Fishing and Flowers

Friday, July 13 and Thursday, July 19
Eagle Creek Fishing at Two Color Campground
Drive west on Rd 77 from Boulder Park, past West Eagle Meadows, to Hwy 203

Eagle Creek at Two Color

Click here for all pictures

     On Friday the 13th we went FISHING!  Well, Rick went fishing and I went flower hunting, resting, cloud gazing, and fish sitting!  It was a great day!  We drove up to Two Color Campground.  The water was cold, or at least Rick SAID it was.  I had to agree for the 10 minutes I stood out in it also!  Rick caught his limit in under 45 minutes I think and then played around abit.  It was so much cooler than down in the valley.
     Saturday afternoon we packed up the tent trailer and drove it up to Catherine Creek State Park for the Conklins to use for the next 5 nights (Cherrie's sisters needed a place to stay.)  This was the reason for our second fishing adventure on Thursday - we had to pick the trailer back up!

West Eagle Meadows

     Thursday we couldn't leave until after I finished teaching my BMCC class, so it was a little after 11a when we left Baker.  A bit faster drive in the truck than the car - it is easier to see the ruts, etc. from the truck vantage point!  Rick found the holes he caught fish in quickly on Friday had been fished out by the local campers.  As he said, "I had to WORK for these fish!"  Yeah, it took him nearly an hour and half instead of half that time!  He still came home with his limit of 5!  I found a few new flowers, or at least flowers in different places!  Plus I did some relaxing reading.

Penstemon and Flagstaff Butte

     Our drive to Catherine Creek was an adventure.  We had driven up to West Eagle Meadows years ago, but never beyond there as Road 77 continues to end at Highway 203 near our sledding hill summit.  The sign says "Rough Road" as you turn off the Boulder Park/Two Color Road, and they meant it!  Five miles up to West Eagle Meadows - dodging rocks and chuck holes mostly.  Slow going.  We stopped at the meadows briefly for a couple of pictures.  The road improved amazingly right at the campground and trailhead and then deteriorated just past.  (In looking at the map, I discovered that part was in Union County.  Could it be?)  The next 5-7 miles were equally rocky and slow going....VERY slow!  But, as we neared Flagstaff Butte, the views opened out beautifully!  First, the hillsides were covered with wildflowers.  I will list all that we saw at the bottom, but wild onion covered MANY hillsides!  Then vistas eastward to the peaks of the Eagles/Wallowa Mts. opened up.  It made the road more tolerable somehow!

     The last 10 miles of the drive descended rapidly through larch and lodgepole forests of young trees - perhaps an old logging area or burn site.  The wildflowers along the road disappeared in the thick forest and undergrowth lining the road.  But the road quality was MUCH improved to a smooth gravel grade.  Considerably better time.  Total time from leaving Two Color to Highway 203 (distance of about 18-20 miles) was 1 1/2 hours.

Pussytoes

     We picked up the trailer - all folded up and in the parking lot looking rather lonely - and headed home through Union and Pyles Canyon to North Powder.  Fish again for dinner!
     Flowers from both trips:  paintbrush, scarlet gilia, fireweed, Lewis monkeyflower, buttercups, sticky geranium, pearly everlasting, yarrow, mariposa lily, false hellebore, pussytoes, Thimbleberry, cow parsnip, white bog orchid, buckwheat, stonecrop, Queen's cup, Salal, oxeye daisy (white), goldenweed, arnica, tapertip onion, red clover, wild rose, American vetch, red columbine, lupine, purple alpine aster.  Whew!
            Click for just FLOWER pictures  :) 

Daisies and stump near Eagle Creek