August Newsletter  

Skagit Alpine
Meeting:

We're meeting August 1 in T-31 (Walter Roberts Hall) at Skagit Valley College. Roberts Hall is in the north-central area of the campus. The following shortcut is to a campus map http://www.skagit.edu/images/color_mvCampus.pdf.

Secretary‘s Report:

No notes due to July picnic.

Program:

TBD

Lookout:

Park Butte Lookout Update:
The Park Butte Lookout did a good job of weathering through the winter. All of last year's work on the windows and roof looks great.
We are scheduling a Park Butte Lookout Work Party for Saturday and Sunday, August 25 and 26, 2007. This year the focus of the work will be painting the exterior of the Lookout and the railings. Volunteers will be greatly appreciated – join us on both days or for any part of the weekend.
We'll be in the Park Butte Lookout parking lot at 8 am on Saturday morning to meet those who can join the "painting party" and also carry up supplies. If you would like to volunteer to help with this project, please contact us at 360-336-5896 or erbst@cnw.com. Or, if you are headed up to Park Butte before the work party weekend and would like to carry some supplies up there, let us know.
Thanks so much,
John and Marie Erbstoeszer, Park Butte Lookout Stewards
Outing(s):

PACIFIC NORTHWEST TRAIL ASSOCIATION
24854 Charles Jones Memorial Circle #4 Sedro-Woolley WA 98284 360-854-9415

2007 SKAGIT COUNTY TRAIL MAINTENANCE ON THE PNT
Want to do some trail work? No matter where you work, wear long pants, have work gloves, have plenty of fluids to drink, and bring a lunch. Each person working will have to sign a liability release form. Parents or guardians of those under 18 must sign for the minor.
For information call 360-424-0407 anytime up until 8 a.m. the morning of the work party. Tools will be provided--hazel hoes, loppers, McLeods, Pulaskis, chain saws, brush cutters. You may bring your own tools if you wish.
If you can only work until noon, please call ahead to see if the work site will be conducive to your leaving early. Sometimes we will be working behind locked gates or far up logging roads and it would not be convenient for people to leave early.
Meeting place is the Cook Road Park-n-Ride, exit 232 from I-5 north of Burlington. Exit the freeway, turn right and then immediately turn right onto Old Highway 99. We meet across the street from the 76 gas station. Meeting time is 8:15 a.m.
GENERAL TRAIL WORK2007 Skagit Trail work schedule for April through OctoberTrail work will be done on the FIRST and THIRD Saturday of each month August 4 and 18September 1 and 15October 6 and 20

Conservation Report:

by Maggie Sullivan

As there are several different conservation groups working in their own ways to protect Blanchard Mountain, I thought that now would be a good time to give an update on the status of these groups' efforts. I'll make this report brief, but will include sites where you can get more information from the groups themselves.
Blanchard Strategy Group.
In the spring of 06, DNR recruited 9 local individuals to sit on an advisory board to come up with recommendations as to what to do with Blanchard. The nine "stake holders" included recreationalists, loggers, environmentalists and DNR representatives. The Friends of Blanchard Mt. had a seat at the table with Eron Berg as their reprepentative; SAC has had Harold Mead as our rep to the Friends of Blanchard Mt.
In January of 07, the Strategy Group came up with a compromise plan which, after public review, was sent to Doug Sutherland, the Washington Commissioner of Public Lands. So far, a final decision regarding the plan has not yet been made. To view a copy of the plan, go to www.dnr.wa.gov and scroll to "featured sights", then scroll to "more featured sites", then go to Blanchard Forest. Or you can call Kristen Ohlson-Kiehn at 856-3500. The Friends of Blanchard Mt. is still alive, but in a holding pattern until the Commissioner's decision is made. The original group has splintered over the issue, but there still remains a web site you might check out : www.blanchardmountain.org.
Chuckanut Mountain Parks District.
The group by this name wants to make all of the Chuckanuts, including Blanchard Mt. into a Parks District. Petitions were circulated throughout the affected parts of Skagit and Whatcom Counties to get this issue on the next ballot. This issue, as did the strategy group plan, has caused quite an uproar from all different sides. To get the scoop on the pros, go to www.chuckanutmpd.org or www.chuckanutconservancy.org or call Frank Eventoff at 766-8800. To get the cons, call up a member of the North Sound Conservancy group --either Leslie Braun 724-3011 or Kari Everett at 724-4382 or check out www.northsoundconservancy.org.
A public meeting regarding the Parks District is scheduled for Tuesday, September 18, 2007 from 7pm to 10 pm at the Skagit Co. Commissioners hearing room at 1800 Continental Pl in Mt. Vernon. The meeting may run over to the following night if they need more time. I've been told that proponents, opponents and government agencies (DNR, County, Fire District) will present their sides, and then it will open up to public comment.

Trip Report:

By Eric Sandbo

For 40 years I've wanted to backpack the Olympic National Park wilderness coastal strip. Last week I finally did just that with my 12-year-old, Ryan. We hiked from Third Beach, south of LaPush (left Saturday noon) to the Hoh River (arrived Tuesday noon). While we had some rain Sunday and Tuesday mornings, we also had about as much brilliant sunshine as we could handle. It was never cold or windy. The trip involved miles of fine, broad, firm sand beaches, but also many steep, muddy trails over headlands that can't be rounded. At least one spot was downright dangerous. The park service recommends that hikers consider how many miles they normally cover in a day, then cut that in half.

Here are a few tips for anyone considering the trip:
· While you hike 15 miles down the coast, your car needs to move about 35 miles to meet you. Ted and Prudence Miller, of Forks, have a business they call Roadrunner Shuttle (360-374-5195). They aren't licensed to carry passengers, but they'll move your car from one place to another for a reasonable fee.
· Tides control your life. There are some headlands you can't climb over; they must be rounded on the beach, and that can only be done when the tide is low enough. On our last day we had to hike 5 miles to reach a cliff that we had to pass before 11:30. Missing it would require setting up camp for another day. Some days the tide never gets low enough.
· You need detailed maps. It takes four 7.5 minute USGS maps to cover the strip we hikes, but the National Park has a better solution. For a little over $4 they sell a custom map with that entire hike on one page. Better still, all those tricky spots where the tide is an issue are marked with the maximum tidal height in red.
· The park requires a Wilderness Permit. You have to pay for this one, but it was only about $11 for Ryan & I for three nights. Not a big deal. The southern strip of beach that we hiked is little-used enough that reservations are not required. Not so if you hike the northern section from Rialto Beach to Cape Alava.
· The Permit and map are available at the park's Visitor Center in Port Angeles. (Well, actually the Wilderness Info Center is in a portable building behind the Visitor Center.) Service there was prompt, friendly, and helpful.
· The park also requires that food be kept in bear-proof containers. Not to worry - they lend them out. They suggest a donation of $3 each to cover expenses. Pay it with a smile. Their bear cannisters are hard, smooth plastic, with no protrusions for a bear to get a purchase on them. They are about a foot long by about 9 inches in diameter. Ryan and I carried one apiece. As they get empty you can cram other stuff in with your food. Ours had a lid in one end that was unlocked with a coin. Keep a few pennies in your pockets and your pack, and you won't starve.
· The nice Park people will hand you a tide table with the usual high and low tide times and heights and a graph of the tides for the whole month. I had gone them one better. A free program called JTides (the J is for Java) can be downloaded from www.arachnoid.com. I used it to print full-page graphs for each day. We could read it to within a few minutes and a few inches. JTides has a large database of geographic locations (it will first come up with Port Townsend), including Cape Alava, whose tides are within about 20 minutes of LaPush.
· Check the tides for Puget Sound, too. On Saturday morning we needed to catch the first ferry out of Keystone, because the second one was canceled due to low tide. Find the ferry schedule at http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/schedules/current/index.cfm?route=pt-key Then, above the times listed, click the link that says "Tide Cancellations".
· Bring marshmallows.

Ed. Note:
If you had an outing you would like to describe or embellish, whether the trip was with other SAC members or not, please contact the webmaster and the newsletter editor. Contact information is listed at the end of the newsletter.

Special Announcement/Event:

SKAGIT ALPINE CLUB T-SHIRTS!
Chances are 99.9% sure that the t-shirts everyone ordered will be at the next SAC meeting .... August 1st!!! I'll be there to hand them out, so come and get them! Maggie 724-3158.