Aout this blog: It is written intermittently when I come across items that aren’t likely to make it on the Outdoors page on Thursdays due to space limitations. Hopefully this stuff is at least mildly of interest:
BIG ELK: Buzz Ramsey of Klickitat has built his reputation as a Northwest fishing icon, but he also is a serious big-game hunter.
Ramsey and hunting partner Kim Hunter waited nine years to draw tags for an Eastern Oregon elk hunt. It was worth the wait, as Ramsey took a 6×7-point bull.
Ramsey said the first hit on the animal was at 550 yards according to his range finder.
HATCHERY UPGRADE: Spring Creek National Fish Hatchery in eastern Skamania County had a summer of upgrades and improvements.
A mile of entrance road was repaved and the windsurfing parking area resurfaced. A walking lane was added to the road allowing a safe place for visitors to walk from the hatchery to the park. A fishing platform will be added by summer of 2011.
Spring Creek hatchery also received $1.3 million in federal stimulus money to replace water pumps and the electrical distribution system. Fourteen pumps and motors that were almost 40 years old were replaced with variable speed drives to improve energy efficiency,
The hatchery collected 20 million tule fall chinook eggs from 7,364 adult salmon this September and October.
TRAIL BOOK: A new book, “Hiking Washington’s History,” is available from University of Washington Press. The author is Judy Bentley, a teacher at South Seattle Community College. The book costs $18.95.
The 304-page paperback is more history than trail guide. The South Cascades chapter covers Racetrack Trail in Indian Heaven, Klickitat Trail, the Yacolt Burn, Mount St. Helens and Indian Henry’s Hunting Ground in Mount Rainier National Park.
The lower Columbia River chapter covers Horsethief Lake, Columbia Hills, The Cascades and Cape Disappointment.
