By Dick Mason
The Observer

La Grande bicyclist Steve Malone easily saw the large dump truck near the Flying J Travel Plaza in June 2011.

Unfortunately, the truck driver did not see him.

 An instant  later Malone’s life momentarily went topsy turvy. The dump truck hit Malone, destroying his bicycle and knocking him to the pavement.  

An ambulance was called to the scene, but Malone declined the ride. Later that day he went to Grande Ronde Hospital where doctors found he had a broken tailbone. Still, the bicyclist was undaunted. The next day a badly bruised Malone was cycling again, covering between 30 and 40 miles on a Union County ride. 

“It hurt to sit in a couch but not to sit on my bike seat,’’ Malone said.

It was telling ride, one revealing uncommon perseverance and a love for cycling, both of which help him do what few people in Northeast Oregon have — cycle enough miles to cross the United States four times a year.

Malone has cycled an average of about 1,000 miles a month for the past three years, and in the last two months he has pedaled 2,400 miles. Bicycling for Malone, on almost all days, is a joy. 

The trail along Maxwell Creek ends at Maxwell Lake, a short hike from Shady Campground on the Lostine River. There’s a leash law in the wilderness, so be sure your dogs are tethered. KATY NESBITT / The Observer

• What: Lostine is just more than two hours from Baker City, one hour and 20 minutes from La Grande and 17 minutes from Enterprise. There are many lodging options nearby in Wallowa County.

A paved, wheelchair-accessible trail follows the Powder River for about one mile at the Powder River Recreation Area along Highway 7, about 15 miles southwest of Baker City. A wide, well-graded gravel trail parallels the river on the opposite bank. The Recreation Area also includes wooden fishing platforms accessible to anglers in wheelchairs. S. JOHN COLLINS / Baker City Herald

Lower-elevation trails beckon trekkers 

The lingering snow that mantles the high peaks of the Wallowa and Elkhorn mountain ranges presents a pretty scene in these waning days of spring.

Unless you want to go hiking up there.

In which case those comely drifts are a plain old nuisance.

Clayton Lowe of La Grande placed second in the bowhunter freestyle division at the recent National Field Archery Association championships in Redding, Calif.

Newcomer to archery places second in freestyle at national meet  

Limited experience is not limiting Clayton Lowe of La Grande when he takes on some of the best field archers in the nation.

Researcher shares his Antarctica experience, where he studied penguins eight hours a day, with Ladd Marsh Birdathon audience 

A striking and uncommon image is painted when Noah Strycker speaks of standing out in a crowd.   

Strycker traveled to Antarctica four years ago for  the chance of a lifetime — to be among 250,000 Adelie penguins for four months with two other people. 

Marsh Denizens: The sora and Virginia rails are quite common at Ladd Marsh, but seldom seen. The birds are very shy about coming out in the open and prefer to lurk in the dense cattails and sedges. Their calls are quite distinctive. If viewers can be still and patient, the birds do sneak out along the edges at times — especially when they are looking to feed their young. JIM WARD photos

Waterfowl congregate at marsh

Stella Mayfield sixth-graders set up a stream table provided by the Grande Ronde Model Watershed. DICK MASON / The Observer

Students learn plant identification and survival skills, animal tracking and much more

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Biologist Leonard Erickson was not revealing his secret to these Stella Mayfield School sixth-graders.

What Erickson was revealing were the keys to an art that most adults have never practiced, one that sheds light on nature’s mysteries.