Landers: Readers are the gauge for success

Outdoors stories and blogs published by The Spokesman- Review often strike a chord that prompts readers to reflect or react. When I get wind of that, I wave my internal “mission accomplished” banner.

I’m not thinking so much about the gasbag who scorned me in front of the crowd at a sportsman’s club meeting Tuesday night for not meeting his narrow-minded expectations in hating wolves.

Rather, I’m thinking about emails or calls I’ve received indicating a thirst for more information or a desire to help other outdoor enthusiasts.

Here are a few of many recent examples.

Story – Grand Canyon hiker:

“My admiration for (Dawes) Eddy, 72, is off-the-charts high,” writes Bob C. “What he accomplished (hiking 42 miles rim to rim and back in 24 hours) brought back some great memories.

“In June 1964, my dad and I did R2R2R, but it took us three days! We had no heart monitor. There were no such devices at the Army surplus store in St. Louis where we bought our equipment. And there was no such term as R2R2R. Energy bars were similarly unknown.

“We were slow afoot, but meandering kept us in the canyon longer than if we had kept a fast pace so we got to see more than one sunrise in the canyon.

“Sunset was an adventure. Before we could bed down at twilight, bats came out and dive-bombed us until we managed to hide in sleeping bags. …

“In three days below the rims we saw exactly one other person, a nice fellow from Australia who had meetings in New York City and San Francisco and scheduled a stopover specifically to hike down the South Rim on the South Kaibab Trail to the Colorado River and back up by way of the Bright Angel Trail.”

Blog – South Hill Bluff tree-cutting vandals:

“I ran across a guy with a long bar chainsaw cutting into the recumbent Ponderosa that lies across the high trail at about 33rd,” writes Steve G.

“He got half through before I got to him.  Said his name was Bill … and that he had permission. 

 ”I called Tony Madunich at City Parks (no city permission; Tony was appalled) and Angel at Urban Forestry (ditto).

“Guy Gifford at DNR thought the tree might survive; he got Jonathan Price at Evergreen East (mountain bike club) involved … to identify ways to better protect this resource.”

Story – Hearing protection for hunters:

“Just finished your article about hearing,” writes Chris L., a wildlife biologist. “I can’t run bird surveys because I didn’t protect my hearing during the invincible stage of my youth. …”

Story – Idaho dredge mining bill:

“Fishermen lose lead and hooks; both are bad for the environment,” writes Richard S., who notes that he’s an angler and not a dredge miner. He said it’s a little pompous for anglers to think they’re holier than dredgers.

“In California, a fish and wildlife officer checked on a dredging outfit to see how dredging effects compared with those caused by high water. She left because the effects were so minimal.”

Story – 2015 bicycling events:

“In your biking groups list, you forgot FBC; their motto is JFR,” wrote Richard P.

Since the f-bomb is in the group’s name and motto, I can only point out that “it’s a loosely knit, random collection of people who ride on full moons.”

Story – Rock Lake wind danger:  

“I fished Rock Lake recently in my 18-foot Hewescraft.  When we got to the lake just after sunrise it was raining with just a little breeze.  On our way north up the lake, we passed a small boat with one guy in it about a half mile from the launch.  We figured he must have hauled his boat in the back of the truck that we saw parked in the lot. Only one other boat was on the water. 

“The wind started to pick up and by about 2:30, it was bad. I’ve been on this lake 25 times or so and on windy days. I’ve heard stories of how bad the wind can get, but this was the worst I’ve personally seen it. 

“In the course of our failed efforts to find fishable water protected from the wind, we encountered the guy in the small boat just north of the point halfway up the lake. He was about 200 yards off the east side of the lake, standing up in the back of his boat while leaning over the side to net a fish.  We were all surprised that he was not wearing a PFD. … We were relieved to see him put on his life jacket after taking care of the fish. At this point we were close enough to give him an inquisitive thumbs up to see if everything was OK.  He replied with two thumbs up. Maybe he was just too excited about the fish he had just caught to realize the potential danger he was in. 

“By this time we headed back to the launch, the waves were approaching 3 feet. The bow was breaking the waves causing water to drench the windshield and spill over into the cockpit. The windshield wipers could not keep up. We were plowing through the next wave before we could even see it coming.  

“A Whitman County Sheriff was just pulling into the parking lot when we got there. The deputy said the third boater on the water that morning had pulled out an hour before us and called to inform authorities that there was a boater on the water they feared had no business being out there and was not going to make it back to the launch. 

“The deputy had a Sheriff’s boat on standby, said he was going to stay to manage the situation.

“This experience reminded me of an article you wrote two years ago about two guys who sank their boat off the cliffs north of Johnson’s Beach and were rescued by another boater. It is evident that many people don’t understand that although a PFD is mandatory for safety on any body of water, other factors such as water temperature and type of watercraft are just as important for survival. 

“The water temperature was 42 degrees and if he went overboard, even in his life jacket, he more than likely never would have made it to shore before hypothermia set in.”

Contact Rich Landers at (509) 459-5508 or richl@spokesman.com.