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ADVENTURES IN BC THE HOWE SOUND CREST THE ENDLESS CHAIN TATSHENSHINI WILD
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AUTUMN 2019
NORTH CASCADES CLIMBING COURSE HIKING THE TWISP RIVER COUNTRY WHATCOM LAND TRUST: A LEGACY OF STEWARDSHIP
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The heartbeat of Cascadia
INSPIRATIONS Up the River
IN THIS ISSUE
John D’Onofrio
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The Wildest River in the World ...and How it Stayed that Way Neil Shulman
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Trail Running BC.’s Howe Sound Crest Trail Jade de la Rosa
26
Home in the North Cascades
Andy Porter
30
The Endless Chain
Benjamin Jordan
32
The Finest Kind of Madness
Nick Belcaster
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Lorraine Wilde
46
Autumn Splendor in Twisp River Country
Whatcom Land Trust 35 Years of Stewardship
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Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn, a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter. If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life. - Wu-Men
DESTINATIONS 9 10 11 21 24 44 52 53 54 55 58
- Google Review
Photo by John D’Onofrio
Don’t Doom the Spot Out & About 3 Great Hikes ... for Autumn eARTh: The Art of Nature Outside In Bright Lines Vital Signs Field Trip: The Painted Hills Cascadia Gear Race | Play | Experience Calendar Next Adventure: Trapper Peak
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The heartbeat of Cascadia
Volume 14. Issue 3
Luther Allen writes poems and designs buildings from Sumas Mountain, WA. He facilitates the SpeakEasy reading series and is co-editor of Noisy Water, an anthology of regional poets. His collection, View from Lummi Island, can be found at othermindpress.wordpress.com. His poems appear in several anthologies. Nick Belcaster is a Bellingham-based writer with a particular penchant for exposed choss climbs, backcountry touring on Cascade concrete and taking long walks across the country. He contributes to local and national publications, focusing on the intersection of recreation, energy and the environment. Long ago, Kathy and Craig Copeland rearranged their lives to make hiking the whitehot molten core of their shared identity. They built their livelihood on a unique ability to express the wonder, joy, and exhilaration they feel in wild places. They’re now Canada’s most prolific hikingand-camping guidebook authors. Visit hikingcamping.com to see their titles and peruse their blog.
nickdanielson.com
CONTRIBUTORS
AUTUMN | 2019
As a freelance designer, photographer and videographer, Nick Danielson spends his summers trail running and his winters splitboarding in the mountains of the northwest. He lives in Seattle, WA. Learn more at:
Follow her adventures running, racing, and exploring the Pacific Northwest at jadedelarosa.com Rand Jack is a bird carver, conservationist, teacher, lawyer, traveler, outdoorsman, liberal activist and doting grandfather. He believes that his carved birds are a perfect way to display the complexity and patterns of wood. Birds delight, as does looking inside a piece of wood for the first time to see what secrets it has in store. Learn more at www. birdsbyrandjack.com. Once an established fashion and advertising photographer in Toronto, Benjamin Jordan fell deeply in love with paragliding and chose to combine his passions into a medium for positive change. When not off flying or filming in some remote corner of the earth, he calls Honey Bus, his 26-foot converted school bus, home. Together they weave through the Rocky Mountains in search of new places to live, shoot, edit, and fly. Sarah Laing is a nutritionist, author and co-founder of S&J Natural Products, which offers CBD-infused products for healthy lifestyles. She is currently writing her second book, The Cannabinoid Diet, which focuses on phytocannabinoid-based nutritional guidelines to activate the body’s endocannabinoid system, restoring balance in the body and promoting overall health. Andy Porter is a photography teacher at Burlington-Edison High School where he shares his passion for
Jade de la Rosa is a freelance writer and trail runner based in Bellingham, WA. She holds an MFA in Writing and is at work on her first historical fiction novel.
photography and great wide open spaces. He also teaches classes for adults through Burlington Parks and Recreation and the North Cascades Institute. Visit him at AndyPorterImages.com Neil Schulman is a paddler, writer, photographer and conservationist based in Portland, Oregon. His writing and images have appeared in The Oregonian, Paddling Magazine, The Clymb, Portland Outsider and many other publications. In his “day job” he is the Executive Director of the North Clackamas Watersheds Council, where he’s working to remove an old dam that predates Abraham Lincoln. You can see his work at neilschulman.com. Lorraine Wilde is owner of the public relations company, Wilde World Communications and has lived in Whatcom County for more than 25 years. She has published more than 300 articles and blogs nationally and internationally, helping small businesses and organizations spread positive messages. She cares deeply about this place she calls home.
COVER PHOTO BY: NICK DANIELSON
A Look Ahead:
Our Winter Issue
Can We Save Our Orcas? Winter Bliss at Artist Point Photo by Kenni Merritt
Saving Chuckanut Island Learning to Mush
Your Listing Specialists Sally Farrell 360-393-7339 sally@sallyfarrell.com
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DON’T DOOM THE SPOT
I
was driving up the Twin Lakes Road on my way to the Winchester Mountain Trail head and saw a sign that someone had posted on a tree alongside the road. “DON’T DOOM THE SPOT!” it said in bold all-caps. Beneath that, it read: “Don’t Talk About It, Don’t Instagram It, Don’t Make Trip Reports About It, Don’t Be Stupid – Be Safe, Clean Up Any Trash.” At the bottom of the sign was one last admonishment: “IF YOU SEE SOMEONE FUC&%ING UP CALL EM OUT!” Wow. In its way, this sign sums up the quandary that we find ourselves in with respect to the wilderness. I’ve written about the threat to these special places that the ever-increasing numbers of visitors to the wilderness represents. The reality is that visitation to the wilderness has increased exponentially over the past few years. And perhaps the single biggest reason for this is expressed on the sign: Instagram, trip reports: basically, the web. In days of yore (before the internet), folks who wanted to visit the back country had to do some leg work. The basic way to learn about destinations was to purchase a guide book or talk to someone who had familiarity with the area via first-hand experience. By gathering information in this manner, one was also inevitably given information about how to conduct oneself when there. The guidebooks all included information on “Leave No Trace” ethics and the like. But today, one gets only the “come on” from web sources without any information about the responsibilities inherent in spending time away from the manmade world. Basic things like not trampling the flowers, how to deal with human waste, not burning scarce wood supplies, not fouling drinking water, etc. etc. It is obvious to anyone who frequents the back country today that these “common sense”
techniques for treading lightly are not universally understood. So these are the horns of the dilemma: Vastly greater numbers of people and a failure to communicate best practices. What is to be done? For those of us who love the land, it has become incumbent upon us to share this information with folks who are new to the back country. Of course, a small minority just doesn’t care. But most, I believe, simply don’t know any better. They’ve arrived in the wilderness because of a cool photo they saw on the web. As much as we’d prefer to live and let live, we absolutely must take it upon ourselves to educate these folks with respect to proper wilderness etiquette. There’s little we can do about the number of people that choose to visit the wilderness—in fact, this is a good thing in so much as the experience of connecting to nature makes us better people and creates advocates for preservation—aside from building more trails to accommodate the demand and disperse the crowds. But of course, there’s no money for this. There’s no putting the genie back in the bottle. Preserving what we love by sharing what we know is a responsibility. It’s up to us.
Adventures NW magazine www.AdventuresNW.com John D’Onofrio
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Out&About
Friday Harbor Film Festival Celebrates Eco Documentaries Now in its seventh year, the Friday Harbor Film Festival has become one of the country’s best-known documentary film festivals. This year’s Festival held October 25-27 features a slate of films that celebrate the people, cultures and environment of the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
model for major infrastructure projects bisecting wild places. Beartrek, a 2016 doc from director (and bear evangelist) Chris Morgan follows Morgan’s epic 72,000-mile journey to highlight the world’s most elusive and endangered bears. Damned to Extinction, a new film that explores the plight of the San Juan Islands’ southern resident orcas, highlights the efforts of San Juan Island resident Ken Balcomb, founder of the Center for Whale Research. Balcomb has spent 40 years with the orcas and his activism on behalf of dam removal has been instrumental in changing the political landscape.
Featured films include Artifishal, a film about people, rivers, and the fight for the future of wild fish and the environment that supports them. Hosted by the San Juan County Marine Resources Committee, the film explores wild salmon’s slide toward extinction, threats posed by fish hatcheries and fish farms, and our continued loss of faith in nature. Also screening will be Cascade Crossroads, a 2018 short film that chronicles the amazing story of seemingly opposite interests building bridges, both literal and metaphorical, in the Cascade Mountains. The I 90 Snoqualmie Pass East Project, and the wildlife crossings and roadway improvements within it, is a win-win for people and animals that offers a new
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The Wonderful World of Fungi One of the things that our damp and lovely region is known for is a kaleidoscopic variety of wild mushrooms. Ranging from the delectable to the decidedly poisonous (with lots of interesting iterations in between), mushrooms have been fascinating, feeding – and inspiring – those of us who call Cascadia home since time immemorial. For example, one polypore, Fomitopsis officinalis, a fungi that grows in undisturbed forests, was used by the Coast Salish people as medicine and also carved into figures that guarded the graves of shamans. The mystique of mushrooms is undeniable. On October 20, the Northwest Mushroomers Association (a local organization with a true passion for all things mycological) will be hosting their 30th Annual Wild Mushroom Show at Bloedel Donovan Park in Bellingham, from 12 noon to 5 p.m. Over 300 varieties of mushrooms grow in our area and many will be on display, identified as to genus and species, and with edibility recommendations. You can learn how to identify mushrooms, focus on look-a-likes, and see information on some mushrooms’ medicinal properties. There will be mushroom-related book sales, an ecology and conservation table, children’s activities, and hourly presentations in the Pavilion next door plus you can bring in a mushroom or two for the groups ANW experts to identify. Learn more: northwestmushroomers.org
3 Great Hikes for A ut umn
Cascade Pass
Cascade Pass is the most popular hiking destination in North Cascades National Park. And no wonder: the grade is gentle and the Pass offers inspiring views of the Cascade Crest. The reward-toeffort ratio is exceedingly high (3.7 miles and 1700 feet of elevation gain). Switchbacks are many (hence the gentle grade) but before you know it you’ll be saying goodbye to the trees and traversing stunning sub-alpine meadows beneath ice-gnawed towers of stone as you approach the Pass. You won’t be alone. On any given weekend afternoon (weekdays too, come to think of it), you’ll be surrounded by similarly-minded seekers. If so inclined, you can wander up Sahale Arm by continuing over the pass and turning immediately left. The grade here is stiff and the crowds thin quickly. The higher you climb the more jaw-dropping the views become. Trailhead: The end of the Cascade River Road, 23 miles from North Cascades Highway (WA-20) and Marblemount.
Yellow Aster Butte
The view from the Yellow Aster Butte Trail Photo by John D’Onofrio
Named for the splendid display of summer wildflowers, Yellow Aster Butte is perhaps even more luminescent in autumn, when the sub-alpine meadows turn riotous colors and the bugs are gone. The trail, of course, is a North Cascades classic and draws legions of hikers seeking alpine rapture. After 1.5 miles of steady climbing through the forest, you’ll emerge into meadows. Turn left at the junction with the Gold Run Pass Trail and traverse open slopes with broad views of Baker and Shuksan. Round a shoulder of Yellow Aster Butte and reach another junction (often unmarked) at 3.6 miles: the trail to the left drops sharply into a sweet basin with an array of sparkling tarns (popular campsites). If the top of the Butte is your objective, turn right and start huffing and puffing. The last quarter mile is wickedly steep but the expanding views offer ample compensation. Stop at the top, have a seat and savor the 360-degree views of mountains upon mountains—much of the North Cascades is spread before you.
Trailhead: Twin Lakes Road (FR-3065), 4.5 miles from the Mt. Baker Highway (WA-542) near milepost 47.
Rainy Lake
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This short hike, accessed from the North Cascades Highway, is suitable for the whole family, an easy one-mile walk through delightful forest on a mostly-flat trail (less than 100 feet of elevation gain) that is both paved and wheelchair-accessible. The payoff is beautiful Rainy Lake, set in a cirque of rugged cliffs draped with waterfalls. Rainy Lake is an excellent destination for every member of the family—more of a walk than a hike. Bring a picnic and enjoy waterfall music as you eat your lunch.
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Trailhead: North Cascades Highway (WA-20) near milepost 158, 37 miles east of Newhalem.
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Up the River Autumn Splendor in Twisp River Country Story and photos by John D’Onofrio
A
utumn!
For me, savoring the peak of fall color on the eastern slopes of the North Cascades is like a trip to Mecca or the Wailing Wall. A religious observance. At this special time of year, the mountains are ablaze with the orange glow of larches, those unique and exceptionally beautiful deciduous conifers that pepper the high country with luminous color. These trees only grow on the drier, east side of the range, generally at 6500 feet or higher. Many residents of Western Washington have never seen one. I’ve been a larch aficionado for decades and make it a point to never miss the glory season, which generally Twisp Pass peaks during the first weeks of October. The days allocated to a backpacking trip to Twisp Pass and environs (with the anticipation of grand larchery) have been emblazoned 12
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across my Outlook calendar in capital letters for many months. A few days before departure, it begins to rain. And rain. We leave
Bellingham in a downpour. In the Methow, the rain turns to snow. We are mostly undaunted. We establish a camp, sit beneath the tarp by a smoky fire and remain fiercely optimistic. In the morning, our optimism pays off as we leave the dusty Subaru at the trailhead at the end of the Twisp River Road and head up the trail towards Twisp Pass beneath radiant blue skies, stippled with white mashedpotato clouds. We pass through a lustrous aspen forest, wet from the recent rains–yellow, orange and umber: the colors of Halloween. After two miles of easy hiking, a deluxe foot log (railing and everything) provides passage across the North Fork of the Twisp River and the trail steepens as it ascends the rocky slopes of Lincoln Butte. In one especially dramatic stretch, the trail has been dynamited out of the cliff itself. It is difficult to imagine that in the >>> Go to AdventuresNW.com
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1890’s this was the proposed route for a road across the North Cascades before cooler heads prevailed. The road, now the North Cascades Highway, was eventually constructed over Washington Pass. The view down over the wild, pristine valley and the headwaters of the Twisp River is sublime. The summit ridges are dusted with new snow. We climb some more through autumn gardens of crimson and magenta. As we move higher, small patches of snow accentuate the vivid colors of the meadows and by the time we reach Twisp Pass and the Entering North Cascades National Park sign, a cold wind is blowing. We
drop our packs and add warm layers. In theory, there’s a tarn up the ridge in the rubble fields below Twisp
Peak and after a half-hour of climbing around on the convoluted ridge (lynx
tracks in the snow!) we find it, cradled among the rocks. Water assured, we return for our packs and establish a camp on a bare promontory with a fine view of the surrounding wonderlands including a million dollar view of Mt. Logan, the highest peak in North Cascades National Park, resplendent against a sunset the color of a Mahler Symphony. Far below, Dagger Lake disappears in the shadows of evening. Stars dance and a nearly-full moon Stiletto Lake rises, bathing the mountains in luminous milky light. Ice begins to form in our water bottles. Dawn: Golden light illuminates
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Learn the art of baking WITH KING ARTHUR FLOUR Our Baking School welcomes all bakers, no matter your skill level or baking interest. Classes range from introductory demonstrations for beginners to intensive week-long professional courses, with a wide variety of hands-on classes for adults and children. Our expert instructors will teach you to master any baking technique with ease. See the full schedule online at: KingArthurFlour.com/school The Bread Lab | 11768 Westar Lane Burlington, WA | 800 652 3334
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the larch-studded peaks and warms our cold bones as we eat our porridge and savor the sublime surroundings. Filled with anticipation, we stuff our day packs for the day’s explorations and make our way back to the pass where we locate the unmarked trail that leads to Stiletto Lake, climbing still higher on the flanks of Lincoln Butte. The The vibrant slopes of Stiletto Peak boot-beaten path is delightful, making its way through beautiful meadows—ablaze with fall color—and elegant stands of Engelmann spruce below an azure sky. Larches begin to appear in the meadows, first isolated trees, stalwart against the sky, then small stands. Boulders are scattered everywhere—carved in fantastic shapes and patterns, adorned with hieroglyphics of lichen. A rambunctious little creek flows down
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from parts unknown, splashing and gurgling in the sunshine. Such joy! We wander upward, following the path to enlightenment. As you’d expect on such a path, the grade stiffens. We encounter a lone backpacker, the first person we’ve seen since the parking lot (and actually, there was nobody there either), headed for a secret, lonely basin, she says, with water for camping. She climbs up the rubble, a broad smile on her face, and disappears among the rocks. We press on, warm now in the heat of mid-day.
Twisp Pass Distance: 8.5 miles RT (Twisp Pass), 12 miles RT (Stiletto Lake) Elevation gain: 2300 feet (Twisp Pass), 3500 feet (Stiletto Lake)
A final climb takes us to the polished shores of Stiletto Lake, a scene from the Lord of the Rings in its amphitheater beneath the soaring cliffs of Stiletto Peak. The lake’s foreshore is an alpine dream— larches and rock gardens, lush and inviting, all reflected in the still waters of the crystalline lake. Music is provided by a stream that drains the lake, tumbling over ledges and stone steps carved into delicate terraces by the glaciers that shaped these highlands in eons past.
From the far side of the lake – where the angle of repose is obviously still being established—comes the basso profundo of rockfall. An invitation to climb higher, towards shining summits. But not for today. We descend back to camp through meadows aglow with golden light, the dark peaks back-lit by the benevolent sun, and arrive at camp, weary and jubilant, as the last of the evening light bids adieu. ANW
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Access: From WA-20 near Twisp, turn west on the Twisp River Road and follow it 24 miles to near its end. The trailhead is on the right, just before the road ends in a campground. Permits: A Northwest Forest Pass is necessary to park at the trailhead. Camping within North Cascades National Park requires a backcountry permit, available far, far away in Marblemount. Backpacking Camps: You’ll find many excellent camps tucked into the sub-alpine meadows around Twisp Pass and in the vicinity of Stiletto Lake. Practice strict no-trace camping ethics.
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The Wildest River in and How It Stayed T 16
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Moose antlers and yellow dryas flowers, Sediments Creek
the World‌ That Way
Story and photos by Neil Shulman
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“W
e’re going for Door Number Two,” Maria announces. “We think there’s enough space between the icebergs and Gateway Knob.” We push off and row against the strong current of the Alsek River. A moment later, we’re squeezing a raft between the island and a set of massive icebergs, while the current tries to yank us into a whirlpool of exquisite turquoise water that’s spinning toward the bergs. We back-paddle hard. Then I have a few moments to swap my paddle for a camera. The bergs are the size An iceberg dwarfs a pack raft on Alsek Lake of small houses. Looking through the viewfinder, I realize that I’m in the poster that hung in the office back in 1992. The first gig in my river conservation career was an internship in Portland, Oregon. Deskless, I did most of my work in the conference room. On the wall was a giant poster of someone rafting past towering icebergs under leaden gray northern clouds, with the tagline “Tatshenshini Wild.” Whenever I wanted to
procrastinate, I stared at it and tried to imagine being in that sublime and intimidating landscape. Three decades later, I am there. Except today’s sky is blue. The icebergs come from the Alsek and Grand Plateau Glaciers, which calve them into Alsek Lake, creating a sublime but nerve-wracking icebergdodge for river runners. The name “Tatshenshini Wild” came from the Tatshenshini River, where we started our trip 120 miles upstream in the Yukon Territory. The poster came from the hard won conservation campaign that made the area the world’s largest international protected area instead of the world’s largest copper mine. Without that poster, nobody would run this river now. The Tatshenshini and Alsek rivers begin in the interior of the Yukon Territory and flow through the St. Elias and Fairweather ranges. They slice through the biggest non-polar ice cap on the planet, through mountains over 14,000 feet high, flowing to-
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gether just before the Alaska border and the coast. It’s one of the world’s premiere river trips, on par with the Grand Canyon, Idaho’s Middle Fork, and perhaps more stunning than either. Permits are highly sought after. In our twelve days on the Tat, we saw more grizzly bears (three) than other boating groups (one).
Humbled, I get back into the kayak, glad we all insisted on wearing drysuits despite the hot day. We float a few more miles to our first camp. The next day, we arrive at Sediments Creek, a broad valley that has something rare in this section of Alaska—a somewhat clear trail to the alBaptism pine zone. After a bit of a hunt A wave grabs the tube of for the trail where it enters my inflatable kayak harder than the aspen thickets, we climb I expected. I slap the paddle until we emerge into tall grass against the water and pull up and wildflowers overlooking on the thigh strap to keep it upthe bend of the Tatshenshini right, but I’m a moment too late, River downstream. There are and I’m in the water. I flip the countless hikes along the river, kayak right-side up and climb but most involve pounding Janet Wrege and James Cannava are all smiles, approaching the Tatshenshini’s confluence with the Alsek on board, only to get knocked through dense thickets, and over again. Now I’m swimming Sediments Creek offers a much through the Tatshenshini canyon, exactly what I didn’t want to easier route. We take advantage of the opportunity to relax and happen. soak up the view. From the top of the ridge, a mama grizzly and Most of the rapids on the Tatshenshini-Alsek are in the first cubs are spotted. Wild Tatshenshini indeed! hour of the trip, six miles of continuous class 3-4 whitewater. Legacy With cold water, few eddies to recover swimmers, and lots of trees along the riverbank, swims here are dangerous. Losing gear Below Sediments Creek, the Tatshenshini slices deeper into when the nearest route to civilization is a wilderness airstrip 120 the mountains. What is water now was a river of glacial ice as miles downstream is also risky. I’m fortunate to have a good crew. After spending more time in the water than I wanted, I There’s no place like swim for an eddy and hop in one of the rafts; my kayak is recovered and no gear is Whatcom County! lost.
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Whidbey Island Kite Festival September 21-22 Whidbey Allied Artists October 4-5 Haunting of Coupeville and Scarecrow Alley Through October
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Sip ‘N’ Shop on the Cove November 30
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Massive icebergs calved from the Alsek and Grand Plateu glaciers rise from evening mist
recently as six thousand years ago: the riverbed was covered in ice several thousand feet thick. That’s a long time for humans, but basically yesterday in geologic time. The legacy of all that ice means that the river is always changing in ways that easily confuse a river runner. Like a foam cushion on a chair, the land is still rebounding from the weight of those glaciers. As the land rises, river channels shift, and trees grow where maps often show sandy deltas. Loose gravel from all that glacial erosion is unstable, and our rafts have to navigate what resembles a plate of flowing spaghetti. Trees continually float down the river as
the loose banks erode. We’re constantly on our guard, rowing hard and squinting ahead to make sure the rafts don’t get sucked down a shallow channel. By evening we’re tired and anxious to find camp. The first place we check is chock full of crisscrossing tracks of alpha predators—grizzly bears and wolves— with no easy path for them around a campsite. We find a nice gravelly alluvial fan with a view of the mountains, which are getting bigger as we approach the coast. At camp, we watch erosion in action. As we cook dinner, a small rivulet near our camp changes course, soaking some of Janet’s gear. We move our tents
to stay dry, only to have it shift again during the night, this time claiming Erin’s boots. Our unreliable beach is just a few miles above the mouth of Tats Creek. Tats Creek is where Geddes Resources proposed the Windy Craggy Mine in 1988, claiming that one of the mountains held 100 million tons of copper. The proposal contained astronomical numbers: they wanted to pulverize the top 2,000 feet of Windy Craggy peak, which meant excavating 265 million cubic feet of rock by chewing 60 million pounds off the mountain, digging seven days a week, 365 days a year for fifteen years. A truck
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would rumble along the river every eight minutes to get the ore to a pipeline that would send it 150 miles to port in Haines, Alaska, where it would go to Japan. The acid-filled debris would be piled behind a dam in one of the most seismically active spots in the northwest or—even more absurdly—piled on top of a glacier. Watching our beach change shape during the 35 minutes it takes Maria and Adam to grill salmon, it’s clear that the mine would have meant the death of the most magnificent river I’ve seen.
Obvious Eddies
The art of nature
eARTh
Rand Jack’s Birds Bird carving is a perfect marriage of two things I love in the nature of the Pacific Northwest—birds and wood. It harmonizes the grace and smooth curves of birds with the figure, grain, color and texture of wood. My job, as I see it, is to foster the natural complement of bird and wood.
See more of Rand’s artwork at: Over the course of icy eons, the www.birdsbyrandjack.com glaciers bulldozed rocks into a superClockwise from top right: Curlew, fine powder called glacial flour. This Snowy Owl, Gyrfalcon, Raven, fine sediment gives each side stream Kingfisher its own color, from milky white to stunning turquoise to muddy brown. We’re here before the salmon run, so bears may be eating The Tatshenshini itself, gathering all this flour for hundreds berries in the high country. But there’s no shortage of tracks and of miles, is the color of a poorly-mixed cappuccino similar to scat. More likely, humans are loud and foreign to bears, and reMark Twain’s description of the Missouri River: “too thick to moteness and careful management of campsites have kept them drink, too thin to plow.” The flour hides rocks under the surunused to human food. The Tatshenshini-Alsek is one of only face and makes it hard to spot deep water. And it clogs filters, gets behind contact lenses, under drysuit neck gaskets, inside camera housings, and every other place you can imagine…and some you can’t. The river’s constant change also means information from even a few months ago may be wrong. Our guidebook is eight years old, but when rivulets change courses while you’re cooking dinner, campsites and landing eddies won’t remotely resemble what they looked like back when the Boston Bruins last won the Stanley Cup. We round a corner to see one of the most stunning vistas of our trip—a 360-degree view of the Fairweather Range, Noisy Range, and Icefield Ranges, with the blue water of Melt Creek flowing into the brown Tatshenshini past fields of purple fireweed. The guidebook tells us to “look for an obvious eddy on river left”. There’s no eddy at all, let alone an obvious one. We careen downstream until we can stop and then walk gear back up to the confluence for a camp where I count fourteen glaciers from the door of my tent. On a walk up Melt Creek, we find big swaths of purple fireweed and yellow dryas, interspersed with the tracks of grizzly, moose, and bear.
Bears and Rain Our biggest surprise thus far has been the absence of two things: bears and rain. The Tatshenshini is some of the richest bear habitat anywhere. We’d seen three thus far. stories & the race|play|experience calendar online.
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two rivers to punch through the massive main current. We find ourselves in a seSt. Elias Mountains. The low-elevation ries of tight vegetated channels. We’ve corridor is a migration route for grizzly gone from the autobahn to a maze of bears, wolves, moose, and wolverine, tiny side streets that look more like the allowing coastal and inland populations to mix and refresh gene pools. When the Tatshenshini meets the Alsek, the corridor changes in two other ways. The first is size. The Alsek is bigger, and when it takes in the Tatshenshini, it becomes over a mile wide. The main channel moves like a freight A gull adds a sense of scale to a jumble of bergs in Alsek Lake train. Catching an eddy can mean rowing or paddling a long way to the shoreline, so Everglades (minus the alligators) than you better make your move far upstream. Alaska. Until the mountains come into And the mountains are also bigger. view again. Seeking a hike and a side stream And it’s cooler on the Alsek, a sign to replenish water, we pull out of the we’re getting closer to the rainier coast. We start to see coastal birds: Parasitic and Pomarine Jaegers, seabirds that look like darker, bigger gulls, but with the personality of angry street thugs.
Ice And the glaciers are bigger, though they were plenty big before. Sheer rock walls plummet from peaks to rivers on both sides, with glaciers in every valley: the Sapphire, the Walker, and countless others that nobody’s bothered to name but would be iconic anywhere else in
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the world. Walker Glacier makes constant crashing and calving noises behind our camp. Before its recent retreat, the Walker used to be easy to walk on—thus the name. No longer. We paddle into the lake to get as close as we dare to the icebergs. All the while, we watch chunks fall into the lake and roll over. While we’re at it, we also collect fresh ice for our coolers and some creative glacial cocktails. We’re not done yet. The scenery grows from the stunning to the incomprehensible. Past Walker Glacier, we pass the Novatak Glacier’s five-mile wide face and camp on the peninsula above Alsek Lake, where we bushwhack to the lakeshore and gape at the icebergs. The bergs lurk in a low fog above the water, looming as if they’re waiting to sink our rafts like the Titanic. The next morning we’ll run the “Channel of Death”: figuring out which of the three “doors” into Alsek Lake has a clear channel through the icebergs. We choose Door Number Two, dodging the bergs to camp in that old poster from 1992.
How the North Was Won When Geddes Resources proposed the Windy Craggy mine in the 1980s,
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the tide seemed to be with the mine. The economy was in the doldrums, and the mine promised 2,500 jobs. Mining companies threatened to move to Latin America if conservation requirements got in their way. The Tatshenshini wasn’t well known. But the proposal had major flaws. In addition to the removing of a mountaintop and building roads, processing plants, and a pipeline to get the copper to Haines, AK., the mountain is 40% sulfide. Combined with airborne oxygen, sulfide becomes sulfuric acid. Piling acid waste atop the Fairweather Fault was risky. A group of Canadian conservationists formed Tatshenshini Wild (now BC Spaces for Nature) in 1989. Along with allies in Haines, they notched an early win, showing that road planning was inadequate.
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During the pause in road-building, they took the campaign international. Stunning images by photographer Robert Glenn Ketchum inspired the public. With the major tourism destination of Glacier Bay National Park downstream, the U.S. government became concerned. A study showed that fisheries in Lynn Canal (where the pipe effluent would be dumped) generated $49.5 billion per year, mobilizing Alaskans. Soon 50 local and national conservation groups in Canada and the U.S. were involved, with a total membership of over ten million people. The final nails in the coffin came in 1993, when Al Gore
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OUTSIDE IN Reflections on Wilderness
by Kathy and Craig Copeland
Mystery
Humans can’t survive without dreaming. Deprived of our nightly flights of imagination, our sanity disintegrates. Likewise, deprived of mystery, our soul withers. But answers are merely milestones. We are creatures impelled by mystery. And just as sleeping summons our dreams, hiking is an invocation to mystery. A trail—if long, arduous and stirring—will eventually, inexorably lull us into a state of contemplation, in which we ponder and are strangely soothed by life’s enduring mysteries. Extracted from Heading Outdoors Eventually Leads Within by Kathy and Craig Copeland (hikingcamping.com)
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became U.S. Vice President. One can only imagine Gore’s reaction to piling acid mine waste on a glacier upstream of a major U.S. National Park amidst climate change and atop an active fault. Because of various treaties, the U.S. had leverage. On June 22,1993, British Columbia Premier Mike Harcourt created Tatshenshini Provincial Park, effectively killing the project. The result is one of the largest protected areas in the world: virtually all of the Alsek and Tatshenshini basin lies within Tatshenshini and Kluane Parks in Canada and Glacier Bay and WrangellSt. Elias National Parks in the U.S. Wild, protected places are hard to get to—and even harder to get out of. A day after our iceberg-dodging
run into Alsek Lake, we pull aside on a gravel bar on river left. Under the watchful eyes of a few bald eagles, we deflate rafts and unpack gear. We load two bush planes and fly to what feels like the bustling metropolis of Juneau, where we immediately miss the cold air rushing off glaciers, the fireweed bobbing in the wind, and the haunting shapes of ice. As I struggle with by-now unfamiliar rhythms of civilization, the words of Siguard Olson, longtime advocate for big wilderness, come to mind. “And so it must be for all of us who have known the backcountry—no little sanctuaries along the fringes of civilization will quite suffice. We must know the wild and all it entails. The bite of a tumpline of the portages, the desperate battling on stormy lakes, the danger and roar of rapids. We must know hunger and thirst and privation and the companionship of men (and women) on the out-rails of the world, for all these things are inseparable. When after days or weeks of travel we modern voyagers find ourselves on a glaciated point a hundred or a thousand miles from any town and stand there gazing down the length of some unnamed lake listening to the wild calling of the loons and watching the island floating in the sunset, there is a fierce joy in ANW our hearts.”
Trail Running B.C.’s Howe Sound Crest Trail Story by Jade de la Rosa
O
ne week last summer, my Cypress Bowl, where we would husband and I, both avid begin our journey. trail runners constantly looking to challenge ourselves, decided to The sky was soft pink and the air summit a peak every day. Because still cool when we started; I was glad to we live in Bellingham, WA., our have packed a few extra layers. Although first few runs took us to local the weather forecast promised ideal conmountains like Stewart, Oyster Dome, and Lookout before we decided to venture to longer routes across the border. Howe Sound Crest, nestled against Va n c o u v e r ’s North Shore, sounded ideal: not only did the distance sound ma na geable, but tough— Brunswick Lake roughly 18 Photo by Nickademous de la Rosa miles, pointto-point—but the trail would also transport us ditions—clear skies and a high in the to several peaks along the way, eighties—being prepared was critical for bringing up our total peaks for this trail. Along with packing enough the week. It sounded like a plan, food to last 12 hours, we had enough so early Sunday morning we made water to last until Magnesia Meadows, the hour and half drive to Porteau where we’d be able to refill. Cove, south of Squamish, B.C., While we expected the trail to climb, where we parked our car and ar- we weren’t prepared for just how much ranged for a ride to drop us off at climbing we’d be doing. Within the first 26
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few miles, the trail was already switchbacking up steep, dark forest. Our first peak, St. Mark’s Summit, had already been reached by early morning hikers who slapped at their thighs, attempting to chase off the swarms of mosquitoes that were engorging themselves without mercy. We stayed long enough to enjoy the view of Bowen Island below, a green enclave surrounded by a berth of blue, before continuing down the trail. Up to this point, recent trail work had made the path as smooth as butter, but now I found myself having to carefully watch my feet as the trail became more technical, rocks and roots threatening to trip me with every step. The next peak, Mt. Unnecessary, was well-named and the increasingly steep overgrown trail and rocky bluffs made me hot enough to start peeling off layers. Already the day was getting warm. At the top, we took a break long enough to take in another spectacular view, this one giving us our first look >>> Go to AdventuresNW.com
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at the twin summits of the Lions, one Dusty and dry, it was here that I sudof the most iconic views in the Greater denly found myself worrying about our Vancouver area. While some hikers water supply. choose to risk a precarious scramble to “How much do you have left?” I the top of the West Lion, we stayed on asked my husband. I heard him suck the Howe Sound Crest Trail, wiping sweat away and continuing toward the West-East Lion col—easily the most dangerous part of the trail. We moved slowly here, both admiring the vista and wary of the void Small ponds along the Crest offer chances to cool off Photo by Jade de la Rosa to our right. A quick water break helped us regroup, on the straw of his hydration vest. then we were off again, pushing on “That was it.” We passed a small pond, towards a series of peaks named for mosquitoes buzzing near the perimeter men—Thomas, James, and David— of the swampy water. Drinkable? As I two of whom tragically died during a approached, the blackish tint on the debris torrent in 1983. surface made it obvious that we would
have to remain thirsty. As we neared the steep valley leading toward David Peak, the trail became obscured by thick blueberry bushes—a perfect location for a hungry bear to be loping through. We passed through this sunbaked valley at the hottest part of the day, dreaming of Magnesia Meadows where we’d be able to refill our hydration packs and drink in as much water as we could. Soon enough we rejoiced at the sight of a bright meadow, blushing with pink-blooming heather and damp from several streams that spilled over rocky paths. We had made it! As luck would have it, we were greeted by an icecold lake, so inviting that we ditched our
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packs on the rocks and waded in, splashing our faces to revive our spirits. We celebrated the fact that we were halfway through, with the most technical part of the trail behind us. After cooling off, my limbs covered
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in goose bumps, we filtered the lake water, refilling the bladders of our packs with plenty of sweet, cold water. After a last thirst-quenching gulp, we set off at a quick pace towards Mt. Brunswick, deep purple lupines spilling over the
minded us more of Caribbean-colored waters, we continued past several waterfalls, Deeks Lake, and what was ultimately the hardest part of the trail: the never-ending downhill. “We must be getting close,” I said as we picked our way around roots, my quads sore with every step down the steep trail. “According to my watch,” my husband replied, glancing at his altimeter, “we’ve still got another 4,000 feet until we’re back at the car.” I groaned, knowing exactly how far that is because we had already climbed that and Living on the edge: Nick and Mohi. more since starting earlier that Photo by Jade de la Rosa morning. After what felt like hours, trails, before finally heading downhill. we suddenly popped out onto a logWhen we reached lovely Brunswick ging road. Almost there, I thought, but Lake we looked at each other without the road continued to surprise us with having to say a word: we were jumping curve after curve, the light in the forest in! After a refreshing swim in what regetting dimmer as sunset drew near.
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Finally we heard the rush of traffic on the Sea-to-Sky Highway and picked up speed, knowing we were close. When we suddenly emerged from the brush, we were exhausted, sun scorched, and ready to get off of our feet. “I think we’ve hit our summits for the week,” I said, glancing back at the mountains behind me, but all I could see was thick green forest, masking the treaANW sures of this remarkable trail.
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AndyHome Porter in the North Cascades In 1976 I planned my first trip to the Pacific Northwest. With two friends, I hitchhiked from Eastern Pennsylvania to Cascade Locks in Oregon and hiked the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) south to Crater Lake. I borrowed a friend’s Nikkormat camera for the trip and tried hard to capture the look and feel of what I saw. Since that first trip on the PCT I have traveled broadly yet no matter where I was living, in the U.S. or overseas, I always felt a tug back to the Pacific Northwest. The North Cascades Range is my home now and I couldn’t be happier. See more of Andy’s photography at www.andyporterimages.com Visit AdventuresNW.com to view an extended gallery of Andy Porter’s luminous images of autumn. Top to bottom, below: Blue Lake; Mt. Shuksan and Picture Lake. Middle: Mountain Goats, Enchatments; Ampitheater Moutain, Pasayten Wilderness; Prusik Peak, Enchantments. Far right: Winchester Mountain Trail; Colchuck Lake, Enchantments; Baker River
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The
Endless Chain Story and photos by Benjamin Jordan
Above the Saskatchewan River
T
here it was: The Endless Chain. Tall, long and slender: like a rocky red carpet laid out before me. I approached the soaring ridge with confidence, containing my excitement, knowing that this would be the first time a paraglider would ever fly along that perfect spine. But as I neared the sheer face, I found myself pummeled by gust after gust of turbulent wind, causing my wing to deflate and 32
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enter a series of violent collapses. I had come so far to be here, yet now, just 500 meters from my goal, I realized that I had also come too close. When I first learned that humans could travel great distances by paraglider, I imagined myself becoming the first person to float down the entire length of Canada’s pristine Rocky Mountains. Ironically, the more I learned about
the sport, the more distant that dream became. Everything about them was daunting: their remoteness, unpredictable weather systems, and sheer monumental size. I spent the first decade of my piloting career running from them, flying as far as I could from my country’s iconic back yard. Two summers ago, all of that changed when I mustered up the courage to fly, vol-bivouac (fly-camp), from Vancouver, BC to Calgary, Alberta. >>> Go to AdventuresNW.com
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This 39-day, 1000-kilometer trip, crossing from Montana to British crossed the entire span of Canada’s Columbia on foot, hell-bent on acsouthwestern mountain ranges, ulticomplishing my ultimate dream, the mately leading to the final hurdle, the first south-to-north paraglider journey Rocky Mountains and my first-ever crossing of the Continental Divide. That fateful westto-east flight across the Rocky Mountains caused a sort of stimulus overload. Feelings of terror, amazement, and pride all flooded my senses, leaving me begging for more. Those mountains were so majestic, so visually stunning, so perfect Dinner for One: after 40 nights in a tent, the lookout cabin on for the kind of flight I’d McBride Peak was welcome indeed. long dreamed about! The Rockies had me hooked. along the entire length of Canada’s Rocky Mountains. The epic journey would include the first-ever crossing of Two years later I found myself Jasper National Park and the first flight
along her famous Endless Chain ridge, a 25-kilometer long series of unbroken peaks, towering 1000 meters over the Icefields Parkway below. I took off from a logged-over slope, two kilometers north of the U.S. border. From there, I spiraled up into the clouds riding thermals, rising air created by the heat of the sun. I flew north for over four hours, from thermal to thermal, until I’d covered 90 kilometers and found a place to land on a summit directly east of Cranbrook, BC. I set up my tent, melted some snow and enjoyed the evening, filled with anticipation for the adventure just begun. In the morning, I was aloft again, soaring northward among the peaks.
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The first few flights were a dream come true, as the scale of the undertaking settled over me, my mouth permanently agape as a result of the incredible views along the southern end of the Canadian Rockies. Sometimes, either due to poor weather or because I had run out of food, I would land in a valley, hike to a grocery store or gas station and replenish my peanut butter supply before hiking back up the next mountain. I averaged about 80 kilometers each flight and, though I would sometimes wait up to seven days for poor weather to pass between flights, I kept sane by exploring the vast alpine, learning to speak marmot and rocking out on my ukulele.
The Great Divide: an eagles’ view of Banff National Park.
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But it was north of Golden, 250 kilometers into my trip, that the reality of this expedition really started to sink in. That’s where the comfort of vast farmlands gave way to 60-plus kilometer stretches of Rocky Mountain wilderness, where, under no circumstances could a pilot land without becoming seriously injured. The fear of becoming grizzly bait was palpable and I did everything I could to muster the courage. It never came. The wind was blowing from the west, but felt too strong, meaning that if things didn’t feel right after flying even just one-quarter of the line, I’d have no guarantee of making my way back against it to the safe landing options in the Columbia Valley. I had a one-way ticket over the divide and the voices inside my head were screaming “This isn’t your day.” Choosing not to make this move was possibly the most difficult moment I’d ever had as a pilot. I had to step out of my body, look deep within and come to grips with my limitations. Flying back to the top of Mt. Seven, I spent the three following days hunkered down, pinned by strong winds and passing storms. My mind played games on me, shifting between being angry with myself for giving into fear and resisting that condescending voice I knew all too well. It became increasingly clear that the headwinds or tailwinds, strong as they might be, were nothing compared to the greatest chalTechnical Excellence & Integrity Since 1999
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lenge that I would face on this journey: Golden and to end my expedition there. the struggle to overcome the voices in Once airborne, I found a thermal my head. As the days passed, I was a mess—just lying in my tent as storm after storm passed, depressed and feeling disconnected from my life’s purpose, I realized that I loved paragliding because of how it encouraged me to push my limits. At the same time, I realized that this Day’s end, Mt. Fitzwilliam. time, I may have found my limit. The following day, the weather fiand climbed as high as I could to take nally cleared but it was too late to fly. one last look at the Great Divide. It I had just one day of peanut butter left was the most beautiful thing I’d ever and made up my mind to fly down to seen. And it was in that moment that a
pair of bald eagles soared past me. They headed straight for the Divide and I felt a flickering light inside that I hadn’t felt in over a week. Instinctively, I turned around and flew full speed to catch up. They showed me where the lift was and we climbed in unison. I did everything I could to keep up with the pair but, after about 30 kilometers they were long gone. I was alone in the sky, hypnotized by glaciated summits, raging rivers, and nameless valleys as far as the eye could see. Circling over the Divide, I flew back and forth between BC and Alberta
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considering my next move. Landing in Banff was illegal but the stubborn west wind precluded flying back to the safety of the Columbia Valley. I had one option: fly like a bird. “Look where you’re going”, I told myself, “not where you’ve been.” From summit to summit, I flew on with a confidence I’d never known, straight up the Columbia Icefields until I’d reached Jasper National Park Yellowhead Lake: the headwaters of the Fraser River. and the subject of most every dream that I’d had over the past two years; the famous Endless Chain Ridge. Though no one had ever flown its length, I was convinced that the long, sheer southwest face would be the most
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relaxed ridge-soaring session of my life. What the hell was I thinking!? These were the Rockies and the fierce north wind roaring over the summits turned my dream flight into what felt like a nightmare! Then suddenly the late evening thermals faded, and as I sank out of the sky, it seemed I would be grounded. But just then, wham, like a stiff uppercut, a small but strong thermal core came ripping up and sent me rocketing up above the razor-sharp spine. The beauty of the moment took my breath away. Streaks of red and brown flowed into green meadows and emerald lakes. Suspended like a puppet from the clouds, I flew north,
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entering the turbulent wind-compression zone between The Endless Chain and Cleavis Peak, the mountain to the north. But there was no escape. I began getting flushed out into the valley almost instantly. I was losing about six metres per second and, now well below peak height, had no more than 30 seconds to make a choice: land on the Icefields Parkway and begin two days of walking to Jasper, or try to land on a narrow snow bank half way up the rocky face of Cleavis. I imagined the pair of eagles flying alongside me and once again felt that same level of control and self-confidence that they had shown me that morning. Buoyed by the memory, I flew directly toward that snow bank, spiraled down and slowed the wing just above it, touching down like a feather in the breeze. That evening I melted snow from the little patch, looked back upon the silhouetted profile and expressed my deep gratitude for the important lessons I had learned along the way: to the birds for showing me that I am one with nature, and to the ANW Endless Chain for showing me my place in it. After 52 days, Benjamin realized his incredible dream when he arrived in Prince George, BC. To view his film, photo-documentary and maps, visit benjaminjordan.com.
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The Finest Kind of Madness Story and photos by Nick Belcaster
Climbing Guide Arthur Herlitzka on the summit of South Early Winters Spire
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O
rigin — a beginning.
We all start somewhere. This is where the Madness begins, I suppose; In random passing, a glancing blow. Driving the sinuous byway of Washington State’s North Cascades Highway, some three hours after turning east from the high-test thrum of the Interstate corridor and onto the only road to cleave the wilderness of the North Cascades National Park in two, a curious thing happens to me. Here the roadway reaches that high 5,500 foot crescendo of Washington Pass, among the stunted and triumphant sub-alpine fir, where the pavement is kinked like a garden hose, turning a full 180 degrees to pitch off into a wide-bellied valley. Above the hairpin, however, is the real prize: the nakedly-rising granite of the Liberty Bell formation. I crane and contort my neck in every conceivable position just to catch a glimpse of the soaring rock, that gold and black granite rising into the sky. I want to climb that. This is where the Madness begins.
Now I just had to figure out how to get up there.
splinter and spin off in all directions, the jagged skyline interrupted here and there by colossal volcanic domes. I’ve joined the ranks of the up there and hitched myself to Seattle-based On an early morning in mid-June, mountaineering guide service and climbmy world is split into two; rock and sky. ing school, Mountain Madness, somehow finagling my way into a spot on their 8-day Alpine Climbing Course and now, at this moment, find myself tied into the sharp end of the rope. “Just focus on the friction of your feet,” suggests guide Arthur Herlitzka from below. “And be sure to take a peek over the edge.” We’ve come to a portion of the route near the summit known as the White Camel, a swale Sulphide Glacier, Mt. Shuskan of smooth granite that forms a gable with heady exposure on either side. It’s A rope to tie it all together. Some 50 the final test of our mettle en route to the feet above me, guide Robert Fitzgerald top, and pulling past this balancing act, is deftly using a rock horn as a terrain we move over easy ridgeline and onto the belay, feeding the line to bring me up. polished summit. The granite of Washington Pass gleams It’s a waking dream. A careful turn beneath my hands. We are seven, tied on my heels surveys the entirety of the into teams on three cords, ascending North Cascades. It is at once everything the South Arête of South Early Winters and nothing of what I expected from my Spire. The toothy spines of the Cascades terrestrial vantage point far below. The
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feeling is indescribable, and I savor it just a little longer. Then, preparing to descend and looking over the opposite side of the summit, I swear I can see the hunched-over figures in their cars, eyes aimed right back up at us. Looking for that same feeling. Arthur grins. “Welcome to the Madness.”
Mountain Madness has been in the business of making mountain climbers since 1984. Spearheaded by founder and climbing world superstar Scott Fischer, the Pacific Northwest guiding outfit would rise in recognition through the ‘90s, buoyed by both Fischer’s ascents of the world’s highest peaks without oxygen and a propensity to achieve epic summits in some of the world’s most remote places. Much has changed since those days, but the core values of Mountain Madness remain resolute: a respect for—and celebration of—being among the mountains.
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The Alpine Climbing course I’ve found myself on is one of a deep catalogue that the company offers, spanning everything from local crevasse rescue courses to international trekking routes, to the ultimate precipices of the Seven Summits.
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Our time together had begun three days previously, rendezvousing in Seattle before heading out to Leavenworth for two days of climbing skill instruction, and would end on the glacier-clad flanks of Mt. Shuksan, our final test of the skills
we have gleaned. On our hike in to Shuksan I can’t help but notice just how varied these mountains are, how much they demand and—ouch—how much you need to carry to climb them. Our plan is this: pull into camp tonight, and then take advantage of the better weather promised for tomorrow to practice tying into a rope team, snow travel and building anchors to haul some unlucky soul from an icy maw, should that unpleasant need arise. We arrive at basecamp in a total whiteout, but I know that Shuksan is out there. And in two days I get to climb it.
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Photo by John D’Onofrio
POETRY FROM THE WILD
fishing off ucluelet, vancouver island by Luther Allen green smeared with grey, sun smeared with fog this place more water than land wild ragged edges of continent and burly sea wolves, eagles, spiny fish and slippery fish clouds like whales, whales like clouds, all tossed hunching, hurtling, shivering in wild ragged edges
boat drifts with tide, wind line disappears into eternity the future is spent for the present – rod doubled, reel screeching the heft and thrust of the archaic unknown called halibut
it has slacked off, and our headlamps bob in the fading night. We tie into the ropes using the skills we’ve been practicing for the last two days, pitching off onto the Sulphide Glacier, a broad white tongue of snow and ancient ice that lolls south from the summit. As
the light comes up, it is apparent that today will be spent plodding around inside a ping pong ball, an all-white existence. Crevasses pull into and out of focus as we pass; the summit exists—in theory— in a void ahead. Some hours later we’ve reached the
bottom of the summit pyramid and taken shelter atop the first solid ground we’ve seen in some time. The wind has whipped into a frenzied icy blast, and our original plan to ascend the more exposed southeast ridge is abandoned in favor of going straight up the gut of the thing. It’s a snow-filled choke hemmed in by crampon-scarred rock, and its angle ramps quickly to a heady 45 degrees. Our guides Arthur and Robert lead, steadying themselves with ice axes plunged to the hilt. We move in spurts and employ all manner of alpine climbing techniques to ascend, applying what we’ve learned in the past seven days. Finally, with a collective elation, we find ourselves on the summit, a black triangle among dense curtains of cloud. We sit, eat, rejoice. The white swirls around us, and almost as if cued by our arrival, the wind tantalizingly begins to shift; and the windows are cracked open on the North Cascades. Portals in the mists come and go. And through them? Mountains. Enough mountains for the next month, enough mountains for the next year, enough mountains for the next lifetime. This is where the Madness begins. ANW
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Whatcom Land 35 Years of Stewardship Story by Lorraine Wilde Photos by Alan Fritzberg
I
f you’ve ever taken a hike, bike ride or paddle in gorgeous Whatcom County, WA, it’s likely that you’ve stood on land that’s been permanently protected by the Whatcom Land Trust (WLT). Since 1984, this humble nonprofit has tirelessly pursued its mission to preserve and protect wildlife habitat and scenic, agricultural and open space lands in Whatcom County for future generations. Although the process may be quite complex—bringing disparate groups to 46
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the table to achieve shared goals despite sometimes conflicting aims—their approach is simple. They secure interest in land and promote sustainable stewardship in the community. Their hard work in land acquisition, education and stewardship has successfully preserved more than 24,000 acres in Whatcom County over the last 35 years. Through more than 180 conservation transactions—from simple donations of conservation easements to complex public-private partnerships— they’re protecting:
• the Lake Whatcom Watershed that provides drinking water to more than 95,000 residents • more than 32 miles of coastal marine and freshwater shorelines • forests, trails and wildlife habitat of Chuckanut Mountain • water quality, salmon and wildlife habitat in the North, Middle and South Forks of the Nooksack River • more than 1,100 acres of agricultural, forestry and other working lands on farms (and their farmers). The Trust has made it possible for >>> Go to AdventuresNW.com
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Trust
the Whatcom County community to balance the economy, conservation and recreation, coexisting peacefully and supporting each other long-term.
Education & Stewardship “Caring for the land and educating the community on its deeper value—beyond simple economics—has also been a major focus of the Trust’s efforts over its 35-year history,” explains WLT Executive Director Rich Bowers. With deep roots in the community, the Trust’s staff, Board of Directors and stories & the race|play|experience calendar online.
The Twin Sisters Range. WLT has protected more than 1,400 acres at Skookum Creek in the shadow of these beautiful mountains
volunteers have partnered with government agencies, tribes, area businesses, conservation organizations and schools to educate, improve habitat and environmental health and foster a stewardship culture in the broader community. A quintessential example is the 5.5-acre Harrison Property that was donated to the Trust in 2001 near Kendall Elementary School. By partnering with Kendall Elementary, the North Cascades Audubon Society, Whatcom Conservation District and Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association, vol-
unteer work parties and area Business Partners in Conservation like Superfeet, have removed invasive species and planted more than 3,500 native plants on the property. These efforts will provide stream buffers that cool the water for salmon fry and prevent erosion over the long-term. A future boardwalk will support education and restoration activities for students and the public while minimizing the impact in Kendall Creek wetland habitat along the Nooksack River.
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Cooperatively Balancing Parks, Recreation and Wildlife Habitat Most people don’t realize that more than 14 Whatcom County Parks have been formed with the Trust’s involvement, representing more than 13,800 acres. “The Trust works hard to find ways to make properties accessible to the public for recreation while also protecting and improving the habitats within them,” explains Bowers. “Local partnerships have helped create and maintain trail systems for recreation opportunities like walking, hiking, biking, birding, beach exploration, photography and a lot more.” Education has
also been emphasized through information displays, signage and community events. The partnerships between Whatcom County Parks, the Trust and the community have resulted in some of the area’s most popular and accessible dog- and family-friendly parks. Here are just a few examples that you can check out first-hand:
Teddy Bear Cove More than nine acres and 1,430 feet of shoreline along Chuckanut Bay are protected in Chuckanut Mountain Park. A switchback trail through second-growth forest leads to incredible shoreline views of Chuckanut Bay and Clark’s Point. The bright white south-facing beach is the result of centuries of crushed clam shells that collect there. Families see marine life in tide pools at low tide and enjoy the views from the bluff, standing among a forest of madrone and Garry oak. In the summer months at night, the cove is a perfect place to witness the wonder of bioluminescence, a phenomenon where movement of the water causes the organisms that live in it to glow.
Stimpson Family Nature Reserve Near Sudden Valley, in Stimpson Family Nature Reserve, you’ll find four miles of trails through mature second-growth forest, visiting small lakes and crossing moss-lined streams.
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Identify waterfowl or mushrooms or just get out and be alone with nature. “As the Reserve interpretive sign mentions, this site is an excellent example of the Trust’s work, ‘Conservation for the community, by the community…,’” notes Bowers, “summarizing our ongoing and special partnership with Whatcom County Parks and Recreation.”
Point Whitehorn Marine Reserve With 54 acres of mature forest, forested wetlands, and more than two miles of marine shoreline, this is an excellent stop for families and beachcombers. Bald eagles, woodpeckers, and nesting birds, as well as many native mammals are spotted there. Just off shore are loons, cormorants, gulls, grebes, porpoises, sea lions and kelp forests.
Lake Whatcom Park: Hertz and Chanterelle Trails Access this lovely park northeast of
Lake Whatcom off Northshore Road with eight miles of hiking trails (and many more planned for the years ahead). With only 100 feet of elevation gain along the Hertz Trail, as runners and mountain bikers pass ‘on your left,’ you’ll enjoy streams, glimmering lake views, a cascading waterfall and gigantic oldgrowth trees. Interpretive kiosks share
1,000 feet of elevation gain on long switchbacks. The expansive views make it worth the effort, ending with a breathtaking vista of Lake Whatcom, foothills, Bellingham Bay and the San Juan Islands.
Lookout Mountain Forest Preserve Spanning almost 4,430 forested
Point Whitehorn: a beachcomber’s paradise.
the fascinating area history. Whatcom County’s newest, Chanterelle Trail, is 2.4 miles long with
acres on the west side of Lake Whatcom, the Preserve is just south of Lake Louise Road and Sudden Valley. The Whatcom
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Transit Authority 512 bus stops conveMountain, from future development in More Ahead: Galbraith Mountain, niently at the trailhead. You can wander perpetuity. The City of Bellingham and Skookum Creek Corridor & along streams, wetlands, sandstone cliffs The Trust purchased an easement from Governor’s Point and a variety of forest types on more Galbraith Tree Farm LLC last summer than eight miles of looping trails. You protecting 2,182 acres, including use of The Trust and its partners have had can enjoy a quiet moment 65 miles of already develbeside a picturesque waoped nationally-recognized terfall and savor the view mountain bike trails. Also of snow-capped Mount used for family outings, Baker. running, hiking, and This site is also a great walking, the easement adexample of the recreation joins more than 4,250 acres and habitat connectivity of public land managed by that the WLT works toWhatcom County. ward. Existing ‘Backside’ Another big win for and ‘Bottoms Up’ trails the community includes continue off-site, conGovernor’s Point. After necting with the recently seeking opportunities there protected Galbraith for more than 30 years, a Mountain Trail System. June 2018 agreement was Maple Creek Reach. Waters here are home to all five Pacific salmon species New trails will eventuforged between the City ally connect to Squires of Bellingham, the Trust Lake Park to the south and the Pacific and a Canadian business owner with several big successes in the past year or Northwest National Scenic Trail heading help from Trust Board Member and so, including protecting the popular south to Alger. Bellingham Litigation Attorney Rand mountain biking destination, Galbraith
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Jack. In exchange for developing 16 new homes on the Point, the owner will donate 80 acres of mature coastal forest to the WLT for creation of a nature reserve with public trail access. The Trust expects to receive title to this property this fall. A planned two-plus-mile public loop trail will provide access to two primary beaches that will eventually be accessed by kayaks and canoes. In February 2019, the Trust’s largest privately-supported community campaign enabled the purchase of the Skookum Creek Conservation Corridor from Weyerhaeuser. Close to 1,400 acres of riparian forest and upland in the South Fork Nooksack basin will be managed to improve recreation opportunities, salmon habitat, watershed health and landscape connectivity. The corridor is located in the Cascades to Chuckanuts (C2C) Natural Area—350,000 acres of the last relatively undeveloped corridor linking the shores of Puget Sound with the Cascades and
Columbia Basin. This acquisition increases permanent land protections in the C2C region to more than 19,000 acres.
Protecting Precious Farmland Also among the Trust’s top priorities is the management of agricultural easements on 22 farms, covering more than 1,100 acres in the Whatcom Core Agricultural Zone. The Whatcom County Agricultural Purchase of Development Rights (Ag PDR) program protects soils and water resources to maximize food production. Alluvial Farms, a 44-acre pastured pork farm in Everson, is just one excellent example of how multiple agencies and organizations worked together in creative ways to support farmers and protect farmland. The WLT partnered with the USDA Farm Service Agency and Washington Conservation District to help owners Katie Pencke and Matthew McDermott become farm owners. With a three-year low-interest con-
servation loan from the Trust, Alluvial Farms will have options to either pay
History of the Whatcom Land Trust In March 1983, nearly 50 people gathered in the basement of the Dutch Mothers Restaurant in downtown Lynden, Washington, an agricultural community in the heart of Whatcom County. Together, they learned about ways a land trust might preserve Whatcom County’s agricultural heritage. Having obtained 501(c)(3) nonprofit status, the first “official” board meeting of the Whatcom Land Trust was held in November 1984. Over their 35-year history, the Trust has completed over 180 transactions, divided about evenly between conservation easements and fee acquisitions. Combined, they have facilitated protection of 10,154 acres, with 90 Trust-owned properties totaling 4,955 acres, and 94 conservation easements with willing and preservation-minded property owners for another 8,980 acres. In addition, 13,800+ acres have been protected by the Trust, currently managed by Whatcom County Parks and Recreation. Today, the Trust continues to work for protection of working lands including agriculture and forested properties, and seeks to protect places special to Whatcom County for habitat, recreation, connectivity, clean water, parklands and shore lands, to date totaling 24,088 acres.
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Each effort is undertaken in partnership with others in the Whatcom community, including government agencies, tribes, schools, businesses, landowners and others who want to protect the nature of the county. The Land Trust’s longrange promise to the Whatcom County community is that in 50 to 100 years the wild and special places here will still exist, and the quality of life they represent will remain forever. With several additional projects planned for the near future, their work—based in community partnerships—truly represents conservation for the community, by the community.
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back the loan or “record a conservation easement on the 10acre riparian habitat area along Dale Creek (a salmon-bearing stream) on the northern border of the property,” explains WLT Conservation Director Gabe Epperson. “This is part of our Farming for Food & Wildlife program that seeks to balance farmland protection and habitat protection, which we believe are compatible and not mutually exclusive,” Epperson adds. The Trust partners to work incrementally toward Whatcom County’s goal of protecting at least 100,000 acres to sustain a viable agricultural sector long-term.
WLT volunteer Kim Clarkin examines a palm fossil at the Canyon Creek Old Growth Community Forest.
Get Involved
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Follow the Trust on Facebook and Instagram and subscribe to their monthly e-newsletter via their website (whatcomlandtrust.org). Volunteers are always welcome at multiple work parties throughout the year and there are opportunities for local businesses to become a Business Partner in Conservation. Everyone is encouraged to make a donation, whether it’s monthly, annually or via estate planning. The next time you walk, run, hike, bike or paddle in marvelous Whatcom County, send a big thank you into the universe for this land we love and to Whatcom Land Trust and its strong partnerships that have protected it for your use, and for generations of people and wildlife to come. ANW
VITAL SIGNS
Journaling for a Healthy (September) New Year By Sarah Laing, B.Sc. Nutrition
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Our summer this year has been a little wetter and more temperate than recent years, so it’s hard to believe that backto-school time—and all that goes with it— is right around the corner. Someone said to me recently that, in a way, September is like New Year’s, as it marks the beginning of a new set of goals, intentions and challenges and gives us a good rooting point for healthy habits and routines throughout the work- and school-year. Routines involve everything from diet and exercise to extracurricular activities and downtime with family, so by understanding what the next “year” looks like, we can create healthy routines that enable our goals and intentions and dump the junk that bogs down our schedules and prevents growth. A great tool that I am learning about is a manifestation journal. It may sound “new agey” or cliché, but there seem to be some great benefits to incorporating journaling into your routine.... the biggest one being simply to STAY ON TRACK. Try journaling as part of your healthy routine this year and give yourself peace of mind that you’re following your own lead to health and happiness.
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The Painted Hills Story and photo by John D’Onofrio
W
ay out in the middle of northcentral Oregon, the Painted Hills are one of three discontiguous units of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, an underappreciated gem in our inventory of public lands. All three are worthy of exploration, but the Painted Hills are something special. stories & the race|play|experience calendar online.
Located near the weather-beaten hamlet of Mitchell (population: 130), the Painted Hills are unique in the Pacific Northwest: An otherworldly landscape of colorful badlands, reminiscent more of Mars than Oregon. Trails wind up and through the multi-hued hills, offering a plethora of somewhat surreal vistas. A melted
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alarm clock would not be out of place in any of them. There are five short trails in all—if possible, walk every one. Find a quiet place (there are many) and watch the cloud shadows dance across the fluted hills. The remarkable late afternoon light is something to see. ANW
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Cascadia Gear:
Gear Spotlight:
Essentials for your next Adventure Eagle Creek Migrate Wheeled Duffel 110L
I’ve long coveted a duffel with wheels and Eagle Creek’s Migrate 110-liter bag has made my dreams come true. This puppy is big: 109 liters with the ability to expand to 114 liters with the unfastening of a buckle. It’s rugged, water-repellant and converts to a backpack, utilizing a yoked webbing system. It’s not light: At five pounds, it eats into your luggage weight allowance a bit. And the pull strap is a tad on the short side. I solved this problem by extending it with the wrist strap from an old ice axe. All in all, it’s a workhorse that I’ve found easy to drag around airports from Juneau to Reykjavík. More info: www.eaglecreek.com
Therm-A-Rest® Parsec Sleeping Bag Some years back, Therm-A-Rest® introduced sleeping bags that attach to your sleeping pad with elastic straps, now dubbed SynergyLink Connectors™. This integrated system, which keeps the bag rooted to the pad, allows 60 percent of the insulation to be concentrated at the top. The result? A sleeping bag that is both light and roomy. Their newest offering, the Parsec™ is intended to hit a sweet spot: A three-season bag that balances heat and warmth like a juggler. It’s a 20-degree bag with an EN Rating of 30-degrees (translation: you’ll be comfortable at 30 degrees and will not freeze to death at 20 degrees). Although the 800-fill down does not compress to the size of a Nalgene bottle like some others, a newly-introduced compression sack allows it to be eminently packable. At two pounds, it’s not the lightest bag on the market, but a shoulder girth of 62 inches is unheard of in a bag of this weight. You turn over inside Therm-A-Rest bags, as opposed to thrashing around the tent. And did I mention the comfort? Getting a good night’s rest is important. More info: www.thermarest.com
MSR Ceramic Flex Skillet Non-stick cookware in the backcountry is a luxury that for a long time seemed impossible to achieve. But MSR’s Ceramic Flex Skillet has made this fantasy a reality. It’s light (seven ounces), tough as nails, and allows you to manifest your inner gourmet when you’re cooking in the scree. The hard-anodized aluminum skillet is a snap to clean but be careful—like any non-stick pan, you’ll want to avoid high heat. Treat it carefully and the omelets will keep on coming. More info: msrgear.com
Gulf Islands Boater’s Guidebook This latest boater’s guide from Blue Latitude Press (based in Anacortes, WA.) qualifies as a tome, not a word I use lightly. Weighing in at 362 pages, Gulf Islands provide boaters of all kinds an authoritative guide to the magical Gulf Islands, located just north of the border on the Salish Sea. ‘Exhaustive’ does not even begin to describe the detailed descriptions of Gulf Island anchorages: both attractions and hazards. It is definitive. Lavishly illustrated with photos and nautical charts, Gulf Islands has raised the bar for boating guides in the Pacific Northwest. Don’t leave port without it. More info: .bluelatitudepress.com
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RACE | PLAY | EXPERIENCE
Rentals Made Easier by Chris Gerston
Five years ago, Backcountry Essentials expanded its services to the entire Bellingham ski community. We brought in Alpine and cross-country skis— just in time for the historically snow-deficient winter of 2014-2015! Five years later, our rental program is huge and growing. Not only do we have just about every time/lease option to fit the needs of both kids and adults, but now we’re also expanding our services to on-line reservations. This could save you up to 30 minutes of shop-time filling out the paperwork if you have several people to outfit. Here are some tips for renting your daily or seasonal gear for the whole family: 1. Do it early. Demand is high and if you wait until the last minute, you may be out of luck. 2. If possible, bring socks that you are likely to wear for skiing (beware cotton socks!). We do have socks for both demo and/or sale if needed. 3. Bring everybody’s foot with you for fitting boots: no guessing. As a boot-fitting shop, it is our main priority to make sure that your feet are happy—they’re your control point and miserable feet suck! 4. Your skis of choice will be determined by your skier type, terrain, and conditions of the day. Some skis are “a quiver of one,” others excel for a certain condition and terrain. We have a complete selection of options and sizes to help you find what works best for you—including a seasonal demo program! 5. If you have little kids that will need help on the slopes, I recommend a very Pavlovian approach to your first ski days—lots of French fries and hot cocoa, and only as much ski time as they dictate. Keep it fun! Check out our rentals at backcountryessentials.net, and while you’re there, have a look at our new Adventurer’s Guide to Bellingham page. Chris Gerston owns Backcountry Essentials, an outdoor specialty shop located at 214 W. Holly in Bellingham, WA. Check out more of Chris’ gear reviews at AdventuresNW.com
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September 26-29 aboard the M/V David B www.adventuresnw.com/photo-workshops >>> VIew or download even MORE Race|Play|Experience
4 September - 29 September
RACE I PLAY I EXPERIENCE CALENDAR
SEPTEMBER >>>
Sunday, 8 September
Wednesday-Saturday, 4-7 September RUN/WALK North Cascades Traverse––Sep 4: 6:00 am – Sep 7: 9:00 pm. 3 Day, point-to-point, supported stage run across the North Cascades. Experience Mountain Running Euphoria. aspireadventurerunning.com
Friday-Sunday, 6-8 September SPECIAL Adventures NW North Cascades Photo Workshop–– North Cascades Institute, Sep 6, 4:00 pm – Sep 8, 1:00 pm. Join Adventures NW for a 3-day photography workshop in North Cascades National Park at the North Cascades Institute on beautiful Diablo Lake. adventuresnw.com/ photo-workshops
Saturday, 7 September RUN/WALK GOAT (Great Olympic Adventure Trail) Run––Olympic Adventure Trail, 8:00 am – 4:00 pm. Point-to-point trail run on the Olympic Peninsula, Washington. full, half, 50K on singletrack. greatoatrun.org
CYCLE Mt. Baker Hill Climb––7:00 am – 12:00 pm. Ascend 4,098 feet from Glacier to Artist Point (5,140 feet elevation) in approximately 22 miles. bakerhillclimb.com
Saturday, 14 September SPECIAL Bellingham Traverse–– Boundary Bay Brewery, 12:00 pm – 5:00 pm. Race your own way! Chinook (solo), Coho (tandem) or Chum (relay). Run, bike and paddle through Bellingham’s scenic parks, winding trails and open waterways, and celebrate the important journey of wild salmon in our region. This race is packed with adventure. Team of 1, or a team of 10. This race is for you. Families, friends and local companies are invited to assume their Spawner identities. Awards, food and prizes at Boundary Bay Brewery post-race. bellinghamtraverse.com
Thursday-Sunday, 19-22 September RUN/WALK STEHEKIN, 4-Day Running Retreat––Sep 19: 6:00 am – Sep 22: 9:00 pm. Run to Stehekin and
find yourself sequestered in the fall splendor of the North Cascades. aspireadventurerunning.com
Wednesday-Sunday, 25-29 September RUN/WALK Territory Run Camp––Sep 25: 4:00 pm – Sep 29: 10:00 am. A 3 day trail running retreat hosted by Aspire Adventure Running. From a basecamp at the historic Mt. Baker Lodge and a pristine fall backdrop this event invites runners to 3 days of running and exploring trails connecting glaciers, alpine summits, and remote ridges in the North Cascades. Lodging and meals are included along with evening seminar style presentations from local ethnobotanists, wildlife specialists, and athletes. aspireadventurerunning.com
Thursday-Sunday, 26-29 September SPECIAL Adventures Northwest San Juan Islands Photography Workshop & Tour––San Juan Islands, Sep 26, 9:00 am – Sep 29, 5:00 pm. Join us for a
4-day photography workshop in the beautiful San Juan Islands aboard the M/V David B. In-depth workshop, private staterooms & gourmet meals. Limited to 6 Passengers. adventuresnw.com/photoworkshops RUN/WALK Stehekin, Women’s Running Retreat––Sep 19: 6:00 am – Sep 22: 9:00 pm. Experience 4 Days of running, exploring, and adventure in the heart of the North Cascades. aspireadventurerunning.com
Sunday, 29 September SPECIAL Bellingham Bay Marathon––7:30 am – 2:00 pm. Featuring views of Bellingham Bay, San Juan Islands, and North Cascades mountains, we are often called the most beautiful marathon in the Pacific Northwest. Bellingham Bay Marathon offers a full marathon, half marathon, 10K, 5K and full marathon relay (for teams of 2-5). One hundred percent of net proceeds benefit local youth nonprofits. Celebrate your race at a fantastic finish line festival with live music and beer garden. Come “Run the Bay!” bellinghambaymarathon.org
Use discount code ANW19 to save 10% on any race entry!
13th Annual
September 29, 2019 FULL • HALF • 10K • 5K • RELAY
bellinghambaymarathon.org #RuntheBay19 event listings at AdventuresNW.com
@bhambaymarathon RACE | PLAY | EXPERIENCE
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2 October - 9 November
OCTOBER >>>
Swap. Support Komo Kulshan Ski Club and Mt. Baker Race Team. komokulshanskiclub.com
Wednesday, 2 October SPECIAL Business Conservation Leaders Breakfast––Bellingham Yacht Club Marina Room, 7:15 am – 9:00 am. Join us for a celebration of business champions for land conservation and a benefit for Whatcom Land Trust. 2019 Awardee — The Conservation Alliance Guest Speaker — Hilary Franz, Washington Commissioner of Public Lands. Tickets — $50 and can be purchased on our website, or by calling 360-650-9470. whatcomlandtrust.org
Saturday, 5 October RUN/WALK Run Like a Girl 10k & Half Marathon––Fairhaven Park, 9:00 am – 2:00 pm. Super fun, non-competitive run benefiting Girls on the Run of NW Washington. runlikeagirlbellingham.org
Friday-Sunday, 11-13 October RUN/WALK Sawtooth Backcountry Women’s Running Retreat––Oct 11: 6:00 am – Oct 13: 9:00 pm. Fall splendor, Golden Larches, Alpine Lakes, Multiple Distances, Delicious Food, Great Company. aspireadventurerunning.com
Thursday, 17 October SPECIAL Komo Kulshan Ski & Snowboard Gear Swap Dropoff––Bloedel Donovan Park Gym, 4:00 pm – 9:00 pm. Dropoff Your Used Gear for our Ski and Snowboard
Friday-Saturday, 18-19 October SPECIAL Komo Kulshan Ski & Snowboard Gear Swap Sale––Bloedel Donovan Park Gym, Friday, October 18th 4-9:30 pm, Saturday, October 19th 9am – 2pm. komokulshanskiclub.com
Sunday, 20 October SPECIAL NMA 30th Annual Mushroom Show–– Bloedel Donovan Park, 12:00 pm – 5:00 pm. An opportunity to view and learn about over 200 wild mushroom species. northwestmushroomers.org
NOVEMBER >>> Saturday, 9 November SPECIAL Warren Miller’s TIMELESS – Tour 70!––Mount Baker Theatre, 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm. The only constant is change, but winter stoke is eternal. After seven decades of celebrating skiing and snowboarding, Warren Miller Entertainment can confirm that nothing compares to the anticipation of another season. Come kick off the season with WME’s 2019 film, Timeless, presented by Volkswagen, and travel with new and veteran athletes as they explore renowned mountain locations across the globe. It’s more than a ski and snowboard film, it’s an experience. See warrenmiller.com.
FIND Adventures NW is available free at hundreds of locations region-wide: throughout Whatcom, Skagit, San Juan, and Island counties, at select spots in Snohomish, King, and Pierce counties, and in Leavenworth, the Methow Valley, Spokane, and Wenatchee. The magazine is also available at REI locations across Washington and Oregon as well as at numerous locations in the Vancouver, BC metro area, at races and events, and area visitor centers.
SUBSCRIBE Receive Adventures NW via mail anywhere in the US or Canada. Visit AdventuresNW.com/subscribe for subscription info.
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CONTRIBUTE Adventures NW welcomes original article queries—including feature stories, expert advice, photo essays, the Next Adventure shot, etc. For information: AdventuresNW.com/contribute.
EVENTS Have your outdoor-related event, race or public outing listed in the quarterly Race|Play|Experience calendar and in our comprehensive on-line version. Visit AdventuresNW.com/submit-your-event to post events or contact ads @ AdventuresNW.com for details.
WILDERNESS
Closed to Races, Open to Adventure
AspireAdventureRunning.com
Sucia Ross Lake Rally Desolation Duo Lost Coast Yosemite Wonderland North Cascades Traverse Stehekin 56
RACE | PLAY | EXPERIENCE
>>> VIew or download even MORE Race|Play|Experience
23 November - 21 March Saturday, 23 November RUN/WALK Girls on the Run 5k––Bloedel Donovan Park, 9:30 am – 12:00 pm. Non-competitive fun run celebrating Girls on the Run and Trailblazers open to the entire community. runlikeagirlbellingham.org
JANUARY >>> Saturday, 18 January RUN/WALK The Rain Run–– Marymoor Park, 9:00 am – 12:30 pm Join us for this half marathon along the paved Sammamish River trail and you’ll get: – Chip-timed half marathon entry. – Bling! A huge, shiny finisher’s medal. – A 16 oz Rain Run mug. – A full size Seattle Chocolate bar. – Awesome finish line refueling, including cupcakes with SPRINKLES! – Chance for prize give-aways from our sponsors. – Bragging rights that you kicked butt in the rain. therainrun.com
FEBRUARY >>> Saturday, 8 February SNOW Ski to the Sun Marathon & Relay––8:00 am – 2:00 pm. Join Methow Trails and Methow Valley Nordic for the Ski to the Sun Marathon and Relay. The course travels through North America’s largest ski trail network and takes skiers from the tranquil banks of the Methow River to the beautiful mountain vistas at Sun Mountain Lodge. Ski the marathon as an individual or as a relay with up to 5 other friends or family members. Cost includes, custom hat, post-race lunch, awards and evening banquet. methowtrails.org
Saturday, 29 February RUN/WALK Frosty Moss Relay–– Olympic Discovery Trail and Olympic Adventure Trail, 6:00 am – 10:00 pm. 80-mile or 30-mile relay run on paved and dirt trails on the Olympic Peninsula. frostymossrelay.com
MARCH >>> Saturday-Sunday, 21-22 March RUN/WALK Salt Creek 24––Salt Creek Recreation Area, Mar 21 – Mar 22 all-day. 24-hour race on the Olympic Peninsula. saltcreek24.com ANW event listings at AdventuresNW.com
360.676.1977 • www.lithtexnw.com
RACE | PLAY | EXPERIENCE
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the
Next
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Trapper Peak photo by BOB KANDIKO It’s early October and we are satiated with golden larch color at Washington Pass but like hungry bears in autumn we crave more as winter is coming. We awake to several inches of snow at Lone Fir campground and pack our wet tents in dismal conditions resolved to head west to more rain. At Newhalem in clearing skies we pick the improbable option: A late dash up Trapper Peak where we’re rewarded by this spectacular view into the Southern Pickets from the airy perch. This best view of the year was saved for last.
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The heartbeat of Cascadia
Should I follow my head, or my heart? For some of life’s questions, you’re not alone.
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ubs.com/fs by different laws and separate contracts. For more information on the distinctions between our brokerage and investment advisory services, please speak with your Financial Advisor or visit our website at ubs.com/workingwithus. ©UBS 2017. All rights reserved. UBS Financial Services Inc. is a subsidiary of UBS AG. Member FINRA/SIPC. D-UBS-83DBB382