Newsletter of the Issaquah Alps Trails Club THE ALPINER January February March 2014 Cougar Squak Tiger Grand Ridge Taylor Rattlesnake MANNING GETS RECOGNIZED ELECTRONIC ALPINER? Media options are changing. At IATC, we want to go greener, and some of the money we spend on paper, printing and postage for the Alpiner is better spent elsewhere. We can do that by expanding the number of people who opt out of the paper copy. All past issues of the Alpiner, including schedule inserts, are available to all website visitors at http:/Issaquah alps.org/Articles/ Alpiner. The current issue of the Alpiner schedule insert is only being emailed to members who have chosen not to receive the A new interpretive panel has been wrangling with politicians and paper copy. installed at Cougar Mountain’s saving thousands of acres “million-dollar” viewpoint. It of lowland forest on Cougar, If you wish to help us grow green highlights the roles that the Squak, Tiger, Taylor and accept electronic delivery Issaquah Alps Trails Club, and Rattlesnake Mountains, instead of paper by mail, please and Harvey Manning in the wild backyard of Seattle- send an email to treasurer@ particular, had in establishing the Bellevue urban areas. issaquahalps.org with your name, park. These quotes are from the sign: mailing address and email address. “He wrote of the lowlands and Include “Electronic Alpiner” on PUT SIMPLY, THE WILDLAND ‘wilderness within’ in his the subject line. PARK EXISTS TODAY ONLY four-volume Footsore series. BECAUSE OF THE VISION Later he helped launch the OF HARVEY MANNING AND Mountains to Sound Greenway, THE EFFORTS OF CITIZEN linking and protecting green lands VOLUNTEERS. along the I-90 corridor. He is one of my heroes.” --Karl Forsgaard, “Harvey founded the Issaquah Alps Washington Trails Association Trails Club in 1979, leading hikes, continued on page 9 2 Issaquah Alps Trails Club The Apparatus Club Founder Harvey Manning Whenever possible, please President use e-mail to contact any David Kappler • 392-3571 • [email protected] member listed below. Vice President Doug Simpson • 823-0747 • [email protected] Treasurer Richard Amidei • 206-619-6906 • [email protected] Secretary Kathleen Petty • 885-4349 • [email protected] The Alpiner is published in Board of Directors January, April, July, and October. Richard Amidei • 206-619-6906 • [email protected] Issaquah Alps Trails Club Allegra Atkinson • 425-606-6044 • [email protected] PO Box 351, Issaquah, WA 98027 Jackie Hughes • 641-3815 • [email protected] Website: www.issaquahalps.org Ken Konigsmark • 222-4839 • [email protected] George Potter • 557-6554 • [email protected] IATC subsists on member donations Scott Prueter • [email protected] only. Please send your tax-deductible Doug Simpson • 823-0747 • [email protected] contributions to the address above to Ed Vervoort • 206-523-6461 • [email protected] help sustain our efforts to preserve, Steve Williams • 453-8997 • [email protected] protect, and promote the Issaquah Alps Hikes Coordination and local environment. Jackie Hughes • 641-3815 • [email protected] Jean Lanz • 206-322-0990 • [email protected] Articles are welcome, preferably Joe Toynbee • 228-6118 • [email protected] via e-mail to: [email protected] Book Sales/Distribution Send diskette or hard copy to post Scott Prueter • [email protected] office box number above. Webmaster Issue deadlines: November 21 for George Potter • 557-6554 • [email protected] January; February 21 for April; May 21 Chief Cartographer for July; August 21 for October. Harry Morgan • 432-3249 • [email protected] The Alpiner Doug Simpson • 823-0747 • [email protected] Advocates Cougar Mountain: Steve Williams • 453-8997 • [email protected] Issaquah: Connie Marsh • 392-4908 • [email protected] Tiger Mountain: Ed Vervoort • 206-523-6461 • [email protected] Rattlesnake Mountain/Taylor Mountain: Ralph Owen • 270-3322 Squak Mountain: Cathy Brandt • 430-9877 Volunteer Trail Maintenance Coordinator Open Mountains To Sound Greenway Ken Konigsmark • 222-4839 • [email protected] (Note: All telephone numbers are area code 425 unless otherwise noted.) January February March 2014 3 President’s REPORT By David Kappler HIKERS We begin a new year and finish up some of the projects from the past. The acquisition of the 216 acres on CORNER southwest Squak Mountain is moving along, and the By Joe Toynbee soon planned Trust for Public Land acquisition should then be followed by a structured buyout over time by King County. The City of Issaquah has recently made a key purchase along Issaquah Creek near Gilman HANG IN THERE! Village, and a park bond was passed that has some This is the time of the year when many of our IATC open space/park land acquisition designated funds. hikers go into semi-hibernation. The dark skies and cold drizzle drive them indoors in anticipation of The Washington Trails Association has been busy in next April. The IATC Hikes Committee strongly the Alps with major trail projects on Tiger and Cougar urges our hikers to hang in there and do at least some mountains. You may have noticed that we now regu- winter hiking. larly list on our website both WTA and Mountains to Sound work parties taking place in the Issaquah Alps. Beyond the obvious goal of staying in shape, winter We continue to have members that do significant trail hiking can have many rewards. There is nothing maintenance and reroutes in cooperation with our land prettier than hiking after a light snowfall and seeing managers. Ideally we would have a person or two that the sun reflecting off the snow, with many interesting wanted to lead scheduled trail work crews under our tracks to ponder. Some of the most interesting own banner. We have the tools and our land manager pictures I have ever seen have been taken in the partners have plenty of ideas for maintenance and winter. restoration projects. So hang in there do at least some winter hiking. I hope you can make the annual meeting on Thursday, January 23 at 7 p.m. at the Trail House. Feel free to IATC FACEBOOK contact me (425-652-2753) about your great ideas, questions and concerns. Would you like to share your thoughts and photos with other club members? The IATC is now on Facebook. Friend us at “Issaquah Alps” and tell us who you “A deserving few should be permitted to live by the are. You can also send us an email to webmaster@ water. Money should have nothing to do with the issaquahalps.org with your name and email address selection, which might be done by essay examination with “Facebook Friend ” on the subject line. IATC or a group of tests that would include rowing a boat, friends now number 65. Only current IATC members skipping stones, finding agates, and digging clams.” are being accepted. --H. Manning 4 Issaquah Alps Trails Club PARK POINTE TRAILS READY EAST LAKE TRAIL OPENS The Issaquah segment of the East Lake Sammamish Trail was opened in June. It is a 2.2- mile segment from SE 43rd Way to NW Gilman Boulevard. The trail was transformed from a crushed rock surface to a 12- foot wide paved trail with two-foot soft-surface shoulders on each side. The trail, which has safety upgrades as well, follows an historic railroad route along the eastern shore of Lake Sammamish and connects Issaquah, Sammamish and Redmond. The trail is part of a larger King county goal (A WTA work crew helps clean a new trail in the Park Pointe area. Photo courtesy to add to its existing 125 miles of of Mert Mechler.) trails. The Redmond link had been With a three-week flurry of activity, Issaquah Open Space Steward Matt finished earlier, so only the middle the trails at Park Pointe, above Mechler. Sammamish link remains in the Issaquah High School on Tiger 11-mile span. Work on the missing Mountain’s west side, are ready The upper trails are for hikers only, link will begin next February, but for use. The Washington Trails with bike barriers thus installed, isn’t expected to be finished until Association undertook the though bikers have access to 2018. project after months of public stretches of lower trails. input and study and from “Our trails are essential components October 29 to November 17 of our communities,” said County efficiently did the job. Parks Director Kevin Brown. “This project makes the trail safer and Two miles of new trails can now be more accessible for all.” accessed from the Tradition Plateau above or behind Issaquah High via DAM DONE? Funding for the 2.7 million project the High School Trail. The IHS Key was provided by the voter-approved Club and a boy scout group also Beset with a myriad of problems, 2008-2013 King County Open made significant contributions to the the long-anticipated finish of the Space and Trails Levy, Washington process , mostly by clearing brush Issaquah Creek Dam was finally Wildlife and Recreation Program, and thus helping to lay the trails. set to be finished by the end of and the Federal Highway November. Groundwater, unstable Administration. The trails are in some cases soil and seepage, as well as asbestos improvements over old trails or disposal, delayed the project. roadbeds, but also new trails have been added. Several old steep The Washington Deparment of Fish roads were rerouted and are to be & Wildlife now expects completion decommissioned, according to by December 6. January February March 2014 5 Peak were suggested as appropriate sites for such IATC BOARD recognition. (See separate story on page 1.) CONFRONTS ISSSUES Seeking to be more “with it” via social websites, the club has initiated Facebook and Twitter accounts.