Duck hunters kick off their season on Saturday and from all indications it should be a good hunting season. In fact, hundreds of ducks and geese are already on their wintering grounds in the Sacramento Valley and others are streaming in daily.
Any excuse for a road trip to Fossil is good, but this one might get you to pack the car. Would you believe that the dry desert canyonlands near that Eastern Oregon outpost have a mountain trail with dense forests, alpine wildflowers and patches of snow in May?
Because Madison Butte is so remote and so improbable, it was one of the few trails in Oregon I had never hiked. Of course I wanted to go.
Janell and I loved the place, partly because the road trip there allowed us to relive one of our earliest adventures together a bicycle trip to Fossil in 1974. If you have a couple of days free, you might try a similar route to discover Madison Butte.