GRAYDON RESERVE
What’s new Spring saw a few nice upgrades to the old Graydon Reserve. We added two picnic tables to replace the two that went downriver with the November 2006 flood. Muir Woods is now more open and walkerfriendly thanks to a bit of clearing. There we planted some twinflowers, Solomon’s seal, black lily and, believe it or not, the ubiquitous bluebells. The route to Highview is now clear of winter blow-down. The wetland garden and rockery have a host of new plants to join the old favorites. The ping-pong table is up and running. And six little incense cedar are taking root along the river.
INDEX, WASHINGTON
SUMMER 2009
In a place of beauty, high hopes for the future
I
f you like what you see around here, you’re in luck. The scene may look the same far into the future. Much of the landscape on all sides—a sparkling river, jagged peaks, forested hills—is protected one way or another. Last year brought two great conservation victories. First came creation of the federal Wild Sky Wilderness. And then Heybrook Ridge, prominent in any view from around here, was permanently saved from logging. I’ve spent some of my best days over the past 20 years scrambling up the mountains that are now within the 106,000-acre wilderness. My favorite is Mount Baring, the double-summit peak that stands in proud isolation just east of here. In fact, without Mount Baring I don’t think there would even be a Graydon Reserve. My
A PANORAMA OF RIVERS and mountains fills the view in this photo from the summit of Mount Persis. The new Wild Sky Wilderness includes Gunn and Merchant Peaks and Spire Mountain and many other high alpine areas and lowland forest.
son Andy and I were high in a snow chute beneath Baring one day in the spring of 1990 when the route got too dicey and we turned back early—and this gave us time to check on a realtor’s sign for land on the banks of the Skykomish. I bought it. The Wild Sky Wilderness that spreads out north and east of Index also encompasses Gunn Peak, a tasty lure for weekend alpinists, the meandering highland paradise of Cady Ridge, old-growth forest, salmon streams, hidden Lake Isabel, and a lifetime of other treasures. It even includes the point we privately refer to as Graydon Peak. My climbing buddy Dick McConaughy and I trekked to the top one day and realized that such an impressive summit deserved a name, even though it’s simply the western high point of the long ridge leading from Gunn Peak, which is just 22 feet higher. It took nine years of congressional ups and downs to make the wilderness designation a reality. The Senate approved the Wild Sky twice, only to have it killed in House committee. For supporters of the Wild Sky, the villain of the story was the Republican chairman of the House Resources Committee, Richard Pombo. After voters in Pombo’s California district sent him home, the House passed the bill. But it took a couple more years of political dealing before the bill finally ended up on the desk of President Bush, who signed it May 8, 2008. Logging, mining and motorized vehicles are prohibited in a wilderness area. Hiking, climbing, hunting, fishing, rafting and other recreational activities are permitted. THE HEYBROOK RIDGE story was another cliffhanger. Would the town of Index — population 157—be able to raise more than a million dollars to buy the 129 acres before the PLEASE SEE PAGE 8