THE WILD CASCADES THE JOURNAL OF THE NORTH CASCADES CONSERVATION COUNCIL SUMMER 2004

THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 ! 1 he North Cascades Conservation T Council was formed in 1957 “To protect THE WILD CASCADES ! Summer 2004 and preserve the North Cascades’ scenic, sci- entific, recreational, educational, and wilder- ness values.” Continuing this mission, NCCC In This Issue keeps government officials, environmental or- ganizations, and the general public informed 3 The President’s report — MARC BARDSLEY about issues affecting the Greater North Cas- GEEKS NEEDED cades Ecosystem. Action is pursued through 4 The NCCC needs YOUR support in publishing the North Cascades book legislative, legal, and public participation chan- nels to protect the lands, waters, plants and 5 Why the Pickets are part of the North Cascades National Park—Staking claims wildlife. to not-mines — HARVEY MANNING Goering’s Law Over the past third of a century the NCCC has led or participated in campaigns to create 6 The Stehekin Landing Proposal — CAROLYN MCCONNELL the North Cascades National Park Complex, Stehekin Road repair process — KEVIN GERAGHTY Glacier Peak Wilderness, and other units of the 7 North Cascades Institute Update — THOMAS BRUCKER National Wilderness System from the W.O. Dou- Mount Rainier: Long journeys with tiny steps begin glas Wilderness north to the Alpine Lakes Wil- Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow derness, the Henry M. Jackson Wilderness, the Pay to Play with American Enterprise Institute Chelan-Sawtooth Wilderness and others. 8 Only weirdos look out the window — RICK MCGUIRE Among its most dramatic victories has been working with British Columbia allies to block 9 Yo yo Mount Adams? the raising of Ross Dam, which would have 10 FEE DEMO: Riding the Recreation Access Tax (The RAT) drowned Big Beaver Valley. Taking the commons away — THE HIGHTOWER LOWDOWN 11 Our national parks really in peril — SCOTT SILVER 12 The recent very commercial Adventure Quest — KEVIN GERAGHTY MEMBERSHIP 14 Tales from the Walla Walla Toll Road #1 — Bandera Mountain The NCCC is supported by member dues #2 — Mount Defiance and private donations. These support publica- tion of The Wild Cascades and lobbying activi- 15 #3 — Mount Washington ties. (NCCC is a non-tax-deductible 501(c)4 or- #4 — Mailbox Peak ganization.) Membership dues for one year are: 16 #5 — Dirty Harry $10 - low income/student; $20 - regular; $25 - ORVs: Lullaby of the wheels — H.M. family; $50.00 - Contributing; $100 - patron; 17 Ring-a-ding-ding $1000 - Sustaining. A one-time life membership Running — N + I dues payment is $500. Fair exchanges and ripoffs ! 18 Mountain goat research in the North Cascades — POLLY DYER 19 Boise-Cascade bails out The North Cascades Foundation sup- PERC gives Bush a C+ on environmental policy ports the NCCC’s nonpolitical efforts. Dona- “The largest forest-conservation deal in the country” — RON SIMS, KING tions are tax-deductible as a 501(c)3 organiza- COUNTY EXECUTIVE tion. Please make your check(s) out to the or- 21 National Forest rulemaking on off-road vehicles (ORVs) — KARL FORSGAARD ganization of your choice. The Foundation can be reached through NCCC mailing address: 22 Impacts of mountain biking on wildlife and people — MICHAEL J. VANDEMAN Park Service under attack by adviser 23 “Monumental” — the David Brower film — HARVEY MANNING North Cascades Conservation Council 24 Edward Abbey P.O. Box 95980 University Station Cover: Mixup Ridge — TOM MILLER Seattle, WA 98145-2980 NCCC Website The Wild Cascades www.northcascades.org Journal of the North Cascades Conservation Council EDITOR: Betty Manning Printing by EcoGraphics The Wild Cascades is published three times a year (Spring, Summer/Fall, Winter). NCCC members receive this journal. Address letters, comments, send articles to: The Wild Cascades Editor North Cascades Conservation Council University Station, Seattle, WA 98145-2980

The Wild Cascades is printed on recycled paper with soy-based ink.

2 ! THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 NCCC Board

President Marc Bardsley

Board Chairman Founded in 1957 Patrick Goldsworthy SEATTLE, WASHINGTON Vice President Charles Ehlert

Treasurer Tom Brucker The President’s Report Summer 2004 Secretary Phil Zalesky Unfortunately, I have to use a tragedy as a lead-in to this article. A man was killed recently in an “Adventure Race” on the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. Accord- ing to media reports, he was hit by a boulder kicked loose by a fellow contestant on a Bruce Barnbaum little known mountain in an unprotected part of the Forest. I have climbed the moun- Polly Dyer tain myself and can see how it could happen. We all know that people who continually challenge nature in this way are going to come out second-best from time to time. That John Edwards seems acceptable to me. The point is not whether this was an unsafe situation that should have been banned, Dave Fluharty but rather, was this activity an appropriate venue for conducting a clearly commercial venture? It should be pointed out that while much of the race occurred on logging Karl Forsgaard roads, some roadless areas and Mount Baker itself were also part of the course. I con- tend that our public lands are being used more and more by corporations and promot- Kevin Geraghty ers for private gain. While this media-heavy adventure-racing or whatever it is called doesn’t do much actual damage to the environment in itself, the precedent is very Kevin Herrick disturbing. It doesn’t take much imagination to expect the next round of television Conway Leovy content to be filmed from helicopters hovering over our wilderness areas. The USFS and the environmental community need to be vigilant. We must discourage Harvey Manning use of public lands as free real estate to conduct ever more outrageous stunts. Call me Chicken Little but I see this type of media-spawned exhibitionism as one more compo- Betty Manning nent of the insidious privatization of our public lands.

Carolyn McConnell

Rick McGuire

Thom Peters

Ken Wilcox

Laura Zalesky Calling Database Geeks NCCC needs a donation of database software and database expertise to help us manage our membership list. If you can help, please contact Marc Bardsley at 206-689-4999 or email [email protected]

THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 ! 3 CONTRIBUTIONS NEEDED FOR PUBLICATION OF NORTH CASCADES HISTORY

NCCC Book Nears Completion

We still need donations, so we can claim a $5,000 matching grant from the North Cascades Foundation to publish this wonderful book on the North Cascades by Harvey Manning. Fully edited, updated, and richly illustrated with historic maps and photos, this new book tells the epic story of wilderness preservation in one of the largest wildland areas of the Lower Forty-Eight. To those who have already contributed, thank you! The book should be heading for the printer soon—watch for ordering details in the next Wild Cascades. Donations may be made to either the Foundation (tax-deductible) or the NCCC (not tax-deductible), and in either case should be clearly marked, ‘FOR PUBLICATION OF NORTH CASCADES BOOK” and sent to either North Cascades Conservation Council c/o Thomas H.S. Brucker, Treasurer 9111 SE 44th Street Mercer Island, WA 98040 or North Cascades Foundation c/o T. William Booth, Treasurer 5521 - 17th Avenue NE Seattle, WA 98105

4 ! THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 North Cascades History: STAKING CLAIMS TO NOT-MINES

om Pelly dropped our bill Tfor a North Cascades National Park in the hopper. We knew it had pit mine visible from the Moon,” no chance against the bill drawn and said, “If I found an exposure up by Dick Buscher of the Forest here of pure copper three feet Service and introduced in Con- wide, I wouldn’t tell THEM about gress by Senator Jackson — a bill it.” we reluctantly accepted as better than nothing. The Pelly-NCCC bill The chopper pilot blabbed to omitted the Pickets because this Lardy. Lardy knew he would also most alpinely dramatic sector of be blabbing to others. That is why the North Cascades was certain of if you check the 1967 filings in the getting its due from the Wilderness Bellingham courthouse you will Act, better wilderness protection find claims for the low-grade moly than the National Park Act. The ore in the Northern Pickets. Climb Jackson-USFS bill threw in the Fury by a route which had not then non-controversial Pickets to “make been climbed, and perhaps has not weight,” a public relations gesture been yet, and you may stumble to theoretically compensate for the across a claim monument placed omission of Glacier Peak. there apparently by the grace of God. The claimant was not Lardy, The Jackson-USFS park was a nor the chopper pilot, but another sure thing, backed by both houses of my climbing friends who could of Congress. Except for Wayne not be connected to the USGS or Aspinall, Congressman from the Lardy. 19th century, whose motto on new national parks was “NEVER.” As The summer of 1968 was dou- Unloading pack Sun Bell 63 on border slash, Chilliwuck River. chair of the House committee with bly nervous because the claims jurisdiction over the flow of legis- were staked in 1967 and under lation on such matters, he had the terms of the 1872 Act had to be muscle to go mano-a-mano with Jackson, chair One of these was my climbing buddy, “Lardy,” proved up by on-the-ground labor before La- of the corresponding Senate committee. Their who had become the most notable minerals bor Day of 1968. There weren’t all that many wrestling match the summer of 1968 was geologist in the region. He was a defender of climbers around in those days who would (or nerve-wracking. Prior to that, though, Aspinall the 1872 policy, though recognizing it needed could) climb to the ridge-top location of the pulled an around-the-end stunt that won him major amendment. He once visited, by chop- monument. Watch was kept with baited breath a year’s breathing-blustering space. He forced per, a pair of us at White Rock Lakes, and as he on the Bellingham courthouse all summer. The the U.S. Geological Survey team then mapping lay at ease in the heather, gazing over the West deadline passed, the Lardy claims lapsed, no geologic structures of the North Cascades to Fork Agnes to Dome Peak, he jerked a thumb for-real claims were filed, and the White House defer scientific research and spend a year on a in the direction of Miners Ridge, headquarters ceremony went off without a hitch. survey of mineral resources in the proposed of Bear Creek Mining, his employer at the park — “prospecting.” moment, then engaged in plotting an “open — HARVEY MANNING We weren’t worried. The 19th century “dirty miners in search of shining gold” had staked out and privatized every showing of rust-col- ored rock in the range. Uniform gray was the Pickets color, as interesting as the Moon to the privateers operating under their 1872 letters of marque. GOERING’S LAW Then, in the summer of 1967, I was jolted by a postcard saying simply and solely: “It’s People don’t want to go to war. . . But after all, it’s the leaders who not such a bad idea to have the Pickets in the determine the policy and it’s always a simple matter to drag the people park.” No signature. Some person with access along whether it’s a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a parlia- to USGS results. Alarming results. Not a per- ment or a communist dictatorship. The people can always be brought son in the USGS. I had friends there, but they were too honorable to leak information not to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell yet released to public consideration. them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of Telling the tale at this late date can do no- patriotism and exposing the country to greater danger. It works the body harm. The USGS contracted with a same in any country. helicopterer to taxi them around the wilder- — HERMANN GOERING, WHILE BEING TRIED AT ness. He also served the swarms of 1872 pri- UREMBERG OERING S AW vateers then a-swarming over the public lands. N : “G ’ L ”

THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 ! 5 STEHEKIN LANDING STUDY

July 21, 2004 here in need of expensive fixing. Stehekin and people have raincoats — or they The Transportation Study and Landing and can go inside the Lodge, which I’ll admit could Dan Moses Design Options therefore seems an odd docu- be more inviting, but that is another matter al- together). Since people need vehicles for car- National Park Service ment. What problems does it address? A prior question is what brings people to Stehekin; that rying freight and themselves up the road, it 428 West Woodin Avenue is, what needs was the Park created to serve? seems necessary that vehicles be at the land- Chelan, WA 98816 The NRA was created to protect the scenic and ing. It makes far more sense to let those who wilderness qualities of Stehekin and provide are looking for a non-motorized experience to RE: Stehekin Transportation Study and Concep- for the public’s enjoyment of them. So the land- get away from the road. tual Landing and Design Options ing in Stehekin should be designed to allow I also believe the Park interpreters who meet people to enjoy the wildness around them. The and greet the boat are doing their jobs just fine. primary problem I see is lack of easy, immedi- Those who need more service can make the Dear Mr. Moses: ate access to the wild scenery of the valley and short walk to the visitor center. When the Park Service arrived in Stehekin, the wilderness around it. Every time I travel the Also sort of nice in an optional way would they did a service to visitors by buying out the Stehekin road in summer I encounter strollers be these luggage carts, but please, no motor- competing and scruffy businesses at the land- and hikers forced, by lack of alternative, to walk ized ones. This would add to the chaos and ing (one of which was pink), ending the ab- along the road. To walk a road, passed by cars, motorization, not reduce it. surd dueling loudspeakers, and eventually is not what these people came to Stehekin for. I do not see that this study has addressed putting in a deck and painting it all an unob- Rather than spending money for the expensive trusive gray-green. The arrangements were the real problems faced by visitors on arrival in building projects outlined in your study, funds Stehekin. good and, except for maintaining them, the for building such a trail should be sought. The Sincerely, Park Service’s job here was basically done. route for such a trail has already been surveyed. There are sufficient bathrooms (I have never Carolyn McConnell Sure, a covered area out of the rain would seen a lineup) and while there is occasionally a be nice. It would be nice to get the tour buses bit of crowding and confusion on days when a out of the way. But none of these is an egre- full boat of tourists coincides with a large gious problem that requires a major investment amount of freight, there is no serious problem (it hardly rains in the summer months in

Stehekin road repair process

(KEVIN GERAGHTY CONVERSATION WITH DAN ALLEN) The National Park Service plan three sepa- rate Environmental Assessments (EAs), sequen- Map – North Cascades tially. First, up to the Courtney place, second, National Park Courtney to High Bridge, third, above High Ccmplex, 2004 Bridge. Dan Allen argued for two, one for the park segment above High Bridge, where there are wilderness issues, one below. The further segmenting is, according to Dan, not a nefari- ous scheme to disguise things, but due to a desire to get things actually moving (i.e., move reason that it cannot be rebuilt in place on the some dirt) on the least controversial part. current alignment (aquatics and wild and sce- The first EA, the one dealing with the lower nic issues) but the wilderness boundary is 50 8 miles up to the Courtney place, is coming feet from the road. To rebuild the road, the park out in a month or two. In this stretch, the road service would have to go to Congress to ask has already received “emergency” repairs on for a boundary adjustment of the wilderness account of the Courtney ranch (arguably ille- area, and you can imagine how that would play gal), and I assume we are not going to oppose out. reopening, although we should certainly scru- So realistically, then, the discussion, tussle, tinize the EA when it is issued. what have you, is going to be about roughly 4 It is pretty much a foregone conclusion at miles of road, the slightly more than 2 from this point that the road will not be reopened the Courtney place up to High Bridge, and the above Car Wash Falls (M 12.2), for the simple slightly less than 2 between High Bridge and Car Wash Falls.

6 ! THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 Tomorrow and North Cascades Institute: Tomorrow and Tomorrow Environmental Learning Center (1872 and 1872 and 1872) UPDATE Excerpt from a piece by Robert McClure in or Seattle City Light Redons Its Black Hat the May 11, 2004 Seattle Post Intelligencer:

“Under a 132-year-old federal law, foreign THOMAS BRUCKER companies . . . together with U.S. citizens and POOR SEATTLE CITY LIGHT; it just is not “too expensive.” This decision by SCL was made companies . . . have been able to convert comfortable wearing the white hat. The winter unilaterally and in violation of the Memoran- 9,200,000 acres of public land to private use, 2003-4 issue of The Wild Cascades reported on dum of Understanding. Without these two according to a report released yesterday by the a pleasant — and unexpected — benefit of the buildings and the essential services they were non-profit Environmental Working Group. . .” High Ross Dam struggle: a 3-way agreement be- to provide, the ELC would not be economically The globalized mining industry always has tween Seattle City Light (SCL), the North Cas- or programmatically viable. The dream of an been fond of the Third World, which includes cades Institute and the National Park Service ELC appeared dead. 1872 America. One is reminded of Mae West, providing for the construction of an Environ- What to do? The building of the ELC was al- reclining at voluptuous ease in her boudoir, mental Learning Center on the shores of Diablo ready 6 years behind schedule; litigation would requesting of her lady’s maid, “Peel me another Lake. Under the 1991 basic contract between result in further delay and add additional cost. grape, Beulah.” the parties, the Memorandum of Agreement, The decision was to try to negotiate and see if City Light was responsible for construction of anything could be salvaged. These discussions the buildings. Work was proceeding; all looked were painful and lasted over a month. NPS Su- good. perintendent Bill Paleck was a strong supporter Mount Rainier National Park: From 1997, when the architects were se- of NCI and was instrumental in insuring a posi- lected, to 2001 when construction began, to tive outcome. LONG JOURNEYS 2004, SCL had never expressed any reservations In the end agreement was reached. The two MAY WITH TINY about the cost of the ELC during the numer- buildings will be completed essentially as de- ous reviews of costs, bid reviews, contractors’ signed, but NCI has agreed to pay SCL $870,000 STEPS BEGIN estimates, contractual awards, environmental in order to get the project completed and the Achievement of the Mount Rainier National reviews, contractual oversight, or at meetings Park Service will contribute $400,000. The Park-that-should-be might require a major vol- with NCI and the Park Service, North Cascades Institute is currently engaged canic eruption. At present most environmen- Alas, on April 16th of this year, without no- in a monumental effort to raise these funds. tal energies are too busy elsewhere to pray up tice to any party, SCL reverted to its old self Had Seattle City Light been able to meet any another St. Helens stunt. All hail, therefore, to and instructed the contractor to stop work on of their previous schedules for completing the the citizens of Fairfax. Thanks to them, and their two of the key buildings — the main service Center on time, the Institute would have been arousing of (1) Pierce County and then (2) building and the terrestrial lab/classroom and teaching children for years, a tremendous Washington, D.C., and (3) the willingness of a informed the other parties that these buildings amount of money would have been saved, and timber company to sell back stolen goods for a would not be completed because they were this controversy would not have arisen. quick profit, the Carbon River corridor to the park will gain 800 acres. In company of Pierce County’s creation of a Fairfax Forest as a his- torical monument, this may be the start of some- thing big. The 800 acres is the largest expan- sion of Mount Rainier Park in 70 years. PAY to PLAY WITH AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE

Funding agencies, 50 in number, nominally the American Enterprise Institute deployed philanthropic but zealous in their common $25,000,000. It uses clever screens to hide its hated of the “liberal enemy” have disbursed central goal of privatizing the commons — the roughly $3,000,000,000 over the past 30 years broadcast spectrum as well as the timber, the for what has been described as the fabrication water, the air, the mineral deposits — and the of “irritable mental gestures which seek to re- law. The AEI battle strategy features “PAY to semble ideas.” These “think tanks” of the Re- PLAY.” Aside from the poor starvelings of the publican Party seek such objectives as “shrink- U.S. Forest Service, who see their once potent ing the federal government to a size small agency as sharing the danger of the National enough to drown.” The four largest of the “na- Park Service, who among us is a docile dupe? tional tanks” based in Washington, D.C. had a total budget in 2001 of $100,000,000. Of these,

THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 ! 7 Only Weirdos Look Out the Window RICK MCGUIRE

The U.S.-Canada landscape, and each other, boundary cutting across at every kind of angle, the Cascades along the jumping across rivers, 49th parallel has long seeming to extend to infin- been a dividing line in ity, as if they were drawn by more ways than one, with some demented, ruler- preserved landscapes to wielding giant. Is it really the south, and to the necessary to survey so de- north, moonscapes with structively, or just more con- appeal only to dedicated venient? Mercifully, the connoisseurs of ugliness. clouds close in and draw a In recent years the con- veil over it all. trast has become, and The Canadian Rockies continues to grow and the Interior Ranges of greater. One can’t help British Columbia still have but wonder where it will substantial wild areas, all lead if, as seems likely, though outside of the lim- present trends continue. ited protected areas roads Recently I had a chance have been pushed up most to see it first hand from valleys. The clouds part as the window of an airliner. we emerge over a complex, Flying back to the North- fiord-like lake. For a minute west from the European I try to puzzle out where we continent in daylight, one are, then realize it’s sees, weather permitting, Shuswap Lake, where the a series of interesting cedars of the Selkirks meet landscapes. First Scot- the pines and grasslands of land, brown and bleak, the Okanagan, as they spell then, a few hours later, it in Canada. the white immensity of Shuswap Lake is where Greenland and its fast- western redcedar usually melting glaciers, followed thought of as a giant by the Pangnirtung fiords rainforest tree, reaches the of Baffin Island, one of dry end of its range, with the least known and most some individuals even spectacular wonders of growing alongside ponde- North America. Then, rosa pines where they meet more water and ice, and the grasslands. Cedar for- the endless “Barrens,” ests stand out from the air, the tundra lands of north- their foliage a lighter shade ern Canada. They seem of green than other ever- to stretch to infinity, and greens. But it’s not the even a dedicated land- green that’s striking here, scape junkie such as my- it’s the brown of recent self has trouble taking it clearcuts, and the network all in. Boldly defying the of roads snaking every- orders of the steward to where. They reach even be- pull the shade all the way down so that the fuzzy lakes everywhere, so many that it looks as yond the recent clearcuts into the still-stand- B movie on the screen can be better viewed though one could paddle anywhere with only ing cedar forest, signifying that this is an ongo- (what can they do, throw me overboard? Ban- minor portages. It’s a delight to see a forest that ing destruction, growing worse by the day. ish me to first class? ) I look and look at the stretches off in all directions without a scratch British Columbia is bigger than Washington, blazing whiteness, my attention drifting till I in it. But all too soon, it’s over. Northwestern Oregon and California combined, with fewer suddenly see. . Saskatchewan looks beautiful, but once we’re people than Washington state. It still has lots Trees! Hard to tell just what kind, though above Alberta the inevitable roads and clearcuts of places where you can get so far from crowds obviously part of the great boreal forest span- begin, along with perfectly straight oil and gas and civilization that you’re glad to see some- ning northern Canada and Eurasia. Forests, and seismic exploration lines. They crisscross the one when you do. But the timber industry is

8 ! THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 devouring its forests, a subsidized frenzy that broken forests blanketing the slopes from the history. The Issaquah Alps were largely taken is intensifying every year. The scars are really river to the mountaintops. back, and today Tiger Mountain presents a starting to show, especially from the air. From The Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National For- pleasing vista of continuous forest, all of it re- Shuswap Lake we continue south and west, est is looking a lot better than it did 20 years wilding second growth, perhaps the most and the clearcuts just get bigger. Places that ago. Most of the rest of the world, British Co- popular hiking destination in the state. recently seemed quiet and forgotten, Pennask lumbia especially, may be in decline, but na- While the Issaquah Alps model may not fit Lake, Douglas Lake, the Nicola and Tulameen ture is reasserting herself here. The North Cas- all other parts of the Cascades, certainly parts valleys, the Similkameen country, are having cades are on the comeback. Whether this can of it can be exported, and modified as needed roads being punched all through them. And be sustained, or falls victim to ill-conceived “for- for local conditions. The Middle Fork it’s not just the southern part of the province est restoration” logging, will be up to NCCC Snoqualmie valley near North Bend, formerly that’s getting the treatment. Logging is push- and other groups. much abused, is now the object of a long stand- ing everywhere, even the far north. Every day, Not much truly pristine country remains to ing drive to “take it back.” Large parts of the long trains of lumber cars can be seen moving be protected in the Cascades. The challenge is North Fork Skykomish valley, railroad logged south through Everett and Seattle, laden with to “take back” places, and expand the defini- 80 years ago, are proposed for inclusion in load after endless load of wood, in plastic tion of wild country to include re-wilding the Wild Sky Wilderness. There are numerous wrappers bearing names that not long ago places. Just about all of the rest of the world other places in the process of re-wilding in the evoked images of wild remoteness, names like has made this transition. Wild places in Eu- Sauk, Suiattle, Skagit and Nooksack areas, Omineca, Skeena, Cassiar, Peace River. . . . rope always have traces of past human activi- places where future protected areas, whether One could say that British Columbia, indeed ties, as do places in eastern North America. Wilderness or some other designation, could most of Canada, is, in comparison to the There’s not much untouched country left any- and should take in productive low valleys United States, a mix of the good old days and where. The drive to re-wild places around here which once saw some logging. the bad old days. The good old days, because began with Harvey Manning and the campaign Plenty of scenic high country has been pro- life is sometimes a bit slower, the social safety to protect what he dubbed the “Issaquah Alps.” tected in the Cascades. Everyone loves old- nets haven’t been so thoroughly shredded, and When thus named, these were little more than growth forests, but just about all of them people seem relaxed and friendly in a way typical Cascade foothills, roaded, logged, dis- around here which haven’t been protected are that’s getting rare here. The absence of gun tinguished only by their proximity to Seattle. on poor sites, or at high elevations, places the culture and militarism helps, too. But the bad The name seemed more than a little over the timber industry didn’t want. What is largely old days are here too, and one can only cringe top - “alps,” for these rounded hills? And why missing from our Wilderness and park areas at the ongoing destruction so apparent from would anyone want to protect a bunch of sec- are the biologically richer lower elevations, above, and its blythe acceptance by most of ond growth? Tiger Mountain was a place for where salmon can spawn and big trees can the natives. There seems to be little prospect high school kids to drive up on Friday nights grow. Nature is already doing her part. It will of slowing it down anytime soon. to drink, hang out, and look at the view. But take time - these things always do - but it’s time But it’s left behind at the 49th parallel, at no one laughed for long. Harvey’s idea of “Wil- to start thinking about how to protect those least in the North Cascades. The faint trace of derness on the Metro” took off, perhaps even low valleys which are starting to once again the cleared boundary swath is visible, south more than he thought it would, and the rest is look so delightful from above. of which are wonderfully natural landscapes. On this particular trip I was treated to the sight of pristine valleys on both sides of Ross reser- voir, with Lightning Creek and Devils Creek to the east, Little Beaver and Big Beaver val- leys to the west, Big Beaver showing the light YO YO MOUNT ADAMS? green of low meadows and giant cedars. Apart from the reservoir itself there is little to sug- In the September 13, 2004 Yakima Herald- tion of the Yakama Reservation would be a ter- gest the hand of man, and looking at the Big Republic, Philip Ferolito wrote an article en- rible violation. Tribal leaders were sworn to Beaver valley is a particular pleasure for an titled “Destination or Desecration?” Following an oath to protect the things that re sacred to NCCC’er, those meadows and cedars still there are (condensed) excerpts: our people.’ because of the efforts of NCCC and Canadian “Mount Hood Meadows Development Cor- “The closed area consists of more than allies (notably the unforgettably named poration has proposed a four-season ‘eco-re- 600,000 acres from Ahtanum Ridge to below R.O.S.S., for “Run Out Skagit Spoilers,”) which sort’ on Mount Adams: 11 ski lifts reaching the Satus Pass. Only enrolled Yakama tribal mem- prevented the raising of Ross Dam. 11,100-foot level on the south side, three 18- bers are allowed to practice sacred food gath- The spiraling destruction north of the bor- hole golf courses, a mid-slope restaurant, ca- erings, such as berry picking, root digging, and der multiplies the appeal of all the preserved sino, night club, and 2500 lodging units. Also hunting and fishing. Outsiders need tribal per- country in the North Cascades. Even more a summer camp for tribal youth with year- mission to enter and must be accompanied pleasing than the pristine country in the North round education courses on Yakama culture. by a tribal member. Cascades National Park and Wilderness areas “Said Yakama Nation tribal secretary Davis “The tribe closed this portion of the reser- is the sight of low valleys in the Mt. Baker- Washines (traditional name, Yallowash), ‘De- vation to protect wildlife and the natural habi- Snoqualmie National Forest, recovering now velopers pitch such projects to the Nation ev- tat. A 49-year boundary dispute with the fed- for a number of years from the earlier logging ery few years.’ The full tribal council has yet to eral government ended in 1972 in return of they suffered. Fortunately, trees grow quickly hear the proposal, and it would have to be the eastern half of Mount Adams to the Yakama on the west side of the Cascades, and places approved at General Council, where voting Nation.” like the Illabot Creek and Cascade River val- tribal members decide on major decisions and (Until then, this part of the Mount Adams leys, and many others, horribly pockmarked elect the 14-member tribal council. Wilderness and adjoining National Forest lands in decades past, are starting to look nice again. “Said Regina Jerry of the White Swan Shaker were protected by the Wilderness Act.) South of Darrington, the Sauk valley is a mostly church, ‘The idea of putting any kind of devel- continuous carpet of green, and the North opment on the mountain in the closed sec- Fork Skykomish valley presents a vista of un-

THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 ! 9 Ridding the Recreation Access Tax (The RAT)

In the 10 days since Representative Regula’s Cartoon – Gavel Recreation Access Tax was sneaked onto the McNeil, Idaho Omnibus Appropriations bill, dozens of articles Mountain and editorials have been published. All but one Express, have been critical of the new tax and the un- December 1, 2004 derhanded way in which such unpopular leg- islation was rammed through. Links to these articles are provided at www.wildwilderness. org/docs/feedemo.htm Even more interesting is what elected offi- “America the Beautiful National Parks and cials are saying. Senators and House members Federal Recreation Lands Pass,” or a day are livid at the arrogance of Mr. Regula. Many strolling the public lands surrounding the are speaking of revising the RAT when Congress Methow Valley could cost you $5,000 and six reconvenes. months in jail. The RAT was slipped onto the Omnibus bill Buried in the 3,000-page appropriations bill by people who knew that the program lacked currently being considered by Congress is a adequate support to be passed into law by nor- new version of the National Recreation Fee mal legislative procedures. — Scott Silver, Demonstration Program, which established the fee commonly called “the Forest Pass” in 1996. While the new fee program has not yet become law, passage of the measure appears likely. The reau of Land Management, and U.S. Fish and Rider on House bill could make bill is attached to the $388 billion appropria- Wildlife Service. recreation fees permanent tions measure that provides funding for much of the U.S.government. Passage of the appropriations bill—which in- New 10-year public lands access fee program cludes the new fee program—was delayed af- The new bill, which would replace Fee Dem- includes high fines and possible ter the discovery of a controversial clause that onstration Program, is called the Federal Lands jail time for violators would have allowed members of Congress to Recreation Enhancement Act. It would dramati- peruse individual tax returns. The Senate has cally increase the penalties for non-compliance, Methow Valley News already approved a new version of the spend- extend the fee program for 10 years, and ex- Patrick Hannigran ing bill, which drops the unpopular tax clause, pand the program to include federal lands man- December 2, 2004 but retains the language establishing the new aged by the Bureau of Reclamation as well as Feel like taking the kids out for a hike? Start- federal lands fee program. the Forest Service, National Park Service, Bu- ing in 2005, you’d better have your new

From The Hightower Lowdown, July 2004

. . . The Bushites are laissez-faire purists striv- mons runs the gamut from our national trea- ing for their ideal of a corporate-run state. Not sury to schools, water systems, wildlife pre- only does this mean removing public restric- serves, elections, postal service and parks. tions on corporate power, but also removing anything and everything that has the word “public” attached to it — from education to TAKING THE Social Security, housing to health care, national COMMONS, AGAIN The Hightower Lowdown forests to our local water supplies. Their ex- 12 issues— $15 tremist anti-government agenda, culled from a Bush and company are not merely trying to sprawling clutter of right-wing corporate- take us back to the Gilded Age of pre-New Deal, seniors and students — $12 funded think tanks, is so sweeping and is be- robber baron corporatism, but also all the way ing pursued so energetically that one can imag- back to the “enclosure movement” of 18th–cen- ine them holding pre-dawn pep rallies each day tury England. Back then, with the blessing of Mail to The Hightower Lowdown in the White House . . . . parliament, the dukes and barons of the aris- tocracy suddenly laid claim to the forests, mead- PO Box 20596 It’s our “commons” that they’re out to elimi- ows, wild game, and other resources that, up nate. The commons are both the common New York, NY 10011 to then, all had shared (and the peasantry had wealth that all of us own together, and the pub- literally relied on for sustenance), enclosing lic institutions that we’ve established for our these commons as the private property of the common good. The commonwealth includes elite. such physical assets as our air, airwaves, pure water, the ozone layer, and all of nature, as well Three centuries later, here we go again, for as such intangible assets as human rights and Bush has blessed a gold rush by today’s corpo- liberties. The public institutions of the com- rate elites to privatize our commons. . . .

10 ! THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 WILD SKY BILL LIKELY DEAD Gold in Them THIS CONGRESS RICK MCGUIRE Thar Hills The October 9, 2004 Post-Intelligencer re- Supporters of the Wild Sky Wilderness have which now support mature 70 to 80 year old, ports that members of The Lands Council, part resigned themselves to the likely failure of Con- naturally regenerated second growth forest. of Westerners for Responsible Mining, went out gress to pass the bill this session. As this issue Pombo seized upon this to stop the bill, claim- October 7 to 20 acres of public land next to the of TWC goes to press, the House Resources ing that only totally pristine places could be “posh subdivision” of Canfield Mountain, near Committee, chaired by Richard Pombo, R-Ca- designated under the “letter” of the Wilderness Hayden Lake, Idaho, drove a stake in the lif, failed to consider the bill, which means the Act. This is patently absurd - Congress has des- ground, and thereby, under the Mining Law of full House is unlikely to take it up. The bill has ignated many places as Wilderness which have 1872, privatized all the gold, copper, and pre- twice passed the Senate. contained old roads or mines, or previously cious jewels. Pombo has made it clear that he is no fan of logged areas, including a number of examples Wilderness or even of public lands. He made a in Washington state within the Pasayten, Gla- A spokesperson for the Bureau of Land Man- great show earlier this year of declaring that cier Peak, The Brothers, Goat Rocks, and other agement comments that staking such claims is the wishes of members in whose districts pro- areas. Some Wilderness areas in eastern states perfectly legal. There is no major effort in Con- posed Wilderness areas were located would be were 100% logged in the past. gress to amend the ancient law, which the Na- given great weight, as well as that of the del- Murray and Larsen have indicated their in- tional Mining Association insists is essential to egations of affected states. The proposed Wild tentions to re-introduce the bills next year. Both the nation’s economic health. Sky Wilderness lies entirely within the 2nd Con- won high praise from Wilderness supporters Mike Peterson of The Lands Council says gressional district of Washington, represented and editorial boards for sticking to their origi- other groups in “California, Montana, Seattle, by Rick Larsen, a sponsor and strong propo- nal proposal and not accepting Nethercutt’s Idaho, Colorado, and New Mexico . . . will be nent of the bill. Apparently, Pombo’s deference version with the “good stuff ” removed. Good staking claims next to neighborhoods, ski ar- to local Members extends only to opponents things take time, and it looks like the Wild Sky eas, and hiking trails.” of Wilderness. The Wild Sky bill contains some will take some time. areas which were previously logged, most of Let the festivities begin. Bring on the danc- ing girls.

NATIONAL PARKS REALLY IN PERIL SCOTT SILVER, WILD WILDERNESS

ssuming the Bush administration does parks. And so when user-fees prove to be serve much of the blame. ANOT significantly increase funding for an inadequate and ineffective solution, and Wild Wilderness does not oppose NPS the parks, then the only remaining solu- when Congress and free-market ideo- entrance fees. We recently supported leg- tion will be to further increase the reli- logues convince editorial boards that there islation to make them permanent, though ance upon USER-FEES. That, of course, is simply isn’t any more money available to we adamantly oppose similar fees for the where the recreation user-fee issue began give to the parks (what with the war on USFS, BLM, FWS and other agencies. We when in 1982 Ronald Reagan proposed terrorism, etc.), then editorial boards all understand that the national parks are in CUTTING park budgets by 25 percent and across the nation will tell their readers that peril and we understand that they have replacing that money with user-fees. commercialization and privatization are been intentionally PLACED in peril. We The narrowly focused messaging of Na- the only avenues remaining with which to understand that Fee-Demo was created not tional Parks and Conservation Association “Save” the parks. to save the parks, but to advance a politi- (NPCA) and other organizations who have When that happens the public nature of cal / ideological / commercial agenda. And repeatedly pointed to inadequate fund- public parks will be destroyed and, to be unlike NPCA, we recognize, and are pre- ing of the parks while saying nothing blunt, the failure of NPCA and others to pared to publicly state, that the “solution” about the larger and directly related is- focus their message correctly will be par- that has long been planned for the national sues of fees, commercialization and tially to blame. The failure of conservation parks is to commercialize and privatize privatization are backfiring. Those efforts groups to become actively, and coura- them. Who else will stand up and fight for are increasing support for user-fees while geously, engaged in this issue will also de- the parks???? doing little to increase funding for the

THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 ! 11 THE RECENT VERY COMMERCIAL ADVENTURE QUEST KEVIN GERAGHTY

”By the late 1980s, initially found nonsensical. What was adven- the world was picked turous about roller-blading or wheeling kay- over; the highest peaks aks across the Skagit delta on dollies? What climbed, the largest was the point of jumaring up and rappelling deserts crossed, the down fixed ropes? Climbers would regard such oceans sailed and the an activity as mere tedious exercise, potentially skies crisscrossed by hazardous, of course, but not demanding any space exploration. Into actual climbing skills. this void stepped the And in what sense were these groups of four Raid Gauloises, a race “teams”? Certainly no activity they were engag- that sought to recon- ing in really demanded more than a single per- nect man with nature, son. The natural unit for climbing (as opposed to reclaim the spirit of to going up and down fixed ropes) is two, but discovery and adven- no real climbing was done during this race. ture...” Kayaks commonly come in singles and pairs. But what, specifically, Why not, then, have pairs and singles in the were the latter-day race? And why the requirement of three men Columbuses, and a woman? Would it not make more sense Magellans, and Cooks to have men’s and women’s divisions, as is the called upon to do? near-universal custom in other forms of rac- SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER “Subaru Primal Quest ing? AUGUST 23, 2004 2004”, billed as “earth’s No, none of this seemingly gratuitous ba- richest adventure” (a roque complexity made the least sense until reference perhaps to the $250,000 purse), was one recognized that the design of the event to cover roughly 400 miles and last 5-10 days. hen I first heard that western Washing- was shaped by marketeers and driven largely It was supposed to consist of 17 separate legs ton and the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie by commercial considerations. The event was W involving paddling sea kayaks on Puget Sound would this fall experience the “Subaru Primal the raw material for a TV show, to be and on the Skagit River, “trekking” (trail and Quest,”currently North America’s most publi- viewed by ignorant and jaded sofa-nauts, so it cross-country travel), mountain biking, cized “adventure race,” I tried to make some really didn’t matter that going up and down orienteering, “ropes” (jumaring up fixed lines sense of it. fixed ropes demanded no skill at all. What and rappelling down), pulling the sea kayaks mattered was that it provide spectacle and look Invented by a Frenchman who had an on wheeled dollies along an 11-mile road adventurous on TV. epiphany while viewing Patagonia from a he- course, roller-blading and push-scootering on And as for roller-blading, scootering, and licopter (or perhaps while suffering boredom pavement, and walking about on the Easton during a transatlantic sailing passage, accounts kayak-carting, it offered variety to the viewer Glacier on Mount Baker. In terms of distance, and an opportunity to model yet another kind differ) the activity was brought to the United kayaking (Puget Sound and the lower Skagit) States in 1995 by Californian Mark Burnett who of outdoor gear, and hence attract another and mountain-biking segments (largely on group of corporate sponsors. “understood that there was marketing poten- roads) accounted for roughly three-quarters The mandatory inclusion of a woman in tial in America for a race that blended extreme of the projected length. Everything else added each synthetic team would of course open up sports with human interest stories.” together comprised the remaining quarter. One claim made by advocates of this activ- a number of human-interest angles and specu- The contestants were teams of four, each lations to the viewers, and perhaps serve to ity, the “new sport for the new millennium”, composed of three men and a woman, and as they say, is that it represents a “return to the attract more female sofa-nauts. Anyone with were required generally to stay in close con- the stamina to watch network Olympic cover- great outdoors” by fitness enthusiasts who, tact with each other, on pain of disqualifica- weary of marathons and triathlons, “venture age is familiar with the corporate strategy of tion. The course started and ended on Orcas sweetening sports broadcasts with extraneous beyond the clubs and embrace more natural Island. There were staffed checkpoints, 40 in surroundings.” human interest treacle. As regards the basic all, which team members had to pass through. requirement of a “team”, allowing individuals Another unsubtle claim is that it is, well, ad- There were “transition points” where partici- or pairs to race would, perhaps, let the cat out venturous. The “Primal Quest” web site had pants changed one kind of gear for another. of the bag that this course, admitedly arduous, this gem of lush publicist prose: Each four-person participant team had a two- was in fact not some death-defying route only ”Adventure racing traces its roots to the great person “support team” to marshal and move to be attempted by a “team of experts.” maritime trade expeditions of explorers such their gear about, feed them, and so forth. There The decision to make this a continuous, as as Columbus, Magellan and Cook... were also large numbers of volunteers, paid opposed to a stage race, was a striking one. helpers, handlers, minders, media people, Starting in the 19th century, legendary ex- “Grueling” is not a bad description of a five- to photographers, and clattering helicopters. The plorers such as Lewis & Clark, Amundsen and seven-day continuous race, of any sort, even, entry fee was a stiff $7500 for each of the 56 Byrd mounted extremely challenging expedi- say, an egg-and-spoon race. Were one inter- teams. tions to the far reaches of the globe, searching ested in athleticism, in appreciating and re- for mythologized destinations and riches.” There was much about this event which I

12 ! THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 warding physical and mental skill, a stage race ting John Jacoby in the leg and would arguably be a better format. Participants pinballing down past the rest of us in punch-drunk, gibbering, and hallucinating the gully. Nigel was furthest down, and from sleep deprivation do not demonstrate the rock ended up hitting him in the much style nor think or perform at their best. head.” But they do offer some compelling viewing, at least in small doses, and they certainly add to Other accounts make clear that the rock was the story line that this is an “extreme” event. set moving by one of the party, perhaps by one of the two at the top who had not yet started to Clearly the format rewarded physical fitness, descend. Party-induced rockfall is, of course, a endurance, and the willingness to tolerate sleep classic gotcha of alpine climbing. It is one rea- deprivation. Skill in route-finding, mountain son why small parties of two are preferred, and biking, and paddling were also requisites. None why party members stay close together when of the disciplinary skills required were of a very descending loose gullies. Stringing a large high order, however. Some browsing of race group up and down a loose couloir is asking accounts, on-line team biographies, blogs, and for trouble. publicity shots available on line revealed a few patterns. Most of the participants (52 of 56 In hindsight, it’s pretty easy to see that Illabot teams) were not from the Northwest. Most did should not have been included in the race. A not appear to have any deep familiarity with pleasant outing, perhaps, for a small party, ex- mountains, marine environments, or tradi- perienced with 3rd-class terrain and loose rock, tional wilderness travel skills. Aside from one but an accident-in-waiting if traversed by sev- Northwest team, there were no self-described eral hundred tired, underslept contestants, Illabot Peak KEVIN GERAGHTY climbers, wilderness enthusiasts, or sea many of whom lacked experience moving on kayakers. The common thread was participa- steep subalpine ground. And unfortunately, the tion in aerobic fitness events like triathlons, knack of moving through this kind of terrain to what one might call the “safe danger” or “pre- ultramarathons, and mountain-bike races. efficiently and in relative safety isn’t something digested adventure” industry. That is, an aura The race did not work out as planned. Sep- that can be learned in a book, or practiced at of risk, of hazard, of derring-do, is what draws tember snows on Mount Baker led to the can- the local climbing gym if one lives in a moun- participants and sponsors. At the same time, it cellation of the Easton Glacier loop. And on tain-free area. Imposing “certifications,” and is understood on some level by the the third day of the race a member of one of equipment checklists, as this race did, is a participants that the organizers of this activity the two leading teams, who were traveling to- flawed answer to skill and knowledge deficits. will keep them safe and that the substantive gether at that point, was killed on Illabot Peak. It’s easy enough to require people to carry some risks and requirements of skill and experience This led to a hiatus of over a day, and when the totemic item of safety equipment, or make sure are in fact low. This in turn, leads participants race resumed it was effectively shortened sig- they know the mechanics of rappelling, but very to blindly trust the organizers, to abrogate their nificantly by replacing two difficult off-trail seg- hard to test them on whether they know how own judgment, or never to develop any in the ments (on one of which the fatality occurred) to move in the mountains and whether their first place. And it would appear that in pursuit with road biking. mountain judgment is any good. It is sobering of zip, pizazz, extremeness, and good visuals, Illabot Peak, is an obscure 3rd- or perhaps that this classic novice accident occurred to the the race organizers ignored or forgot how little low 4th-class summit, overlooking the Sauk two lead teams, presumably among the stron- in terms of mountain or paddling savvy could valley and just west of the Glacier Peak Wilder- gest and most competent in the race. be expected of their retread triathlete partici- ness. The summit block is exposed and unfor- An account of the 2002 “Primal Quest” in the pants. giving of clumsy errors, but a straightforward January 2003 issue of Outside Magazine re- If “Primal Quest” were nothing but a manu- ascent in good conditions for someone who counts situations very similar to the Illabot mis- factured reality TV sportainment presented with does North Cascades scrambles. In the dark, in hap, but with luckier outcomes: transparent disingenuousness as exploratory the wet, or under conditions of sleep depriva- ”... we noticed boulders rolling past high adventure, it wouldn’t merit much more tion and inexperience, it is hazardous. Third- us and scampered to the sides of the than a laugh. But the PQ represents an unabash- class climbing, because typically traveled chute, where we stopped and shouted edly commercial and arguable heavy-handed unroped, is in many respects riskier than tech- at the teams above us to cut it the recreational use of public lands. If “adventure nically more difficult, but belayed, 5th-class hell out. Too late. A boulder the size racing” is, as some claim, the coming thing, it climbing. One of the lead group of two teams, of a truck tire came rumbling out of behooves us to take a close look at the effects roughly four hours ahead of their nearest pur- the darkness. Illuminated by of this first high-profile event on local wild pub- suer, stated in an account of the accident that someone’s headlamp, the rock lic lands. on the ascent “The terrain was very loose, slip- wobbled through the air like an pery and exposed. We’d all discussed how tech- Climbers familiar with the granite climbs of onside kick, picking up speed. Two nical the climb seemed and wondered why the Clear Creek watershed near Darrington teams froze in the middle of the chute. there wasn’t a fixed rope.” The accident oc- were one group who turned out to be vocally It plowed right through the trailing curred on the descent, when the party of eight, dissatisfied with the way “Primal Quest” was team, and a woman screamed, from spread out, were descending a gully: conducted. Exfoliation Dome, the biggest hunk either fright or pain.” of exposed granite in the Clear Creek valley, ”[It was] a steep, rocky gully with quite It may be that the California Sports Market- was described by Fred Beckey as “quite possi- a bit of loose rock, but we could at least ing, Inc. corporate creator of “Primal Quest”, bly the most difficult 4,000-foot peak in the state see that it ran all the way to the bot- will be chastened by this death. Maybe not, of Washington. This same Exfoliation Dome, tom. Nigel started down into the gully though. After all, what better indicator of the spotted from a helicopter by race organizers, first to check it out. We all followed in, coveted quality of “extremeness” than a was the site of the “ropes” segment of the “Pri- one by one. With six of us in the gully, contestant’s death? And there is, arguably, a mal Quest”. a large rock dislodged from the top hit- structural problem here, a problem endemic Continued on page 20

THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 ! 13 Tales from the Walla Walla Toll Road HARVEY MANNING

THE SEATTLE-WALLA WALLA TOLL ROAD 6.2 miles of 14-foot right-of-way up Grouse Ridge were signed over to King County. Trees fell, creeks gullled, weeds grew. But in 1905 the first In 1883 A.A. Denny and H.L. Yesler opened the Seattle-Walla Walla cars crossed Snoqualmie Pass, helped here and there by ferry, teams of Toll Road, the first dependable cross-Cascades wheelway. In 1892 the horses, and shoulders to the wheel.

#1 BANDERA MOUNTAIN Poking about in a pile of yellowing guide- marshmallows over the campfire and been lulla- the Sheep Dog with the Piebald Eyes, Natasha. books, I came upon this manifesto in the 1978 bied to sleep by he river. But the Olmsteds, Buddy Pal asked” Where we going, daddy?” I edition of Footsore 2: whether or not they ever hoofed it up the over- replied “Exploring.” Several destinations I’d The South is the Fork of the grown Walla Walla Toll road of 1883, surely got been eyeing rebuffed us (other tales for other Snoqualmie River that everybody the glimmer as they stuck steak knives in T- times). The hour had come to let Natasha into knows. The valley is a straight shot bones that had walked over Snoqualmie Pass the snack sack she’d been sniffing and go home. from Seattle-Tacoma. . . One would from the Okanogan. Wise to the ways of wildlands, Buddy Pal coun- suppose the authorities long ago The North Bend Ranger District was notori- seled me, “Daddy, you don’t get no place would have provided a wealth of rec- ously oblivious to humans being differentiated ‘sploring.” reational opportunities. One would from other animals not by attached wheels but However. . . suppose wrong. The recreational de- efficient bipedal propulsion. The rangers did In 1958, returning home from peddling velopment is mostly up in the snow not — upon Tom Miller’s throwing the switch books in the Rocky Mountains, I’d passed a for- country. Hikers smother the Alpine that zapped the lightning bolt into the wild- est fire on slopes of the ridge above the Bandera Lakes Wilderness with affection . .To land — exclaim (as did the lab assistant in the Air Strip. Now I turned off the highway on a divert boots from tender wilderness, Frankenstein movie) “IT’S ALIVE!” Our 100 logging road that switchbacked to the lower to lengthen the hiking season, to give Hikes in Western Washington found, in 1968, margin of the burn. Cat tracks, then a clamber North Bend something to do now it only one trail between Mount Si and the Pin over and under blackened logs brought us out has lost the highway through town, Peaks of Snoqualmie Pass worth our focus: in subalpine fields — a charcoaled Buddy Pal haste should be made to develop a Mac’s Butt. and sheep dog and an explorer guilty of gross Cascade Gateway Recreation Area. In 1971 our first edition of 100 Hikes in the cruelty to children and animals. The final as- However, not until the 1990 extravaganza by Alpine Lakes doubled the number. No thanks cent to the summit — which for guidebook pur- the Issaquah Alps Trails Club, the five-day, 88- to Smokey Bear. His favored clientele was the poses I called (perhaps christened) “Bandera” mile “Mountains-to-Sound March,” did those multiple-abusers who in the name of the “great- — had a splendid show of beargrass in bloom. Authorities get the wax out of their ears. est good” bang motorcycles through the stumps On the descent, after the snack sack was plun- The “gateway” was not my invention, my and blast pistols at rockchucks and anything dered, I found the firefighters’ scramble path Newton’s apple or funny-papers light-bulb. Nor else that moves. Bandera Mountain was my at the burn edge, trail enough. was it new to me in 1978. Half a century earlier idea. Supplied route directions, my then photog- I’d flown high in the swings, bumped up and A springtime Sunday of the late 1960s I set rapher got as far as the beargrass. In 2004 a down on the teeter-totters, and whirled around out by beetle to survey the South Fork, accom- shrine was built there in memory of his cam- in the kid-gang, foot—powered whirligig at panied by five-year-old Buddy Pal, Claudia, and era. Maloney’s Grove, then roasted weenies and

#2 MOUNT DEFIANCE The Bandera road crossed Mason Creek, feeling muscular that morning I elected to stick Lakes Wilderness. Already, in 1975, it had been tumbling from one of the Boy Scout Lakes, with my mistake. Sidehilling the creek canyon the final leg of Stan Unger’s solo walk from holes in the ground filled with water and hatch- was a hip-dislocater, so I drifted westward onto Seattle’s Discovery Park to Snoqualmie Pass, ery trout, ringed in summer by troops of boys the gentler grade of the Snoqualmie valley wall. waving the flag for a group wishing to stress slapping mosquitoes and barfing raw bacon Scrub forest and brush opened out nicely to the spiritual connection of the Whulge to the and uncooked hotcakes. I’d heard that the felsenmeer that is nigh-ubiquitous in the Cascade Crest. In 1981 it had been the open- fishbaggers had booted out a path to Mason area, granite blocks the size of refrigerators, ing leg of the March to Gasworks Park led for Lake. That was of minus interest to me but as a Volkswagens, and prospectors’ cabins. Hop- The Mountaineers by Jim Whittaker to protest shortcut to the Middle Fork Snoqualmie-Denny skipping, grasshopper-like, from block to block the Reagan–Watts scheme to drill holes in the Creek mainline trail enabled an easy day’s as- was deserving of choreography by Balanchine, Alpine Lakes Wilderness to get the magma on cent of Mount Defiance. The highest geogra- a spice of peril added to the dance by looking the Northwest Power Grid. phy in the neighborhood, this peak was re- down the gaps to darkness. There’s more history in that area than is quired by the second edition of 100 Hikes in I intersected the mainline trail where it con- dreamt on in our guidebooks. In ‘sploring the Alpine Lakes, due out in 1985, to join Mac’s toured the southwest slopes of Defiance in a Bandera, we’d come upon a small granite Butt and Bandera Mountain as a third destina- flower field as gaudy as any I’ve seen in the felsenmeer traversed by a trail built long ago to tion between Mount Si and the Pin Peaks. Snoqualmie area, and the closest of the sort to packhorse standards. I followed it east and west I hadn’t climbed far from the road before re- the Cascade front. The trail obviously was fated to the edge of the rockery — to vanishings in alizing the fishway must be across the creek but to become a famous favorite of the new Alpine subalpine greenery. Where did it come from?

14 ! THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 Where did it go? Who built it? When? Why? A new hole. They’d never know where to look end, hardhats with no brains, and the saints ghost trail in the sky . . . for my bones. On glaciers I’ve often stepped in come marchin’ in, ignorant volunteerism run Buddy Pal, knowledgeable in mountain holes but usually was roped and always had amok. felsenmeer, had informed me, “Marmots live companions to laugh at the comical look on I later learned the wilderness rangers were here.” I expressed a doubt, heard the squeals my face. equally disgusted. In 55 Hikes Around of a rock rabbit, and said, “Well, conies.” A The basin of Mason Lake was solid white, no Snoqualmie Pass, 2001, I opined that the ra- whistle. Score one for the kid. That’s the far- clue in the forest to the fishbagger path. A short tional route to Mason Lake was over the thest-west Cascades marmot I’ve ever heard. plug up snow to the shoulder of Bandera took Bandera shoulder. My opining carried no The summit of Defiance was a quick amble. me back to the beetle. weight with the Smokeys and their free-park- The mainline then took me easterly toward For guidebook purposes I returned another ing volunteers. However, in 2004 somebody Mason Lake. Not immediately to it. The moun- day to check out the trail. Expletives deleted. suffered an attack of smartness and caused the tain rounded to an easterly exposure. The trail Witless Dan’l Boones equipped with many-col- right thing to be done. A convocation of entered felsenmeer and disappeared under ored ribbons had flagged many many treacher- hardhats carried bouquets and pebbles, tokens snow. Between granite blocks holes were melt- ous routes in a Minotaur’s labyrinth of jumbled of devotion, to the Bandera shoulder to dedi- ing out. At any step my boots might make a granite and bottomless pits. Ribbonry without cate the “Ira Spring Trail.”

#3 MOUNT WASHINGTON

When the state decided to pave the highway ochist could take sick satisfaction in the handi- and Olallie State Park was established. In 55 east of North Bend, Dad lucked into a job shov- work of Paul Bunyan and the Blue Ox. Hikes Around Snoqualmie Pass, 2001, I wrote eling sand, gravel, and Portland cement into Truckways abandoned to become footroads how “off I went until my Shelties were shiver- the concrete mixer that spewed slurry into a gave viewpoints for reflecting on civitas. So ing in belly-deep (theirs) snow.” The North parade of wheelbarrows. A couple of Sundays Mount Washington called me. Bend Plain spread below from Rattlesnake and that summer Mother and I drove up to visit him The obvious access from the Snoqualmie Pass the Issaquah Alps to Si. The half-road was a gas, at his tent camp beneath Mac’s Butt. Neither Highway was a one-truck-wide half-road at the ingeniously threading over and under cliffs. I that nor any other South Fork summit triggered terminal moraine of the Canadian glacier. The pictured Dirty Harry (another story, another my conquistador instincts until 1947, when a turnoff, though, was so sharp that I had to slow place) in his beat-up old truck, the outer wheels prankster inveigled Betty and me up the South nearly to a foot-pace, and every time I consid- hanging partly over space, him singing “Nearer Face of The Tooth, whereupon I set to work ered doing so an over-the-hump behemoth at- My God to Thee.” wiping out the Pin Peaks. tached to the rear bumper of my beetle. I never bothered with the summit. Low ad- The portal peaks at the Cascade front lacked Above the moraine, the highway shoulder was venture, the jest of our chosen few, was becom- whatever it was that got my blood racing on parkable and a short clamber gained the rail- ing what Pin Peaking used to be for clubbies. the South Face. My blood boiled instead as I road tracks but a long trestle guaranteed that (My Footsores presumably had something to watched log-haul roads climb, year by year, to when a train came (and they still did) the night’s do with this, though mine eyes were far from the highest reach of forests. menu would be hamburger and no potatoes. being first to glory in the wildness within.) A They stopped only because the Northern Pa- A trail from Herpicide Spire (another trip, an- subculture had beribboned the maze of cat cific Land Grant failed to privatize the clouds. other place) was wanted. A group of Issaquah tracks on Washington and championed favor- Conrad Kain, legendary guide of the Canadian Alpinists announced intentions. I haven’t ite routes in letters to the editor, wall posters, Rockies and Selkirks, is said to have said, “Men checked recently to see how they are coming. and fist fights. Our private fun was spoiled. can go where clouds can go, but they must be The Bulletin of The Mountaineers, to which I do not guarantee the details of the route in sturdy men.” We local sturdies had to supple- I paid dues for a half-century until expelled as 55 Hikes. I concluded my translation from ment the steadily dwindling close-to-home wil- a troublemaker, began announcing walks to the ribbonry-entangled prose with a note to the derness with the steadily growing ex-forests. “Owl Hike Spot.” Lo, it started from where the reader: “There now, wasn’t that fun? Somebody When the boiling slowed to a simmer, a mas- half-road had been before US 10 became I-90 owes you a pin.”

#4 MAILBOX PEAK Chances are nobody ever spent as much time that this peak’s southwest slopes were melted of the Lutheran Layman League. Clearcutting as me trying to figure how to get up the Portal to the felsenmeer while Snoqualmie Pass re- has obliterated the first mile. I found the exist- Peaks at the mouth of the hanging trough of mained crotch-deep in winter. ing start off a logging road at a tiny sign, “4841”. the South Fork Snoqualmie. The joke (on me) I hypothesized approaches from every side Sally and Warren and company initiated the is that I never “summited” either one. Will and scouted a couple. Then, in 1991, a Sign- public march-march-march. My 1991 guide- Rogers used to conclude his humorous reflec- post article render my pioneering obsolete. book, Hiking the Mountains-to-Sound tions on the political scene in Washington City, Sally Pfeiffer described a trail to the summit, Greenway, doubtless set more feet in motion. such as wondering whether Silent Cal, when for which she suggested the name “Mailbox” Not mine. Dan’l Boone’s work had been the photographers made him wear an Indian because the register book was in an old, heavy, done by others. I followed the example of Mark war bonnet, ever felt the urge to give a war green mailbox (a “collectible” that some Col- Twain, who for his book Innocents Abroad did whisper, by saying, “All I know is what I read in lector now has in his secret trophy room for the mandatory tourist walk to the Riffelalp, the papers.” private gloating). Notes in the box dated to the where he dutifully boiled the thermometer The top of the ridge extending west from 1950s. Sally estimated the trail was built no later (and also the barometer, not sure which instru- Mount Defiance was tantalizing. The views cer- than 1940. ment tourists were supposed to boil) but des- tainly had to equal or surpass those from Mount Warren Jones later informed me the trail patched his assistant to do the obligatory climb Si. More significantly, whenever driving by on originally began at Vallley (sic) Camp, retreat of the Matterhorn. the way to postholing in the Pin Peaks, I noted

THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 ! 15 #5 DIRTY HARRY The first I heard of him, in 1977, was met one. The correct spelling derives from the the concrete of the I-90-that-was-becoming. an unimproved road shown on a State Old Country, as in Gypo Nolan, the Irish Re- Harry’s road didn’t fool with switchbacks, Highway engineers’ map, labeled, publican Army traitor in Flaherty’s novel, The went straight up the fall line, boulders and “Dirty Harry’s Logging Road.” This Informer.) The Forestry Club at the University snowmelt torrents be damned. Where it finally struck me as a gratuitous slur by a pub- once invited me to a friendly evening’s slanted off west, I sidetripped east to “Dirty lic agency, but not so. “Dirty Harry” was shootout. They tried to get Harry to come for a Harry’s Balcony” and its cliff-brink view down what he liked to be called by his North face-to-face but Seattle was too far off the edge to bugs scurrying east and west on the Main Bend friends, who were legion, look- of his world. Street. At 3000 feet, where the road crossed a ing on him as their local (sort of) Paul His road system and forest-mangling were creek, was an impressive assemblage of machin- Bunyan. For many years his business familiar sights from US 10 for years but by the ery scavenged from junkyards and kicked and and pleasure was purchasing cutting time I tried to get there his timber bridge over cussed up here for a final rest in “Dirty Harry’s rights to timber on private land that the Snoqualmie River was gone. My first entry, Museum.” didn’t interest big operators and therefore, in 1977, was from the North Bend The road ended on the 4650-foot summit of chainsawing scraggly, next-to-worth- Plain via the 1882 Seattle-Walla Walla Toll Road. “Dirty Harry’s Peak.” I tried to count rings in less forests to desolation, practicing Atop Grouse Ridge, as the moraine of the Ca- the skinny little stumps but lacking a magnify- logging methods subsequently out- nadian glacier is called at this point, I gazed ing glass had to give up. Most of the trees were lawed, thanks in no small part to the over the plain to the smog of Seattle. In mind’s rotten at the core — Harry hauled perhaps one horrors he committed in full view of ear I heard the putt-putt-bang of AYP road-rac- in five to the mill, left the rest of the tiny an- travelers on the Main Street of the ers, the creaking of wagon wheels, the moo- cients to lay where he felled them. What sort of Northwest. He was the despair of the ing of Okanogan cattle en route to the butcher mill would bother with his scrawny mountain Forest Service and Weyerhaeuser, shop, the muttering of Original Inhabitants on hemlock? A peckerwood, sibling of the gypo. which tried in vain to shunt him off to the way to attack the real estate speculators in out-of-the-way places where he Curiosity had bested my good sense. The their Seattle stockade, the glacier dropping summit was no proper place to be watching wouldn’t give the timber industry such boulders. a flagrant black eye. the sun set. The shades of night were falling Turning to face east, I boggled at the hugest fast. Legs quailed at the miles of gravel mine —from Hiking the Mountains-to- gravel mine in the Western Hemisphere if not and Grouse Ridge to Ken’s Truck Town. I Sound Greenway, 1983, and 55 the Solar System, a vast silence of naked glacial stumbled across the river on not-yet-open lanes Hikes Around Snoqualmie Pass, drift (subsequently to become a state fire-fight- of new freeway. My thumb, Depression-trained, 2001. ing training center). At 6.2 miles from Ken’s was caught in the headlights of an over-the- My great regret is missing out (several times Truck Town (the official distance, the bankrupt hump trucker, Depression-trained Samaritan. by minutes) on meeting Harry Gault, Quintes- toll road having been deeded to King County), Betty would not have to call my buddies, who sential Gypo. (A note in passing: the spelling was the site of Harry’s fallen bridge and the would save me from the mercies of Mountain “gyppo” is the usage of journalists who never junction of the Walla Walla-road-that-was with Rescue but would laugh and laugh and laugh.

ORVs: Lullaby of the Wheels

In a recent issue of the Seattle Post- vironmentalist disputes as those on the Dark Intelligencer, Robert McClure reported reac- Divide, Teanaway-Taneum, Mad River-Entiat, tions to President Bush’s telling the U.S. Forest Manastash, and Foggy Dew. Service to designate “trails available for ORV Edward Jensen, a Ballard ORVer, is quoted use.” Some 5.2 million acres in Western Wash- by McClure: “What they (environmentalists) ington, or nearly one-eighth of the state are af- think is appropriate is for dirt-bike riders to be fected. “Nationally, ORV users increased seven- relegated to riding in a gravel pit in Federal fold over the past three decades to more than Way.” 36,000,000. Much of the increase came in the Karl Forsgaard, responding to the statement past decade. The number of ATVs, for example, that Mount Baker-Snoqualmie, Wenatchee, and grew 40 percent from 1997 to 2001. The num- Gifford Pinchot National Forests already have ber of ATV drivers rose by over a third and the designated trails for ORVs, said “If they desig- number of hours driven went up 50 percent.” nated (trails for ORV use) without even having Chief Forester Dale Bosworth, who a year a look at what’s appropriate, we’d say they need ago listed unmanaged ORV use as one of the to go back and take that look. Where do we four top threats to the ecological health of the have sensitive wildlife? Where do we have sen- National Forests, “waxed eloquent” about sitive soils? Where do we have an ecosystem Bush’s order. However, the Washington Wilder- that’s more vulnerable to this kind of use?” ness Coalition pointed out that no deadline was Forsgaard concluded, “In many cases they set for re-examining trail-use policies and that didn’t go through that thought process. They “neither the Forest Service nor ORV riders simply designated as open to ORVs what they would have a strong inducement to get the job saw on the ground being used by ORVs.” done.” In other words, same old same old. No progress is promised in settling such ORV-en-

16 ! THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 Ring-A-Ding-Ding FAIR EXCHANGES A climbing party of three is the minimum. . . AND RIPOFFS Rope up on all exposed places. . . Never let judgment be swayed by desire. . . la de da. . . When “unowned” lands were abundant and cade Land Conservancy, Nature Conservancy, There were, in the climbing community, sur- people few, the American citizenry was gener- Trust for Public Land. Confusing. But the more reptitious smirks and subdued snickers about ally complacent about the Great Giveaway — the merrier. the Climbing Code as “the ABC for Sissies.” However, 1960s orthodoxy approved the the transfer of “unused” lands (that is, unused One major front is setting limits to urbaniza- Climbing Course for distancing its textbook, by humans, especially those of European de- tion of the between-mountains trough from Freedom of the Hills, from Gnostic Deeps, ob- scent) to hands which could put them to British Columbia to the Columbia River, to pre- serving the model of the Ten Commandments “good” uses (homesteads, railroads, mines). serve the quality of life in cities by protecting and the Sermon on the Mount. Similarly, the Eventually critics spoke up, notably Theodore “the wildness within.” Golden Age of Hollywood segregated married Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot. Another is defending de facto “wildness with- couples in twin beds, hovered over by wings There was, however, an opposing view. Ri- out” by preventing recreational subdivision of of the stork, and made sure that unmarried lov- chard Ballinger, Secretary of the Interior from ers watched their hands. commercial timberlands, as in the I-90 Moun- 1909 to 1911, said, “The chaps who are in fa- tains-to-Sound Greenway. The times they did some changing. Millen- vor of this conservation program are all wrong. nium-end cable television unleashed in the The laundry list is long. On the gigantic end In my opinion, the proper course to take with suburban subdivisions a jamboree of naughty of the scale, it includes a huge land-privatization bits. Big-league climbing swung wide open the regard to this (public domain) is to divide it up bill promoted by the Nevada congressional del- closet door on solo and ropeless. The Mount among the big corporations and the people egation that would lead to selling off public Everest industry shaved the “margin of safety” who know how to make money out of it.” steppe throughout the West. On the small end to accept into the glamorous Death Zone any- Ballingerism is alive and well. But the spirit of of the scale is the pending sweetheart deal in body with a $65,000 ticket. “This is my land” also is thriving. See Cascade the Stehekin Valley between the National Park Times have a way of changing back. The Sev- Checkerboard News, newsletter of the Sierra Service and the Courtney Empire. enteenth-century Civil War in England ended Club’s Cascade Checkerboard Project, directed John Maynard Keynes said in 1928, “The love when the country decided it wasn’t ready for a by Charlie Raines. Indispensable reading. (Con- of money is a somewhat disgusting morbidity, Commonwealth and invited the Stuarts home tributions are welcome to the Sierra Club Foun- one of the semi-criminal, semi-pathological pro- from their wanders. The continent of Europe, dation, 180 Nickerson #200, Seattle, WA pensities which one hands over with a shud- in 1550 half Lutheran-Calvinist-Anabaptist, af- 98109.) See too, Land Exchange Update from ter the Thirty Years War had all but a fifth re- der to specialists in mental diseases.” Keynes the Western Land Exchange Project, directed turned to the Pope. The freedom of religion, was wrong. We don’t hand them over to doc- by Janine Blaelock, covering the nine Western of sex, of the hills — where might they lead, tors, but to public officials who consider the states. (Tax-deductible donations, P.O. Box forward or back, oh dear oh dear what is to plague to be no worse than a bad cold. become of us? 95545, Seattle, WA 98145-2545.) Take the cell phone . . . Other groups working our side of the street Terry Wood in the September 2 Seattle Times include Cascade Conservation Partnership, Cas- considered the pros and cons. PRO: The search-and-rescue coordinator for the North Cascades National Park said: “About half our first notifications are by cell phone. If an accident happens at noon, we’d rather get RUNNING the call then than at 8 p.m.” CON: A spokesperson for National Parks and A runner is quoted at length in the October When exercise does become truly shared, as in Conservation said: “Convenience and safety are 21 Seattle Post-Intelligencer: “Day hiking the the aerobics that come close to dance, or the two issues that get traction with the public, es- whole Enchantments — about 18 miles with a hard-core bodybuilding that is always erotic and pecially safety. Wilderness isn’t supposed to be gain of about 4000 feet — might be approach- fraternal, it nears sport or art. When done in a convenient or safe. That’s not its purpose.” ing the popularity of overnight visits. It’s a private home or in untenanted landscapes, or Howard Zahniser, drafting what in 1964 be- major grunt . . . but strong hikers can do it spontaneously, without formal method, appa- came the Wilderness Act, was thinking Deep. without problems. My longtime best hiking The bureaucrats who now administer the law ratus, or counting, it recovers certain eccentric dare not wade beyond the pension-friendly buddy, his 29-year-old son, and I made it in 13 freedoms and private techniques of the self. Shallow end of the pool. The pedestrian pub- hours recently.” Exercise that is not concerned with the creative lic meekly stuffs heads in hardhats, pins a North- Running is an invasion of public space. The process of reproduction or the pure discover- west Forest Pass to shirts, seig-heils Smokey, and runner takes over shared places — the narrow ies of solitude, is a struggle to incarnate the snuggles into bags murmuring, “Now I lay me riverside, sidewalk, and nature path — for him- shape and capabilities of others inthe material down to sleep and pray the Asteroid my wil- self. With his speed and narcissistic intensity of one’s own body, without invention and with- derness to keep.” the runner corrupts the space of walking, think- out exchange. Cell phones, helicopters, wilderness outfit- ing, talking and everyday contact. He jostles ters, freedom of the wheel, money money — MARK GREIF, in n+1 the idler out of his reverie, races around pe- money makes the world go round, the world go round. destrians in conversation, opposes sociability H.M. and solitude by publicly sweating on them.

THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 ! 17 MOUNTAIN GOAT RESEARCH IN THE NORTH CASCADES POLLY DYER ohn and I were ploughing through a couple causes have been verified in the decline of ing and an animal on White Chuck that died Jfeet of fresh snow on Mount Rainier when mountain goat numbers. Although the Mount sometime late this winter. There were no deaths we came upon puzzling “ski” tracks. Around a Baker population appears to be increasing since due to capture last year. bend we surprised the “skier,” who instantly hunting ceased in 1996, other populations do “The only real results so far are from blood rounded another bend and was gone. Two not appear to be recovering. analyses. Based on those analyses, there is no years later, in 1953, I was waiting in a meadow “. . . Both trapping and stalking attempts to indication that disease, selenium, or parasites while John, Tom Miller, and Harvey Manning capture goats on the MBS were unsuccessful are a factor in the regional population decline. were making a third ascent of the couloir route in 2002, so the use of helicopters is proposed Although not learned from the research itself, I on Forbidden Peak, when a nanny and kid to assist in the capture methods of darting (w/ did model the impacts of sport hunting on the strolled past, oblivious to my presence. Never tranquilizers), and net gunning (shooting nets population of goats and Mount Baker. I used again, in half a century of climbing and hiking over animals from a helicopter). . . . Based on detailed information on hunting reports from in the Cascades, have I had the privilege of the unsuccessful attempts with drop nets and 1964 – 1995 and an estimated population size meeting a mountain in 1961. The model re- goat. Call me un- sults indicate that hunt- lucky, I guess. Some ing was very likely a sig- of my friends have nificant factor in the hobnobbed with so population decline. many, so often, they This may be true for run out of anec- other mountain goat dotes. Betty Man- populations, but none ning tells of being have been assessed yet. wakened in the “The research has also night by a kid jump- revealed the location of ing up and down on wintering areas that her sleeping bag, the were previously un- nanny standing by known. watching with ma- “This summer WDFW ternal pleasure. will begin collecting The North Cas- data on how many goats cades Conservation are seen when conduct- Council was alerted ing population surveys. to the Cascades Data will continue to be Mountain Goat Re- collected on habitat use. search Project by Other than some basic Phil Leatherman. information on home The June 16, 2003 range size, I would not deadline for public expect any significant response to the findings until next scoping document spring at the earliest.” Mountain goats in the Enchantments MARY LOU KRAUSE prepared by Mt. I had also inquired Baker-Snoqualmie about the “relation- National Forest had passed, Thus we had no stalking, the use of helicopters to net-gun or ships/effects, if any, on the Cascades popula- opportunity to comment. Following are ex- tranquilize goats is proposed as the minimal tions from the mountain goats non-native to cerpts from the 2003 scoping: tool to capture and collar goats for the research the Olympic Peninsula that may have been “The Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest project. transported into the North Cascades some years [MBS] proposes to allow the Washington De- I contacted Don Gay, Wildlife Biologist with ago.” [Note: Mountain goats did not occur natu- partment of Fish and Wildlife [WDFW] the use the Mt. Baker Ranger District. Following are ex- rally in the Olympics. Twelve from Alaska and of helicopters to capture and collar mountain cerpts from Mr. Gay’s e-mail response (June British Columbia were introduced into the goats in the Mount Baker, Glacier Peak, and 2004): Olympics in the 1920s by hunters. These moun- Boulder River Wilderness Areas, as well as non- “Since the research began less than 1 year tain goat numbers increased dramatically, with wilderness areas, to accomplish a mountain ago (goats were collared in September of 2003), resultant impacts on rare and endangered goat research study. The study proposes to cap- there are few detailed findings at this point. . . plants in Olympic National Park and adjacent ture 20 goats in the North Cascades and outfit . Goat captures occurred last September and areas.] the goats with global positioning system (GPS) were successful, except in the Glacier Peak area. Don Gay commented: “From what I know tracking collars. The goats would be tracked These goats seem to move off of Glacier Peak of the earlier transplants from the Olympics, over several years . . . .Mountain goats . . . have in the summer/early fall. An attempt will be goats were released on Pilchuck Mountain and been declining for several decades. Multiple made to capture goats on Glacier Peak earlier in the Finney Block. Neither of these efforts causes have been proposed to explain the de- this year. There will also be some additional established a population, so there should have cline; however, to date, none of these possible captures to replace collars that are malfunction- no genetic impacts to the population, since it

18 ! THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 appears that all of these animals eventually died. I don’t believe that any of the Olympic goats were released in areas that were occu- “THE LARGEST pied, or near, native mountain goat popula- tions.” FOREST-CONSERVATION DEAL Clifford Rice of WDFW shared with me some of the research concerns. From a 1983 study IN THE COUNTRY” by R. L. Johnson, it had been observed fairly large numbers of mountain goats had been RON SIMS, KING COUNTY EXECUTIVE diminishing for some fifty years, particularly noticeable in several areas of the North Cas- Gene Duvernoy, president of Cascade Land No more. Thanks to Duvernoy’s efforts, King cades, with lesser losses in other locations. Rice Conservancy, has been working on this deal County has paid Hancock $22,000,000 for de- indicated there is very little “baseline informa- for years. In 2003, a spin-off group failed in an velopment rights on 90,000,000 acres, the pur- tion” relative to mountain goats in the state is attempt to buy 104,000 acres of Weyerhaeuser’s chase funded by the county’s Conservation Fu- to gain a comprehensive understanding of Snoqualmie Tree farm. Hancock Timber Re- tures tax, devoted solely to open space and mountain goat habitat, how it is used, and what source Group, a Boston-based company, resource lands. mountain goats appear to need. Further re- stepped in and paid $185,000,000, a neat little This is part of a regional program to con- search access will be mostly on the ground; going-away gift for the chief thief of the North- serve 600,000 acres in King, Snohomish, and however, it is anticipated helicopters may be ern Pacific Land Grab. necessary at some times. A reference to re- Pierce counties — “the wildness within.” search in other mountain goat areas (not the Hancock vows to continue the land as a Cascades), mentioned the possible loss of “working forest,” including concomitant social nearby forests affecting mountain goat winter responsibilities as assumed by DNR’s Tiger habitat. Mountain State Forest. Good vow. However, Douglas McMurtrie, EPA Project Coordina- vows are not necessarily forever. The Damocles tor for the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe, com- sword still dangled over Puget Sound City. mented it has “never really been clear as to the cause of decline of the mountain goats.” Mr. McMurtrie told me the reduced numbers of mountain goats in the Cascades was first PERC Gives Bush a Boise-Cascade noticed by Art Ryalls, a long-time Darrington resident. It was in the 1960s when the Sauk- C+ on Environmental Bails Out Suiattle Tribe started to notice a rapid decline. Policy Long-time members of the North Cascades It is possible research might reveal impacts Conservation Council recall the Reverend Riley from urban areas; such as, air pollution per- On October 21, 2004, the Political Economy explaining from pulpits in Chelan, then haps changing vegetation patterns. He also Research Center (PERC), an anti-environmen- Yakima, the objections God had to a North mentioned possible effects for mountain goat tal think-tank located in Bozeman, Montana Cascades National Park. In public debate our population decline might be from trophy hunt- (where Interior Secretary Gale Norton previ- board member Phil Zalesky reminded him that ing and from increased snowmobile access in ously served as a Senior Fellow), gave Presi- Jesus Christ was known to walk in the wilder- the winter. dent Bush an ‘End of Term Grade’ for his en- ness. The Rev shouted out, “The Devil chased The Cascades mountain goat ecology re- vironmental performance. And while bona-fide him there!” Was it Christianity that the Boise- search is anticipated to continue for several environmental organizations have been con- Cascade executives in the Rev’s congregation years, contingent, of course, on continued heard in Sunday sermons, or Manicheanism? funding. In addition to the U.S. Forest Service sistently giving Mr. Bush a grade of ‘F”, PERC Whatever, not until my expose in Not Man and Washington Department of Fish and Wild- has rewarded him with a very generous C+. Apart was it widely known that overlapping life, others participating in the research stud- Not surprisingly, in the “Public Lands Man- boards of directors made B-C in fact a unit of ies are the National Park Service, Western Wash- agement” category, the president received his Weyco. ington University, the Sauk-Suiattle Indian very highest mark — his only “A” — for the Never mind, the 91-year-old Boise-Cascade Tribe, and the Stillaquamish Indian Tribe. Recreation Fee Demonstration Program. Funding assistance is also being provided from is no more. It has conveyed 2,300,000 acres of Seattle City Light’s Wildlife Research Program. PERC has been a long time supporter of fee- timber plus its name to Madison-Dearborn demo and clearly they are pleased with the Partners, a Chicago equity investment firm. The As the mountain goat ecology studies con- designated manager of the forests is an entity tinue and reports are available, readers of The President’s efforts to make this loathsome pro- traded on the Big Board, Officemax. In Wash- Wild Cascades will be kept informed. In the gram the permanent law of the land. ington the sale involves 475,000 acres, many meantime, a quote from NCCC’s Phil of them very dear to our hearts. Leatherman is pertinent: “One question (prob- ably unanswerable) is what are the combined B-C had been suffering the financial stag- effects of low-level hunting pressure and large- gers and badly needed cash. The New York scale hiking-climbing use? Climbers, for obvi- Times quotes Mark Wilde, a forest product ous reasons, commonly seek out goat trails, analyst for Deutsche Bank, as expecting Madi- which on popular climbs and scrambles can son-Dearborn to sell their land, as have Loui- be mobbed most summer weekends. Might the siana Pacific, Georgia Pacific, and the rest of MBS consider limiting total numbers and party- the good ol’ boys. Says Wilde, “The smartest size in such areas, where it is abundantly clear guys in the industry are viewing their timber- that, at least for limited periods, goats are be- lands as prime real estate.” ing displaced from their chosen routes?” H.M. THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 ! 19 The Recent Very Commercial Adventure Quest Continued from page 13

The infrastructure needed to area over a 36-hour pe- segments. One was, officially, a minor ravine which drains east get several hundred non-climbers riod. No honeybuckets, “mountain-bike” segment. Across from the Three Lakes plateau. to near the summit and back was no nothing. the southern toe of the Sisters From that point, the groups, scat- substantial. A climber comments: Range, the route followed the tering in multiple directions, did ”X-Dome is somewhat decayed mining road up to the not create a single clear trail. The “One leg of the race of a sacred place for Three Lakes basin. The check- passage of several hundred bike- required the partici- many of us. Remote, ad- point, just over 4000' at the lakes draggers thus created a highly pants to follow a fixed venturous, pristine. was about 400 yards from the erodable fall-line trail for some line up the Granite Side- Kinda makes my skin southern boundary of the Mount distance downhill. The creation of walk, then jumar 600' crawl to think of the Baker Wilderness. a followable trail from Three long static lines up the blast of commercial ex- Lakes to the 1260 road system, “headwall” of rock pos- ploitation it just experi- The contestants were then re- which the organizers seemed to sibly between Jacobs enced.” quired to get down to the South expect, would have been a worse Ladder and Rain Man. Fork Nooksack road. A small num- The issue of the excrement gen- outcome. But the participants’ At the top they were ber of savvy early contestants ap- route-finding mistakes forestalled switched to a rappel erated by several hundred partici- parently traversed north for a half- this. setup by hired guides pants and several hundred mile toward the Heart Lake basin minders, volunteers, and publi- and retraced their steps to pick up the Forest Service’s The longest surviving cross- back to the logging road. cists was probably more acute at 1260 road system fairly high, af- country travel section in the race Exfoliation Dome than anywhere ter no more than a mile of mod- was the cross-country “trek” that “Approximately 30 else, for the simple reason that erate cross-country bike-dragging, led from the check-point at Inde- bolts were placed for an- there was a lot of infrastructure but the mass of participants, close pendence Lake, drained by Coal choring 12(!) 600' static there, a high concentration of to two hundred of them, plunged Creek in the South Fork lines on the headwall minders and organizers, and 2000' down the fall line, dragging Stillaguamish watershed, over to along with all the other there were bottlenecks which led their bikes through the thicken- the base of Exfoliation Dome in lines used to access it. to a lot of participants spending ing brush, never reaching the the Clear Creek valley. As the ma- About a dozen of these a lot of time there in a rather re- 1260 road system, and ending up jority of teams ended up doing bolts were placed on the stricted area. But it was probably on a roadless section of the river this, it was perhaps four or five Granite Sidwalk and be- an issue at other spots on the floodplain. Many wasted many miles of cross-country travel. The low the headwall. All route where, for one reason or hours blundering around on the logical route was to go to the bolt hangers were [sub- another, people tended to gather hillside and the river flats with north side of the divide past Hel- sequently] removed and and spend time. Contestants were their bikes before extricating ena Lake, re-cross the divide just about 1/3 of the bolts not allowed to kayak the Skagit at themselves. south of Helena Peak, and follow were pried out and night, for example, so the river the obvious shoulder down to the expoxied. put-in “transition area” accumu- Race officials did not anticipate end of the Clear Creek road, a lated significant numbers of wait- this. Participants reported being “In addition ¼” short distance below Deer Creek ing contestants. The official told by the checkpoint official that Pass, just skirting the edge of the buttonheads were used method of dealing with the issue a “trail [sic] down the east side of Boulder River Wilderness. But to anchor edge padding was a “blue bag” system, but it’s the mountain was flagged for a on the headwall. Con- there were any number of vari- pretty clear that it was not widely while and then we could just fol- ants, not to mention outright mis- sidering the onionskin- observed. low the makeshift trail blazed by taken routes, and many teams like nature of X-Dome all of the other teams that pre- there were probably nu- Other obvious concerns were took far longer. ceded us.” But from the end of merous edges to pad. raised by the trailless sections of the flagging, successive teams, This area of rocky subalpine These were in theory all the route, particularly those pass- lemming-like, reinforced the peaks and tarns is part of the removed. ing through or near wilderness- route-finding mistakes of earlier 30,000-acre Helena Ridge quality lands or more sensitive “While there are al- teams, who had been seduced by roadless area, proposed as part of areas such as subalpine zones, the fall line instead of angling or the Boulder River Wilderness, but ready LOTS of bolts up areas which by definition had no there, the placement of traversing north. lopped off during the political hardened infrastructure to cush- bolts for short-term use scrum preceding the 1984 Wilder- ion the effects of all these people. One contestant describes this ness Bill’s passage. Conservation- and their incomplete re- In these areas, the effects of a sud- racer-created trail: moval seems like really ists did, however, manage to keep den mass human inundation on poor form. ”The trail started out as a little thumb or panhandle vegetation and wildlife were po- within the Boulder River Wilder- tentially significant. freshly stomped under- “Of greater real brush. As the hill got ness proposal which effectively enviromental impact, The twin chances of weather steeper, it quickly turned sealed off Deer Creek Pass to evidently there was no and fatal accident contrived to re- into a wide bare strip of roads, preventing the threatened waste management. I duce off-trail cross-country sec- freshly mulched soil, with connection of the Clear Creek was told ‘people were tions of the route, and their atten- just a hint of morning and Deer Creek road systems. leaving their dookies dant impacts, by something like dew on it to create a nice This little panhandle guaranteed and TP everywhere’ With 80 percent, or, counting the slide...” the contiguity between the exist- support staff, TV crews, Easton Glacier segment, some- ing wilderness and any future Hel- guides etc., that’s prob- The trail-swath eventually came thing like 87 percent. But there ena Ridge addition. It also sealed ably 400 people in the remained at least two noteworthy to a bad end in the bottom of the off Deer Creek Pass to easy travel

20 ! THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 by “Primal Quest” participants, terrain unroped with easy confi- since the Wilderness was a “No dence, who could climb “X-dome” Travel Zone” which could lead to without the assistance of fixed disqualification if they entered it. lines, who could read terrain and For those traveling cross-country travel forested hillsides in the dark largely on the north side of the without losing orientation, who divide, this was a lesser issue. But wouldn’t blunder into wilderness the lure of easy travel on roads was areas, who wouldn’t have to be strong, and roughly a quarter of told that log jams on rivers are best the teams chose to use the Deer avoided — the human-phalanx Creek road on the south side of format of “adventure races” makes the divide, and grapple with the them damaging to wilderness- wilderness panhandle at the head quality lands which receive little of the pass. Some teams went so human traffic. “Party size” limits of far as to “trek” the Coal Lake road twelve are imposed on many fed- all the way back to the Mountain eral lands in recognition of the dis- Loop highway, two- and a-half proportionate affects of large par- miles of the highway, and the Deer ties. Why then should a “party” of Creek road in its entirety, to effec- two or three hundred be accept- tively eliminate cross-country able? The mountain goats of Twin travel, at the cost of an extra nine Peaks probably go years between miles and a 3000' climb. Most of encounters with human beings. National Forest these Deer Creek road travelers The shortening of the race this year made some effort to avoid the wil- spared them the trauma of inva- derness panhandle, but, plain to sion by hundreds of hominids rulemaking on see on the GPS tracks, most did not within a 48-hour period. The pas- succeed, since the panhandle had sage of several hundred compe- Off-Road Vehicles been deliberately placed by con- tent, well-oriented bike-dragging servationists to block the easy low- participants from Three Lakes to (ORVs) angle routes across the pass. the South Fork Nooksack road Roughly a quarter of the finishing would have probably led to the Unauthorized ORV routes on Taneum Ridge. KARL FORSGAARD PHOTO teams should probably have been creation of a mile-long followable, disqualified then and there for wil- continuous trail to the 1260 road KARL FORSGAARD derness trespass. None were. It system instead of a swath to no- would, after all, have been bad where. In the Cascades, where In September 2004, the US For- the draft rule, urging the Forest publicity. genuinely wild, pristine-feeling est Service completed a public Service to include additional mea- country is a much-treasured re- comment period on its draft rule sures in any final rule, including: To those who know how to en- source, such impacts are unaccept- governing all-terrain vehicle (ATV), • Set a two-year deadline for the gage natural landscapes on their able. motorcycle and other off-road ve- process of designating roads and own terms, it’s obvious that big- hicle use on National Forests. Off- routes that are open for ORV time adventure racing contains a A partial answer to these impacts road vehicles (ORVs, also known travel; generous helping of humbug. The is to keep “adventure races” on as off-highway vehicles or OHVs) • Designate roads and routes tension between, on the one hand, public lands on roads and trails. are a growing problem on public based on full and public analysis the participants’ modest compe- The Wenatchee-Okanogan Na- lands, damaging wildlife habitat of site-specific environmental im- tence in the mental and physical tional Forest, which hosts several and creating user conflict with hik- pacts and user-conflicts caused by skills that make unassisted travel day-long smaller-scale “adventure ers who seek peace and quiet. For- ORVs; in mountains, wild landscapes, races” every year, imposes pre- est Service Chief Bosworth said • Immediately prohibit use of all wild rivers, and marine environ- cisely this requirement. The staff that unmanaged ORV use is one unauthorized, renegade routes; ments enjoyable and reasonably of the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie, how- of the greatest threats to America’s and safe, and on the other, the need ever, appear to have put up little National Forests. • Authorize ORV use only to the for spectacle and the appearance resistance to the well-oiled public In its draft rule, the Forest Ser- extent that effective monitoring of “wilderness challenge”, lead to relations machinery of Primal vice proposed several policy and enforcement are annually armies of nannies and aids such as Quest’s organizers. Next time, con- changes that would be beneficial funded and implemented. route flagging and thousands of servationists and backcountry if effectively implemented on the feet of bolt-affixed ropes. recreationists need to hold them ground. These include: The agency received about to account. 83,000 comments, is now review- But even if such events attracted • Prohibiting cross-country ing them, and anticipates issuing only participants capable of real travel by motor vehicles except a final rule in early 2005. Then the autonomous adventures—partici- under limited circumstances; and real work begins, with site-specific pants who could travel 4th-class • Authorizing ORV use only on battles over route designations roads and ORV routes specifically that will require close participation designated as open for such use. by conservationists, in virtually North Cascades Conservation every District of every National Council submitted comments on Forest.

THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 ! 21 Every recreationist — whether hiker, biker, backpacker, horsepacker, or posey sniffer — should not begin by asking, “What’s best for ME? But rather “What’s best for the bears?” — TOM BUTLER THE IMPACTS OF MOUNTAIN BIKING ON WILDLIFE AND PEOPLE A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE MICHAEL J. VANDEMAN, PH.D.

July 3, 2004 simply people who like to bicycle — in the case The flim is followed by the flam. Having done Click on: of mountain bikers, many of them just use na- proper obeisance, Sprung flaunts the canons http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande ture as a kind of playground or outdoor gym- of science with the sophistry of anti-science — About 7,000 words nasium!” to support irrational, arbitrary, political deci- sions. In 1984 Dr. Vandeman, after devoting 8 years IMBA likes to distinguish itself from the ORV to “fighting auto dependence and road con- thugs whose mantra is “If it feels good, do it!” Vandeman thanks IMBA-Sprung for saving struction” “became interested in the problem Gentrified as the fat-tire frontmen are, they re- him days of research, by bundling all their flim- of mountain biking.” His paper demolishes the alize they must for political purposes cuddle flam in one big balloon for easy puncturing, “science summed up by the International up to environmentalists by adopting a “scien- which he does in 7000 well-chosen words spell- Mountain Bicyclists Association (IMBA): Stud- tific” posture. ing out in detail the real world of wheel im- ies show that bike impacts are similar to those In 2004 the heaviest of their (pseudo) sci- pacts on soil erosion, plants, and animals. of other non-motorized trail users.” ence to date was trundled out, Gary Sprung’s For purposes of this paper he does not go Says Dr. Vandeman, “Don’t you believe it.” “Natural Resource Impacts of Mountain Bik- into other aspects of mountain biking, explain- ing.” Sprung says, “empirical studies thus far ing that “trail-walkers do not need any research He began with “a favorable view of my fel- do not support the notion that bikes cause to know that we shouldn’t step in front of a low bicyclists as environmentalists. I turned to more natural resource impact. . . we should speeding truck. Or mountain bike.” them to help me campaign to keep bicycles out make rational, non-arbitrary, less political deci- of natural areas. Was I ever surprised! I discov- sions regarding which groups are allowed on H.M. ered that many bicyclists (e.g., many mountain particular routes.” bikers) aren’t environmentalists at all, but are

Park Service Under Attack by Adviser

New York Times istration of hiding it because of its emphasis Oct. 29, 2004 on science over recreation. A committee of experts urged the gov- “The report is being held hostage to the Bush ernment last March to do much more administration’s campaign of ignoring science to preserve biological diversity and in order to clear the way for controversial steps ecological integrity in the national — such as opening up Yellowstone National parks. Park to snowmobiles,” the group said. A panel member, Dr. Sylvia Earle, an ocean- . . . Fran P. Mainella, director of the park ser- ographer who is explorer in residence at the vice, had intended for the report to be online National Geographic Society, said she and her in September and that the failure to post it was colleagues had expected that the National Park inadvertent. Service would distribute the report and take The report can be found at the retirees’ site, action on its findings. Instead, she said, “it has www.npsretirees.org, or at the agency’s “Sci- just languished.” ence and Research” page, www.nature.nps.gov/ . . . . The report did not appear on the Web scienceresearch/index.htm. until this week, when a coalition of retired park employees posted it, accusing the Bush admin-

22 ! THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 “MONUMENTAL, David Brower’s Fight for Wild America” Patagonia Inc. has sponsored a documentary to “inspire wilderness lovers to put environmentalism ahead of all other issues this Novem- ber 2. “ Written and directed by Kelly Duane, the 77-minute film “chronicles Brower’s saga via old photographs and home movies, Si- erra Club educational films, and interviews . . . “ Reviewing the film in the October 1, 2004 Seattle Post-Intelligencer, William Arnold says, “the film is an inspirational profile of the man who transformed the Sierra Club into a powerful environmental lobby.” Reviewer Arnold says, “the film makes a very strong case” that Brower was “the greatest conservationist of the 20th century,” that “his extrem- ism in the ‘60s was actually visionary prescience and his unwillingness to accept any compromise in the interests of Mother Nature is his legacy.” The individuals who in company with David founded the North Cas- cades Conservation Council in the 1950s would not disagree with the judgment by Duane and Arnold. Many of those still more or less vigor- ously extant are spiritually sustained by the memory of him at board meetings. One recalls him at the last of these he attended, on a sum- mery afternoon, listening to the discussions, eyes following the butter- flies as they fluttered by. Studying them had been his childhood pas- sion. Now, when a board member sitting next to him, whispered a query, he identified each. Companions of a lifetime. The ancient Greek symbol of immortality. Dave Brower — BETTY MANNING —HARVEY MANNING Membership Application Be part of the North Cascades Conservation Council’s Advocacy of the North Cascades. Join the NCCC. Support the North Cascades Foundation. Help us help protect North Cas- cades wilderness from overuse and development. NCCC membership dues (one year): $10 low income/student; $20 regular; $25 family; $50 Contributing; $100 patron; $1,000 sustaining. A one-time life membership dues pay- ment is $500. The Wild Cascades, published three times a year, is included with NCCC membership. Please check the appropriate box(es): I want to join the NCCC The North Cascades Conservation Council (NCCC), formed in 1957, works through legislative, legal and public channels to protect the lands, waters, plants and wildlife of the North Cascades ecosystem. Non-tax-deductible, it is supported by dues and donations. A 501(c)4 organization. I wish to support NCF The North Cascades Foundation (NCF) supports the NCCC’s non-political legal and educational efforts. Donations are tax-deductible as a 501(c)3 organization. This is a NCCC Membership NCCC Renewal Membership Gift NCCC$ ______This is a Donation to NCF NCF $ ______Please cut, enclose check and mail form Total $ ______and check to: NORTH Name ______CASCADES CONSERVATION Address ______COUNCIL Membership Chair City ______State ______Zip ______L. Zalesky 2433 Del Campo Dr. Phone ______Everett, WA 98208

THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004 ! 23 After November 2 ... AN EDWARD ABBEY QUOTE WHICH MIGHT HELP A LITTLE...

We’re in this for the long haul. The commu- enough to fight for the land; it is even more your head firmly attached to your body, the nity of wilderness advocates/managers/lovers important to enjoy it. While you can. While it is body active and alive, and I promise you this will simply have to “outlive the bastards” as still there. So get out there and mess around much: I promise you this one sweet victory Cactus Ed adjured us. Be kind to each other. with your friends, ramble out yonder and ex- over our enemies, over those deskbound Fight like hell for the resource. plore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the people with their hearts in a safe deposit box mountains. Run the rivers, breathe deep of that and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. ”One final paragraph of advice: Do not burn yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while I promise you this: you will outlive the bas- yourself out. Be as I am — a reluctant enthusi- and contemplate the precious stillness, that tards.” ast . . . a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fa- lovely, mysterious and awesome space. Enjoy natic. Save the other half of yourselves and your yourselves, keep your brain in your head and — EDWARD ABBEY lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not

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24 ! THE WILD CASCADES • Summer 2004