March 2010 by Thom Boullioun

Index landmark The Whitewater folks in the old Index Tavern building may soon be serving food too!

Not ready? Still plenty to do in the mountains March 2010 Free From Gold Bar to Skykomish and surrounding areas Privately owned and published by T.A. Boullioun since 2003

Photo courtesy of Scott Highland

Mt Index Reporter

Page 2

Mild Winter — Spring is here!

South Fork writer brings back his old newspaper with several new features. By staff writer The Mt Index Reporter

You all remember the Skykomish Sentinel, the Baring Buzzard and of course the Index Eagle? And now we have the Index Times but do you remember The Mt Index Reporter? That paper was last published by T A “Thom” Boullioun in 2003 and he says he could start it up again as soon as March 1st. What‟s new? With the new version you will can read it online and there are active hyperlinks that he calls Web Extras*: features that have embedded links to other sites. You print it out and give it away to those that don‟t have computers! Sharing it with others is a good idea and its also neighborly — and besides its fun! By handing it out or taking it to your favorite hang-out i.e., the water cooler, the nearest coffee shops, general stores, gas stations, restaurants and pinning it to community kiosks. Distribution cost is nil. Striving for quality not quantity Boullioun envisions a source of pro-active information for people that live here and its informative for those new and not quite familiar with the area. There is also the new „smart look‟ that opens the PDF files like it was an animated book, right on your screen. (broadband required) Here is a link* http:// issuu.com/taboullioun/MIR10MAR You can „turn‟ pages and „zoom‟ in and take a close-up looks and even print from the „net‟. This will give the folks that live here an opportunity to show you what they know in their own way. Those of us that do live here can see our friends efforts being displayed here. With all stories, articles, poems, artwork and all of the content and materials and ads to be taken directly from local talent living in

inside . . .

How to reach us Tap the Hillside for Water Writings on the ’Wall’ Hubbitats—8 Barter / Trade Our monthly trip back in time

I would like you to also visit my website and tell me what you think. See your stories, articles, poems, art displayed here. Send me an email and tell me at: thom@mtindexreporter.com

Visit My BLOG

* These features will only work when you have an „active‟ internet connection. — Thom and around the Upper Sky Valley area.

page 2 page 3 page 4 Featuring local talent page 5 Guest writer reprinted with permission page 9 page 10 (From the U or W’s archives)

The Wild Sky Riverhouse Café opens in Index -From the Index Times

January 4th, 2009. The Index City Council unanimously approved the Business License Application for the Outdoor Adventure Center/ WaveTrek/Corsons to operate a Cafe at the Riverhouse with the only stipulation being that the septic is conforming to use.

Exciting things are happening here at the New Riverhouse Espresso bar. If you are looking for something to do in the area look no further. Plenty of things going on here. Previously a tavern and now a center for out door activities such as kayaking rafting, bicycling and other outdoorsy activities. There is a lot to do here! They even have a little store in the back of this historic building in the town of Index. The Corson family wants your business. They say come on in and have a cup of „Jo‟ and check it all out! There are a couple of websites telling you all about what they do. Wavetrek is one and they have their website here: wavetrek It might be quiet right now but they are getting ready for the summer. They are busy working on the grounds around the building and cleaning up from a mild winter. So if you are the outdoorsy type visit them here and read their bulletin board for specials. You can sign up for some summer fun!

I had a chance to visit with Blair and Kathy at the Espresso stand inside this neat old building. The work they have done to the old Tavern is great. Beautifully refinished floors and remodeled it is definitely worth a look over. Kathy and Blair say “Watch this place this summer.” http://ww.outdooradventurecenter.com/ Follow the goings on in the area by visiting our website and blog http://Mtindexreporter.com/ http://mtindexreporter.com/blog1/

Front Desk by T.A. “Thom” Boullioun

he Mt Index Reporter has officially returned online with this —— the premiere issue! We hope you like it Cherishing the fleeting past is a top priority here at the Mt Index Reporter. So often, the present slips into the past without our noticing. Just where did all those rotary telephones go? Where‟s a full service gas station, you know the one with mechanics on duty, when you really needed one? And when was the last time you bought tickets at the sidewalk box office of a storefront movie theatre? The cellular payphones came and left! Bet you don‟t remember them? We rarely notice such common place objects and practices until they are gone. The Mt Index Reporter has gone through many changes too these last few years and we hope that we can entice you to think more about our area, this publication is not just about the town of Index and continue to read us each month. In the coming year we hope to present many more great stories about the Upper Sky Valley area. I will be taking material that I have developed in the past few years and from my website: http://mtindexreporter.com/ However, you might notice with each issue that in some stories we‟ll be “Painting with a broader brush, trying to prevent the inevitable „overlap‟ that can occur when an area has multiple websites like in the town of Index, i.e. http://IndexWA.org/ and of course the ‟dreaded‟, „South Fork’ or as that colorful ’cub’ reporter, Ryan Coleman, from the Index Times says „The legendary potholes of the South fork‟ and some of you might refer to it as „That place where (Continued on page 8)

HE OLD FARMER who hauled water instead of drilling a well supposedly said. “Water is closer sideways than it is straight down.” Washington farmers who live in areas such as the Cascade foothills and along the Coast know the statement is true. Many people have taken a tip from the old-timer‟s remark and are now taking water out of a hillside through a horizontal well. I heard the method was developed after World War II. Folks would get the water from what they call “perched water levels” by drilling a hole into a hillside, sloping it slightly upward so the water will drain down. I know of such a well on the South Fork. Although these wells are not gushers, in many places they produce enough water to fill several six gallon buckets in a couple of minutes! These horizontal wells can never be plugged. The pressure that builds up blows out any plug yet devised, so they flow all the time. Mostly into a storage tank or onto the ground. Some wells produce a trickle, others up to 100 gallons per minute. Most flow at the rater of 30 to 50 gallons per minute.

One feature I like is that it takes no power to keep the water flowing. Another example I‟ve seen is a guy drilled into the hillside and an upwards angle and got enough flow to keep his little cabin in water 11 months out of the year. He has to use this hillside well because water is not available from any other source. In many of these lower mountain and foothill areas it is nearly impossible to drill straight down and find water, for under the soil there is hard granite which is simply too difficult to drill through unless you want to fork over big bucks. Bringing in big and costly equipment can always be done. Such rock formation prevents us from drilling straight down for water except in a few instances where they do find faults in the rock or find it is shallow in depth. People have had to depend on springs and rain-water caught in reservoirs during the summer, or get along without water. My current method of obtaining water is from another persons well. I haul about 15 gallons daily myself. If you have a spring on your property which gives water or which used to

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360-793-3975 give water but has closed up over a period of years, you usually have a good site for a hillside well. If there is no spring on your property,, a person can go up in an airplane and fly over your place. From the air you can spot where the vegetation is the greenest. Such a green spot generally will produce a flow of water when drilled. Horizontal rigs are used to drill the wells. A gasoline engine powers a two-inch drilling bit. The bit is mounted on the end of a one-inch pipe, and as the drill digs into the hillside more pipe is added. The bit has a hole in the center so that water can be forced through it by a pump to flush out the borings. Water is carried by the driller and brought to the scene in a tank on the back of his truck. Two hundred feet of drilling is seldom more than a day‟s work, for in most cases rock is not encountered because drilling is above the granite layer. Once the water is flowing freely a length of two-inch pipe can be driven into the hole to eliminate cave-ins.

This story originally appeared in the February 2004 issue of the Mt Index Reporter.

All logos and trademarks are property of their respective owner. The stories and artwork furnished here are property of the providers and all the rest is „copyright reserved for the Mt Index Reporter

Wall

Want to write on our wall? Contact me: thom@mtindexreporter.com

Recycling

I’m warning you, I wield metaphor like a sword… And I’ve got a brand new pen, If you ever wondered wh at a poet was for, just wa tch how far I bend, I’ll twist the words up int o Slake this thirst inside my

art… Like shiny copper

wire,

heart, in the ravages of fire,

Shape the garbage of an active head… Into a ple asing form, Pluck the worthy things Growing thoughts out of Just little me, and a little

I said, from my latest ver

my brain… Planted in my pain, I illustrate it there.

http://kelleyrose.wordp ress.com/

bal storm, chair,

Habitats — 8

Quadrathuja Island Grove Photo by Meryl Schenker, P-I photographer

Way up the North Fork is a nice remnant of older forest that is close by the road and yet relatively level, and therefore potentially easy as far as hikes go. The fly in the ketchup is that high river levels can put most of this hike out of reach unless one is willing to wade across a (usually) shallow creek. During low water times as I am writing this it is October 7, this creek-bed (which is actually an overflow or flood channel of the river ) is often dry. Even with a moderate amount of water flowing through it this channel can often be crossed by boulder hopping, keeping one‟s feet dry. When this is possible a nice stroll is made available by following a crude trail I made a few years ago (and got into trouble for making) through the valley upstream from the Jack‟s Pass road.. Collectively, a series of scraps and remnants of old forest in this area, somehow missed by the loggers all these years, has occupied my attention for nearly a decade. At first, I just explored it in bushwhacking visits. Then, as favorite spots developed, my repeated visits resulted in a vegetational response known as the herds of cattle effect. To minimize the trampling effect I then standardized my routes into trails, and located those where they would have the fewest intrusions into sensitive soils or uncommon plant communities. In time I had a path stretching from Goblin Creek to the Jack‟s Pass road, and it took a whole afternoon just to walk. Then the Wild Sky Wilderness proposal came along, and I saw that the old groves were left out of it, so I spoke up and said that these should be included in the Wilderness. I took many people up and down the valley along my trails, including mayors, city councilmen, bota-

nists, foresters, representatives of the various environmental groups and Wild Sky proponents, and by golly the area was included in the Wilderness Bill! Ever since then, the series of groves has been collectively referred to as “The Hubbard Grove”, but in my lexicon each separate grove and river bar has a different name. The lower East side grove, A.K.A. the Quadrathuja Island Grove, is the subject of this month‟s stroll. I‟d hoped that we could start it out as an official Wilderness hike, but as you all know, The Wild Sky Bills was „dropped from consideration” in the House of Representative. Like the rest of the Hubbard Gove, Quadrathuja Island has been called “ineligible” for Wilderness designation by California‟s Representative Richard Pombo and Washington's Representative George Nethercutt.

But we can visit the various suburbs of the Hubbard Grove ourselves, and see what this valley offers us in the way of forests, rivers, and mountain views, and even Wilderness Values. We start by driving up the Index-Galena Road for 15 miles or so beyond Index, past the place where the pavement runs out and about a half mile more, to just beyond the bridge over the North Fork, where the road turns uphill and left towards Jack‟s Pass. A wide corner here offers parking. Then, a few yards back towards the river, a primitive dirt track (“the driveway”) for a hundred feet or so we come upon the “Wrestling Trees” on the left. Here, a larger Red Alder has a smaller Western Hemlock in a nasty “trunk lock” and looks to be just about ready to snap the little Hemlock in tow. (And you thought competition between trees was passive and polite). If the yonder, but much longer-lived Hemlock can hold out long enough, the shorter lived and already middle-aged Alder will die of old age, rot, get brittle, and fall apart, releasing the Hemlock. But the Alder is already squeezing the Hemlock‟s trunk into a flattened oval, and one good wind gust could conceivably shake the twin crowns of the Alder enough to snap the hemlock before (Continued on page 6)

Chinookexpeditions.com 5

(Continued from page 5)

then. Place your bets now, and keep an eye on these guys in the future. Soon after the wrestling trees the main fork of the driveway turns left, and a small spur bends slightly to the right and comes to a stop at a campsite in about 50 feet. Crossing through this campsite we go straight past the fire ring and out along a primitive path that continues in this direction then starts to bend left in another hundred feet or so, entering a grove of old cedars. The trail soon turns right and starts to parallel the aforementioned creek bed that is actually a high-water river channel. For a couple hundred yards the trail follows above the channel on the right, or South bank or a few yards back from the bank). Then the trail drops awkwardly to the channel at a small side creek‟s mouth, and crosses to the opposite bank (via boulder hopping) where it resumes, about 30 feet back from the upstream end of a log along the North bank. (The correct log is about 50 feet upstream, has its‟ South end wedged under a leaning, 3-trunked cedar tree whose biggest trunk is curved like a big, ascending elephant‟s tusk. A word before proceeding: You are now (assuming you crossed successfully) on an island that is quite flat and low. It has two general types of terrain; highlands and lowlands, and the difference is only a few feet. At one time the whole

island probably consisted of highland but past floods have bored channels through the old surface, and these now-dry channels, “Coulees” are discernable as low spots and are open, brushy, or forested by young trees. Pre-historic, or “fossil” logjams are found in several of the coulees, some so old their constituent logs are nurse-log hosts to quite large and old trees. The old-growth occurs mostly if not entirely on highland area. The soils of the Coulees are different from the upland soils and thus support

“That‟s right, this stump is still alive 70 years after the tree was killed.”

different plant communities, so this is a good flower walk in the Spring, especially when some walking out on the river bars is included in the hike. The island is roughly lemon shaped, and about a half-mile long. Since much of the center of the island has been partially logged, the trail generally follows around the perimeter, typically 100 to 200 fleet in from the edge, going from middle right side down to the south tip, then up along the left side to the North tip. From the channel crossing, the trail goes away from the channel a bit, curving down a few yards into the next coulee, then swerves left and climbs to an upland, where a

grove of medium large trees still grows. The trail immediately descends into a narrow coulee (With a fossil logjam at its head) and turn down valley, but in that brief pass, one can see a most unusual sight: a tree which was cut down 70 or more years ago. But which still hasn‟t died! Look to the side at the pass and see the stump that has bark growing inward over the top of the old saw cut, sealing it off behind a living wall of tissue and bark. Note also the Prickly Current bush and the Fringe-cup herbs growing out of the rotten center of the stump. That‟s right, this stump is still alive 70 years after the tree was killed. How is this possible, giving that the living roots of the old tree need the food prepared by the leaves of the now -missing crown of the tree?” I‟m told this miracle is possible because sometimes a tree‟s neighbor has roots which touch and form root grafts with it, and when the first tree dies, the neighboring tree can send its own nutrients across the graft to keep the roots of the logged-off tree alive. The still-living “Zombie” stump then starts to seal off the old chainsaw cut, just like any other wound. This raises a question of identity”: since the new growth of the last 70 years has been the result of the (Continued on top of page 7)

(Continued from page 6)

neighboring tree‟s photosynthesis, does that mean the new growth is genetically or in any other measurable way different from the old pre-logging growth? Or is the new growth still the result of the old tree‟s cambium, which means the old tree never died? (It just got shortened a bit). This gets potentially even stickier: if a stump created by loggers can be kept alive by its neighbors, why can‟t

a tree which dies of other causes be likewise kept alive by its neighbors? Say a fire completely torches the crown of tree „A‟. Could tree „B‟ send nutrients to keep tree „A‟ alive? If tree „A‟ is revived thanks to root grafts and tree „B‟s nutrients, and subsequently re-sprouts more limbs as a result, is tree „A‟ still tree „A‟? If we could genetically check all the growth rings from some big old tree,

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might we find that the tree has had more than one identity during its lifetime? Could a 2 X 4 in your house have two distinct genetic identities? Continuing along, the trail drops down the coulees, turns right, and wanders across a low area with a small stream. Crossing the stream, it continues parallel to the stream for a bit, then turns right and climbs back up to some highlands, where it follows along an old skid road from the logging days. Where the trail crosses over an old logging cable, look back to your right at the nearest big tree, a mossy barked Grand fir about 15 to 20 feet away. This tree is 19 feet in circumference at breast height. The biggest Grand Fir in the state is reportedly 19‟ 2”in circumference. If any thing happens to the old one, we may have a new state record tree here. Sooner or later though, this tree is toast: a basal scar on the tree‟s north side (possibly logging related) reveals that its heart is infected by fungus, and Pacific damp wood termites have moved in and set up a nest in the rotted heartwood. Twenty feet past the cable crossing is a (leaning) Pacific Yew tree just to the left of the trail with a bird‟s nest tucked away in a fold of the trunk about 7 feet off the ground. A bit further along, the trail curves around the base of a huge cedar tree with 4 main trunks, This is “Quadrathuja”, the namesake tree of Quadrathuja Island. It is at least 35 feet in circumference at the abase, a big tree for sure, but not as big as a few others further up the valley. In another 150 feet or so the trail drops into another coulee, dodges right-wards around a log, and passes by a cedar only slightly smaller in diameter than Quadrathuja. Now we are at the lower end of the island, and the trail turns (Continued on page 8)

(Continued from page 7)

up valley. In another hundred feet the trail turns right, but a left turn here puts you easily and quickly out on the river bars and beaches. The trail dodges inland a bit and continues up valley, wobbling around a lot and passing through a series of cedar and fir groves on its way to the upstream end of the island. Sometimes the trail follows old skid roads from the logging days, sometimes it drops down and crosses or follows along coulees, and other times it winds around the highlands, among the trunks of the remaining big trees. Most of the big tees are cedars but a few big Douglas-firs are seen, and the trail goes right past the base of one. These Doug‟s are bigger and older than the trees we visited in silver Creek Valley last month. The trail tries to circumvent as many logs as possible, but is forced to go up and over logs and log-piles in several places. After perhaps. 1/2 mile of wandering up valley, the tail drops down to a coulee area near the island‟s upper end, turns left around a big log end, re(Continued from page 2)

Mt Index is located‟. Here is their website: http://mountindexriversites.com/ It is chock full of information about what is going on in their community. There are also several „online‟ publications, The Index Times is at this link: Index Times Why one more you say? Well, we are all growing up and more and more of us use our computers. There is still much to be said about the area and there is a lot of talent to be seen and heard from. For example, starting with this month‟s „premiere‟ issue we have a „guest‟ columnist providing us with his great hiking stories about the area. Many of you know and like Bob Hubbard‟s writings. The story included in this publication was originally written by Bob Hubbard for the Mt Index Reporter back in 2004. Mr. Hubbard‟s stories can also be found at the IndexWA.org site as well as a „write-in‟ to the Index Times and this month here! We also have a poem from Kelley Rose Schmidt! Here is her Blog. And you need to watch this person her writing shows some real talent. She has a way with words! Also 8

gains the highland, and comes to a stop in a mossy floored grove of Cedars, and one big Doug-fir tree. The river is just visible here curving around the upper end of the island. If one follows the general direction of the last 10 feet of trail, one can, with minimal bushwhacking, emerge from the forest out onto the sunny, open beaches and river bar areas that line the whole Western side of Quadrathuja Island. One can also continue up valley by leaving the trail end and bushwhacking up to the top end of the island, and working upstream along a minimalist track just back from the riverside logjams, usually 50 to 100 feet back from the water, but not always. We‟ll continue on upstream another month: there's lots to see, but for now we‟ll be satisfied to explore the lush lowlands of Quadrathuja Island, with their ferns and wildflowers and groves of huge old trees. I find the walk across Quadrathuja Island to be a good wilderness experience. The sounds of the roads are left behind, the natural features of the island

check out the „Barter & Trade section in this issue. I am getting many emails with pictures of peoples businesses and places that you will most certainly recognize. Someone asked me to put recipes in the monthly paper. I told her I was open to posting recipes or a unique item like the stove top espresso machine sent in by Jer from the South fork, so if anybody would like to send them to me here for inclusion in the Mt Index Reporter, go

are aesthetically impressive and even scientifically unusual. The whole upper end of the island is lined with logjams, which protect it from the erosive attentions of the river. Nurse logs and nurse stumps abound, in true rain forest style, and hanging mosses and lichens are everywhere. Only the presence of stumps and flat-ended log pieces mars the pristine nature of the island. But these are temporary things which will decay away with time, and Wilderness is meant to be permanent, so our children's children can come along and see the forests which so impressed our own grandparents and their parents. The forest on Quadrathuja Island, even though it has been partially cut, is one of those forests, and it deserves the legal protection of Wilderness designation no matter what Pombo or Nethercutt think. Editors note: I want to thank Bob Hubbard for allowing me to recycle this hiking story. It was originally written by him and printed in the November 2004 issue of the Mt Index Reporter.

right ahead and send them on in. In this issue we‟ve feature some out-of-the-way places that may be just the key to motivating you to start planning your next afternoon. The many stories allow some vicarious vacationing. To send content: such as pictures, story ideas or column ideas Like tech advice , Ads, poems, etc. Call me at 360-793-7581 or send them to my attention at: thom@mtindexreporter.com/

53 hp VW Engine from 1971, Runs good. Came out of a restored 1961 VW bug that was crushed by tree. My loss is your gain. If you have an old VW and you need an engine. This one is for you. $500.00 buys it and I will give you the entire vehicle or I can remove the engine and bring it to you. Lots of vintage parts from a 1961 Bug too. Engine and transmission are from a 1971 Bug. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x;s talk. So give me a call. Ask for Thom

Phone 360-793-7581 More pictures at http://mtindexreporter.com/

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Dated 1925, this is one of those photos that makes you wish you had a time machine! Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d love to hear from anyone that knows more about this picture. It is clearly a dangerous proposition to be near Sunset Falls let alone building a footbridge! The location? The South Fork of the Skykomish River at Mt Index Riversites

Last Page Our monthly trip back in time â&#x20AC;&#x201D; From Lee Pickett @ UW