The Eagle Cap Extreme sled dog race ran last week, starting and finishing at Ferguson Ridge Ski Area outside of Joseph.

Spiffy starting line from Jay-Zee Lumber.

It's good times, having mushers in town. Nice to see dog sleds on top of trucks driving down the road. You think, oh, here comes a – no, that's not a . . . it's, uh . . . that right there is a – what is that? Oh, yes, of course.

Lots of folks volunteer to help put these races on. Jerry Hustafa is so dedicated he strapped himself in the traces and helped pull a sled for 10 miles when one of the dogs needed a break. 

 Binky patrol.

Paul, Penny, Morgan and Todd have been helping shuttle sled dog fans up to the starting line over the years, running a hay wagon type trailer setup behind the Winding Waters trucks. I got to help out this year and had a fine time visiting with folks on the short rides. Lots of river folk come out to watch sled dogs, I notice.

Speaking of things to do with snow, this is your final boarding call reminder for flight Frostbite Fundraiser, leaving from the terminal this Thursday eve, 6 pm from the OK Theatre in downtown Enterprise. 

Cool movies courtesy of The Backcountry Film Festival. Door prizes, raffle and live auction, including a one-day rafting trip for four people with some rafting company . . . let's see here . . . Windingo Waters? They look fun. Heck of a nice website.

Also two nights at Wing Ridge for four people, a one-of-a-kind Paul Arentsen ski-o-lounger chair and a brand spanking new pair of Black Diamond skis. Quality stuff and the proceeds support the Eagle Cap Ski & Nordic Clubs, Wallowa Valley Community Ice Rink and the Wallowa Avalanche Center.

Lou going out for a spin while everyone's distracted by dogs.

Be there. More info at SkiFergi.com and Penny has a Facebook page going.

Well, amigos, Paul and Tom Farnam and I are off to investigate reports that Spring steelhead fishing is already a going concern on the Wallowa River. Learned that bit of information from Eric at the sled dog races. 

And Mike Baird said he got in some fishing Sunday afternoon, reported the water clarity is just fine. He picked up a nice bull trout, no steelhead, but they're in there.

Green heron? Double-crested cormorant?

Saw a diving bird come up with a fish on my last jaunt down in Hells Canyon with Mike Baird and the Forest Service cleanup crew.

Never seen this particular collection of feathers before in Hells. Long neck. Biggish. About the size of two-and-a-half ducks glued together. There was another bird of the same persuasion floating nearby, they took off and split up to lose us, I guess, with one of them keeping pace with us as we went upriver, doing, I don't know, 30 miles-an-hour? We were moving pretty good and I tried to get photos to ID the thing but they turned out to be a blurry mess.

So I'm laying claim to the discovery of a new bird in Hells Canyon: The Blurry Mess. Identified by not being able to identify it. Inhabits crappy photos taken by amateur photographers.

One guess for this fisher bird was green heron. Most pictures of green herons I found look nothing like what I saw, but this one here looks about right:

 I don't see any green, but I'm no ornithologist.

There's a bird checklist for Hells Canyon put out by Idaho Power. Here's a link if you're interested. They don't mention green herons, but I don't suppose birds consult bird books to decide where they can and can't go. 

The Hells Canyon bird list does mention a black-crowned night heron, which is mostly white and doesn't look at all like what we saw.


Superhero Birds?

I know one thing for sure – The Green Heron will probably be a movie soon. After the Green Hornet and Green Lantern, The Green Heron is a natural progression. He'll swoop down on criminals, poop on their car and eat all the koi out of their pond, if they happen to have a koi pond. Otherwise his crime-fighting tactics are fairly limited. But that's still a better storyline than most Hollywood superhero films.

Double-crested cormorants are on the list for Hells Canyon inhabitants, and here's what they look like:

 Chew your food, cormorant. Chew your food.

Could have been a cormorant we saw, but I don't know. So I don't know that Idaho Power should update their bird list to include green herons, but I have here a photo taken at Coon Hollow on the lower section, and do not see pink plastic flamingos listed anywhere on the Idaho Power bird list. Might want to update that, Idaho Power.

They're very tame. You can sneak right up on them.

We see loads of great blue herons on the Snake River, Lower Salmon, Wallowa and Grande Ronde rivers. Here's one now:

Here's the same bird, without the zoom –

These last two photos were taken from my yard. Friends sometimes ask when I'm going to move from the Wallowas and go live in the city. If they find me a log cabin apartment with a view like this and I can take pictures of herons from my yard that I don't have, I'll consider it.

A quick science lesson

We've been getting snow and rain and rainy-snow and snowy rain lately. Last week we got reports of Lewiston, Idaho getting a foot of snow, La Grande, Oregon getting a foot of snow and here in the Wallowas we got buckets of rain with a temperature of 50-degrees.

Mike Baird said his students were asking questions in his classroom that he didn't have answers for. Like, why are we in school when we should be out sledding because this should be a snow day. So Baird got on the horn to one of his science contacts who explained the numbers related to a chinook.

I didn't take notes, but basically there's high pressure and low pressure and air comes off the mountains and slides down into a valley, heating up around 5 degrees for every 1,000 feet it drops.

So the Wallowas are up in the 9,000-ish foot neighborhood and the floor of Wallowa Valley is around 4,000. Air slides down, heats up, we get rain instead of snow, then it freezes later, turning my driveway into a skating rink, causing me to slip and fall on my can the other night.

But the pressure zones seem to have evened out, the ski run has been in action and the mountains are storing up future whitewater for rafting season.

Call or email to set up your rafting trip on this snow, once it gets around to melting.

And bring your birding book and binoculars. We'll search for the elusive green heron.

Hells Canyon got spiffed up last weekend when a Forest Service cleanup crew scoured the banks at popular campsites to remove plastic in many and various forms, bunches of wire, odds, ends, a pair of blue swimming trunks and a few other things we don't need to go into.

 Cleaning crew in action. China Bar, Hells Canyon.

Mike Baird and I went along as volunteers and it was unique both to be down on the Snake River in January and also see it by jetboat, rather than raft. Landmarks come at you awfully fast when you're accustomed to seeing them from a floating pace.

 Strapping down part of the haul. 

That's Ranger Brent in the foreground.

Wildlife sightings were fast and furious. Maybe not furious. They were mostly flying by or grazing. One thing I'd never seen in Hells Canyon were elk. Seen acres of elk sign in the spring. Evidence. Beds. Droppings. But never the actual elk until this trip, when several herds were doing their thing.

 Little brown dots near the bottom represent elk.
My zoom can only do so much from a bouncing jetboat.

The eagles were thick down there. Bald and golden. Looked like a political ad with all the eagles flying around, being majestic and whatnot. Also herons, horned owls, wild turkeys, deer, bighorn sheep. All of that.

And possibly, just possibly, a calling card from a wolf. You be the judge:

 Whatever creature left this came very close to pooping on my knife. 

We stopped in to visit the caretakers at Cache Creek. Nice couple from Estacada. They drew our attention to an intriguing pile of poo behind the house that sure appears to be a contender for having been left by something larger than a coyote. Chupacabra? Wolf?

I asked the internets about wolf doo-doo and it said woofs leave number twos that are generally larger in diameter than one inch, tapered at one end with hair and bone fragments from prey. Coyote poo will be shinier than wolf poo . . . the last time you learned this much about byproducts you swore never again to feed your infant asparagus pureed with blueberries and mandarin oranges.

That pocket knife in the photo measures 4 1/4" long x 1 1/4" at the widest spot. So according to the cap of my pen that I held up to the screen for scale, Exhibit P hovers around 1" in diameter and so it could go either way: Coyote that could use more prunes in the diet or a wolf that didn't use the groover. Or a very large dingo. Never know.

As for the placement of this specimen right behind an old ranch house next to the Snake River in Hells Canyon, here's a snippet from the ODFW site: "Both wolves and coyotes leave scat in prominent places along trails and roads to mark territories and leave scent behind. It is a form of communication with other wolves and coyotes."

Piles of poop as a form of communication. Reminds me of the exciting junk mail offers I receive in my mailbox.

Here's an interactive game for you. See if you can spot hoo is hiding in this photo.

He just finished a Tootsie Pop before I snapped this picture. 

It was really quite nice down in Hells Canyon for January. Sweatshirt weather during the day and impressive stars at night. Dusting of snow way up high and it got me looking forward to being back on the water.

The first slot on my calendar for launching a boat will be a steelhead float in early-spring, fishing the 38-mile run from Minam down to Wildcat Bridge above Troy. I aim to tussle with some steelhead in the roadless section and I need to start losing some of these flies I've been tying up all winter.

Want in? Check out our supported steelhead trips where Winding Waters provides all the comforts and you just worry about catching fish.

And remember, friends, Pack It In, Pack It Out. I don't mind doing some cleanup now and then, but it doesn't take much to clean up after ourselves.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to go tend to the mountain of dishes in my sink.

Paul is in action out in his workshop building a ski chair like he does every year for the upcoming Frostbite Fundraiser auction. It's a hot item, this annual incarnation of old skids put back to use as somewhere to take a load off.

I made a pair of skis out of old chairs....not nearly as cool.

It'll be the 5th annual fundraiser, Thursday, February 2, 6 pm at the OK Theatre in Enterprise to support the Eagle Cap Ski & Nordic Clubs, Wallowa Valley Community Ice Rink, and the Wallowa Avalanche Center.

The Backcountry Film Festival will showcase indy outdoor adventure films by the Winter Wildlands Alliance, plus the auction and a raffle for cool stuff and this event is always a good time. Tickets sold at the door for $8 adults/$4 kids 10 & under.

You can get more info at SkiFergi.com and Penny has a Facebook page going.

Chairs aren't the only use Paul has for discarded skis. He's the reigning champ for lawnchair racing at FergiFest, the end-of-year celebration at our local ski area.

I'm getting weary of Paul winning every year and me not just losing, but usually being injured, so I snuck into Paul's R&D headquarters, lowering myself on wires I got from Tom Cruise and stole blueprints of Paul's lawnchair racer design so I have a shot at winning this year. Wish me luck.

See you at the Frostbite event if you're in the vicinity. If not, get to work on a lawnchair racer and plan on getting to Fergi in the spring for the FergiFest party.

With all this talk of snowsports, it's fitting that we actually got some white stuff on the valley floor this morning after a noticeable lack of that substance.

I'm off to start a snowball fight with the neighbors. They love that.

Hells Canyon is a lot of things. Big. Beautiful. Dramatic in many ways. One reason I enjoy running the same river in different seasons with different people is learning something new and seeing the river from different perspectives.

Taking botanists down the Snake River in Hells Canyon to survey for rare plants has sent more knowledge and Latin flying over my head than I can recall, so I asked Forest Service botanist Gene Yates to give us a rundown on some highlights of why Hells Canyon is unique in terms of things that grow down there.

Gene, documenting stuff.

I’ve been on three river trips with this Yates fellow – no, make that four. He also came with us on the Salmon River strictly for fun with his son Connor. And by ‘strictly for fun’ I mean he still had a scientific tome with him that he referenced while surveying plants. Like we all do on vacation.

But I find he's good at explaining things to someone who hasn't had a biology class since high school. So here’s an inside look from someone who knows what they’re talking about on what to look for in Hells Canyon that you won’t see elsewhere.

Here's Gene:

Macfarlane’s Four-O’Clock

MacFarlane’s four o’clock habitat in Hells Canyon. photo: www.fs.fed.us

Many plants are unique, or in botanical parlance, endemic to Hells Canyon; that is, they grow nowhere else. One of the more striking plants is the MacFarlane’s four o’clock (Mirabilis macfarlanei), named for its discoverer, Ed MacFarlane, an early pioneer of motorized boat transportation up the Snake River.

OK, I fibbed, the four-o’clock is not technically endemic to Hells Canyon; it also grows along grassy slopes that line the Salmon River, but it is a unique species, threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and so far as can be determined, with a stable population in Hells Canyon.

It grows near Pittsburg Landing. Under ideal conditions it can be seen blooming along the eroded sediments deposited from the great Bonneville flood (about 15,000 years ago) as you bounce through the rapids downstream of Lower Pittsburg Landing, around the bend from the boat ramp.

Although generally of interest only to plant geeks like myself, here’s a link for more information on Macfarlane’s four-o’clock.

[Gearboat note: I found this interesting, even without being a plant geek. Authored by Mr. Yates. Worth checking out.]

Bartonberry

Another endemic plant, the Bartonberry, is named for Lenora Barton, matriarch of the Barton family that homesteaded in Hells Canyon, who first noticed this plant as being unique.

The Bartonberry (Rubus bartonianus) can be seen at the Hells Canyon launch and along rocky slopes of the upper canyon. Superficially, it resembles currants or gooseberries, but is closely related to thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus). It’s large white flowers bloom from late April to early May.

For more information on bartonberry, here’s a one-pager from Oregon Rare Plant Guide.

And here's a status report on bartonberry following the 2010 bartonberry survey trip, written by ecologist and botanist Jenifer Ferriel.

[Fun fact: that's Jennifer checking out the waterline in the post from last week.]

From Prickly Pear to Paintbrush

Best appreciated when not barefoot. Trust me.

Many other beautiful wildflowers, endemic or widespread, are abundant along both the Snake and Salmon Rivers. Hells Canyon has masses of prickly pear cactus, a plant not normally associated with the Pacific Northwest. From late May through June, the prickly pear blooms in profusion with large gobs of yellow to salmon pink flowers, the delight of bumblebees, beetles and botanists. And that’s only a start. Penstemons, paintbrushes, phlox . . . it’s a riot of color.

Good Coffee and Surveying by Raft

Rafting is actually a great way to see and experience the wildflowers of Hells Canyon or the Salmon River.  One of the reasons we choose raft transport (over jet boats) for rare plant survey work is the slower pace allows us to carefully examine the shoreline and near slopes.  And we can conveniently stop at areas we want to look over more closely on foot. Rafting also leaves a much smaller carbon footprint. And having good, dark black coffee - coffee for coffee drinkers - waiting for you after you rise in the morning, and dinner waiting following an early evening hillside hike is more the bonus.

 And appetizers. Don't forget the appetizers.

Although one should be advised, on the water, you do get wet. It’s called whitewater rafting for good reason. One memorable trip last September, as Jon was negotiating the Wild Sheep Class IV water, the lip of a Charybdis-sized suck hole grabbed the right tube, promptly pulling it under, putting the raft into an unsettling 40 degree lean. The gear was snuggly tied down, we were not.  Fortunately, I was on the left and my botanist colleague in arms, Jerry, proved a reliable step stool and I was scarcely doused. Jon ably pulled us back out.

[Gearboat note: I haven’t the slightest notion what a ‘Charybdis’ is, but it sounds exciting. Thanks, Gene, for the inside scoop on unique plants in Hells Canyon and the Salmon River.]

Flip the page on the calendar and run a highlighter across rafting season, because 2012 is coming right for us.

To help ready ourselves for another rotation around the sun, The Gearboat Chronicles presents Rafting Resolutions, 2012 Edition.

I will skip a rock.

 Look at that surface tension, begging to be interrupted 6 or 8 or more times.

 It's a wrist thing. Just sort of . . . flick it. Choice of rock is crucial. Even one-skip rocks, aka 'just throwing it in the river' are clinically proven to rejuvenate receptors in your brain that make you happy to be on planet earth. Skipping rocks is rated in the Top Ten Things You Don't Miss Doing Until You Do Them Again. It's a go-to activity for many reasons, but mainly just because. Preferred location: river.


 I will remember that Hells Canyon is the deepest gorge in the lower 48 for a reason and that makes it big and awesome and fun when you blast down in a whitewater raft.

As waterlines go, that one is on the impressive side.

If you haven't seen Hells Canyon, you ought to. And if you have, odds are you'd like to see it again. Springtime, Summer, Fall, they all have their charms in Hells Canyon. The name is intimidating. The rafting is fun. The scenery makes you feel small. The experience makes you feel big. It's got a lot going on.

I will sleep under the stars.

Rated high on the list of most rafters, sleeping out is a fine thing. The river lapping at the beach, The Milky Way pouring across the sky, crickets....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I will get splashed and pretend I don't want to but secretly love it.

Sometimes you really don't want to get wet. Most times, though. . . .

I will spend time in a hammock.

Self-explanatory.

Sit in it. Sleep in it. Take a nap. Read. Snooze. Think about everything or think about nothing. Hammocks are suspended greatness. It's like telling gravity you're going to take a timeout and be comfortable while you do it.

We're just getting started here, but this should get you started on things to do this upcoming year. The river is prime territory for all of these and if you'd like to get on the water we'd love to take you.

Happy New Year from Winding Waters River Expeditions and The Gearboat Chronicles.

 ‘Twas the night before rafting
And all through the camp
You couldn’t see anything
Without a headlamp

The coffee next morning
Was made with care
While one of the ladies was
Fixing her hair

She fixed it just right
Like her stylist taught her
But it was ruined real soon
By the Green Room’s whitewater

Clutching her head
Where her hairdo had been
She yelled to the guide
“Let’s do that again!”

That lady loves rafting
Goes on a trip with us each year
Her husband loves it too
But he insists on rowing gear

He’s the best gearboater we’ve seen
Runs every rapid just right
We asked if he’d run gear before
He said, “Yeah. Lots of it. At night.”

We pressed him for his secret
And then he dropped our jaws
When he said, “Well, my first name’s Nick,
Last name . . . Claus.”

We thought for sure he was joking
Trying to pull a trick
But then he showed his drivers license
And sure enough, it said “Saint Nick”

The guides got kind of nervous,
Worried that we’d been naughty
But he said we shouldn’t worry,
“Now where’s that groover? One of the elves needs the potty.”

Gearboat Santa stops at every camp
Spreading river cheer
Leaving gifts in Chacos
From his dry bag full of gear

When rafting with the Clauses
We always enjoy ourselves
They’re fun to have on the river
And so are all the elves

So if your wife is special
But you don’t know what to get her
Take a tip from Santa
And send her down the river

She always will remember
The adventure that you got her
Going whitewater rafting
With the crew at Winding Waters

We know that we’ll see some of you
This coming rafting season
Because Santa let us see his list
Of who’s been nice, and all the reasons

Claus looked out at the river
And then he started talking
About all the lucky people
Who’d get a river trip in their stocking

So if you have been naughty
Burn your coal so you don’t shiver
But if you’re one of the nice ones
Then we’ll see you on the river

Merry Christmas from Winding Waters River Expeditions and The Gearboat Chronicles