The Issaquah Press
COMMUNITY
Section
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B
Wednesday September 26, 2012
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Celebrate National Public Lands Day on Tiger Mountain
BY TAD HAAS
Gaila Gutierrez checks out an abandoned vehicle somewhere in Arkansas.
CAN’T STOP THE JOURNEY Dispatches from the Road is an occasional series by Gaila Gutierrez and Tad Haas, who ditched the corporate world and are riding their motorcycles into freedom. Learn more or follow the journey at www.overlandnow.com. By Tad Haas and Gaila Gutierrez Just shy of five months into our journey, we’re hunkered down and taking shelter at a cozy B&B in Gunner’s Cove, Newfoundland, keeping an eye on the news of Hurricane Leslie that has Newfoundland on an anxious watch. Fortunately for us, we’re on the Northern Peninsula A SERIES ABOUT A MOTORCYCLE TREK with the ACROSS NORTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA worst of it hitting the southeastern portion of the island. Can’t say we ever thought we’d be waiting out a hurricane, but then again this is a trip of firsts and this is just another example. Since we left on April 15, we’ve ridden nearly 17,000
DISPATCHES FROM THE ROAD
BY GAILA GUTIERREZ
Tad checks out the ocean floor at low tide in the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick, which has highest tide fluctuation in the world. miles zig-zagging through 16 states and five Canadian Provinces — Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, with Labrador being a significant milestone of our journey as it’s our northern most destination. Talk about fantastic! From the mountains of Colorado, the deserts of the Southwest, the Louisiana bayous, the amazing Great Lakes, 15 national parks, Niagara Falls, and the coastal wonderlands of Newfoundland and Labrador, we have seen more in our five months than a
lifetime of two-week vacations. We’ve camped often, couch-surfed with friends and family as well as complete strangers, shacked up in a shack with a bicyclists from Vermont, been robbed by a feisty raccoon and have had more waterfront property than we could ever afford in “real” life. Life on the road has its inconveniences, but the experience and gift of time we’ve granted ourselves trumps that card any day. Not waking to an alarm See DISPATCHES, Page B3
Students grow food for the needy By Lillian O’Rorke ltucker@ sammamishreview.com It’s a sunny early autumn afternoon and in between attending Sunday school and running off to soccer games and other fun pastimes, several local youths gather to harvest food for the Issaquah Food & Clothing Bank. “Digging the potatoes — it’s really fun,” Alexandra
Mohn, 9, said. She, her twin sister Isabella and about a dozen other children from their church, Spirit of Peace United Church of Christ, which meets at the Pine Lake Community Center in Sammamish, have been tending a garden for months, and with the leadership of Wally Prestbo have grown more than 225 pounds of fresh vegetables for the food bank.
BY LILLIAN O’RORKE
Isabella and Alexandra Mohn examine the day’s tomato harvest.
“It’s a culmination of my interest in gardening and wanting to have a mission for the children of the church,” said Prestbo, who grew up on a small farm in the Spokane Valley. Having had a garden nearly everywhere he has lived, Prestbo now volunteers, teaching classes at the Bellevue Demonstration Garden, and keeps a large garden at his home in Sammamish. Much of what is grown there is also donated. “That is probably the largest need at the food bank,” he said. “They never can get enough produce, fresh produce.” The “Spirit of Peas” garden, as reads the sign made by one of the church’s youths, Josh Wentzien, is made up of two 4-by-16 plots in Issaquah’s pea patch on Juniper Street. For three years, Prestbo and his gang of young gardeners have been growing things such as peas, radishes, lettuce, spinach, chard, broccoli and carrots.
“I plant a little bit of everything, so the children have a chance to see how to plant the different types of vegetables,” Prestbo said. “This is a special chance for them to experience gardening firsthand and get their hands dirty.” This year the group began planting in May. Now, with the nights growing colder and colder, the last crops to harvest are tomatoes, potatoes, zucchini and cucumbers. “When they were digging the potatoes out of the ground it was like an Easter egg hunt,” Craig Mohn, Alexandra’s and Isabella’s father, said. On the way to harvest the potatoes Sept. 16, the children said they wanted to dig up more than last year. In the end, their efforts yielded more than 60 potatoes, small and large, according to Prestbo. “They are learning a lot about working as a team,” said Suzi Mohn, the twins’ mother. “They’ve seen the line of people waiting for the food, so they have a sense of what it’s about.”
Washingtonians can celebrate National Public Lands Day in the Tiger Mountain State Forest, other state forestlands or at national parks. The state Department of Natural Resources said the lineup for National Public Lands Day, Sept. 29, includes a mountain bike trail construction event on Tiger Mountain. The annual observance is meant to encourage people to head outside and enjoy the outdoors. State Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark invited the public to join volunteers to celebrate the event on Department of Natural Resources-managed lands across Washington. Statewide, hundreds of volunteers plan to join the agency and partner organizations to repair trails, clean up litter, clear brush, remove invasive plants, and complete other projects in recreation lands and conservation areas. The effort on Tiger Mountain is a partnership between the Department of Natural Resources and the nonprofit Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance. Participants can accrue volunteer hours toward a complimentary Discover Pass for participating in the Tiger Mountain event. Meanwhile, National Park Service officials an-
WHAT TO KNOW National Public Lands Day 4Tiger Mountain State Forest trail construction work party 49 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 29 Volunteers can sign up at the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance website, www. evergreenmtb.org. 4Participants should bring food and water, a hard hat and other personal protective equipment. 4Contact Sam Jarrett at 206-375-0448 or sam. jarrett@dnr.wa.gov to learn more. 4Find a list of National Park Service-administered sites in Washington at www.nps.gov/state/wa.
nounced free admission to national parks for National Public Lands Day. Other federal agencies offering free admission include the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and U.S. Forest Service. Normally, 133 national parks charge entrance fees ranging from $3 to $25. The other 264 parks do not charge for admission.
Husky marching band to perform at Eagles’ football game By Christina Corrales-Toy newcastle@isspress.com The Issaquah High School football field will be covered in a sea of purple-and-gold this Friday evening, when more than 200 members of the University of Washington marching band take the field to entertain spectators before the Eagles take on Roosevelt. The Husky marching band and the UW pom squad will perform a pregame and halftime show at the Sept. 28 contest. Issaquah High School band director Patrick Holen had been trying to get the band to come to a home game for years and his persistence finally paid
off. When the UW band director notified Holen of an open date, he didn’t hesitate to grab the opportunity to host the band. “I started teaching here in 2001 and ever since I started, I always wanted to get a relationship with university bands across the region,” Holen said. “So, I was very quick to say yes to the band director. Now, it’s a reality and they’re coming out and we’re very excited to have them.” Issaquah High School must pay for the band’s transportation and arrange to feed the group, but that was no problem, Holen said. With the supSee BAND, Page B3
CONTRIBUTED
J. W. ‘Bill’ Isotalo (left), a 1950 Issaquah High School graduate and Korean War veteran home on leave during Labor Day 1951, and brother Leo Isotalo, beginning his sophomore year at IHS, wait for the school’s band to form up near the old community church prior to the Labor Day parade.