Lucky to spend the weekend in Hells Canyon, and lucky to be able to hike in great weather in that awe-inspiring place. We didn’t find as many birds as I thought we might, but we found some. The lack of moisture has so parched the earth and all its vegetable accoutrements that it feels like walking on talcum powder. Springs, the ones I went to anyway, didn’t yield any good numbers (or any at all) of birds. They’re out there somewhere. We just didn’t find many, except very high, and scattered in ones and twos in rockpiles. It was, actually, good chukar hunting. The tarnish on all this, which gets worse each passing year, is the uncontrolled, rapid spread of medusahead rye. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s completely taken over every surface in Hells Canyon within the next ten years. At that point, it will be truly unhuntable. So get out there and enjoy it while you can. We are.
