>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

E.H. Van Blaricom at the Oregon State Record book whitebark pine tree that he discovered. Submitted photo

As a lifelong hunter and outdoorsman, I have never even tried to gain any fame by setting a record in any endeavor. I’ve enjoyed hundreds of successful hunting trips for many species of game animals without ever bagging an elk, sheep, buck or antelope that even came close to making the Boone and Crockett record book.

However, I did inadvertently discover an Oregon State Record Book tree, which of course brought me neither fame nor fortune, but for what it’s worth, gave me a certain amount of personal satisfaction. Here is my story:

Back in October 1994 I was hunting for a decent-sized mule deer buck in a sub-basin of McCully Creek on the east side of East Peak in the Eagle Cap Wilderness. I was hunting alone, and even though I was 73 years old, I still had plenty of stamina to hike into the high country where there were a few mature bucks near the timberline.

Just as I got to the last scrubby growth of evergreens, a sneaky storm came around the south side of Aneroid Mountain with 50 mph winds and frozen rain pellets that stung my face and chilled my body.

I was not dressed for that kind of weather, and since it was 1 in the afternoon and I’d been hiking since before daylight from our ranch at the foot of Mount Howard, I took off downhill where there was a canopy of whitebark pines to get some shelter from the storm.

In less than 20 minutes I came to a huge tree that broke the wind. I immediately built a fire and sat back against the tree to eat my lunch and drink my thermos of hot coffee.

After thawing out I got up to put out my fire and looked at this tree with amazement. I am the kind of hunter who takes notice not just of what I’m hunting, but cataloging the flora along the way, especially different tree species. I was already aware that whitebark pines only grow at elevations above 7,000 feet. And since most of these pines have multiple trunks, it is hard to find one with a single large trunk. I knew instantly that this was the largest whitebark I had ever seen.

So I took a 30-foot clothesline rope from my daypack and stretched it around the trunk at breast height and marked it. It wasn’t until the next day at home that my wife and I laid out the rope and measured the circumference of the tree to be 18 feet 7 inches .

Then I called John Williams, our county agent, and asked him to do some phoning to various agencies until he discovered the current Oregon State Record book whitebark was nowhere near as large as the one I found.

It wasn’t until October of the next year, 1995, that Charlie Johnson, a specialist in plant biology with the U.S. Forest Service in Baker City, John Williams and I hiked through 5 inches of snow to measure the tree.

Johnson’s circumference measurement was the same as mine, 18 feet 7 inches. But Charlie and John also measured the height and crown spread. It all added up to 310.5 points, which beat the previous record whitebark pine by 82.5 points.

I visited my Big Tree a couple of times after that, and then went almost 10 years without seeing it due to some severe health problems. Meanwhile, I got the sad news that Charlie Johnson had passed away. I then realized that I had never gotten the GPS data to relocate the tree and my memory of all the landmarks had begun to fade. So in 2005, 2006 and 2007 I made three unsuccessful attempts to find the tree mostly because of running out of time and endurance.

It was then that I enlisted the help of fellow hiker Dr. Lowell Euhus to do some research and telephoning and he was able to get the GPS numbers, and the instructions on how to remeasure the tree. This was important because the tree was about to be removed from the record book according to the rules of registry.

That’s when we conjured up one last supreme effort to relocate and measure the tree again for the record, even though there was some doubt that my 87-year-old legs would hold up on the long hike. To further our chance of success, Dr. Euhus brought in one of his longtime hiking partners, Fred Barstad, who was proficient in GPS technology and author of several books on hiking trails and destinations.

SUCCESS AT LAST

Along with these two mountaineers were two of my middle-aged daughters, Cathy Horrobin and Carol Allison, who had frequently hiked with me, including on two of my failed attempts to find the tree.

We cheated quite a bit on the hike by riding the tramway to the top of Mount Howard, but it’s still a long hike from there with a couple of steep grades that sucked up much of my endurance. We had to descend from an 8,700-foot elevation down to 7,940 according to Johnson’s GPS data. But when Barstad followed Charley’s numbers, there was no tree there to be seen. I was beginning to think, “Oh no, not another failure,” when daughter Carol, who had wandered away on her own, let out a victory scream. She had found the elusive Big Tree!

Charley’s GPS numbers were off by 250 yards and his elevation was also off by 65 vertical feet. I won’t attempt to explain why Johnson’s data was inaccurate, except to say that in 1995 they probably had different settings from what we have today, so Johnson’s coordinates were therefore not the same as Barstad’s. However, it got us close enough that by fanning out we were able to find the tree.

The measuring process was no easy task and it took up quite a bit of time, which didn’t leave much time for celebrating. Even though it meant a lot to me personally, I knew that I would never be able to do this again so I savored the moment.

I will not list the new measurements in this article because as of this writing they have not been verified by the agency in charge of the records. I will say that the tree did grow some during the 13 years since it was officially measured. Which is remarkable when you consider that the period of sap-flow at that altitude is less than four months.

For anyone who wants a challenging hike, you will be able to access the GPS coordinates by calling Dave Swanson at the USFS in Baker City His phone number is 541-523-1282.

The hike out was very stressful for this old ex-mountaineer, and it took two or three days for me to recover. But thanks to the help and patience of Euhus and Barstad, my daughters and I are delighted that we finally found the elusive record book whitebark pine tree.

In conclusion I want to say this: I don’t consider finding this Big Tree the crowning achievement of my life. Instead, I think this outstanding tree should be dedicated as a living monument to Charles Johnson, who was one of the finest men I have ever known. At the time Charlie went with me to score the tree, he was deeply concerned about a disease called “blister rust” that was and still is killing thousands of acres of whitebark pines all over the high-altitude forests.

He cared deeply about the forests and rangelands, and I think he considered these noble trees to be his friends. He especially admired the tree that I found because it was so strong and healthy and had refused to be disfigured by fire, lightning or disease.It represented survival and beauty in a hostile environment.