Conservation-Take Action
Inslee axes full funding for Blanchard– beloved Oyster Dome threatened with clear-cutting
It was nearly one year ago when I first reported to you that one of Puget Sound’s most popular hiking spots may soon succumb to clear cut logging. The Oyster Dome, the Pearl of the Chuckanut Mountains—the only place in the Cascades where the mountains meet the Salish Sea—is in very real danger of being…
Read MoreNew Trail to Frog Mountain! — I’m hopping with joy!
When the Wild Sky Wilderness was established in 2008, part of the original negotiations was that several new trails would be built within this 106,000 roadless area. This was a good faith move of course to counter anti-wilderness claims of folks being locked off their land by providing even more access. And if you have…
Read MoreThe Oyster Dome to be Clear-cut?
One of Puget Sound’s most popular hiking spots may soon succumb to clear cut logging. The Oyster Dome, the Pearl of the Chuckanut Mountains—the only place in the Cascades where the mountains meet the Salish Sea—is being considered for a large logging operation. A large segment of trails including a portion of the Pacific Northwest…
Read More“We Need the Tonic of Wildness”
“We need the Tonic of Wildness,” wrote Henry David Thoreau in the 1840s while living on Walden Pond. Back then, Walden Pond was an island of wild surrounded by farms and a newly industrializing landscape. Thoreau constructed a tiny cabin in a grove of pine and oak above a cove on the placid kettle pond.…
Read MoreMille Grazie for a very Successful Hike-A-Thon
Wow! The 2015 Washington Trails Association Hike-A-Thon is over. I hiked a total of 201.3 miles and thanks to so many of you raised a grand total of $5255 for our trails!! Yahoo! This is by far my most successful hike-a-thon campaign-and I imagine once all of the numbers are tallied-it’ll be WTA’s most successful…
Read MoreOkanagan Mountain- A return after the great burn
I first visited Okanagan Mountain Provincial Park in the spring of 2003 while researching hikes for my Best Hikes with Dogs Inland Northwest book. Located just 10 miles south of bustling Kelowna; this 27,000-acre (11,000 hectare) park is a hiking haven in the heart of the Canadian Okanagan. Roadless and closed to motorized use; it’s…
Read More$5.00 and a good guess may get you a brand new pair of Oboz hiking shoes
The Washington Trails Association Hike-A-Thon has begun and I am on a quest to hike my butt off spreading the good word about WTA and how they protect our trails—and to raise $5,000 for them. I am currently 60% there on the fundraising and have just begun on the hiking. My good friends at Green…
Read MoreNever Cry Wolf Again
The environmental community lost two great and prolific writers these past two weeks, Peter Matthiessen and Farley Mowat. While many of my contemporaries reflected on the influences that Mr Matthiessen had on them and their writings and conservationism–it was Mowat that had the most profound effect on me. It was back in 1982 when my…
Read MoreSave the Whistler Canyon Trailhead!
The Whistler Canyon Trail (Hike no. 2 in my Day Hiking Eastern Washington book) is a gem. Located just south of Oroville, this Okanogan River Valley Trail is part of the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail. One of the best places in the state to see California bighorn sheep, this trail also offers stunning valley…
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