not high. We passed up a lot of spikes, forked to his full advantage. I eventually jumped the bull horns and a few three points. Deer hunting was, on a knob at the edge of a small draw in which once again, a lot of fun, as you could actually get the bull quickly disappeared. Getting just a away from the roads, hunt through broken glimpse of him as he sprang to his feet, and ground and expect to see deer in every likely hearing the clattering of his horns as he spot. Seeing twenty to forty deer a day was com streaked over the edge and through the sur mon and passing up two to three bucks a day rounding thicket, only reinforced the fact that he was average. Many times, I stood in awe as I was a nice bull. I never saw that bull again, even counted the deer feces pellet groups that sur though I spent half of the next day tracking him rounded my location, with six or seven pellet through fresh snow, only to have him rub me off groups in one place being the average. This is by maneuvering me upwind of a big herd of elk indicative of a very high deer population and so they would blow up and take me on a wild was confirmed by the number of deer we were goose chase down in a very deep canyon. Don’t seeing. I told myself that Oregon Department of ever let anybody tell you that older bull elk are Fish and Wildlife should take all their biologists stupid. to this area so they could see, first hand, what a The last day of my elk season was also mem deer population should look like, and see the orable as I chased two elk tracks in snow for feed that was supporting this population. They most of the day only to have them take me to the could learn a lot from this experience and would edge of The Abyss, a place where the world falls have the opportunity to develop a new under away for miles. Being late in the day, there was standing of what their units’ potential could be. no way I was going into this hole. Yet, as I stood Dad finally took an eater buck on the last day there, I was treated to a beautiful sight as snow of the hunt, while I had a bad case of poor shoot showers and sun rays came and went, creating ing as I tried to anchor two different forked a dramatic picture from such a high vantage horns, without touching a hair. Lee, Ken and point. Sometimes the pleasures of hunting do Luke Enneberg joined our camp during the mid not include the animals, but the many other as die of the season and Luke took a nice four-point pects of the hunt itself. buck within the first 45 minutes of his hunt. Lee My son hunted the second elk season in the got a forked horn after missing a nicer buck the Saddle Mountain unit. The first two days of the day before. Ken passed up too many bucks and season were tough. The ground was frozen, couldn’t find an eater buck on the last of his few making it difficult to find fresh tracks. Hunter hunt days. numbers were also unusually high in the area, Elk season found Dad, Ken Enneberg and me which made hunting less enjoyable. After going once again hunting the Murderers Creek unit. to school for three days, Mike was, once again, After setting up Ken’s giant Gl tent, we had a Please see page 2 By Dale Webb, member, Izaak Walton League, Nehalem Valley Chapter
