Mount Baker Experience, Summer 2022

SUMMER 2022

ADVENTURES IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST

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PUBLISHER’S NOTE

by Pat Grubb

W

ow! What a finish to the ski season. While the snow statistics are still unofficial, April’s snowfall totaled an amazing 127 inches, the most in the past 10 years.

Overall, it ranked eighth in total snowfall during the same period but there was fine riding to be done almost every day. Plus, with the relaxation of Covid-19 rules, it seemed like old times were back. Hallelujah!

It was great to see other things return to life such as the Ski to Sea race for the first time since the pandemic hit. We put together a Mount Baker Experience team with a motley crew of skiers, bikers, runners, canoeists and kayakers and did pretty good for people just looking for a fun time. We placed 93rd overall and seventh in our division despite a few mishaps and last-minute substitutions. Great job, crew!

We’ve put together an exciting summer issue with photography and editorial designed to appeal to a wide audience. We hope you enjoy it. Inside is a photo of MBE editor Ian Haupt who rode both bike legs in Ski to Ski with very respectable results. As soon as he finished, he was back to work getting this issue ready for the printer. (He might have had a few beers between the race and the office, I think.)

Have a great summer and think about participating in some of the events that are happening in the months ahead.

x

SHUKSAN

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MOUNT BAKER LODGE

Heather Meadows forgotten history from the Roarin’ 20s

14

34

TIME ON THE COLUMBIA

60 FOR 60

TUMBLING BIKES

River floating Hanford Reach

Hiking Tonasket to Snoqualmie Pass

Mountain bike-specific first aid

10

WEDNESDAY NIGHT MAGIC

12

MOUNTAIN TRIVIA

WMBC’s Whatcom World Cup series Test your knowledge

36

Official Mascot of Mount Baker Experience

B.C. FAMILY HIKES

Routes through Canada’s North Cascades 4

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MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE | SUMMER 2022

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TRIVIA ANSWERS

18

PRE-RACE TIPS

20

SEA TO SKI RECAP

22

GALLERY

38

CANNABIS Q&A

42

HAND STRETCHES

43

DINING AND LODGING

How did you do?

Advice for marathoners and others Team Experience places 93rd Photos for the long days of summer

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EVENTS

46

PARTING SHOT

Keep active this summer No time to change settings

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How to enjoy in the outdoors For mounain bikers and extreme typers Staying plump in Cascadia

ROY’S PICNIC TABLE

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Special publication of The Northern Light and All Point Bulletin PUBLISHERS Patrick Grubb and Louise Mugar EDITOR Ian Haupt PUBLICATION DESIGN Doug De Visser COPY EDITOR Grace McCarthy

MBE summer 2022

CONTRIBUTORS

ADVERTISING DESIGN Ruth Lauman • Doug De Visser ADVERTISING SALES Gary Lee • Molly Ernst CONTRIBUTORS IN THIS ISSUE: Nick Belcaster, Kasey Bell, Bruce Bjornstad, Radka Chapin, Beau Gaughran, Grant Gunderson, Stephen Hui, Eric Lucas, Jason D. Martin, Audra Lee Mercille, Eric Mickelson, Tony Moceri, Marcus Paladino, Andy Porter, Robert Rush, Skye Schillhammer, Matthew Tangeman, Luca Williams, Harrison Winkel EMAIL: info@mountbakerexperience.com

NICKBELCASTER Based in Bellingham, Nick Belcaster is an adventure journalist who enjoys breaking tree line, carrying as little as necessary and long walks across the country.

KASEYBELL Kasey Bell is a sixth-grade teacher who lives in Deming, WA. He gets outside every day he can.

WEB: www.mountbakerexperience.com FACEBOOK: facebook.com/mtbakerexperience TWITTER: twitter.com/MB_Experience INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/mtbakerexp If you can see Mt. Baker, you’re part of the experience. Mount Baker Experience is an outdoor recreation guide for and about the Mt. Baker region, distributed from Seattle to Vancouver, B.C. and published by Point Roberts Press, Inc. Locally owned, the company also publishes The Northern Light, All Point Bulletin, Pacific Coast Weddings, Waterside and area maps.

Vol. XXXVI, No. 3. Printed in Canada. ©2022 POINT ROBERTS PRESS 225 Marine Drive, Blaine, WA 98230 TEL: 360/332-1777 NEXT ISSUE Fall 2022 Ads due: August 12 ON THE COVER Jon Hansen stops to enjoy the view while biking in Bellingham, WA. Grant Gunderson photo SUMMER 2022

ADVENTURES IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST

FREE

MTB FIRST AID HISTORIC MT. BAKER LODGE FAMILY HIKES IN B.C.

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MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE | SUMMER 2022

GRANTGUNDERSON One of the ski industry’s preeminent photographers, Grant has shot for every major snow sports and outdoor publication worldwide.

Grantgunderson.com

STEPHENHUI Stephen Hui is the author of “Best Hikes and Nature Walks With Kids In and Around Southwestern British Columbia,” a new guide to 55 family-friendly trails in B.C. and Washington. 105hikes.com105hikes.com

ERICLUCAS Eric is the author of the Michelin guide to Alaska. He lives on a small farm on San Juan Island, where he grows organic hay, garlic, apples and beans. Trailnot4sissies.com

JASONMARTIN Jason is the executive director at the American Alpine Institute, a mountain guide and a widely published outdoor writer. He lives in Bellingham with his wife and two kids.

AUDRA LEEMERCILLE Audra Lee Mercille is a Pacific Northwest-based freelance adventurer. She found photography as a way to display her love and gratitude for the mountains and landscapes that inspire her. Audraleephotography.com

TONYMOCERI Tony is a freelance writer who loves to get out and explore the world with his family. He shares his journey @adventurewithinreach and tonymoceri.com.

MARCUSPALADINO Marcus Paladino is a surf and outdoor photographer living in Tofino, B.C. He strives to have simple descriptions like ‘surf shot’ or ‘nature photo’ fall short. That’s when his work becomes art. Marcuspaladino.com

ROBERTRUSH Robert Rush, M.D., is medical director for the Bellingham Bay Marathon and chief medical officer of surgery and medical director for trauma, acute care surgery and surgical quality at PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center.

SKYESCHILLHAMMER Skye Schillhammer is a rider, photographer and cinematographer for Transition Bikes in Bellingham. When he’s not on assignment or on a bike, you can find him deep in the woods building trails and soaking in the PNW.

MATTHEWTANGEMAN Matthew is an adventure photographer with a passion for deep powder, alpine granite and not making it back to the trailhead until way after dark. Mtangeman.com

LUCAWILLIAMS Luca Williams is a certified rolfer in Glacier.

She helps snowboarders, skiers and other outdoor enthusiasts get aligned and out of pain.

Website: lucasrolfing.com Blog: movingwithgravity.wordpress.com

HARRISONWINKEL Originally from Wisconsin, Harrison moved to Bellingham to attend Western Washington University. When he’s not working at a local bike shop or brewery, you can find him out in the woods doing what he’s passionate about.

MountBakerExperience.com

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Wednesday night magic Whatcom World Cup race series Story and photos by Harrison Winkel

I

could feel the buzz of excitement spread through town as group texts lit up my phone. “Are you racing Wednesday?” “Wanna go up to heckle?” “Heard there’s free beer!!!”

Wednesday nights during the summer are my favorite day of the week and for good reason. Every week through the end of August, the Whatcom Mountain Bike Coalition (WMBC), in partnership with local businesses, put on the

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MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE | SUMMER 2022

Whatcom World Cup. It’s a time when the local riding community gets together in the woods to race down trails, heckle their friends and crack a cold beer together.

Races cost $15 for WMBC members, which is $30 annually and goes to support trail maintenance and programming, and draws everyone from professionals to families. This season has 14 races scheduled. Last year had 12. Almost every single one will be raced on a new course either on Galbraith

Mountain or at the Waypoint Park pumptrack.

Having a variety of courses makes it so everyone has a race that suits their strengths. Some take race night seriously, with friend group bragging rights on the line, while others are there to simply have a good time and dress up in all manner of costumes. Don’t be surprised to see an astronaut or ballerina pass you.

Sponsored by Fanatik Bike Co. and Kulshan Brewing

MountBakerExperience.com

Company, the series started off on SST. With over 200 people registered, it was the largest on record. Riding up to the start, it was fantastic to high-five people I hadn’t seen in a while. This first race also had the largest women’s field I’ve seen at the series; super cool to see more ladies from town get involved.

Racing starts at 5 p.m. with youth racers, followed by the women then the men at 5:30 p.m.

Fast times are determined by how well one links together the trail features of that night’s race course. Overcook a corner or jump and you will find yourself off the trail.

With little braking, wide-open corners and a touch of pedaling, SST is a trail that suits my riding style. At one mile long, it took about three and a half minutes to complete. I had a clean run down and managed to improve on my time from last year. I had a few friends race and it was awesome to cheer them on with everyone else after I finished.

The second race, Pump Track to Eagle Scout, was muddy. Staying upright and on trail was a challenge. I ended up in the brush a couple times after overcooking a couple of jumps. A friend came out for the first time this season and absolutely crushed it in the women's field, finishing fourth.

Most weeks a crowd will be shouting some much-needed midrace encouragement along the trail. While the racing is just one part of what makes the world cups so fun, the aprés with friends is the cherry on top. Food and a healthy amount of beer greets everyone after every race. Yum. Seeing where I stack up against my friends and others in the community is fun, but more importantly, attending the world cups is where I can feed off people who share the same passion for community, mountain biking and having a plain ol’ good time. Meeting new people who share the same passions as I do is energizing. Wednesday summer nights are about the magic that is the community-driven Whatcom World Cup race series. No matter what place you come in, what bike you ride, what you wear or if you just come watch, you’re a part of what makes this community so magical.

“Are you racing this week?”

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11

Mountain Trivia:

8) Established in 1915, this local state park was Washington’s very first state park.

A) Larrabee State Park B) Bayview State Park C) Deception Pass State Park D) Birch Bay State Park

Round Five

T

By Jason D. Martin

his article marks the fifth time that Mount Baker Experience has featured mountain trivia. I hear it all the time. When is the next mountain trivia issue coming out…? Well, you asked. And so, you shall receive.

With that said, let’s get to it!

1) The newest edition to Bellingham climbing is seated deep in a local forest. The Lost Ledge Bouldering Area has become a go-to haunt for climbers in the Bellingham area.

From which local trail do most visitors access this area?

A) The Fragrance Lake Trail B) The Rock Trail C) The Chanterelle Trail D) The Pine and Cedar Trail Issac Howard on The Conjuring in The Lost Ledge Bouldering Area. Gabriel Cisneros photo

A front-pointing demonstration. Courtesy photo

Curtis Ridge. Additionally, they made second ascents on Mt. Rainier’s Liberty Ridge and Ptarmigan Ridge. Perhaps most importantly though, members of this club are credited with creating the first “stiff ” crampons for front-pointing in the Cascade Range. What was the name of the club?

A) The Mountaineers B) The Mazamas C) The BoAlps D) The Sherpa Climbing Club

9) Sport climbing is a form of rock climbing that primarily uses fixed bolts for protection instead of traditional climbing equipment. Many argue that American sport climbing started when Alan Watts rappelled down a beautiful face filled with pockets and placed a series of expansion bolts.

The route became known as Watts Tots (5.10d). This was the first sport route established in a Pacific Northwest location that – for a time – would become the epicenter of American climbing. What is the area?

A) Squamish B) Skaha Bluffs C) Mt. Erie D) Smith Rock State Park Khumbu Icefall on Mt. Everest. Courtesy photo

5) As you drive up 542 toward the Heather Meadows parking area at Mt. Baker Ski Area, a dramatic couloir can be seen on the east side of Mt. Herman. This nearly 50-degree couloir is considered an essential line for Baker backcountry skiers and splitboarders. What is the name of the couloir?

A) Paradise Gully B) Little Switzerland C) Stoneman D) Rock-n-Roller

2) For the first time in history, “indoor” climbing was included in the Olympic Games. The 2021 games were held in Tokyo. It’s a long process to become an Olympic athlete.

Two American men and two American women competed in the games. The American men were Nathaniel Coleman and Colin Duffy. Who were the American women?

A) Lynn Hill and Emily Harrington B) Brooke Raboutou and Kyra Condie C) Margo Hayes and Ashima Shiraishi D) Beth Rodden and Sasha DiGiulian 3) The most common native name for Mt. Baker is Kulshan, a Lummi word that means “the shooting place,” or “shot at the end.” The word Shuksan, as in Mt. Shuksan, is also a Lummi word. What is the meaning of the word?

A) White Mountain B) Steep Mountain C) Princess of the Sky D) High Peak 4) In the late 1950s, members of a small climbing club based on the east side of the mountains made several notable ascents in the Cascades. Members from the club made first ascents on Mt. Stuart’s Ice Cliff Glacier and on Mt. Rainier’s

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MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE | SUMMER 2022

6) When you place you ski pole or your trekking pole in the snow, there is a stopper at the base that keeps it from pushing in like a dagger. What is this called?

A) Basket B) Snow Stopper C) Expander D) Flick Lock 7) The lines on a topographical map can show one how steep a slope might be. When the lines are closer together, the slope is steeper. When they are farther apart, it’s less steep. What are these lines called?

A) Interval Lines B) Contour Lines C) Topo Lines D) Slope Angle Lines Mallorie Estenson photo

10) A small crew of Sherpa guides works hard in the spring to build a route through the deadly Khumbu Icefall on Mt. Everest. This requires a combination of route finding, fixing lines and fixing ladders. The Sherpa guides that perform this task are called what?

A) Icefall Doctors B) Khumbu Guides C) Everest Hasty Team D) Khumbu Pioneers 11) Famously, it took Reinhold Messner 16 years to climb all 14 8,000-meter peaks. Recently a Netflix movie entitled “14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible” featured another climber that completed this quest in just 70 days. Who was that climber?

A) Kim Chang-Ho B) Nirmal “Nims” Purja C) Adrian Ballinger D) Conrad Anker 12) In the 1970s, a group of avid and adventurous climbers identified the 100-highest peaks in Washington state and then went about “collecting them.” This list is still considered the gold standard of tick lists in Washington mountaineering. In the modern era, this list is referred to by the group that first pursued it. What is the list called?

A) The White Punks on Dope List B) The Bushmasters List C) The Bulger List D) The Peakbaggers List MountBakerExperience.com

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Time on the Columbia River floating from Hanford Reach Story by Eric Lucas Photos by Bruce Bjornstad

H

anford Reach is a place of wonder.

Such as, I wonder why bank swallows never make their nests in cliffs? And vice-versa?

Floating the last open stretch of the Columbia River offers acres of time for stray thoughts such as that. This is a land of deep time: Old-growth sagebrush (yes, there is such a thing) lines the eastward shore. The Columbia itself carries glacial meltwaters from Canada that pre-date the Roman Empire. The salmon that reach this point are pursuing a natural odyssey 20,000 years old.

Most of the stretch shows no sign of modern civilization, such as it is, until you drift in sight of the Hanford nuclear monoliths,

which seem otherworldly anyhow, possibly artifacts of long-ago alien landings.

I’m perambulating downstream in a canoe on a placid early summer morn, and “deep time” describes the day itself perfectly. No need to hurry, and attempts to do so (i.e., paddling hard) would not improve much on the river’s mighty flow.

So it’s not weird at all that I find myself wondering when the swallow evolutionary path hit a divergence in which one branch cast their lot with mud-daub colonies on cliffs, and their cousins decided to focus on long burrows in the sand and clay of riverbanks. Was that a million years ago? Did it happen right here? Is that why there are vast colonies of both swallows to admire, their

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nests tunneled into the glacial till and volcanic ash of the Columbia Basin lowlands — or cantilevered onto the chalk cliffs riding over undercut turns?

As adventure goes, this float is meditative more than mercenary, but there’s great virtue in that. A canoe is a perfect conveyance, too, practical, casually elegant, easily aimed and welcomed by the river itself, which has seen cottonwood versions of my craft for thousands of years, their indigenous paddlers heading downriver to trade elk hide for abalone shell.

This area, and the river within, is a U.S. national monument, controversially saved by President Bill Clinton from local ag interests who wanted to turn it into apple orchards.

Instead, now it’s still the home of the biggest sagebrush on Earth. The indigenous Columbia Basin big sage can grow past 8 feet (that’s a big sagebrush, folks), and hiking in a sage forest is a unique experience, especially aromatically. But most people travel the preserve by floating the Hanford Reach — its 51

miles north of Richland the Columbia’s last free-flowing stretch in the U.S. You can do both, of course: Put your canoe in just below Priest Rapids Dam at Vernita Bridge, pack a lunch, drift a few hours, pull off at a sandy beach for lunch and stretch your legs in the sage forest. Then, back in the water, you’re going to spend most of the day marveling at the Reach’s greatest abundance, birds. Thousands upon thousands, representing almost every riparian species imaginable: ducks, geese, swans, scoters, cormorants, herons, pelicans, loons, gulls, curlews, killdeer, sandpipers, kingfishers. Up the banks: harriers, magpies, blackbirds, ravens, meadowlarks, kestrels, eagles (ho-hum) and ospreys. Hardly anywhere in the U.S. affords the opportunity to see more different birds in one day than here.

But there’s more. Deer ghost through the sage. Porcupines dangle from cottonwoods.

Elk graze the dry grass of the eastern shore, having migrated down from the Cascades years ago to assert their ancient legacy as an-

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imals of the wide-open plains.

Here, too, the river itself asserts its identity as one of the geographic behemoths of America. Its springtime flow, 273,000 cubic feet per second, makes it the third-largest river contained entirely inside the U.S. Long ago dammed for electricity (yay, plasma-screen TVs), the Columbia provides close to half of U.S. hydroelectric power. Thus, most of its American length consists now of reservoirs or tidal reaches; the Hanford Reach is a preserve that preserves both a landscape and a character. Though it’s quite safely manageable for recreational paddlers, the boils and sweeps at big bends make you think of undersea monsters struggling to escape.

We humans travel the Columbia’s back as guests, not masters, to use an outdated term that underlaid our transformation of the rest of the river into a series of lakes. “Down her wild mountains and

canyons she flew,” Woody Guthrie sang of the river in a 1941 song ironically commissioned by the government to celebrate the biggest dams of all, Grand Coulee and Bonneville.

“Roll on, Columbia, roll on/Your power is turning our darkness to dawn,” Guthrie rhapsodized. True enough, but riding the river down toward the sea, as Guthrie sang, spurs wistful thoughts of what was but will never again be.

The flow is absorbed into lake again by the time you reach Richland. Most paddlers don’t go that far, hauling out at White Bluffs, 19 miles below Vernita. It’s a seven-hour journey, unless you measure it by spiritual time, which is utterly infinite.

Eric Lucas lives on a small farm on San Juan Island, where he grows organic hay, beans, squash and apples. For more information on Hanford Reach, visit fws.gov.

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We Ship!

Local authors, New releases, Books, Maps, Cards, Stickers

Answers from Mountain Trivia on page 12:

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4) D – The Sherpa Climbing Club. Gene Prater and Dave Mahre are credited with leading this club, while making several first ascents.

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5) C – The Stoneman Couloir is considered one of the most classic lines in the Baker backcountry.

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MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE | SUMMER 2022

2) B – Brooke Raboutou and Kyra Condie.

The documentary film, The Wall, partially chronicles Brooke’s journey to the Olympics.

And Kyra was featured all over climbing media. The men seemed not to get as much press as the women in this first Olympic event.

3) D – The Lummi word Shuksan [šéqsən] means “high peak.”

September 3 & 4

WITH

Mountain Trivia Answers

6) A – Basket. This device may be changed out for a different size depending on whether you’re in the snow or on a trail.

7) B – Contour lines. The contour interval is the difference in elevation represented by each line.

8) A – Larrabee State Park was Washington’s first state park and was named after Bellingham businessman Charles Larrabee.

Larrabee and his wife Francis deeded land that they owned on Chuckanut Drive to the state for the park. The park was originally called Chuckanut State Park, but the name was changed in 1923.

9) D – Smith Rock State Park. As sport climbing was taking off in the early 90s, this area near Bend, Oregon, became a worldclass climbing destination.

10) A – Icefall Doctors. These Sherpa guides don’t just set up the route, they repair it throughout the season, working in the hazardous icefall for up to 75 days.

11) B – Nirmal “Nims” Purja. The film “14 Peaks” is awesome and you should watch it now, if you haven’t already.

12) C – The Bulger List. Though there actually was a group of eastern Washington climbers that referred to themselves as the White Punks on Dope in the ’70s, the Bulgers are remembered for developing the list.

In 1980, Rus Kroeker (also known by his Bulger trail name, Koala) became the first person to complete all the summits on the list.

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Pre-race tips

for marathoners and other racers

By Robert Rush, M.D.

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W

ith sunnier skies, longer days and the Bellingham Bay Marathon coming up in September, it’s a good time to start talking about how to avoid injuries and ailments during vigorous exercise.

Being healthy and prepared at the starting line is the single best thing you can do to make sure you make it through the race without having to visit the medical tent. It’s important to train for a marathon; ideally you should start about three months ahead.

Suddenly doing a large amount of intense exercise without working up to it can cause joint problems and other injuries. Be sure to properly stretch to help your muscles stay loose and strong, and consider running on uneven terrain with a treadmill, elliptical machine or on a hill run.

But even if you do everything you can to slowly build up strength, stamina and speed, you can get into trouble on race day.

Here’s my best advice to avoid an injury — whether it’s on the marathon course or during any kind of intense exercise.

HYDRATE, HYDRATE, HYDRATE! Hands down, the most common problem we see in the medical tent is dehydration — especially on warm, sunny days. The average person loses as much as 1 to 2 liters of water per hour during vigorous exercise. As you lose fluids, energy wanes, muscles cramp and blood pressure falls.

Ideally, proper hydration should start well before the race does; ideally, five to seven days beforehand. Start drinking a little more water than you normally do — and stick to water, not juice or energy drinks or soda.

The American College of Sports Medicine recommends drinking approximately 16 ounces of fluid about two hours before exercise to help ensure adequate hydration and to allow time to excrete excess water. Avoid caffeinated beverages, as they have a diuretic effect.

During a race, it’s important to stop for water at all hydration stations or carry water with you. You need to replenish the fluids

you’re losing — about four to eight ounces every 15 to 30 minutes is a good rule of thumb.

Symptoms of mild dehydration include headache and light-headedness — bad enough to affect your time but not likely to bring you to the tent. As dehydration worsens, electrolytes — minerals such as calcium and potassium that carry energy through the body — become imbalanced, throwing off your blood chemistry, muscle function, and other key bodily functions. In more severe cases, you can get delirious.

EAT PROPERLY Make sure meals leading up to the race include foods with complex carbohydrates, such as whole grains, green vegetables, legumes and starchy vegetables (potatoes, squash, corn), as well as adequate protein and iron. Carry carb-rich snacks like energy bars with you.

WEAR THE RIGHT SHOES You’ll want shoes you’ve run in and know work for you. Race day isn’t the time to break in a new pair. We see plenty of nasty blisters and lost toenails in the medical tent, and the right pair of shoes can help prevent that. Allow a one- to two-month break-in period if possible.

If you do get blisters, there are many topical ointments that can help. Applying moleskin adhesive padding in blister-prone areas can also lessen or prevent the impact of blisters on your race.

WEAR THE RIGHT FABRICS Skin irritation and chafing, especially of sensitive areas, is another concern. Irritation of the thighs, groin and nipples in both men and women is common and unpleasant. The right fabrics can help prevent this. Make sure everything’s synthetic and easy to dry.

Avoid cotton, as it holds on to moisture and makes things worse.

You might want to try a store-bought lubricating balm or even Vaseline, and consider pre-emptively covering your nipples with bandages or other coverings.

Continued on page 42

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GTFO! GET THE FAMILY

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Mount Baker Experience

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represents at Ski to Sea

M

ount Baker Experience magazine took 93 overall in Ski to Sea 2022, not bad for a team out for a good time.

After a last-minute replacement and breaking a pole, the seven-person team, Team Experience, took 93rd overall and seventh in the Whatcom County Open division in the return of the race May 29.

The team consisted of Alex Hartley, Andrew Grubb, Shayla Maupin, Ian Haupt, Elliott Smith, Linda Finch and Austin Santamaria; who together finished the seven-leg, 93-mile race in eight hours and 38 minutes.

“So much fun!” Smith said. “Where do I sign-up for next year?”

x

1) Team captain Ian Haupt who competed in both road bike and cyclocross legs with last minute kayak fill-in Austin Santamaria.

2) Canoeists Elliott Smith and Linda Finch, center, congratulated by Pat Grubb and Gary Lee at the finish.

3) What a run, Shayla Maupin! She placed 53rd overall.

4) Glad that’s over! Andrew Grubb, downhill ski, and Alex Hartley, cross country ski.

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Clockwise from top left: Beers with the crew post an epic ride in B.C. Skye Schillhammer photo | Beautiful scenery and some solitude on Diablo Lake in the North Cascades. Audra Lee Mercille photo | Nightly views of the Milky Way above Komo Kulshan from the base of Mt. Rexford in B.C. Radka Chapin photo | KC Deane and Jon Hansen riding in Bellingham. Grant Gunderson photo

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MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE | SUMMER 2022

MountBakerExperience.com

GALLERY

SUMMER 2022 | MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE

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MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE | SUMMER 2022

MountBakerExperience.com

GALLERY Clockwise from top left: Olivine paddles out! Summer SUP’n fun in Mt. Baker Wilderness. Audra Lee Mercille photo | Anything good requires slogging through the woods — Thunder Creek in the North Cascades. Beau Gaughran photo | Patrick Kao scoping the north face of Castle Peak, prior to attempting a new route on the face. Matthew Tangeman photo | John Ferguson during a race in Bellingham Bay in early summer. Beau Gaughran photo | Hanna Scott beats the crowd during a dawn patrol moonset in Tofino, B.C. Marcus Paladino photo

SUMMER 2022 | MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE

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MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE | SUMMER 2022

MountBakerExperience.com

GALLERY Clockwise from top left: Jake Leonard in the crux of his new route, Afterburner, high on Snow Creek Wall in Leavenworth. Matthew Tangeman photo | Misty forests of the Homathko River drainage, B.C. Matthew Tangeman photo | Spencer Baldwin slides a tire over a log gap on Mohawk, a trail he and the Shire Built crew built on Galbraith Mountain. Eric Mickelson photo | Camp on Sahale Mountain, North Cascades. Andy Porter photo | Garrett Holt prepares for a beachside boulder session near Ucluelet, B.C. Marcus Paladino photo

SUMMER 2022 | MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE

27

Hiking in the Anthropocene

Tonasket to Snoqualmie Pass Story and photos by Kasey Bell

A

fter turning 59, I began thinking that I should celebrate turning 60 by spending 60 days in the wilderness. I decided to break free from my usual linear and circular styles of hiking and try to do more of a freestyle meander between resupply points. My general plan was to start on the east side of the Pasayten Wilderness, head west to the Pasayten River, then south with resupplies at Mazama, Stehekin, Stevens and Snoqualmie passes. I wanted to immerse myself in my home mountains for a longer and introspective journey, try to go on trails off the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), and try to get a sense of the current wellbeing of the North Cascades ecosystem.

Looking back, a little trail research ahead of time would have been helpful. I knew that parts of the Pasayten Wilderness and other eastside trails had burned. I had no idea how extensive it was and how badly the burns had affected trail conditions.

Things started out fine on the first 12-day leg, on which my 17-year-old son, Finley, joined me. We started from the Iron Gate Trailhead through a mix of burned and unburned forest for the first three days, culminating with a spectacular stretch from the larch forest on Apex Pass, angling north to Cathedral Pass, and down to Cathedral Lake. Here we had our only rain on this section with a thunderstorm that flattened our tent early the next morning. The skies cleared and we had a vista-filled scramble up the shoulder of Cathedral Peak that morning. The view made us feel like we were in the center of a vast wilderness, with the exception of the border swath running with relentless straightness on the 49th parallel just to the north.

That afternoon we began a descent into what began to feel like the edge of Mordor. We had started on the solstice, and now, even at 7,000 feet, the temperature started to ratchet up as the 2021 heat dome pushed its way into the Northwest.

On top of this, the forest for the next six days turned out to be almost all burned, with just small patches of alpine trees left living. The only bright point we had forest-wise was after a particularly grim descent to the Ashnola River. We found a patch of green from the 12-foot living shoots of aspen trees, sprouting up from their roots. Up on Sheep Mountain even

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MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE | SUMMER 2022

some of the high-altitude heather had burned.

The last of the alpine on this stretch of the Boundary Trail was on Bunker Hill, where we took refuge in the shade of some alpine firs and cooled ourselves with snow packed under our hats. This is where I wanted to head off the Border Trail and go south toward Hidden Lakes, but luckily we ran into a trail crew that advised against this as that trail had not been maintained in years and was 100 percent burned.

The next morning found us descending along a faint ash-coated trail, crawling under or climbing over blowdowns the whole way to the Pasayten River crossing. This we reached at midday with the temperature already in the 90s. I followed Finley, who boldly headed into the high and swift ford. The water gradually deepened until it was nearing the top of my thighs. I imagined a scenario of my foot giving way on a slippery stone, the fast current pulling me into the freezing water, having to wriggle free of my pack and then watching it get swept to Canada as I struggled not to drown.

Luckily, we both emerged safely into, yes, more burned forest on the opposite bank. Trudging south in punishing sun we searched for shade and finally found a 15-foot live pine tree to huddle under for the afternoon as the heat hovered in the high 90s.

The following morning was more of the same: Extreme burnt blowdown challenge. This went on for five miles until the trail junction to Frosty Pass, and we saw living forest on the other side.

We crossed the old airfield and U.S. Forest Service camp and continued south through intact, beautiful forest. We camped that night at the Upper Pasayten River crossing, where we met some PCT southbound thru-hikers, “Bunkhouse” and “Spud,” who were detouring around some dangerous snow on the regular route. These were the first hikers we’d seen other than the trail crew in five days. The next few days took us up over Robinson Pass and down the trail to Mazama and the comforts of the Mazama Store.

Part two of my hike started that same afternoon with my wife, Marjie, my sister Natasha and our friend Andrea joining me for the nine-day trek from there to Stehekin.

Our route took us up the Cedar Creek trail, five miles up the highway from Mazama, which offered good trail, shade

and a couple of nice creek-side campsites on the way up to Abernathy Pass. Tragically, this whole valley burned a week later.

On the other side we camped at a buggy North Lake, and then wrapped our way over to Twisp Pass, camping at a lovely view site a couple of miles below the pass. A calmly foraging black bear kept us company.

Highlights of the rest of this section include a day trip up to Stiletto Lake, some rainy and cool weather at Dagger Lake, and getting into beautiful old-growth on the trails down toward the PCT and back up to McAlester Lake. Then down to Stehekin, with the scenic Rainbow Creek trail putting us just a mile from the famous bakery.

Part three started with a boat trip down the lake from Stehekin to Lucerne. There I waved goodbye to my trail mates and started solo with 13 days of provisions, up toward Emerald Park Pass over, yes, more burned forest and blowdowns. Luckily, I ran into another trail crew, who were clearing the route to Domke Lake, who told me that the trail to the pass is mile after mile of burns and blowdowns, with much the same in the Entiat River Valley on the other side. Disheartened, I spent the night up at Domke Lake, where I met Sid, the 71-year-old owner of the now burnedout Domke Lake resort, a casualty of the 2015 fire here. He reminisced about the days when the lake was a popular summer camping destination.

The next day I retreated to Lucerne and caught the shuttle up to Holden Village, with the idea I would abandon my previous plan to go around the east side of Glacier Peak.

Instead, I would head west out of Holden and connect with the PCT. I spent my first night at Heart Lake, then did a side trip up to the glaciated valley of upper Lyman Lakes. I ran into several groups coming over Spider Gap, everyone doing a loop that picks up the PCT and then heads back down over Buck Creek Pass. I rested in my camp for the afternoon, watching with slack-jawed horror at one point as a rockfall came down from the cliffs above me and passed about 50 yards from my tent.

I connected up with the PCT the next day, staying on it for a few miles before taking a detour over to the famous Image Lake. I remember stories from my youth of this scenic spot MountBakerExperience.com

overrun with campers but after an amazing alpine meadow traverse, with marmot accompaniment, I was astounded to find that I had the campground all to myself. I spent some meditative time with the salamanders by the lake and then met a few other hikers, Scott and Erica, forest rangers on vacation from the Darrington Ranger District who generously gave me the detailed map I needed to go around the west side of Glacier Peak with confidence. I also met Russ, volunteer ranger at the Miners Ridge Lookout. He invited me to visit the next morning. It’s an amazing lookout with a lot of history.

He shared the experience of surviving a lighting strike in the lookout, which caused the knife his wife was chopping vegetables with to fly across the room. He also filled me in on the history of the Kennecott Copper Corporation mine, a proposal in the 1960s that would have put an open pit copper mine just a few miles up the ridge, thankfully thwarted.

My experience with the folks I met at Image Lake reflected one of the main takeaways I have from the trip: Mountain people are super friendly. I think this is our natural state, but civilization makes us edgy.

On the PCT this theory was frequently validated. I met a series of extremely kind and nice people, like “Hammer,” my first northbound thru-hiker, and southbound thru-hikers like Robert, Mary Ellen and “Calzone” along with various happy groups and solos out for shorter trips.

The way west around Glacier Peak was epic with the mountain revealing its various sublime faces with each ridge, incredible old growth down in the Suiattle River basin, and ethereal alpine campsites. It was nice to hike on some rare snow around Mica Lake and Fire Creek Pass. Views to the west of Sloan Peak made me nostalgic for a climb I did there

40 years ago.

The hike from Glacier Peak to Stevens was notable for a series of classic crest ridge walks and intact and healthy upper montane forest of what looked like pure mountain hemlock.

I had a refreshingly cool and breezy camp at Lake Sally Ann and a camp with record clouds of mosquitos at Pear Lake. Views of Mt. Rainier became stronger as views of Glacier Peak diminished.

The last piece of my wilderness sojourn began, after rest and resupply, with my friends, Pat and Julie, and my sister, Natasha, joining me as we climbed, in what used to be typical cascade drizzle, up through the Stevens Pass Ski Area. Thus, began day 35 of my quest, heading south on a classic part of the PCT from Stevens to Snoqualmie, a beautiful section with an assortment of lovely lakes. We camped and swam at Glacier Lake, which had schools of fish feeding on the surface; Waptus Lake, windy and warm, and Spectacle Lake, set in a valley of smooth boulders that reminded me of the High Sierras. We met more great people, such as “Sandstorm” who sat with us for dinner while sharing tales of his thru-hike north so far. Our wildlife highlight was a marmot with two pups taking turns nursing and playing in a boulder patch just off the trail. The last few days had us in smoke from a fire south of Snoqualmie Pass. This didn’t diminish the coolness of the Kendall Catwalk.

In the end, I didn’t make my goal of 60 days.

This was partly a logistics error, partly missing home and family, and partly appreciating hiking with company more than hiking alone.

I headed home on day 41, rich in trail lore and with a greatly deepened appreciation of these mountains, with their precious forests, glaciers and snowfields, rivers, lakes and wildlife, that have been the backdrop of my life.

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Guests arrive at Mount Baker Lodge as Sunrise Lake melts behind. Galen Biery Collection, Bert Huntoon photo, #849, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies. (below) A woman feeds one of the many black bears in the area. Bert Huntoon photo, Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, WA.

The Old Lady of Mount Baker Mount Baker Lodge stood for 4 years in Heather Meadows

By Ian Haupt

T

he Mount Baker Lodge opened to guests in 1927.

Near the front entrance of the lodge was a fountain with spring water piped from the bottom of Table Mountain. Furnished with dozens of chairs, lounges and writing tables with stationary bearing the local scenery, the lobby was 130 feet long and 50 feet wide with a large stone fireplace, big enough to accommodate a 10-foot log. Windows on one side looked north across the Nooksack River upon the Cascades. On another side, windows unveiled a panoramic view of Mt. Shuksan across Sunrise Lake.

The lodge’s color scheme was accented with signs of the American Indian, and fur pillars supported its ceiling. Offices, checking rooms and enclosures with candy, drinks, cards and photographs for purchase were adjoined to the lobby.

“God, I wish I could’ve walked into that,” Mike Impero said, looking at a photo of the lodge’s lobby. He continued clicking through photos on his home computer as his eyes slowly watered. Many of the photos he used in his book, “The Grand Lady of Mount Baker: A History of the Mount Baker Lodge from 1927-1931.”

As he sifts through, he offers a story, detail, factoid. There are hundreds, and duplicates.

“The building was not built cheap!” he said, as he points out that the electrical wiring in the lodge was drilled into the wood rather than surface mounted. Then he jumped to the Native American artifacts that decorated the room, and then to the fireplace. He said he gets sidetracked.

Impero was raised in Kendall in the 1950s and grew up hunting, fishing, climbing and hiking in the mountains surrounding Mt. Baker. He spent years as a kid traveling up to Heather Meadows with his family. His dad used to say if they were lucky they would see a bunch of black bears.

“I love the alpine country,” Impero said.

He’s climbed Mt. Shuksan three times. At 81, he continues

to return to the area today.

He said as a kid he was meant to go into the lumber business, as it was what most did who lived in the area. But when his brother was killed in an accident, he said his father forbid it. So he became a general contractor and moved to Bellingham where he’s lived since.

He started researching and interviewing people about the history of the Baker area in the early 2000s. While caring for his late wife, Impero had extra time at home and began writing what has become six published books.

His background as a general contractor made him interested in the history of the lodge and early development of the area. He said in the 1980s he was contracted to build the Alaska Marine Highway System’s terminal in Bellingham, now known as the Bellingham Cruise Terminal, and saw similarities in both projects.

“It had an unbelievable schedule to get done,” Impero said. “That ferry was coming and there was no way to change it. It was coming on a certain date, and the problem was the time element to build the building was unbelievably short. Well these people building the lodge went through the same thing.” …

In 1922, Frank Sefrit, managing editor of Bellingham’s The American Reveille newspaper, had recently returned from visiting Heather Meadows when he met with long-

time friend and Pacific American Fisheries president Everett Deming at his office in Fairhaven. He proposed the idea of building a lodge in the meadows, what he called the most beautiful spot on Earth that he had ever been.

The meeting would start a five-year effort to open an overnight lodge in the undeveloped area. The land was leased for $150 annually from the U.S. Forest Service and discussions about constructing a road to the site began. The Mount Baker Lodge Development Company intended to provide suitable accommodations for the traveling public once the road was finished.

Project manager Bert Huntoon and site supervisor Charlie Hunley commenced work on the project in summer of 1923.

The abandoned gold rush town of Shuksan, 8 miles down from Heather Meadows on the North Fork of the Nooksack River, was used to store materials and supplies and as a sawmill. The first supply trips up to the area were made on foot before a pack trail was established. In the first summer, water pipelines, restrooms and miles of trails were built.

Hunley, with one or two other men, stayed at the site during winter.

His wife and three children would occasionally journey up to visit. In the meantime, he made friends with a local packrat, Bimbo, and a large male black bear, Bozo. Hunley’s job during the winter was to measure the water level of the weir in Bagley Creek and the snowpack. With SUMMER 2022 | MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE

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Cars parked at the Annex as the area grew more popular for its winter activities, years after the lodge burnt down. Bert Huntoon photo, Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, WA. tents and cabins built, construction on the lodge began in July 1925.

By September 1925, the road was finished and the first wagonload of lumber made it to the site. But progress stalled as the bad fall weather set in.

While neither the development company nor the Washington State Highway Department publicized the road’s completion, people began coming up to Heather Meadows with skis, sleds and ice skates until the road was blocked for winter.

The original investors, the Mount Baker Development Company, saw the lodge as a summertime retreat. Tourists could stay at the lodge, cabins or tents on the complex and enjoy the area. The lodge was supposed to be for wealthy,

upper-class people while the cabins were for middle-class families.

The company planned for the grand opening of the lodge on June 15, 1927. Crews worked all winter to have the lodge built in time. With the lodge not yet finished and an average of 11 feet of snow at Heather Meadows in late May, they knew it would have to be delayed. Snow on the road prevented vehicles from reaching the lodge. The road wasn’t fully cleared until July 9.

After five years of planning, building and securing funding, the lodge opened June 30. While not the grand opening, the hotel had over 120 guests staying overnight in a couple of days. The board of directors and stockholders were relieved to see the lodge become a reality and begin generating rev-

enue. A letter sent to shareholders said $500,000 was invested to build the lodge, its surrounding complex and camp at Shuksan. By the grand opening July 14, Heather Meadows was still blanketed with snow 3 to 5 feet deep.

“This man-made Lodge is in the place as nature planned it ages ago when she turned the mountains up with lakes between Baker and Shuksan and spread Heather Meadows out like a great Persian rug to place the Lodge on,” one visitor commented during the first year of opening.

One of the main complaints the first year was the lack of a view of Mt. Baker. The only way to see it was by hiking a mile or two out on the ridge or to Artist Point. The development company began pushing the forest service and highway department for a road up to Austin Pass and Artist Point.

The beautiful Mount Baker Lodge lobby with oak floor and handcrafted western American Indian decor. G. Byeman photo.

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MountBakerExperience.com

Mount Baker Lodge during construction. Fresh snow on Mt. Shuksan; winter is coming.

Bert Huntoon photo, Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, WA

Pinto the horse and a hand-carved Native American canoe, which came from either the Lummi or Nooksack Indian tribes. Bert Huntoon photo, Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, WA

A typical bedroom in the Mount Baker Lodge.

Bert Huntoon photo, Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, WA

For the next couple of years, the lodge opened in July and closed in September. Hundreds of people from Whatcom County and across the nation flocked to the area for a summer stay in the North Cascades. Movie productions began using the area for its natural beauty.

The Annex was built in 1928 next to the lodge and connected by a covered walkway. By 1930, the Washington State Commission was calling for bids to complete construction of the Mount Baker Highway to Artist Point.

Then on August 5, 1931, the lodge burned down. Huntoon was out in the meadows to catch the sunrise and take photos of the lodge when he saw smoke coming from the building. The reported cause was defective wiring or electrical supply. The Annex, Heather Inn and all of the cabins were unscathed, but the lodge was a total loss. Rumors spread that a disgruntled stockholder started the fire after not receiving dividends on his investment.

Newspapers reported the lodge’s direct current power system was responsible for the fire.

The Mount Baker Development Company continued to welcome visitors in the summer, housing them in the Annex and cabins and using the Heather Inn as a lobby.

The extension of Mount Baker Highway to Artist Point was completed in October 1931.

A skiing escalator that went up to the Panorama Dome was installed in Heather Meadows in early winter 1935. It was the first convenience of its kind in the Pacific Northwest, and cost 15 cents to ride. The Northwest Ski Association held its first slalom race at the Panorama Dome in May 1936. One hundred thirty skiers competed in the two-day event and over 2,000 spectated. The U.S. Forest Service deemed it a total success and began developing the area into a wintertime playground.

The area continued to host competitions over the years and in 1939 the Mount Baker Ski Patrol was organized. As winter activities grew in popularity, the Mount Baker Development Company looked for ways to continue operation and profit off the new visitors.

With profits dwindling, the company sold the Heather Inn, which had been closed for two seasons, to the forest service in July 1941 for $1,100.

During the winter of 1942/1943, the Washington State Highway Department cut back operations to keep the highway open due to the wartime shortage of gasoline. The Mount Baker Development Company disbanded shortly after. …

There were many reasons for the failure. Impero said and wrote some were acts of nature and others were poor business judgment. They didn’t anticipate the tremendous snowfall that would add stress on facilities and make for a short season. Without snow removal operations, the area was only accessible from July to mid-September most years.

Based on financial statements he acquired during research, the lodge showed profitability the first two years it was open, then visitation slowed and the Great Depression hit. He said the project was doomed from the beginning.

“They didn’t realize the magnitude of what they were building.”

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Tumbling Bikes Mountain bike first aid with Backcountry Medical Guides Story and photos by Nick Belcaster

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o who here is part of the busted collar bone club?

Up go more hands than I expected. Certainly more than the general population. Mountain bikers are that way: Perpetually roughed up, pinballing off old growth or introducing their knees to the gravel. One in the group produces her surgical scars for the rest of us to consider.

She’s broken both collar bones — twice.

Courses like wilderness first aid (WFA) and wilderness first responder (WFR) were made for these people. It’s first aid instruction for those who are as likely to come across someone on trail in need of some medical help as they are being that person. The issue, John Taussig realized, was that most wilderness medical courses dealt in broad generalities to almost the disservice of those on the receiving end. Try hammering home best practices for treatment of high altitude cerebral edema to the casual sailor. Eye glaze, ahoy.

Today Taussig operates Backcountry Medical Guides (BMG), a wilderness medicine educational nonprofit that offers unique sport-specific courses that are truly dialed in terms of what outdoor recreators might encounter in their discipline. Instruction is offered through the lenses of hiking, mountain biking, trail running, skiing or sailing, and aren’t shy about tailoring the curriculum to different user groups.

“It’s also the hardest possible way to teach these classes,” Taussig says.

Instructors aren’t just instructors, they’re guides as well, managing the risk that comes along with leading outdoor excursions. But the tradeoff, BMG proposes, is a far more applicable education for their students.

“You can take skills learned in a mountain biking medical course and take them anywhere. They apply to the front country or the back country, but by focusing on specific populations you build a community in the process, and it allows people to extract what is most important to them,”

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Taussig says.

This helps explain why the instructors of the mountain biking WFA course I find myself in late April set aside more time to explain slinging a broken collar bone. Based on the stories being traded, I could tell that more than likely, everyone here was going to need it sooner than later. Our classroom was the world-class trails of Galbraith mountain, and our instructors were Drew Trimakas, an 18-year veteran paramedic with the Bellingham Fire Department, and Adam Cosner, 25-year paramedic and resident of Santa Cruz, California. I should also mention, they both rip on a bike.

Our instruction had begun with online course materials to prepare us for our two days on the bike. Most all of the BMG course offerings utilize little to no classroom space so after a brief lesson on CPR under cover of a picnic shelter, we’re out pedaling uphill into a spring rain. It’s this live-fire environment that really makes the education come to life, Taussig says.

“Imagine a rescue on Galbraith — it might be an hour and a half, two hours, which doesn’t seem like that long. But 30 minutes in the pouring rain, on the ground in a mud puddle, when you’re feeling that and you’re being assessed, you get that sense of importance from that weather,” Taussig says.

“We don’t necessarily welcome it, but we shoulder it just fine.”

Our soggy ascent is rewarded by a cloud break just as we dive into the first of many scenarios, where our abilities in managing a patient are put to the test. The mechanism of injury ranges from the general to the mountain bike specific (Uh oh, looks like your buddy cased that last kicker!), and Trimakas and Cosner keep us fresh with stories from both their time as paramedics, as well as their time riding trails.

Interspersed throughout the day are moments of mountain bike MacGyverism: A bike inner tube can be used as a tourniquet in a pinch, bike bottles are excellent at providing

the high pressure needed to irrigate a dirty wound, and knee pads are almost ready-made splints. It’s these nuggets of wisdom that are rattling around in my brain as the sun finally makes an appearance while we wrap up and blast down Bob’s Trail toward the cars. …

Taussig has always had the itch to teach. In college he began instructing CPR for the American Heart Association, and at age 22 he constructed a curriculum to get ski patrollers in Montana up to speed and on the hill. By the time he was working as a flight paramedic in Santa Cruz in 2010, he had enough coworkers and friends who needed recertifications that it made sense to plant stakes — and BMG began.

BMG’s first office was the Breezy, a small sailboat docked in Santa Cruz harbor, which Taussig would sail to Monterey to host WFA and WFR courses on. Today BMG is still a scrappy grassroots affair (just with a bigger boat — the Lucia), and has assembled an impressive contingent of MDs, PAs and EMTs to instruct their courses.

Taussig is incredibly proud of the curriculum that BMG has put together, noting that it is “100 percent uniquely Backcountry Medical Guides.” While there are standard bearers in the wilderness medical scene, there isn’t any standard curriculum, which means that BMG has been able to lean on their medical advisory board and craft an education that tunes in exactly to the frequency of whatever outdoor user group they’re working with that week. It’s custom-crafted wilderness medicine for what you’re into. …

Day two of our course began far drier than the first, and a hearty pedal up the north side of Galbraith deposits us at an overlook where we would spend much of our morning. In the span of a few hours I’d stabilized a diabetic, assisted in MountBakerExperience.com

the evacuation of a stroke victim and splinted an open femur fracture.

By lunch we had migrated to Blue Steel, a pro level jump line carved into a cut on the flanks of Galbraith, which was a fitting location for a discussion on trauma. Every story that Trimakas and Cosner shared weren’t so much a retelling of their greatest saves, but rather when they had learned something on the job or had encountered a situation on the trail and how they managed it.

After a few more scenarios (with copious fake blood involved) we pack up and make one final run of the day on a trail that Trimakas knows well: He cut it in. We queue up and finally burn off the elevation we’ve been holding in reserve all day, hooting and hollering our way down. It’s a perfect dirt sort of run, a loan finally being paid off for enduring the rain of the previous day. We fire our way back to the cars in good style, with no one kissing the turf this go.

A wilderness first aid or first responder course can be an invaluable experience for anyone who spends appreciable time recreating outdoors. The hard skills learned can be applied to a number of different situations, but almost more important is learning how to approach a scene with a level head and working through a system. “It’s hard to take an office setting cardiac arrest and apply it to a boat, but it’s really easy to take all the stressors and apply it to land,” Taussig says.

My weekend on the bike was an excellent refresher of the wilderness medical skills I had learned on my first rodeo with a WFR course, and seeing them through the perspective of a mountain biker added a different dimension and depth to my understanding. These are all skills that might make the difference on trail, whether it’s you who takes the spill, or someone you come across.

More so maybe, it just made me grateful for my intact collarbones.

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Family hikes in Canada’s North Cascades Story and photos by Stephen Hui

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orgeous scenery abounds in the North Cascades on both sides of the border. However, some epic trails may be a tad ambitious for parents with little ones.

Fortunately, we also have trails that are easy on effort and big on reward.

Here are three delightfully kid-friendly hikes in Canada’s North Cascades.

Reminders: Check trail reports, bring the essentials, leave a trip plan with a responsible person and leave no trace.

MT. THOM Distance: 4.3 miles Access: On Trans-Canada Highway 1 in Chilliwack, take Exit 123. Head south on Prest Road. Continue onto Teskey Way. Turn left on Jinkerson Road. Go right on Thom Creek Drive.

Turn right on Sylvan Drive and find parking near the upper trailhead.

Trail: Mt. Thom is an enjoyable outing in any season. Our lollipop hike climbs the foothill from Chilliwack’s Promontory neighbourhood.

From the kiosk on Sylvan Drive, enter Mt. Thom Park and climb 130 numbered steps. The viewpoint atop the stairs overlooks a suburban housing tract, the Fraser Valley and Chilliwack Mountain. Follow the Thom

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Creek Trail into the mixed woods. A path from MacFarlane Place joins from the right.

Go left at the Walker Creek Trail junction. Zigzag steadily uphill on the wide gravel path. Watch out for Pacific banana slugs and sideband snails underfoot. Lose some elevation.

At the Summit Bypass Trail junction, go right. The trail dips again. Climb 22 unnumbered steps. A bench offers a rest and a partial viewpoint. Keep right at signposts for Karver’s Trail, Churchill Parkway and the Ridgeline Trail, joining the Lookout Loop. Pass a bench viewpoint and follow a wire fence.

Finally, head up an eroded path to the satisfying summit viewpoint.

Gaze southwest through the fireweed to Cultus Lake, Vedder Mountain and the Vedder River. However, the daring ravens are indubitably the stars of the show.

Continue left, turning right at a kiosk just downhill from the summit. Stroll among big old-growth Douglas firs.

Go left on the quiet Ridgeline Trail.

Skip the signed, but overgrown, viewpoint off to the right. Meet the Lookout Loop, closing the counter-clockwise summit loop; turn right and retrace your steps to Sylvan Drive.

MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE | SUMMER 2022

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THACKER MOUNTAIN Distance: 3 miles Access: Eastbound on Trans-Canada Highway 1, take Exit 170 in Hope. From the off-ramp, turn left. Go right on Old Hope Princeton Way. Make a left on 6th Avenue, followed by a right on Kawkawa Lake Road. Turn left on Union Bar Road, then make a sharp left on Thacker Mountain Road. Park by the end of the paved road.

Trail: Thacker Mountain stands east of the confluence of the Coquihalla River and Fraser River in Hope. A pleasant lollipop hike takes in the views from all sides of this forested hill.

From the cul-de-sac, start up the gravel service road. Keep left at a three-way junction under a rock wall and pass a yellow gate. Where a log lies by the roadside, a mossy bluff off to the left offers benches from which to admire the lovely view of little Landstrom Ridge and bigger Dog Mountain behind Hope and the Coquihalla-Fraser confluence. Keep kids back from the edge.

Continue up the road, which enters Thacker Regional Park and land owned by the University of British Columbia. After the road curves right, go left on a trail that rounds a wetland with a bridge over its outflow. Stay on the main trail as it bends right.

Go left at a three-way junction to begin a clockwise loop. Detour left for a near-summit viewpoint, with an outcrop for sitting and snacking, which affords another grand perspective of Hope, the Fraser Valley and the Skagit Range. For a brief outing, turn around here.

Continuing the loop, pass a big Douglas fir, gradually descend and merge with an old road coming from the right. Walk the planks over the outlet of a wetland. Go left and up a side path, for a partial viewpoint overlooking Kawkawa Lake. Ogilvie Peak, Macleod Peak and Mt. Outram provide the backdrop.

The side path quickly rejoins the main trail. Hit the gravel road.

Turn left and head up to the antenna tower. Go around the fence to score a big view of Hope Mountain from the cliff top. Kawkawa Creek, home to kokanee salmon runs, empties into the Coquihalla River below.

Head back down the gravel road, passing your previous path on the right and a gate on the left, and turning right on another path.

By a pond, encounter the oddity locals call the bear tree. Kids will be drawn to the little cave underneath the pair of seemingly conjoined trees. Turn left at a junction from earlier to close the clockwise loop.

Retrace your steps to the gravel road and down to the trailhead.

LIGHTNING LAKE Distance: 5.6 miles Access: From Hope, head east on Crowsnest Highway 3. At the Manning Park Resort, turn right on Gibson Pass Road.

Turn left in 1.9 miles to reach the Lightning Lake day-use area.

Trail: It’s no mystery why outdoor enthusiasts flock to Lightning Lake in E.C. Manning Provincial Park every summer. The large campground is perfect for families, the lake holds rainbow trout, and the chilly bluish-green water makes for invigorating swimming. Another reason to visit is the rodents, namely the squirrels, chipmunks and beavers.

The whistled calls and burrows of Columbian ground squirrels welcome you to the day-use area. (Don’t approach or feed wildlife.) Start at the kiosk by the beach. Head east on the paved path and cross the dam at the end of the lake. The Frosty Mountain Trail quickly strikes off to the left. Stick with the easy Lightning Lake Trail to reach Rainbow Bridge, a postcard-worthy span over the lake’s narrows.

Don’t cross if you plan to circumnavigate the lake. Take a bridge over Lightning Creek immediately downstream of a beaver dam at the lake outlet. Turn right to stick with the loop trail. As you near Rainbow Bridge, scan for beaver-chewed trees along the shore and a beaver lodge across the water.

Follow the loop trail by Spruce Bay, the Lightning Lake campground, and around Lone Duck Bay to return to the dayuse area. Sightings of black bears and mule deer are common.

Stephen Hui is the author of “Best Hikes and Nature Walks With Kids In and Around Southwestern British Columbia,” a new guide to 55 family-friendly trails in B.C. and Washington.

His first two books, “105 Hikes and Destination Hikes,” were #1 B.C. bestsellers. Learn more: 105hikes.com

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Cannabis Q&A: Benefits and recommendations for using cannabis outdoors

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oing into the summer hiking season, we asked budtenders from Blaine area dispensaries Birch Bay Budz, Dank of America and Buds Garage how they would recommend using their products while out on the trail.

Questions and answers were edited for length and clarity.

(Editor’s note: To avoid wildfire risk, Mount Baker Experience does not recommend smoking while in the backcountry.

Recreating in the outdoors can pose a wide range of risks.

Using intoxicants can increase those risks and readers should consider the ramifications before they imbibe, whether it be alcohol, marijuana or any other intoxicants.

Be mindful and take caution. And don’t get lost.)

• What type of product do you recommend to use during outdoor activity?

Birch Bay Budz: Edibles, topicals, or oil vape cartridge and battery setup.

Dank of America: This can vary quite a bit from person to person, but for a vast majority we would recommend a joint, vape cartridge or edible.

• How will it enhance the experience?

Birch Bay Budz: Topicals are especially useful if you have joint pain.

Dank of America: I know for many consumers being able to smoke or intake THC before any event can be beneficial for many reasons, it can help calm the nerves so you are able to be present and enjoy the moment. Also, it can help relieve aches and pains so your body is completely relaxed and you don’t have to feel tense or worry about the energy you are exerting.

Buds Garage: In my experience, cannabis enhances your appreciation for nature. If you are at a gathering with friends, cannabis can bring the fun to a whole other level!

• Would you use a different product/amount depending on how strenuous the hike/activity is?

Birch Bay Budz: Depending on the severity of the trail you are trying to tackle, caution should be advised when consuming cannabis and going out in nature. Always have at least one designated driver in case of emergency, and keep your eyes on the surroundings when touring. Also, try to have the contact information for your local forest rangers office, and carry a map just in case.

Dank of America: Dosage will vary greatly from person to person, some people find consuming makes physical tasks easier and more bearable, while others can find it to be more challenging.

Consuming cannabis is a trial-and-error process for everyone and every activity. Since it does vary so widely it is something you really have to try for yourself to see how it continued on page 41

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Roy’s Picnic Table

A beautiful spot for a mid-hike bite

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Story and photos by Tony Moceri

n a late winter day in March, Mother Nature teased an early spring offering: A beautiful day that reminds all of us from the Pacific Northwest why we live here.

My good friend Casey Diggs and I had unfinished business with a trail we had hiked last summer. Known by locals as the Thousand Puddles trail, the area, which is a Whatcom Land Trust Conservation site located at the end of Saxon Road, is labeled as the Edfro Creek Trail. Both names are fitting.

The trail parallels the South Fork of the Nooksack River and, being flat, is a nice scenic walk offering access to a protected forest and views of eagles soaring over the river. On our summer hike with my daughter in tow, we made it to the end of the marked trail and turned back even though the trail continued. On the way out, we bumped into a couple on horseback who looked as though they were going much farther than we had.

Chatting about where they were going, they told us that a little way past the end of the trail was Roy’s picnic table. And so I knew finding the table was an adventure for the future.

The couple on horseback had described the table’s location as just up a logging road, as though we would have stumbled upon it minutes from where we had ended our hike. So, on this winter day, Diggs and I planned for a little hike, some wet feet and a sunny picnic at a table in the woods.

We crossed multiple creeks bursting with water from recent rain and winter snowmelt. Some of these creeks were a simple hop, and others required some well-placed logs. As we made our way past the end what is marked as the Edfro Creek Trail, we expected to make a couple of turns and be at our lunch spot. We were wrong.

We walked on an easy but wet path until we bumped into what was a raging Cavanaugh Creek. We could see that the trail continued on the other side of the creek, but there was no hopping or wading across this creek.

The force was incredible, and we were sure we would be swept away if we entered the water. Determined to find Roy’s table, we walked up the creek in search of potential crossing points. What we found were some logs that were nearly touching and an old cable bridge that had been reduced to cables with the occasional rotting board attached to them.

Slightly nervous about being swept away by the creek, we opted for the log crossing. Balancing on the slick logs with our feet inches from the rushing water provided an adrenaline spike as we made our way to the other side. At this point, we had no idea where we were going.

Diggs doubted whether we were still heading toward the elusive table, but after a scramble up a hill and a little bushwhacking, we were once again on a nice path along the river.

The trail eventually took a left turn uphill and became as much creek as it was dirt trail as water meandered its

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way down the hillside. Now gaining elevation quickly and with no table in sight, we questioned whether we had understood the couple on horseback correctly. Just as we were beginning to think we may need to find a log to have lunch on, we saw a lone wooden sign that said “Roy’s Picnic Table” with an arrow. Reinvigorated, we pushed up the hill spotting a few more signs as we went.

Hiking around one more bend, the trees opened up, and there it was, the table and a view of the foothills as far as we could see.

Carved into the picnic table was “Whatcom BCH.” Having heard of the Whatcom Back Country Horsemen (WBCH), I knew when I got back; that I would need to do some digging into how the heck this table got here.

I found Rocky Leavitt, who, with the help of his mules, has been maintaining trails all over Whatcom County where vehicles can’t get to for years. A long-time member of WBCH, he has volunteered countless hours to uphold its mission of keeping trails open. As it would turn out, the table Diggs and I ate at was the second Roy’s picnic table, and Leavitt himself had brought it up there. He said he would be happy to chat with me about the table, but it would probably be better if I spoke with Roy himself.

Thrilled to learn the whole story, I sat down with Leavitt and Roy Van Diest to hear their tales. Now in his 80s, Van Diest has spent a lifetime adventuring around Whatcom County and beyond by horseback. It was on one of these adventures that Van Diest stumbled across this viewpoint and declared, “This is a nice place to have a picnic.”

Roy would return, riding his horse, Lucy, with materials to assemble a picnic table. Now a destination for the approximately 150 WBCH members and the random hiker, the table is a symbol of all those adventures on horseback Van Diest experienced and a reminder of all the volunteer hours WBCH members have put in to maintain trails used by all. This group does this low-impact maintenance not for pay, as it actually costs them to serve this role, but for the love of the outdoors.

As I finished my peanut butter and jelly sandwich and Diggs polished off his delicious-looking chicken on a bed of greens, we rose from Roy’s table, snapped some pictures, and began our descent. We once again safely crossed Cavanaugh Creek and the thousand or so puddles en route to our vehicle. Besides the soggy feet, we felt great that we had completed such an exciting adventure and enjoyed a meal at Roy’s picnic table. We were also appreciative of all the pieces that came together to make our adventure possible. It took efforts by a random couple on horseback, The Whatcom Land Trust, Rocky Leavitt and the WBCH, to make this day possible for us. Most importantly, it took Van Diest and his decades of blazing trails by horseback to discover such a beautiful spot to have a picnic.

MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE | SUMMER 2022

Photo courtesy Whatcom Back Country Horseman Photo courtesy Whatcom Back Country Horseman

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activity. Even enjoying a product that has a 1:1 ratio of THC and CBD to really help your body rejuvenate. Along with smoking to reward yourself, using a topical on your feet/legs can also feel wonderful for helping your muscles to relax and unwind after your activity. And don’t worry, if you want to use that topical on your back, neck, shoulders, really any area that might be sore, you can’t overdo it when it comes to a topical! There will be no high, but all the benefits of THC/ CBD will still be there.

Buds Garage: A CBD/THC bath bomb, and a nice topical for sore muscles.

will affect you.

Buds Garage: It all depends on experience level; for beginners I would recommend starting low and slow with edibles.

• Is there anything you would advise against?

Birch Bay Budz: I would strongly advise anyone not to travel alone in the wild, especially when under the influence. I would also not recommend traveling in new areas while under the influence, try walking the trail once beforehand and coming back with a few friends.

Dank of America: Our number one advice is to always start small, and always wait an extra 15 minutes even if you feel like nothing is happening. Especially for new consumers, just remember it is easy to add more, but trying to go backward is quite hard. So just remember to start small!

Buds Garage: Not drinking water! For beginners, I would not recommend smoking concentrates or taking high doses of edibles.

• What would you say to first-time users who are interested in trying THC and CBD products?

Birch Bay Budz: Start slow. Take your time and see what works for you. Everybody has a different endocannabinoid system, and you may have a different approach to cannabis than your friends. There are many products out there that have different ratios of THC to CBD. Ask your budtender for products lower in THC and higher in CBD if you're looking for a more clear headed, therapeutic option.

Buds Garage: Try with an experienced user and do not over do it the first time. A bad first experience can ruin a relationship with cannabis for a beginner.

• What product do you recommend for afterward?

Birch Bay Budz: Bringing a glass piece outdoors is usually cumbersome. If you're staying out, after a long day of hiking with your friends, a pre-rolled joint is a special treat. Grab a few to share with your group. There are also topicals that can help ease muscle pain and soreness from your outdoor journey.

Dank of America: I find enjoying a nice flower bowl in a glass piece to be rewarding and gratifying after any strenuous

• What products would you, personally, use on a summer hike?

Birch Bay Budz: Edibles, topicals, vapes all in combination throughout my hike. Vapes are so discreet! Edibles help me with my long-term back pain from my backpack, while

topicals, like lotions help my knees with all the walking and climbing. - Ed Edibles, topicals, oil vape cartridge and battery setup. They are discreet and strong; a vape will follow you wherever it is you need to go. - Alex Dank of America: My favorite way to consume in nature is a joint; it is easy to use and efficient. It takes minimal effort to light and consume, and it is an easy thing to pack back out when you are done.

Never discard the filter on the ground, always put it back in your pocket or bag to be disposed of properly in a garbage can. There is something so enjoyable and relaxing about smoking a joint surrounded by beautiful nature on a warm, sunny day. It makes you really enjoy the time you get, and makes you appreciate the wonderful earth we live on. Especially here in the Pacific Northwest where we have so many amazing and beautiful places to be outside! Always enjoy responsibly and remember these are all just opinions and it can vary for you.

Buds Garage: I would take a cartridge or disposable vape pen with the Strain MAC for ease of use, and some Blue Dream joints to smoke on breaks!

x

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PRE-RACE TIPS continued from page 18 IF YOU’RE IN PAIN Marathons hurt! Miles of running inevitably take their toll on most in the form of cramps, aches and pains. Joint pain is especially common. I recommend Tylenol or another acetaminophen-based pain reliever. Ibuprofen and dehydration don’t mix well — it can exacerbate any underlying kidney issues.

DON’T STOP SUDDENLY We’ve observed over the years that runners who stop abruptly when they reach the finish line tend to experience more light-headedness and sometimes delirium, as blood pressure suddenly drops.

Best to keep walking up to the recovery area, and gradually slow yourself down.

If something really serious occurs during your race, such as chest pain, breathing difficulty, broken bones or a severe sprain, don’t try to make it to the nearest aid tent — get help. If you’re unable to call 911 yourself, have the nearest available person do so.

Have fun and be safe!

x

Robert Rush, M.D., is medical director for the Bellingham Bay Marathon and chief medical officer of surgery and medical director for trauma, acute care surgery and surgical quality at PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center.

Hand stretches for biking

“T

Story and photos by Luca Williams

he number one rule in mountain biking is ‘Get bloody!’”

My two buddies advised me as we pulled our bikes out of their truck. It was my first time mountain biking and I should have known better to ever ask these two for guidance.

Their idea of fun back in seventh grade, when I had first moved to the U.S. from Panama, was to chase me with imaginary spears and call me, “Big fat elephant hunter.” Because they were fun and adventurous, I eventually forgave them. That didn’t mean I needed to listen to their hair-brained schemes. To top it off, neither of them blinked at my shiny blue Schwinn that was in no way a mountain bike. Instead, they cheered at my bike and every mistake I made on it, but somehow their unconventional method of teaching worked.

The speed, the carving and the wind in my face had me hooked. It was thrilling, so thrilling that I didn’t notice that I needed to put on the brakes to make it around the next corner. Unintentionally, I followed my buddies’ rule; rode right into a tree and gashed my entire thigh. It was success in their eyes.

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Proud of my blood, I showed my footlong bruise to anyone who cared to look at it. Back then I rarely thought about the long-term consequences of hurting myself.

It took many injuries until I realized that I would only be given one body, so I must take care of it. Carving on my mountain bike is still as thrilling as it ever was, but now my goal is to never get bloody. My other goal is to keep my hands safe from any kind of injury or stiffness.

Except for being cautious while I ride, there’s not much I can do to prevent falls.

What I can do is make sure that I take care of my hands and forearms from the repetitive work they endure. Every day our hands push, pull, grasp, twist and most of us never give them a single thought until they begin to hurt. If we can stretch them and unwind them most of this pain is avoidable. My routine for maintaining the flexibility of my hands and forearms is simple and it helps to deal with most lower arm pain due to braking, gripping tools and typing.

First, as I mentioned in a previous article, I stretch my whole arm by placing my hand on a wall and turning away from the wall (See picture 1).

Second, I turn my hand so the palm is facing upward, then I use the other hand to stretch the fingers downward (See picture 2). Be gentle with yourself and move your fingers right and left to stretch different areas of your forearm.

Finally, my favorite stretch or movement is to twist each of my fingers (See picture 3). Those of you who do mechanics or grip a great deal for work or fun, will find how incredible it feels to twist each finger.

We can’t avoid all injuries, but we can do our best to take care of the one body that we’ve been given. These days, I’ve exchanged the teenage “Get bloody” mantra with a different one from one of my mountain bike girl friends, “Ride to ride again.”

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Stones Throw is the perfect place to enjoy a pint after any adventure. Open daily 12-10 pm.

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EVENTS DEMING LOGGING SHOW: Saturday and Sunday, June 11 & 12. World champion speed climbing, 31 events. Deming Log Show Grounds. For more info, visit demingloggingshow.com.

RACE TO ALASKA: Monday, June 13 and Thursday, June 16. Race to Alaska will be held in two legs this year. Stage 1 of this year’s race is a 40-mile sprint from Port Townsend to Victoria, B.C., which is designed as a qualifier for the full race. It’s also an opportunity for people who want to see what it’s about without doing the full 750 miles. Stage 2 is the long haul from Victoria to Ketchikan, Alaska. Racers start at high noon on June 16 and follow their own route across the 710 miles to Ketchikan.

There’s no official course besides a waypoint in Bella Bella, B.C. For more information or to register, visit r2ak.com.

NORTHWEST TUNE-UP: Friday. July 8 to Sunday, 10. The Northwest Tune-Up is a bike, beer and music festival held in celebration of PNW culture. This threeday event showcases the beauty of the region and everything it has to offer. The on-trail portion of the Northwest Tune-Up will take place on Galbraith Mountain, just a short pedal from downtown. The events will consist of a five-stage enduro, an action-packed cyclocross race, group trail rides, skills clinics and bicycle demos from the industry’s top brands. The waterfront festival grounds downtown will have s p e c t a t o r- f r i e n d ly races, kids events and demos. For more information or to buy tickets, visit nwtuneup.com.

GALBRAITH MT. ENDURO: Saturday, July 9 and Sunday, July 10. The Specialized Galbraith Mt. Enduro will take place on Galbraith Mountain across two days. Podium awards and post-race revelry will be held down on Bellingham’s waterfront each day at the Northwest Tune-Up. For more information or to register, visit racecascadia.com/events.

LAKE WHATCOM TRIATHLON: Saturday, July 9.

An Olympic-distance triathlon that is a USAT sanctioned event. The race includes a 1500-meter swim on Lake Whatcom, 40K bike ride along North Shore Drive and Y Road, and a 10K run around the trails of beautiful Whatcom Falls Park, with the transition area and start/finish lines at Bloedel Donovan Park.

The event draws beginner to elite athletes, in individual and relay divisions, and includes an expo area for athletes and spectators. For more information or to register, visit lakewhatcomtriathlon.com.

TOUR DE WHATCOM: Saturday, July 23. Enjoy all that the Northwest has to offer in one ride — Mt. Baker, Lake Whatcom, valleys, rivers, farmland and beaches. Ride varying from 22 to 100 miles. For more information, visit tourdewhatcom.com.

WHIDBEY ISLAND TRIATHALON: Saturday, July 23. This is a great first triathlon and a fun event for veteran triathletes. Langley. For more info, visit swparks. org/recreation/whidbey-island-triathalon.

BAKER RHYTHM & BLUES FESTIVAL: Friday, July 29 to Sunday, July 31. Featuring Ana Popovic, Southern Avenue, and many more. Deming Log Show Grounds. Camping. For more info, visit bakerblues.com.

BIGFOOT FESTIVAL: Saturday, August 6. Local vendors, live music, celebrating all things Bigfoot! Maple Falls Town Hall. For more info, visit maplefallspark.com.

SUBDUED STRINGBAND JAMBOREE: Thursday, August 11 to Saturday, August 13. Deming Log Show Grounds. Camping. For more info, visit stringbandjamboree.com.

GLACIER PEAK INSTITUTE TRAIL RACE: Sunday, August 14. Half marathon and full marathon.

Darrington. For more info, visit glacierpeakinstitute. org/trailraces.

BELLINGHAM OFF-ROAD TRIATHLON: Saturday, August 20. The Bellingham Off-Road Triathlon will include a 800-meter swim on Lake Padden, 9K mountain bike loop along the Lake Padden horse trails, and finishes with the classic 4.1K (2.6 mile) gravel loop trail around Lake Padden. Transition area will be on the grass near the old baseball fields at Lake Padden Park. Beginner to elite friendly and you can do it with friends as a relay. For more information, visit bellinghamtri.org/event/lake-padden-off-roadtriathlon.

TOUR DE WHIDBEY: Saturday, August 20. One of the most beautiful rides in the Pacific Northwest.

Choose from: 10, 33, 50, 67, 100 miles and the ride of your life — a perimeter of Whidbey — a 162-mile route with an accumulative 10,000-feet of elevation.

Coupeville. For more info, visit tourdewhidbey.org.

NORTH CASCADES BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL: Friday, September 2 to Sunday, September 4. Featuring Special Consensus, Kody Norris Show, Rebekah Speer, and more. Workshops and Open Mic. Camping. For more info, visit ncbf.fun.

WOODEN BOAT FESTIVAL: Friday, September 9 to Sunday, September 11. Largest wooden boat festival in North America. Port Townsend. For more info, visit woodenboat.org.

GOAT RUN: Saturday, September 10. Great Olympic Adventure Trail Run is a point-to-point half marathon, marathon, and 50K trail race that traverses Kelly Ridge between the Olympic National Park and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Port Angeles. For more information, visit peninsulaadventuresports.com.

BELLINGHAM TRAVERSE: Saturday, September 10. The Bellingham Traverse Course includes a 5.5mile greenway run, 6-mile mountain bike, 18-mile road bike, 4.3-mile trail run, 3.6-mile paddle, 0.65-mile team TREK to the Boundary Bay Brewery finish line.

Teams consist of 1-12 racers (depending on how many people you can fit in the boat). This race is for everyone. Families, friends and local companies are invited to assume their Spawner identities. Choose Chinook (solo), Coho (tandem), or CHUM (relay teams). Within each division, there are female, male, mixed, family, masters and youth categories. For more information or to register, visit bellinghamtraverse.com.

MT. BAKER HILL CLIMB: Sunday, September 11.

Ascend 4,462-feet biking from Chair 9 in Glacier to Artist Point (5,140-foot elevation) in 22 miles along the Mt. Baker Highway. One of the most scenic paved roads in the country. Steep elevation but the views are stunning. Experience the agony and the ecstasy. Awarded the #2 hill climb in the U.S. by Gran Fondo Guide. For more information, visit bakerhillclimb.com.

THE BIG HURT: Saturday, September 24. A premier multi-sport race on the Olympic Peninsula. A four-leg test of endurance, strength and tenacity intertwined with the beauty of the North Olympic Peninsula. The event starts with a 15-mile mountain bike, followed by 2.6-mile kayak, 30 mile road bike and a 10K run along the scenic Olympic Discovery Trail, Port Angeles. For more information, visit bighurtpa.com.

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