RSS7/31/08 What's Happening
Yakima Herald-Republic
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White continues pace at Grand National
Rick White, the Yakima fruit grower who so set the state trapshooting world abuzz last week when he came away with three titles from the Washington State Pacific International Trapshooting Association (PITA) state championships -- including Rookie of the Year honors -- didn't slow down last week.
Competing at the PITA Grand Pacific near Olympia, an event that drew nearly 500 other top shooters from around the United States and Canada, White won the mid-yardage championship handicap event. He also finished third in the rookie championship with 285x300, missing first by only four targets.
White, a 41-year-old apple and pear grower (and 1985 West Valley grad), hadn't been a trapshooter since he was a teenager, and even then he was only an occasional shooter at the Pomona Gun Club. But after a two-decades-plus hiatus, he has won class titles at numerous state PITA events and also Amateur Trapshooting Association competitions before his stellar showing at the PITA state shoot.
Other Valley shooters who fared well at the Grand Pacific included Jake Munguia, who took the sub-junior title in the Tilden Trophies Handicap; Jake Switzer, runner-up in the White Flyer Handicap; and Betty Phipps and Ken Smith, who each won in a doubles class.
Canyon rec site fees going up on Monday
The camping fee hike anticipated for several months at the Bureau of Land Management's four recreation sites in the Yakima River Canyon -- Umtanum, Lmuma Creek, Big Pines and Roza -- will go into effect Monday.
The overnight camping fee will be $15, meaning that if you've already paid the $5 daily fee, you'll need to pay another $10 to stay overnight. (Or just pay the $15 at once if you know you'll be staying.)
The daily fee remains $5 per vehicle, is good until 10 p.m. and allows the payer to visit all four BLM canyon sites that day. The $25 season daily-use permit is available at the Yakima and Ellensburg chamber offices and Red's Fly Shop in the canyon.
Rainier ride includes 800 bicyclists today
Drivers on their way to Mount Rainier today should expect some traffic delays, congestion and a heightened need to share the road, because the roads in and around the national park will be crowded with human-powered vehicles -- the 800 bicyclists participating in the 25th annual RAMROD (Ride Around Mount Rainier One Day).
The event, put on by the Redmond Cycling Club, is limited to those 800 pre-registered riders. The ride begins and ends in Enumclaw, enters the park at about 7 a.m. at the Nisqually entrance, follows Longmire-Paradise Road and then Stevens Canyon Road, then goes north on State Route 123 to Cayuse Pass, exiting the park on Highway 410.
Slow traffic along the ride route should be expected, as many road shoulders are narrow or even non-existent. Road construction along 123 has also left large sections of road with a gravel surface, and drivers will need to give a wide berth to bicyclists walking their bikes up the long grade or riding slowly to maintain control over the rough and unlined road surfaces.
Fish Lake trail work to last into October
Trail crews will be beginning work Friday on two trails into the William O. Douglas Wilderness within the Bumping drainage -- trail 971A (Fish Lake Way) and 971 (Fish Lake).
The trail work, which will continue through Oct. 2, will involve four crews from the Northwest Youth Corps, who will be repairing and replacing boardwalks and other trail-related structures to improve the trail and protect bull trout habitat along the creeks that form the headwaters of the Bumping River.
The area is popular with hunters, who will need to be watchful of the trail crews during a modern-firearm elk season and an archery elk season.
"I don't want (hunters) to be surprised if they go all the way back there and find people working on the trails," said Sue Ranger, Naches Ranger District recreation planner. "And I certainly want those work crews to be safe."
Bird Alert: Searchers find red-eyed vireo
A couple of local birders took a short trip along Highway 97 south of Toppenish, looking for red-eyed vireo this past week. Yakima County's only breeding record for red-eyed vireo comes from the dense riparian woodland along Satus Creek, and the birders had tried several times to find this species there with no luck. This time, though, they spotted the elusive bird at milepost 41 in a gallery of white alder along the creek. They also noted several warbling vireo, and ash-throated flycatcher called from the oaks near the county border.
In a flooded field just north of the weigh station near Toppenish National Wildlife Refuge, the birders noted a great egret, 12 black-necked stilts (most nearly full-grown young) and two long-billed dowitcher. The fence line nearby had four Eastern kingbirds, two of them fledged juveniles.
Last week's report of black-backed woodpeckers, found in a little burned area along the Little Naches River, drew a few birders who not only found the elusive woodpeckers, but also had a great view of a Cooper's hawk circling the stark barren snags.
Finally, there was a report of a peregrine falcon -- considered the fastest animal in the world -- hunting on Washington Avenue, west of the airport in Yakima.
Please call your bird sightings into the Yakima Valley Audubon phone line at 248-1963
-- Kerry L Turley
AROUND AND ABOUT
HUNTING SAFETY CLASS: A five-day (Aug. 18-23) class in hunting safety to be held at the Selah Civic Center, where signup ($5 fee) will take place until the class limit size of 35 is reached. For info, call 457-8039.
CHINOOK ON THE ENTIAT: A one-month season on summer chinook fishing in the Entiat River in Chelan County opens Friday, with a daily limit of six (minimum size 12 inches, only two adults).
STURGEON CHANGES: Columbia River anglers must now release any white sturgeon caught downstream from the Wauna powerlines near Cathlamet, though another rule change allows anglers to keep sturgeon they catch upriver from the powerlines to Bonneville Dam from Friday through the end of the year.
ON THE CALENDAR
SATURDAY-SUNDAY: The Cascadians' weekend hikes will be to Mount Freemont on Saturday (5.5 miles with 1,200 feet of elevation gain) and an advanced hike to Emerald Ridge on Sunday. For meeting time and place on either hike, call Maurine Peck at 453-4244.
TUESDAY: The Cascadians will hike into Grand Park from Lake Eleanor, a 6-miler with 1,200 feet of elevation gain. Tuesday hikers meet at the 40th Avenue Bi-Mart parking lot at 7:30 a.m. and go to the trailhead from there, breaking into faster and slower groups.
WEDNESDAY: The Mount Adams Cycling Club road cyclists and non-members will begin its weekly 25-mile loop ride to Naches at 6 p.m. at the Fred Meyer parking lot off 40th Avenue, a ride that typically draws up to four dozen riders and requires people to maintain at least 12 mph. (To be in the faster group, that pace is 16-18 mph.) For info, e-mail anotherjones@earthlink.net.
THURSDAY (Aug. 7): The Cascadians' Pokies group has two hikes planned, one the traditional annual Naches Peak Loop hike and, for those who want a longer hike, to Dewey Lake and then on the Dewey Lake Trail to State Route 410 (where there will be a shuttle ride back). For meeting time and place, call Jeanne Crawford at 966-8608.
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