Mount Baker Experience, Spring 2019

SPRING 2019

ADVENTURES IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST

Glacier Research

Squamish mountain bike

guide

Micah

Evangelista HOMEGROWN MT. BAKER MASTER

Special Publication of The Northern Light

www.MountBakerExperience.com

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MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE A Special Publication of The Northern Light PUBLISHERS Patrick Grubb and Louise Mugar EDITOR Oliver Lazenby PUBLICATION DESIGN Doug De Visser COPY EDITOR Aly Siemion

ADVERTISING DESIGN Ruth Lauman • Doug De Visser ADVERTISING SALES Molly Ernst • Adam Albert

CONTRIBUTORS IN THIS ISSUE: Brad Andrew, Anne Cleary, Matt Curtis, Nick Danielson, Jann Eberharter, Eric Ellingson, Todd Elsworth, Erin Rain Gautier, Jason Griffith, Grant Gunderson, Dylan Hallett, Lauren Howland, Elizabeth Kimberly, Jason D. Martin, Eric Mickelson, Cameron Munn, Marcus Paladino, Josh Parrish, Spencer Paxson, Craig Romano, Skye Schillhammer, Hannah Singleton, Evan Skoczenski, Matthew Tangeman, Jacqueline Thompson, Benjamin Whitney, Luca Williams EMAIL: info@mountbakerexperience.com WEB: www.mountbakerexperience.com FACEBOOK: facebook.com/mtbakerexperience 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, WA 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. XXXIII, No. 1. Printed in Canada. ©2018 POINT ROBERTS PRESS 225 Marine Drive, Blaine, WA 98230 TEL: 360/332-1777 NEXT ISSUE Summer 2019 • Out late May Ad reservation deadline: April 19 ON THE COVER Carlee Bock rolls over a stump on Galbraith Mountain.

Photo by Skye Schillhammer.

SPRING 2019

ADVENTURES IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST

Glacier mountain bike

guide

Micah

Evangelista HOMEGROWN MT. BAKER MASTER

6

bradANDREW Brad Andrew is a Bellingham-based freelance action sports photographer. He spends his winters chasing the snow, looking for the perfect spot to make the perfect image. He is a husband, father and a student of life.

anneCLEARY An always-say-yes attitude and a passion for storytelling through media brought Anne to Bellingham. She has employed filmmaking and photography to document and share adventure.

nickDANIELSON A designer by trade and photographer by experience, Nick spends his summers trail running and winters splitboarding in the mountains of the northwest. nickdanielson.com

jannEBERHARTER Originally from Boise, Idaho, Jann Eberharter came to the northwest to pursue a degree in visual journalism at Western Washington University and stayed for the loamy trails.

toddELSWORTH As executive director of Recreation Northwest, Todd Elsworth promotes outdoor recreation and brings community together to enjoy, preserve and improve the places where we play.

erin rainGAUTIER Erin is a freelancer who loves sharing about nature and exploration, and generally has a blast doing almost anything outside. She writes on outdoor adventure, travel, craft coffee and faith at conspirewriting.com.

jasonGRIFFITH Jason is a fisheries biologist who would rather be on a summit than down by the river. When he isn’t fiddling with his camera in the mountains, he lives in Mount Vernon with his wife and two boys.

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

laurenHOWLAND Lauren is a Bellingham-based lifestyle photographer.

Her work tries to encapsulate the simplicity and beauty of any given moment. laurenhowland.com.

elizabethKIMBERLY

Research

Squamish

Special Publication of The Northern Light

MBE spring 2019 contributors

www.MountBakerExperience.com

When Elizabeth isn’t conducting research for her master’s project at Western Washington University, you can find her seeking alpine powder turns, winding through forests on a bicycle or writing in a notebook.

jason d.MARTIN 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.

ericMICKELSON Eric is an outdoor photographer and restoration ecologist who is always willing to drop everything for a good adventure outside. He lives in Bellingham with his wife and kids. ericmickelson.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

spencerPAXSON Spencer is a professional mountain biker and owner of a sports performance coaching business. He is a Northwest native who has traveled the world but loves the mountains of home the most. peakenergyco.com

craigROMANO Craig Romano is an award-winning author of more than 20 guidebooks with Mountaineers Books. He has hiked more than 20,000 miles in Washington State from the Olympics to the Blues.

skyeSCHILLHAMMER Skye Schillhammer is a rider, photographer and cinematographer for Transition Bikes based out of Bellingham. When he’s not on assignment or on a bike, you can find him deep in the woods building trail.

EvanSKOCZENSKI Evan Skoczenski is a lifestyle and landscape photographer born in Bellingham. He spends almost all his time chasing light and the next adventure.

matthewTANGEMAN Matthew is a Bellingham-based adventure photographer with a passion for deep powder, alpine granite and not making it back to the trailhead until way after dark. mtangeman.com.

jacquelineTHOMPSON Jacqueline is a writer, mountain guide and environmentalist who splits her time between Arizona and Washington. When she isn’t frolicking in the wilderness, she’s writing music, making art and practicing yoga.

benjaminWHITNEY Inspired by the allure of the North Cascades, Ben moved to Bellingham from Vermont. He writes about people, place and community, and is excited to contribute to the creative wellspring that surrounds the alpine.

lucaWILLIAMS Luca is a Certified Rolfer in Glacier, WA. She helps snowboarders, skiers, and other outdoor enthusiasts to get aligned and out of pain. Website: lucasrolfing.com blog: movingwithgravity.wordpress.com.

MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE | SPRING 2019 MOUNTBAKEREXPERIENCE.COM

Spring 2019

Publisher’s NOTE by Pat Grubb

a

s always, the 33rd Legendary Banked Slalom held, February 8-10, was a blast for racers and non-racers alike. Truly cold skies and light, dry snow made for optimum conditions and very fast runs. Congratulations to pro men and women winners Seth Wescott, 42, of Carrabassett, Maine and Audrey Hebert, 30, of Banff, Alberts with times of 1:15:79 and 1:22:41, respectively.

While there’s still plenty of winter left and many more runs to be had, it’s not too soon to be thinking about spring activities. We’ve got stories and photos that will help you get on the right track. For example, perhaps you want to think about taking the family on a cargo bike tour of the San Juan Islands.

Spencer Paxton has some advice about how best to do that.

How about a 40-mile hike around Mt. Hood, sister volcano of Mt. Baker? You’ll definitely be hungry afterward, making an article on spring foraging especially timely.

A little farther afield, Craig Romano offers hiking recommendations for sunny Southern California, just in case winter lingers a little too long.

Feeling out of sync? Perhaps your sit bones need re-adjustment. Luca Williams will tell you why and how to do just that ... There’s plenty to read and see in this issue so jump right in. Have a great winter and spring in the great outdoors!

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28

Micah Evangelista

HOMEGROWN MT. BAKER MASTER

28 14

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18

GLACIER RESEARCH TIMBERLINE TRAIL

FAMILY BIKE TOUR

A season of change on Mt. Baker

Cargo bicycling on the San Juans

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15-MILE RADIUS

A winter goal to explore nearby

FORAGING 16 SPRING get started eating seasonally

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40 miles around Mt. Hood

NO TRACE 20 LEAVE Updated for the digital era

43 EVENTS The season’s most fun

21 GALLERY Bringing the outdoors in

SHOT 45 PARTING From spaceship Earth

31 FITNESS Sit bones stretches reset your body

32 VAMOS! An outdoor language learning program

IN SOCAL 34 HIKING An easy, sunny hiking getaway

SHUKSAN

WITH ATTITUDE 36 FENDERS Ground Keeper Fenders

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OF BIRDS 38 WORLD Why you should start birding

SQUAMISH

Mountain bike guide

AND LODGING 42 DINING For after your adventure

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SPRING 2019 | MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE

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I 15-mile radius project A winter of hyperlocal exploring Story and photos by Hannah Singleton

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sat on my living room couch listening to the steady drumming of rain on the roof. Over the last hour, the world outside had succumbed to the kind of slow-setting darkness that sneaks up on you. I hadn’t noticed the need to turn on my house lights. My roommate walked in the door and said, “Why are you sitting in the dark?” I looked at the clock. It was 4 p.m.

The November days were still getting shorter, which meant each morning I wanted to snuggle under the covers for just a little bit longer. It was the time of year when the rain really sets in and those of us who live in this lush northwest corner of the United States realize the sacrifice implied by the title, “The Evergreen State.”

I realized I needed a game plan for the next six months.

I pulled up a map and started looking at the trails in my area.

I wanted to turn my attention to the local after a summer in the wilderness. I decided to call my plan the 15mile radius project; the goal was to hike, run, or walk every trail within 15 miles of my house. As I scanned the map, I saw trails I didn’t know existed. I tried to add up the numbers to see what I was in for. Five miles of trails in Whatcom Falls Park, eight miles on Lookout Mountain, dozens in the Chuckanuts; I didn’t even want to think about adding Galbraith to the mix. “Is this even possible?” I wondered as I tried to solidify my plan.

In Whatcom County, a 15-mile radius covers a lot of ground. It spans up toward Lynden, down almost to Sedro-Woolley, and includes many types of public land.

I started out in town – first, the Salmon Woods Open Space in my backyard, then the Railroad Trail. I quickly realized that without organization, I would be more likely to procrastinate or make excuses. So I wrote a list of trails in the area and organized them by mileage. That way, if I knew I had only a couple of hours, I could pick an appropriate trail; no more excuses.

I’ve now hiked on Lummi Island, near Alger and on Blanchard Mountain. My list of hiked trails keeps growing but the mileage remaining doesn’t seem to get any smaller – the number of trails is unbelievable. Although I always knew we were lucky to have such great trail access, it became more real when I set out to hike all of them. No matter where you live or how long you’ve been there, taking a closer look at your 15-mile radius is bound to turn up trails you’ve never experienced.

Perhaps my favorite part of the project so far was finding a new access point to a popular destination. This route follows a faint trail along a ridge and feels as if you’re stepping into rarely explored territory right in the middle of a popular state park. No trailhead, just a hint of a path off into the woods. I won’t list the name because that takes the fun out of pointing to a dotted line on the map and stumbling upon these places for yourself.

As a 16-year-old in suburban Maryland, getting a driver’s license opened up my whole world – I took any excuse to get out and explore my local area. I scoured the internet for quirky points of interest, abandoned buildings and historic villages. I spent hours in my car with my sisters, my best friend or by myself driving on highways, rural roads and through small towns. No place was too small or insignificant – we wanted to see and experience everything.

In my adult life, I replaced this style of exploration with pre-planned activities and big destinations. A free summer weekend usually means hiking a backcountry trail I’ve been dying to check out or climbing at a crag a couple hours away. But my 15-mile radius project has renewed the sense of adventure that I first felt when I got my license. No trail is too small or insignificant; every bit of public land is worth exploring. I want to know it all.

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So much for a glacial pace A season in the life of Mt. Baker’s Easton Glacier

By Elizabeth Kimberly

Researchers walk the Easton Glacier after a mid-September snowfall. Photos

by Elizabeth Kimberly.

A skier’s master’s thesis tests new methods of monitoring glaciers Early-May The birds chirp a dawn chorus and the winter rain has diminished. The disparity between the snowy alpine and the verdant lowlands is increasingly stark. Stubborn patches of snow make the rugged forest road impassable and the snowmobile crew has jerry-rigged a winch system to pull their burly trucks and sled trailers across. We giggle at their innovation as we attach skins to our skis, complete a most unusual gear check (Duct tape? Steam drill? PVC pipes?

Avalanche gear? Snacks?) and finish our coffee.

We are here to begin the fieldwork for my master’s thesis at Western Washington University. For my research, I am comparing the decades old “ablation-stake method” against a new method for quantifying glacial change. By combining aerial drone imagery and new software, this method could drastically increase the spatial extent and resolution of these measurements, as well as the ease of data collection. I am also linking the retreat of the Easton Glacier, on the south side of Mt. Baker, to streamflow dynamics in its two outlet creeks. In short, my study has the potential to substantially improve our ability to monitor glacier changes and understand downstream effects.

A team of eight, all members of the Northwest Glacier Cruisers snowmobile club, united to help transport our heavy research gear up the Easton Glacier nearly to the summit of Mt. Baker. In less than 20 minutes, our crew has zoomed from 3,000 to 8,500 feet elevation, across cobble-filled creeks, dormant underbrush, unconsolidated glacial till and deep crevasses, all buried under meters of snow.

Layers of snow soften the undulating topography and the glacier’s terminus is indistinguishable.

Niki and I follow a pre-set GPS track to find our first site. Our goal for the day is to use a steam drill (not to be mistaken for a sasquatch-sized espresso-maker) to drill five stakes into the snow and ice, which we’ll revisit through the summer and fall to measure changes in the surface elevation. We probe each survey site to ensure we don’t install a stake into a crevasse, and to approximate the depth of the snowpack. Afterward, we enjoy the payoff: a ski

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through thousands of feet of soft spring corn to four other sites, where we repeat the installation process.

Mid June The snow bridge across the Easton Glacier’s outlet creek has melted and the glacier is no longer accessible by snowmobile. We approach the ice through an awkward combination of skiing, hiking and bushwhacking. We’re wearing shorts and are disoriented because the glacier’s foreground has morphed into a mosaic of snow, dirt patches and moving water. “Didn’t we ski right over that waterfall just a month ago?”

We arrive at the first stake and measure 127 centimeters (4.16 feet) of snowmelt in the past month. A spider perches on the stake, unaware of the climatic changes unraveling

around it. We continue up the center of the glacier, moving delicately and swiftly in seemingly thin places. Sometimes we straddle deep crevasses and peer down into the frozen abyss. Like stratigraphic columns that reveal a chronology of shorelines, the cracks expose layers of snow, firn, or granulated snow not yet pressed into ice, and ice from seasons

past.

It’s 3 p.m. and we’ve made it to stake three. The snow appears to have gone through a melt-freeze cycle recently and the corn tempts my skiing instincts. On a whim, we decide to pause our research efforts and jaunt up toward Mt. Baker’s summit.

Late July We’re now wearing hiking boots and there’s a heat wave in the valley. The trailhead is packed with day hikers and we’ve swapped ski poles and avalanche gear for crampons and rope. First on our list is installing a second stream gauge to measure the creek’s velocity. After an afternoon of drilling holes into rocks (to install our level-logger, a device that continuously measures the stream’s height) and standing in glacial streams, we sprawled in a flower-filled meadow eating macaroni and cheese and pondering less academic things – does the moon pull on the glacier the way it pulls on the tides?

On our second day, we return to the highest stake for the first time since May. We’re roped five meters apart and moving simultaneously across the ice, navigating mazes of crevasse fields and icefall.

Sometimes we rearrange our rope’s trajectory to remain perpendicular to the visible crevasse patterns.

We scan the glacier for stake five and Katie spots it at the mouth of a widening crack. Oops.

At stake three, the snow has melted a total of 355 centimeters (11.65 feet) in two months. The untouched field of snow from a month prior is now striped with fissures. The crevasses concentrate in places where the glacier is moving most quickly, typically along convexities in the topography. A cliff of unconsolidated sediment – the remnants of the glacier’s path – guards stake one. We contemplate what climbing Mt. Baker will be like in 50 years and the recently revealed unstable, rocky terrain at the glacier’s edge offers insight. As we leave the glacier and return to camp, I am baffled by the delicate heather buds waltzing in the wind. This sea of wildflowers is a product of millennia of eruptions, glaciation and burrowing marmots.

MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE | SPRING 2019 MOUNTBAKEREXPERIENCE.COM

Mid-September Our final research trip of the season starts on an “evenmy-eyelashes-are-soaked” kind of day. The Easton’s summer fast is almost over, as the forecast calls for the first significant snowfall. We need to get our final measurements before the glacier becomes too dangerous.

The torrential rain turns to snow as we crest the Easton’s moraine. We pour heavy whipping cream into our pasta – more calories will keep us warm through the night.

We wake to sunshine and a hungry glacier metabolizing its early fall snack (60 centimeters of fresh snow).

At this point in the season, the lower part of the glacier is decorated with linear chasms and we’re forced to walk circuitously and in zigzags to approach the stakes, moving among bridges of solid ice. Sometimes we have to leap across them. As we travel higher, the few centimeters of new snow hides the smaller cracks and at one

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point, Maya’s foot falls into a subsurface pond.

This early fall snow snack is only a small boost of energy after a long ablation season; at one site, we measure almost nine meters worth of melt since early May. We take one last stream measurement and return to the parking lot in the dark. The shorter days coincide with the start of the accumulation season, when the Easton Glacier becomes subject to the fickle whims of ocean temperatures, orographic lift and fluctuating freezing levels – variables that determine its fate.

Will this winter’s accumulation outweigh the summer melt? Will these seasonal cycles continue on Mt. Baker?

I can reasonably predict what this landscape will look like next February or May. But I can only speculate how long it will take for the summit of this glaciated volcano to become a cirque with an alpine lake, shaded by subalpine firs and fit for hiking boots and sunset picnics.

vocabulary

Ablation zone – The area of a glacier with a yearly net loss in ice due to melting; where the loss of ice exceeds the annual accumulation, usually at lower elevation.

Accumulation zone – The area of a glacier where snowfall accumulates and exceeds the annual loss of ice, typically above the ablation zone.

Orographic lift – when an air mass is forced from a low elevation to a higher elevation due to topography. As the air gains elevation, it cools, which can raise relative humidity to 100 percent and create clouds and precipitation.

Terminus – the end of a glacier, usually the lowest point.

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Mount Hood in its early summer glory.

Photos by Erin Rain Gautier.

Circumnavigating Mt. Hood 40 miles on the Timberline Trail around Oregon’s tallest mountain

By Erin Rain Gautier

W

ith micro-spikes strapped to our hiking boots and loaded bags topped off with instant coffee, we hit the trail on June 25. It was the perfect time of year to make an easy mistake: to think that summer in the valleys meant summer up high. Mt. Hood proved our error as soon as we pulled into the parking lot of the Timberline Lodge. I peered out the window at the snowflakes piling up, suddenly doubting that this 40-mile trek was such a great idea.

My husband Ty and I were living out of our car and tent, making our way through the Pacific Northwest on an adventurous honeymoon.

Circumnavigating Mt. Hood was one of the most anticipated parts of our trip. Just driving up from the Hood River Valley was exciting and intimidating as the massive, lonely mountain loomed larger and more rugged with every mile.

Typically hiked from late summer to early fall, the Timberline Trail crosses raging streams, glaciers and a variety of terrain as it loops around the base of Oregon’s tallest peak. In June, we faced snow and ice as well as extreme, fickle temperature changes. But because of that, we enjoyed days of solitude with the mountain, sometimes passing no one for over 10 miles – the crowds that trip reports railed against were nowhere to be seen.

Day One From the Timberline Trailhead, we set off on exposed ridges and through slopes shaded by thick trees for a clockwise circumnavigation.

Views of Mt. Hood were incredible, changing with every twist of the trail.

We paused a moment for water in the afternoon, and each noticed a different moving blob

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in the darkening canyon beneath us. As our eyes adjusted, we watched with wide eyes as two bears lumbered over rocks and disappeared into the trees.

My thighs, tired from hiking, felt like frail quaking aspens. But a bear-fueled adrenalin rush pushed me on toward dinner at camp.

Our first campsite lay on the far side of the Sandy River, a complicated network of icy streams.

After rock hopping, laughing and one slip off a log that soaked me from the waist down, we reached camp. The uncertainty I had experienced earlier was wearing off. Wet socks pressed to my legs as we fell asleep, seeing bears in the stars.

Day Two I rolled out of our tent in two pairs of pants, my heaviest jacket and a beanie. We planned our course for the day, setting out with coffee in hand and a waterfall on our minds. Ramona Falls came early in the day, and soon after we began to meander up and down through shaded sections of mountainside. Occasional glimpses of the peak almost shocked me. It seemed that the mountain had a thousand faces and could turn quickly from beautiful and forgiving to dangerous and temperamental.

We crossed small glaciers and deep snow that made the trail difficult to follow. A few other backpackers turned around at a thin, slippery ledge of snow that crossed a creek. With trekking poles and spikes, we made a path above the trail and crossed confidently. In the late afternoon, we had a strange run-in with two guys. One was shirtless with shorts and tennis shoes, and the other wore a cotton t-shirt and shorts. They had little gear, but told us that they had summited the mountain

that morning and then got lost. Thinking back to my layers from the morning, I stared at their tiny daypacks. We gave them directions and hiked on.

We set up camp at Elk Cove, a soggy site riddled with mosquitos. A friendly deer watched from the trees as we filtered water and pitched our tent. Even the stench of my still-soaked socks and the sound of mosquitoes didn’t take away from watching the sun set in warm colors behind the summit.

Day Three Our third day on the trail was littered with surprises and obstacles, beginning with a huge section of downed trees. We clumsily toppled over some and slid under others, picking our way through a thick floor of branches.

Messy and breathless, we hobbled up on a canyon where a mudslide had washed away the trail.

In its place we found steep walls of loose rock sandwiching a racing river. We made our way down through loose rock to the river and carefully made our way through powerful current. Just above the second wall of rock lay Cloud Cap, the halfway point for hikers beginning at Timberline Lodge.

The area around Cloud Cap was easily the most trafficked segment of trail. After a morning of unanticipated twists and turns, we slammed our packs down at a picnic table and paused for water and lunch. Past Cloud Cap, we wound through trees and over snow patches, barely taking our spikes off before putting them back on, over and over.

I was stunned more than once by changes in the landscape, and the sudden switch from climbing out of the trees below Timberline High Point was

MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE | SPRING 2019 MOUNTBAKEREXPERIENCE.COM

Tips for hiking the Timberline Trail: Take a detailed map and GPS. Some sections of trail are difficult to follow, especially early in the season. Make sure your map is current, as there have been recent changes to the trail.

Be prepared to tackle difficult stream and river crossings. Know when the water will be highest.

Know the technique for safe crossings and follow it vigilantly.

Take micro-spikes and trekking poles for crossing snow and ice. Poles also help with stream crossings.

one of the most dramatic. We had reached the highest point on the trail, at 7,350 feet. The peak rose at our side, looking more beautiful and terrifying than ever, with shimmering glaciers glazed over like fields of glass.

Jagged openings in the glaciers emitted menacing cracks and groans as the ice shifted.

We passed through in a spell from the power above us. Then, just as we had entered a world of rock and ice, we slipped back into the trees.

Our campsite at Newton Creek had a beautiful view of the peak and a stream flowed beside us all night. I smiled at the difference in myself between the first night and the third.

Sure, circumnavigating Mt. Hood is not the most challenging thing in the world, but it had so far been a difficult and powerful experience. I fell in cold water, in slick mud, and on a wide glacier. I was in pain every hour of the trek, but I kept walking. My husband talked me through and came back out on the ice to help me across.

This night – smelly, muddy, freezing and laughing – I realized that somewhere along the way, I had decided to embrace it all. Our dinner conversation turned to a definitive ranking of the best dehydrated cuisine on the market, and we bundled up for an early night. Something about the sheer might of the mountain was working on me and bringing us closer together.

Day Four Everything from my neck to my toes ached. A few crackling stretches, operatic yawns and the familiar pfoosh of our deflating sleeping pads announced our last morning on the trail. Listening to the creaking of my pack, the rhythm of our steps and the sounds of the mountain had become a game. At first, I could only tune in to our human sounds, or to the natural sounds of water, wind and birdsong – not both.

Our last day on the trail, I looked up at the summit fondly. It was a warm, windy day and finally our sounds and the music around us harmonized. I felt less like an intruder and more like a part of the fabric of the mountain. We walked beneath the ski lifts that ferry skiers and snowboarders up in winter, now surrounded by green and wildflowers.

Back at Timberline Lodge, I eagerly made my way towards running water and a mirror. Buses full of kids attending snowboard camp lined the hall and a few mountaineers looked over their permits. I hope all of them got the chance to experience and fall in love with Mt. Hood in all of its crashing, rushing grandeur just like we did.

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Feasting on spring A guide to living and eating with the seasons

By Jacqueline Thompson

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s the cozy months of long nights, hearty meals and hot drinks come to an end, windows and doors fly open and we greet the sunshine and the new growth of spring. People usually want to lighten up their minds and bodies this time of year – hence purging household clutter. That’s one way to embrace spring.

However, food is one of the most potent ways to incorporate seasonality into everyday life, and fresh local food is finally abundant again in spring.

In other words: bring spring cleaning from home to body with the help of the fresh harvest. Living in tune with the seasons is an undeniably satisfying practice rooted in tradition, history and medicine. Eating seasonally is a tried and true method in herbalism and traditional medicine for preventing seasonal illness. And for nearly all of the 200,000 years we’ve been around, it’s the way eating had to be.

Spring in particular is an important time to clear the body of heavy winter foods to keep lymph and blood circulation high and support immune function. You may notice that as

weather warms, cravings for bitter greens, lighter food and activating herbs replace cravings for fats, starches and sugars characteristic of winter cuisine. The staples of a vernal diet that the land so conveniently provides tend to support digestive function, cleanse the blood and nourish the system.

In general, try to use the fresh bounty of spring in the form

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of salads and light meals, and phase out heavy and wintery meals.

Think bitter, cleansing and stimulating. Kale, spinach, arugula, mustard, radishes, leeks, ginger, citrus and mint are all essentials on the spring shopping list. Perhaps even more seasonal, a dreamy plethora of forage-able goodies thrive in the Pacific Northwest. Here are just a few wild foods to seek out this season.

S Fiddleheads Fiddleheads, which do, in fact, resemble the head of a violin, are the fuzzy knuckles that thrust skyward from the bracken fern and lady fern. Pluck the curled young fiddlehead stalks while they are still soft and pliable. As the fern fronds unfurl, the stalk

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gets hard and inedible. So spring into action and gather these early in the season.

With mild hints of licorice, fiddleheads are chocked full of antioxidants, omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins A and C. Add steamed fiddleheads to a salad or sauté with olive oil, minced garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

s Dandelion Dandelion is a ubiquitous and highly recognizable (and woefully misunderstood) weed that is a classic springtime addition to your kitchen. Originally brought to the Americas from Europe, dandelion leaves and yellow flowers can be gathered throughout the year but are tastiest in the early spring before the leaves become too bitter.

Herbalist texts show that dandelion has been used to cure virtually all that ails humanity dating back to the 10th century. Though I do not recommend depending solely on this plant to cure tuberculosis or remedy your love life, there is no doubt that it is full of antioxidants and vitamins for vernal

vitality.

Harvest dandelion root yourself or purchase the tea from any health food store to drink as a daily detox. Some use the roasted and ground root as a coffee replacement but if you’re like me, you can just drink it after your irreplaceable morning mug of Joe. Make an energizing salad with the young leaves. Start by sautéing two tablespoons of chopped onions, a small handful of raisins and a clove of garlic with some olive oil. Chop about ½ pound of dandelion greens (or supplement with arugula or spinach) and combine with the sautéed mixture. Toss with the juice of one lemon, a pinch of dandelion petals and add mint, salt and pepper to taste.

T Stinging Nettle Mountain bikers mobbing down the trail know spring has arrived when they feel the first burn of stinging nettles.

Though the fine stinging hairs on the unassuming nettle leaves and stalks are extremely irritating to the skin, nettles, like dandelions, have been used as a spring food and tonic for centuries to promote joint health and support the circulatory system. Nettles are best gathered when the young shoots at the top of the plant are no more than a few centimeters high – and with a gloved hand.

Praise to nettle, this medicinal plant loses its sting when the leaves are blanched, cooked or dried. It’s loaded with vitamin D, iron, calcium and magnesium, and is known for increasing blood hemoglobin, improving circulation, lowering blood sugar and blood pressure, purifying the system and having a toning

effect on the body. Many herbalists recommend drinking a nettle tea infusion daily to simply nourish and support the whole body, and it is also known to regulate menstrual flow and relieve arthritis.

Nettles can be used in the same way as spinach or kale, and the possibilities are endless. I have even cooked up foraged nettles with the salty crumbs from the bottom of an empty pretzel bag during desperate times while backpacking – and it tasted much better than the pounds of food we carried in.

Nettle soup is a personal favorite. Peel and chop an onion and a clove of garlic and fry them in a large pot with salt, pepper, and three tablespoons of butter or olive oil until soft.

Trim the stems from fresh nettle leaves and throw two big handfuls into the pot. Toss in any additional herbs of choice, such as parsley or basil. Pour in one pint of chicken or vegetable broth. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Top with a dollop of plain Greek yogurt.

Foraging and wildcrafting should be enjoyed with the assistance of folks who know how to identify plants, or with a field guide. Pacific Northwest Foraging by Douglas Deur is a great starting point.

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Stuffed animals,

box wine and camping gear

A professional cyclist relaxes into the pace of touring with a toddler-laden cargo bike

By Spencer Paxson | Photos by Spencer and Sarah Paxson

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he prologue leg of our four-day San Juan Islands bike trip was only 50 miles, stretching from Bellingham to our first stop on Lopez Island. Normally, I wouldn’t raise a brow at that mileage, but my bike weighed 62 pounds before it was fully loaded. Being a cargo bike, it was also over six-feet-long. Add another 20-ish pounds of camping gear and a healthy 14-month-old and this would be by far the heaviest load I had ever pedaled for any distance. Fortunately, it was all part of the plan.

My wife Sarah, our son Sawyer, along with good friends Christine, Sean and their 22-month-old daughter June, had decided to cap off the summer with a multi-day bike tour in the San Juan Islands. Admittedly, touring through the San Juans by bicycle is about as remarkable as cedar smoked Pacific salmon served with a microbrew and kale salad in western Washington. But the wave of smiles and questions we received from the moment we rolled onto the ferry with cargo bikes full of kiddos, stuffed animals, box wine and camping gear gave us the sense we were bona fide bike tour pioneers.

On day one, Sean and I met early in the morning on the north end of Chuckanut Drive. Since our cargo bikes wouldn’t fit in the car, we had no choice but to pedal the 40 miles (empty at least) to the ferry terminal in Anacortes while Sarah and Christine drove the kids down with the rest of the gear. From there our itinerary went from Lopez to San Juan to Shaw and included quiet roads, lots of snack stops and maximal beach time. We’d do the whole thing under our own power (besides the ferry boats, of course) with kids on board.

Sarah and I were experienced cyclists but newbies at camping with a baby. We had just ordered our new cargo bike kit a few weeks prior and our longest trip had been a couple of miles on the Interurban Trail through town. Thankfully,

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we had terrific guidance from veterans Christine, Sean and June, who completed a two-week trip earlier in the summer.

Their ambition inspired us when they rolled back into town looking wonderfully scruffy, with a refreshed glow like they could take on a bigger world ... especially little co-pilot June.

Camping with a baby is nothing to trifle with, and I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone not on the more stoic end of the emotional spectrum. That said, we discovered that cargo bike camping with a small child is enjoyable for kids and adults. Safe roads were our first priority and the San Juans are

inviting in that regard. Cycle touring those quiet roads has been common for decades, and to us the risk was admissible.

We opted out of Orcas Island; based on previous experience, we felt the hilly terrain wouldn’t be a good idea for this trip.

Once loaded and en route, it felt like a blend of sea kayaking and cycling all mixed into one. Like sea kayaking, it’s much easier to carry all of the essential family camping

gear, including the baby. Like cycling, it’s possible to cover a greater distance with ease and less fuss with wind and currents. And as opposed to more action-oriented things like ski or bike trips, nobody is soured by staying behind with the kiddos while the others notch runs on the slopes. We all get satisfying exercise and fresh air together, the kids take in the sights along the way and we’re all ready to set up and lounge at camp once we arrive.

I’ll concede that we spent the first night in the lavishness of my great aunt’s house on the west coast of Lopez, where we treated her to a delicious meal with groceries from the Village Market. We spent the second night at San Juan County Park on the west coast of San Juan Island, the longest of our commutes to and from the ferry terminal.

I was wishing for a few extra gears on the short but steep grades on the final stretch of West Side Road, but that was all undone by the satisfaction of zooming back the other direction the next day.

Zipping through a tunnel of Pacific madrone trees, Sawyer had fallen asleep in the cargo bucket, a little wisp of hair fluttering through his helmet. By now he was comfortable enough with the arrangement that it was just like a car seat, but with more fresh air and smells.

Sarah and the others zoomed ahead while I slowed my pace to help ease any bumps in the road. I relished the slow pace and the views west across Haro Strait. Beds of kelp swayed off the shore at low tide and I wondered how much Sawyer would enjoy climbing around on the rocky shorelines when he’s older.

We resupplied each time we rolled through a town, supplementing dry foods with fresh veggies and refills of adult beverages. On our final night we made the short pedal to Shaw County Park, the most cozy and relaxed of all our stays. Perhaps that was because we were three nights in with tireless toddlers and feeling more competent with our camp tactics.

MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE | SPRING 2019 MOUNTBAKEREXPERIENCE.COM

For those skeptical action-oriented new parents out there, it turns out that cargo biking is a way, for me at least, to experience a terrific oxymoron: to step out of one comfort zone while staying completely comfortable. That is to say, my comfort zone on two wheels typically involves some element of performance, speed, distance or other mix of benign masochism. It was gratifying to have none of those elements, save for the 100-pound bike to lug up the hills, yet still have every bit as much fun on this trip as I had on pre-kiddo outings. Instead of being stressful, I found it satisfying to feel the responsibility of our family outside the comfort of home. And like any backpacker has experienced, we were energized by the simple act of traveling under our own power with all of our needs at hand.

In all, this trip felt more like a vacation than an adventure, but I wonder what the kids would say if they were able to speak? I’ve abstained from using the “a-word,” for my own account of the term is jaded. However, it could be argued that young children are the only ones anymore who experience adventure in the original sense of the word. In the essay “Man Transcends Man,” writer Jacques Arnould explains how the earliest version of the word adventure was used in a time when fates were perceived to be in hands of the gods. Adventure was something that happened to you; it wasn’t sought out. Fortunately for our young kids, at least we hope, these adventures are good things for them. Our parental whims, though certainly not godly, involve taking them on multi-day bike camping trips, and setting out to expand our little family worlds.

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Graffiti and the Complexity of

Leave No Trace LEAVE NO TRACE

Updating principles for a digital world

is a wilderness stewardship philosophy.

The seven principals were developed to help backcountry users mitigate their impacts on wild places. They provide us with solid guidelines that are easy for most to use. Following are the principles and a short description of each. For more information, log onto lnt.org.

Story by Jason D. Martin

Climbers scrub graffiti off sandstone at Larrabee State Park. Jason D. Martin photo.

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n 2014, a bandit was on the loose in our public lands. For 26 days, this bandit raced through seven national parks and left her mark – literally – in every one.

But this wasn’t an ordinary bandit. This person wasn’t a robber or a raider; she considered herself an artist.

Over 26 days, 23-year-old Casey Nocket traveled through Death Valley, Rocky Mountain, Canyonlands and other iconic national parks painting pictures on rocks and posting photos of her art to Instagram.

The fact that Nocket posted her pictures made it easy for park officials to find her.

When they did, she pled guilty to seven misdemeanor charges of injury and depredation of government property. Her sentence? Probation.

It could have been much worse. She could have been fined up to $100,000 per count and gone to jail. Perhaps a harder sentence would have been better. Perhaps it could have been a warning to other potential vandals. And perhaps such a sentence could have stopped someone from defacing another beautiful place.

On December 24, a Utah couple posted an image on the @aprildaisy Instagram account noting that they had carved their names into the rock at Lake Powell in Utah.

And while the owner of the account was chastised across the internet, it’s still too early to see what – if anything – the authorities will do.

It’s uncommon for public land managers to capture vandals, but they commonly have to clean up after them. Graffiti removal is an arduous task done every day on our

public lands by dedicated employees and volunteers.

In northwestern Washington, we’re not immune. There’s rock graffiti in the Sehome Arboretum in Bellingham, throughout the Chuckanut Mountains, and at Mt. Erie in Anacortes. On Easter Sunday 2017, the Access Fund sponsored a graffiti clean-up day at Larrabee State Park. A dozen volunteers donned rubber gloves and protective glasses and scrubbed the rocks with wire brushes and an acidic solvent lovingly called elephant snot. It was hard work and the results were mixed; some paint soaks so deeply that it is nearly impossible to remove.

There’s something within us that wants to prove we were here. Some do this by carving names into trees or by painting rocks.

Others do this by taking photos and posting them on social media. Others name trails, climbing routes or ski runs. Each of these fulfills this inner need to prove our existence, but each of these things can also have a detrimental impact on the land.

It should be obvious that painting rocks and carving trees are inappropriate ways to interact with public lands. Most Mount Baker Experience readers are probably well aware of this, but other aspects of Leave No Trace aren’t always so obvious.

Social media use is increasingly under fire for overpopulating delicate areas and impacting wildlife. Many social media users geotag the locations of some of their most beautiful shots, which has increased impact on select trails and viewpoints.

Places that used to host a few visitors a day now see hundreds.

Last year, Outside magazine proposed an addition to the Leave No Trace (lnt.org) principles: “Don’t do it for the ‘gram.” In other words, maybe it’s best not to tag the locations of all your best shots. Maybe it’s better to be discreet. Maybe the experience is richer when people are forced to do their own research. Additionally, some people do really dangerous things to get that perfect shot and hundreds of people have now died taking selfies. This should be obvious but getting a selfie with a snake in your hand or sitting on the back of a grizzly cub isn’t really that good for your health or the animal.

This social media affect can happen through the naming and posting of routes, whether they be trails, ski runs or climbs.

There’s no doubt that this is a more complex issue than the last. Often those who are first to explore a specific location have a strong understanding of the larger area. In some cases, it’s better to focus everyone in one area. In other cases, it’s better to disperse crowds over a large area. As such, it’s important for trail and route developers – as well as guidebook authors and travel writers – to think carefully about the area that they might promote before publishing.

Graffiti has been around forever, but social media and the internet have not. It’s easy to see how chipping one’s name into a rock has a serious impact, but it’s not always easy to see how posting a picture of an obscure place can – in some cases – have just as serious an impact. To keep our wild places wild and to avoid over-regulation, we have to be cognizant of all of these issues.

We have to literally leave no trace.

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1. PLAN AHEAD AND PREPARE - Plan your route. Make sure you have the proper clothing and equipment and that someone knows where you’re going.

2. TRAVEL AND CAMP ON DURABLE SURFACES - Stay on trails. Avoid cutting switchbacks. Camp on pre-impacted sites.

3. DISPOSE OF WASTE PROPERLY - Deal with human waste appropriately. Either bury it or pack it out. Pack out food waste and litter.

4. LEAVE WHAT YOU FIND - Leave flowers and plants for others to enjoy. Don’t take arrowheads, potsherds (pieces of pottery) or other artifacts. The real joy is in finding these kinds of things. They lose their value when taken out of context.

5. MINIMIZE CAMPFIRE IMPACTS - Use a camp-stove and avoid making camp fires if possible. Keep fires small and use established fire rings. Respect burn bans. Burn all wood and coals to ash and put out fires completely.

6. RESPECT WILDLIFE - Do not harass wildlife by trying to get close to it. Don’t feed wildlife.

Control pets or leave them at home.

7. BE CONSIDERATE OF OTHER VISITORS -Think about how other people experience the outdoors and try not to impact their enjoyment.

In 2018, Outside magazine proposed three additional principles: 1. DON’T DO IT FOR THE ‘GRAM - Avoid geotagging and checking in at specific locations. Be wary of naming specific trails or features, if possible.

2. MINIMIZE PERSONAL POLLUTION - Not everyone enjoys your drone or the music you’re playing. Leave most of your technology at home.

3. GIVE BACK - Consider joining an advocacy, environmental or conservation group.

Consider donating time by doing trail work, litter cleanups or graffiti removal.

Consider donating money to an organization of this type.

Gallery From left: A couple takes in a dramatic sunset near Marmot Pass in the Olympic Mountains / Nick Danielson photo. Michael Darling jumps into an alpine lake on Vancouver Island / Marcus Paladino photo. Triathlete Abbi Milner running through spring snow on Mailbox Peak in the central Cascades / Nick Danielson photo.

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Clockwise from top left: A bold carve on Shuksan Arm / Dylan Hallett photo. Tom Ramier at the crux of his new 5.13 route, The Call of Cthulhu, at Index / Matthew Tangeman photo. Tim Halder crosses Cedar Creek near Washington Pass / Jason Griffith photo. Pete DeVries tucks into a Vancouver Island wave / Marcus Paladino photo. Kelix de Zagottis on the north fork of the Nooksack River / Eric Mickelson photo. Angi Weston chases a friend outside Darrington / Skye Schillhammer photo.

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Gallery

SPRING 2019 | MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE

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MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE | SPRING 2019 MOUNTBAKEREXPERIENCE.COM

Clockwise from top left: A lone wolf walking the edge of a frozen lake outside Jasper, Alberta / Evan Skoczenski photo. An elk beneath Mt. Colin, north of Jasper, Alberta / Evan Skoczenski photo. A spring weekend on the crater rim at Mt. St. Helens / Anne Cleary photo. Young hikers on Rainbow Ridge, high above the Skagit Valley / Jason Griffith photo. Frankie Devlin airs over Matt Wainhouse in the Mt. Baker backcountry / Brad Andrew photo.

Gallery

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Clockwise from top left: Hiker Garrett Holt high above Vancouver Island / Marcus Paladino photo. Arrow on the Skyline Divide Trail in the Mt. Baker Wilderness / Lauren Howland photo. Backflip over the Mt. Baker road gap / Dylan Hallett photo. Nora Boileau Morrison, Kaylyn Kwasnecha and Marcie DeWitt on Vancouver Island / Marcus Paladino photo. Cam Burnes carves a sandstone berm off Chuckanut Drive / Skye Schillhammer photo.

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MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE | SPRING 2019 MOUNTBAKEREXPERIENCE.COM

Gallery

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SECOND NATURE

Micah Evangelista, Mt. Baker is one big terrain park For

By Oliver Lazenby Micah Evangelista tosses a flat spin 360 in the Mt. Baker backcountry.

Grant Gunderson photo.

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MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE | SPRING 2019 MOUNTBAKEREXPERIENCE.COM

T

he first time Micah Evangelista experienced Mt. Baker’s deep snowpack, he was less than a year old and swaddled onto his ski-patroller father. He started to ski as soon as he could walk, and by high school Micah and his older brother Mattias were skiing more than 60 days a season. With a childhood like that, it’s no surprise that Micah, now 21 and a sponsored skier, is at home on Mt. Baker’s steep terrain and rumpled cliffs.

It’s the way Micah skis those features that’s surprising. He spins and flips through the air with a relaxed style that’s impressive by any standard.

But the airshow is improbable for someone reared at the Mt. Baker Ski Area, where there are no manicured terrain park jumps, just the flawed and ever-changing launch pads and variable landings that Mother Nature provides.

“He views the entire Baker area as one giant park, but with soft landings,” said Grant Gunderson, a top ski industry photographer who lives in Bellingham. “Micah has some of the best style of any athlete that I have ever worked with. He is still quite young and I only see him further progressing in the sport.”

This season, Micah has some new sponsors and he’s hoping to build a future in the ski industry. After some time off from school, he’s back at Western Washington University working on a visual journalism degree and hopes to finish by next winter.

For those who’ve followed the Evangelistas’ skiing, the brothers could seem like a package deal. They have a close relationship on and off the mountain, having explored Mt. Baker together their whole lives. They also share a passion for filmmaking. Since at least 2011, Micah and Mattias, 24, have released to the internet yearly “edits” of each other skiing at Baker. They traded film duties and both contributed to the editing process.

Their videos got them noticed. Micah was 14-years-old when he and his brother started shooting with Grant, who had seen their video projects.

“Even at such a young age, I could see they not only had a lot of talent as skiers but a lot of motivation to do something with that talent,” Grant said. “Not to mention, their parents had already taught them a ton about how to safely travel in the mountains.”

Thanks largely to Grant’s photography, the Evangelistas landed in glossy national ski magazines as teenagers. Along the way they picked up a few sponsors. Steve Christie, director of sales for Backcountry Access, was one of the first to sponsor the brothers. He praised their marketing ability and gratitude. “They never left a brand logo out of their videos.

They were also very grateful and inclusive of all the people they worked with,” he said. Christie also appreciated how humble they were.

Eventually, Micah started to outpace his brother in skiing and Mattias decided it made sense for him to concentrate on filmmaking. “I’m a good skier but I don’t have the natural ability that Micah does,” he said.

After graduating from Western, Mattias moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film and now works with Stept Studios (steptstudios.com), a filmmaking company with roots in the ski industry. Though he still loves skiing, Los Angeles offers opportunities in film that are hard to find elsewhere.

“I’m super fortunate to get to work where I work and with super talented people,” he said. “I miss the Northwest, but for the time being there’s nowhere better for me.”

This winter was Mattias’ first in Los Angeles. For 2017-2018, the Evangelistas spent most of the season together. Mattias got a gig shooting promotional videos for a chain of resorts in Japan, and Micah, Grant and a few others made their way north to south, skiing 10 different resorts in 28 days.

Micah and Mattias then spent three months at home in Glacier skiing and filming together. They’d ski all day and then come home to the editing cave set up in one of their childhood bedrooms. “It was so much fun,” Micah said. “We both have always enjoyed doing that with each other.”

The resulting film, Micah’s 2017-2018 winter edit, is their best work yet, both for the skiing and production quality. Mattias has come a long way as a filmmaker and Micah’s skiing has taken off in ways that surprises even his brother.

“I saw him do switch double corks in the backcountry and I’d never even seen him hit jumps switch before,” Mattias said. “He’s just good.”

Q&A

When did you and Mattias start filming each other?

I was probably 10 or 11 and he was 14 or so. We’d go and find little wind lips and jumps around the resort and just trade off filming each other.

When we wanted to learn backflips, we built a little jump and filmed each other trying to backflip. Then we got some editing software and we’d put

Above: Portrait by Cameron Munn.

Below: Micah floats over a stack of pillows at Mt. Baker. Dylan Hallett photo.

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Dylan Hallett photo.

together the classic fun goofy video.

Did you learn tricks without the benefit of a terrain park?

Yeah, and I realize now that for trying to get good at doing tricks on skis, it helps a lot to have a terrain park. We’d always have soft landings because we’d build backcountry jumps, which are my preference, but it meant we had to hike the jump, try a trick once and hike up again.

We had a trampoline in our yard and I think that was actually a huge factor too. Bouncing on that for hours gives you air awareness. But it also does take repetition and building jumps and crashing a lot.

How did you start to get recognized for your skiing?

When I was 14 or 15, we started to make better edits. Now when I watch them, I laugh, but for our age and experience, I think they were pretty strong. We had short videos in the Mt. Baker Film Festival. We started to shoot with Grant and we got a few sponsors. Shooting with Grant was a great opportunity because we had never worked with a photographer of that status. We met him at the film festival and he’s always looking for people to shoot with. He was really kind to us and we got along great with him.

As kids we would just email a bunch of companies. It would be funny to look back at some of those emails because I was just a 15-year-old sitting at the computer. I didn’t know how to talk to these people. But it worked out and we made some connections. We first rode for this small company called Surface Skis based out of Salt Lake City.

I got a message a couple years later from the team manager at K2 and he had seen our videos. That was the first time someone reached out to me. I rode their skis for five years up until this year and loved them; there are a lot of really cool people on the team. I certainly didn’t make any money or anything but it fueled me to keep skiing and I really ap-

preciated it.

Why did you switch to the Faction Skis team this year?

I’ve always looked up to them and admired them. Their riders really inspire me. What I loved about them is that they focused on media production more than any other ski company. They’re bringing riders together to work on video projects. That’s something I wanted to do at K2, but it never lined up and I think Faction is doing that better than anyone.

Do you have plans with them this winter?

I’m going to have a little athlete profile on the team website.

They just sent me one of the brand-new GoPros to film a Mt. Baker POV episode. And just that is more support than I’ve ever had. It was really cool for them to do that.

I also just got on with this cool outerwear company called Picture Organic Clothing. They just struck me as a really solid and cool company. All their gear is made with recycled plastic from bottles and they use organic cotton. I think that’s something I can represent in this area pretty well. I’m hoping to start small with these companies, stay in contact, provide them some good content and build upon this year and take it from there.

Is skiing for a living something you’re trying for?

My goal is to be able to combine a career with skiing. If I could spend my winters making a little bit of money being an athlete and then spend the summers making video projects or writing for a magazine throughout the winter … something like that would be ideal.

I did take a year off from school and I was so stoked to just ski. But I realized I want to finish something in school and have another skill set. I always realized I was a pretty good writer and I thought journalism was a good path where I can combine my skills in school or as a writer with my love of skiing. Even in this shifting industry there are ways to find

a role.

Does your brother’s move to Los Angeles make it challenging for you to document your skiing?

Yeah, it does a bit. We’re trying to figure out how we can collaborate because we do love working together. I know he would love to film skiing all winter and it’s on me to figure out how I can make it happen with him.

In the meantime, I’m doing a project with my friends Colby Mesick who’s a local and Sophia Rouches. She’s one of the best skiers around. We’re doing a three-episode series at Baker this year and we just finished up the first video of our series (called Waiting for Winter). It’s nice to work with some other people and see their different outlooks and perspectives.

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Grand Gunderson photo.

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MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE | SPRING 2019 MOUNTBAKEREXPERIENCE.COM

Overcome

snowboarding asymmetries with sit bones stretches

By Luca Williams

I Right knee forward, torso turning right (above) and right knee forword, torso turning left (below). Luca Williams photos.

fell in love one cold, Wisconsin winter day on my first snowboarding date with Justin Kyle Evans. Justin had me stand in front of him and suddenly he pushed me forward to determine which foot I caught my balance with, and therefore if I was goofy- or regular-footed. Then he adjusted his 161 Burton snowboard bindings to fit my old Wisconsin farm boots. I twisted my knee and I fell on my tailbone constantly, but riding his board was so exhilarating that I fell head over heels in love … with snowboarding.

I couldn’t wait every week to strap on a board and carve. It was the best: a feeling of freedom that I will always cherish and it left me wanting more.

So I found myself traveling across the country to get a job at the Mt. Baker Ski Area, where I could ride every day.

Wisconsin’s ice did not prepare me for the deep, heavy snow that Mt. Baker is known for. Talk about a Zen meditation – you have to be totally in the moment at Baker to balance and transition from deep snow to hard pack to groomers or you will fall flat on your face! Every day I practiced my turns, which meant that I also practiced digging myself out of deep snow as I fell again and again.

After that first season, I took stock of the condition of my 22-year-young body and noticed I wasn’t as flexible as I used to be, especially in my knees and back. I couldn’t figure out why I was in such pain and why I felt so crooked. I started to really observe my snowboard buddies: the difference between their front leg versus their back leg, the way they twisted their neck, knees and pelvis to make turns.

Snowboarding is an awesome sport that builds balance, athlet-

icism and attention to the present. The problem is, snowboarding does not transfer well to daily activities like walking, sitting and standing. Snowboarders tend to get stronger in asymmetrical ways. So how can we counterbalance our love for the sport?

By paying attention to our sit bones (the bones we feel when we sit on a wood or metal chair) and by making minor shifts in the way we twist and turn on our sit bones, we can neutralize the asymmetry so the ibuprofen bottle doesn’t become our best friend.

The Awareness Exercise

Do this complete movement on one side, notice the changes and then try the exercise on the other side. If you are goofy, move the right knee forward first. If you are regular, adapt the instructions and move your left knee forward first. This is not an exercise in the typical sense. You are sensing, observing and making gentle adjustments rather than exercising to get stronger.

1. Get a wood or metal chair. Sit with your feet flat on the floor about the width of your pelvis. Feel your sit bones. Do you feel one sit bone on the chair more than the other? Turn your upper body right and left 10 times. Do you twist right or left better?

When you twist right, which sit bone do you

feel more? How about when you twist left?

2. Rest your hands on your knees. Allow your right knee to move forward and observe what happens to your shoulders, head and eyes as your right knee moves forward.

Do you notice that as your right knee moves forward your trunk moves left? Now exaggerate this motion. Really turn your trunk left while your right knee moves forward and repeat 10 times. Then come to center and rest.

3. Now as you move your right knee forward, turn your trunk and head to the right.

Is this movement more awkward? As your right knee comes back to neutral, bring your upper body back to neutral. Repeat 10 times, then rest.

4. Now twist right and left as you did in the beginning of the exercise and notice your sit bones. Observe how well you twist to the right and to the left compared to the beginning of the exercise.

Next time you snowboard, really notice the twists and turns of your sit bones as you skate, as you sit on the lift with the board hanging off one foot, and as you make heelside and toe-side turns. By making small adjustments to the way we move we can become more flexible and balanced without hours of stretching.

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Vamos Outdoors Project

A creative approach to immersive language learning

By Benjamin Whitney

W

hen the nonprofit Whatcom Day Academy closed its doors in 2015, Andy Basabe, a language and environmental education teacher at the school, took his skills on the road. He started Vamos Education, an organization that uses the outdoors as a classroom for teaching Spanish by pairing language learning with environmental education.

“It’s easier for kids to learn a language by having handson communication tasks than by sitting in a classroom,” Basabe said. Parents, it seemed, approved and enrollment grew.

Basabe’s vision has expanded since then. Vamos Education became Vamos Outdoors Project, and by combining English language learners and Spanish learners in the outdoors classroom, he’s found a symbiotic way for both groups to learn from each other. But it took a while to get there.

As Vamos Education grew in the first years, keeping the language component of the environmental education program got increasingly difficult.

“I had kids enrolling without any Spanish background and kids with years of Spanish, making a top-down language program in the mountains nearly impossible,” Basabe said.

Inevitably, English dominated the school’s backpacking trips, where complex logistical information needed to be disseminated and understood by a group.

In 2017, Basabe took a year off from Vamos and moved to Spain to teach English. All the while, he contemplated how he could create a more balanced immersive language experience. It became clear that it was important for the students to be speaking Spanish with each other, not just the instructor.

“I realized that if I wanted to have Spanish as a component of environmental education, I would need to curate that at the student-to-student level,” he said.

Arriving back home in Bellingham, Basabe set to work.

Amy Brown, a fellow environmental educator who is now a Vamos Outdoors Project board member, asked if he’d ever worked with underserved populations. No was his response.

A light bulb went off for Basabe.

“If I could raise money for Spanish speaking ELL (English Language Learning) youth for programming, then I’d be working with a group where we could create Spanish-English language interaction that truly went both ways,” he said.

Not only that, but he could provide outdoor recreation opportunities to students who didn’t have access to the activities that make the Pacific Northwest an epicenter for outdoor recreation.

With this idea as its compass, the Vamos Outdoors Project was incorporated as a nonprofit in April 2018 to work with kids from six to 18 and it quickly started gaining steam.

Basabe, now executive director, reached out to families about applying for a scholarship. He specifically reached out to the ELL teachers who knew students best and also worked with support staff at affordable housing communities where a number of students reside.

This past summer, Vamos Outdoors Project conducted its first trips, backpacking trips that largely proved Basabe’s hunch that student-to-student language learning would be

Vamos founder Andy Basabe, second from left, with Vamos students at Galbraith Mountain.

Photos courtesy of Andy Basabe.

32

MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE | SPRING 2019 MOUNTBAKEREXPERIENCE.COM

a success. “It was really cool watching as these kids got to learning about each other,” he said.

“More often than not the language would shift from mostly English to mostly Spanish by the end of the trip.”

One reason the outdoors provides such an appealing language classroom is that everything comes with context clues.

“It’s how a lot of people learn language,” Basabe said. “If I’m teaching kids to set up a tent in their non-native language they can physically look at what’s going on.”

That’s true for everything from establishing a camp kitchen to planning a route using topographic maps.

Now, Basabe and his board members are developing year-round programming to supplement summer backpacking trips.

“We realized that multi-day backpacking trips was a lot to ask, so we reached out to organizations that would be interested in hosting [day] programs locally,” he said.

Vamos Outdoors Project formed partnerships with YMCA, Vital Climbing Gym, the

Whatcom Mountain Bike Coalition and other local groups, and has plans to work with the Bellingham school district this spring. Now, Vamos offers numerous local programs for students – swim lessons at YMCA, bouldering at Vital and mountain biking at Galbraith – each of which offer unique contextual circumstances for language immersion.

Through empowering English learners, Basabe hopes an additional Vamos Outdoors Project goal will be met – preventing language attrition.

“A lot of ELL kids or first language Spanish speakers will graduate high school able to respond to Spanish but they don’t speak it and they can’t read or write it because they didn’t receive a Spanish education,” he said.

It’s been a busy year for the Vamos Outdoors Project. And like many newly formed nonprofit organizations, its to-do list is long. Nevertheless, its team is excited about the building phase.

“The biggest hurdle to 2019 is that we have to grow to meet more demand,” Basabe said.

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I

Forget the Surf

have lived nearly my entire life in the Northeast and Northwest. I love green landscapes and mountainous regions dotted with lakes and rivers. I also love sunshine and new adventures, and by late winter I need a break from the Northwest’s grey drizzle. For the past six years I have taken frequent trips to southern California thanks to my wife having extended family there. And much to my surprise I have grown fond of the region and love the hiking and exploring I get to do on those trips.

Sure, it’s a land of freeway entanglements, parched hillsides and more than 20 million people living on top of each other. But there is a whole other world beyond that southern California – one of sprawling parks and preserves and excellent trail systems. One of beautiful hillsides of old growth live oaks and creeks lined with majestic sycamores. One of rare fauna and flora and landscapes that are strikingly beautiful and so radically different from my familiar Northwest. One where it’s possible to stand on a mountaintop or in a desert canyon and, yes, be alone. And despite the fires, southern California has some of the most agreeable weather anywhere.

If you’re ready to start exploring southern California beyond Disneyland, Universal Studios and Huntington Beach, read on. Surrounding those 20 million people are the Peninsular Ranges, with several peaks exceeding 10,000 feet, desert landscapes with millions of acres classified as wilderness, pockets of undeveloped coastline, scores of national, state and regional parks and preserves and hundreds of miles of trail. Let me introduce you to SoCal au natural.

A Hiking escape to southern California

By Craig Romano

Whitewater Canyon t Whitewater Canyon sits in the heart of the new Sand to Snow National Monument.

Established by President Barack Obama in 2009, this 154,000-acre wedge of wildlands connects the sprawling deserts of Joshua Tree National Park to the San Gorgonio Wilderness in the San Bernardino mountains, home to San Gorgonio Peak, the highest summit in southern California. The Whitewater River, which flows through this dramatic canyon, is the largest river between the Mojave and Colorado rivers.

The environmental nonprofit Wildlands Conservancy manages a beautiful preserve and visitor’s center in the heart of the canyon. From here you can take off on a series of trails, including the Pacific Crest Trail, and explore varied landscapes. Views of lofty snowy summits in the distance hovering over ridges of sandy desert make it obvious how this monument got its name.

Pushwalla Palms in Pushwalla Canyon in the Coachella Valley Preserve. Photos by Craig Romano.

s Coachella Valley Preserve T Protecting more than 17,000 acres along the San Andreas Fault just minutes from Palm Springs, the Coachella Valley Preserve contains 30 miles of trails. It also contains some of the last habitat for the Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard, which has adapted to live in this harsh environment where temperatures can reach 140 degrees. If you see one, consider that a major score.

Managed by the Center for Natural Lands in cooperation with government agencies, the preserve protects some of the last large dune systems in the area as well as one of the largest oases of native California fan palms. There are actually several palm oases in the preserve, but the one in Pushawalla Canyon is exceptionally striking. The hike to it along Bee Rock Mesa is stunning with its wide-open views of the Coachella Valley with snow-capped giants, mounts San Jacinto and San Gorgonio, hovering over it. There are good views as well to the north of the high desert ridges of Joshua Tree National Park. But unlike that popular park, you won’t be fighting crowds here beyond the nature trails near the visitors center.

The way to the Pushawalla palms involves dropping down a steep gully. Once in the tight Pushawalla Canyon, savor the shade and enjoy walking along a flowing creek. You can make a loop by visiting the Horseshoe Palms and Hidden Palms on a trail traversing open slopes and ridges granting sweeping desert views. The trip is 6.5 miles with 1,000 feet of elevation gain. If you want to add miles you can hike a long way up the canyon.

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Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Preserve s One of my absolute favorite places in southern California, the nearly 10,000-plus acre Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Preserve defies time. If you want to see what southern California looked like before 20 million people took up residence here, this is the place. Situated on a plateau of the Santa Ana Mountains near Temecula, the preserve consists of bunchgrass prairies, wildlife-rich seasonal pools and babbling creeks shaded by groves of old-growth oaks and sycamores. And owing to its positioning on a 2,000-foot plateau, you overlook the valley. You have to strain to see civilization; on a clear day, you can see the San Diego skyline from the preserve’s Monument Hill. Wildlife is abundant here and you will most likely see a coyote or two.

The more than 40 miles of trails here don’t get crowded. One of my favorite destinations within the preserve is the twin historic adobes. The two adobes, one dating to 1846 and the other 1855, are the oldest structures in Riverside County; one was built when this land was part of Mexico, the other in the new state of California.

MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE | SPRING 2019 MOUNTBAKEREXPERIENCE.COM

Insider tips for your trip

s Mission Trails Regional Park Located within San Diego city limits, Mission Trails Regional Park is more than 7,200 acres and contains 65 miles of trails. It’s one of the largest city-owned parks in America. You’ll have a difficult time recalling that you’re only ten miles from the downtown of America’s eighth largest city.

The park is bisected by the San Diego River and consists of a series of ridges, small canyons, a lake and five small but prominent peaks. The highest of the peaks, 1,592-foot Cowles Mountain, is the highest point in the city and quite popular. Parks officials devised a plan to disperse use in the park by creating the Five Peak Challenge. The object is to hike all the summits, take a selfie on top and then submit the pictures for certificate of recognition and a logo pin.

From all of the summits the views stretch from lofty 6,512-foot Cuyamaca Peak in the east to Mexico’s Coronado Islands in the Pacific Ocean to the west.

The park contains an array of wildlife including eagles and bobcats. Also look for remains of a dam built in 1803 to irrigate the first Spanish mission in what is now California.

T gy EShnolo T c LA Te n

rde

Ga

The best time to visit is late winter and spring, when occasional rains turn the landscape green. Expect snow in the higher elevations. Temperatures can soar in summer and fall, especially in the desert, and smog can be thick in the Inland Empire (Riverside and San Bernardino counties).

Skip LAX if you can. I fly into Ontario International Airport from Sea-Tac on an Alaska Airlines direct flight. The Ontario airport is small and easy to get out of. You can be in the mountains within a half hour and the desert or San Diego County within an hour. The Palm Springs International Airport is another good choice with nonstop flights from Everett, Bellingham and Vancouver.

Being a guidebook author, I appreciate good guidebooks and they are indispensable for discovering new places. I highly recommend Wilderness Press’ Afoot and Afield series. Pick up the ones for the Inland Empire and San Diego County for hikes mentioned in this article. A good web source is Nobody Hikes in LA (nobodyhikesinla.com). You’ll get good reports, suggestions and an earworm of a classic Missing Persons song.

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Ground Keeper Fenders owner Keely Shannon with her “Donut Kill My Vibe” fender.

Right: The Galbraith trail map fender raised nearly $700 for the Whatcom Mountain Bike Coalition in two months.

Photos by Keely Shannon.

Ground Keeper Fenders Adding soul to the boring black fender

By Todd Elsworth

W

hen it comes to mountain bike fenders, graphic designer Keely Shannon’s attitude is, if you dream it, she can print it.

When Keely decided she wanted to start a company that designs graphics-driven fenders for mountain bikes, she first had to find someone to produce the fenders. After a laborious search for the right partners to meet her high standards, graphics-forward approach and low minimum order quantities, Keely decided she’d figure out how to do it herself.

“Finally, I just said, screw it ... it can’t be that hard,” she said. “Turns out it was a little trickier to figure out. It took about eight months from prototype to production.”

But the outcome – custom graphics printed on one of the most sustainable materials she could find, recycled polyethylene – was worth it.

Bellingham-based Ground Keeper Fenders launched in late 2017 and now offers about 20 different designs, available on its website and at local bike shops. That includes a Galbraith Mountain trail map fender that benefits the

36

Whatcom Mountain Bike Coalition and a variety of other fun designs with such names as Staycation, Just Bead It, Ferngully, Cat Rip, Donut Kill my Vibe and more. Keely does full custom designs for $38 and stock designs cost $24.

The company is growing – that’s not surprising considering that it’s not Keely’s first experience in the mountain bike industry. She formerly headed up the women’s marketing initiative at Specialized Bikes in California. At the time, her husband, Tony Baumann, led retail development classes for the company.

Four years ago, Keely took the leap and left the corporate bike world to become a freelancer and found immediate success. Keely and Tony looked at a map to determine where to move next and narrowed it to three popular outdoor recreation destinations: Tahoe, Asheville and Bellingham.

Tony had visited Bellingham to test ride bikes on Galbraith years before and encouraged Keely to check it out for herself. “I came up to Bellingham in August 2015 and it was the most beautiful weekend I’ve ever seen,” she said.

“I just fell in love and signed a lease while I was up here.”

Fast forward to 2017. Keely’s business was booming doing freelance contract work. Yet she felt that she wasn’t really working for herself but for her clients. Her entrepreneurial spirit wanted out.

Meanwhile, her husband was doing high-end custom paint jobs for mountain bike helmets and frames. Doing something that complemented his business, Made Rad by Tony, made sense.

Setting off on the road to giving the “boring black fender a soul,” as her website states, she realized two elements were important to her – offering custom graphics and being able to offer a minimum quantity of one. That’s tough to find, but Keely wouldn’t compromise.

“What’s the point if we can’t do cool things and be different?” she said.

Keely and Ground Keeper Fenders will be at the Recreation Northwest Expo on Saturday, February 23, at the Bellingham Cruise Terminal from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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American Goldfinch

The American goldfinch, Washington’s state bird, ranges throughout the United States and parts of Canada frequenting fields, floodplains farms and backyards. Preferring weedy fields to forest, American Goldfinches were once rare in western Washington but became common with logging and European settlement.

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Ferndale 5494 Barrett Rd.

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38

Gray Jay

These medium-sized gray birds are common in the Cascades, high in the mountains.

With a tendency toward eating just about anything and stealing food, gray jays have earned the nickname “camp robber bird.” They’re often found in groups and can be bold beggars.

MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE | SPRING 2019 MOUNTBAKEREXPERIENCE.COM

Hooded Merganser Cedar Waxwing

Cedar waxwings are beautiful, social songbirds identifiable by their crest, black mask and silky appearance. They’re common in woodlands and anywhere they can find their preferred food: the berries of mountain ash, dogwood, orchard crops and other trees and shrubs. In the northwest, they could be mistaken for Bohemian waxwings, which are larger and grayer.

The hooded merganser is a species of small duck that is somewhat common in wooded lowland areas in Washington and B.C. Look for yellow eyes and a big crest that can either be raised or relaxed.

Learn more

The Wings Over Water Northwest Birding Festival, March 15-17 in Blaine and Birch Bay, offers hands-on opportunities to learn more about birds.

More info: wingsoverwaterbirdingfestival.com

Red-tailed Hawk

The red-tailed hawk is one of the most common species of raptor in the region. Individuals can have a lot of variety in color and plumage, making them tricky to identify.

Red tails are a giveaway, of course, but some have brownish tails. Also, red-tailed hawks are broader and beefier than most raptors and hunt small animals from perches.

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SPRING 2019 | MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE

39

Endless Trails

Where to ride in Squamish

By Jann Eberharter | Photos by Skye Schillhammer

T

he mountain bike trails of the Sea to Sky corridor are world-famous for their quality, abundance and history. But more often than not, it’s the epic 5,000 vertical-foot runs at Whistler or the puckering skinnies and rock rolls on Vancouver’s North Shore that get the attention.

In between these two rightful meccas, however, is a little town named Squamish. Most people probably know it for the McDonald’s on Highway 99 or its world-renowned rock climbing. And if local mountain bikers had their say, they’d keep it that way. But the roughly 20,000-person town has become a mountain bike destination of its own in the past decade, offering an impressive number of trails at a caliber that rivals its notorious neighbors to the north and south.

Rosara Joseph descending in the Alice Lake trail network.

Diamond Head (Quest University) Perhaps the most popular network in Squamish, Diamond Head, is located right behind Quest University. An easy climbing trail makes this a great place to crush laps and earn your turns, although a dirt road does offer shuttle access to the top. The hardest part is finding a friend willing to skip a lap and drive you up. Half Nelson is easily the most famous trail in the vicinity. Endless flow and options for riders of all abilities make for a ridiculously fun ride. For a steeper, more technical descent, check out Angry Midget or Cakewalk. A mandatory stop on the way out (or on the way to the next ride) is the Locavore Food Truck, located near the junction of Mamquam Road and Highway 99.

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Valley Cliff A couple of kilometers from the main drag is the Valley Cliff network, a relatively small selection of cross-country trails with a few serious gems sprinkled in. If you’re looking to push your comfort level a bit, Labour of Love offers some quintessential Squamish terrain with rock slabs, wooden features and plenty of tech — proceed with caution. The trail actually originated as an uphill trials motorcycle route and certainly still holds some resembling characteristics. Meet Yer Maker is another popular ride in the network, offering more flow and less potential for walking than Labour of Love. Don’t let the blue square designation fool you though, there are still a couple of exhilarating rock rolls.

Christina Chappetta samples a trail in the in the Diamond Head zone.

MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE | SPRING 2019 MOUNTBAKEREXPERIENCE.COM

Alice Lake A short skip north from Diamond Head is the Alice Lake network, which offers an equally impressive array of trails.

One of the longer descents in the area is Credit Line, a Squamish classic that offers smooth riding with the perfect amount of challenge to keep you on your toes. Rupert, on the other hand, offers technical steeps, rock slabs, interesting woodwork and flowy turns — this is what Squamish is all about.

For the ride-arounds and less extreme options on Rupert, just follow the rubber chickens. It’s good to know the area’s trail builders have a great sense of humor.

Local spots: Hit up the Zephyr Café on Cleveland Avenue for a quality cup of coffee and a delicious menu that can satisfy any diet and pre-ride craving.

Howe Sound Brewing has a constantly rotating tap selection, food that can breathe life into any exhausted biker and live music on the weekends.

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Christina Chappetta on one of Diamond Head’s many berms.

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WWW.BELLINGHAMSWIMRUN.COM SPRING 2019 | MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE

41

EATS

SLEEPS

BELLINGHAM

EVERSON

MOUNT VERNON

GLACIER

MELVIN BREWING

GOOD TO GO MEAT PIES

THIRD STREET CAFE

BLUE T LODGE

2416 Meridian Street 360/306-3285 melvingbrewing.com Located in the Historic Fountain District, our brewpub serves up 20 taps of Melvin hits and ciders. We offer a fusion of Asianinspired flavors on our menu along with a variety of traditional pub fare.

TWIN SISTERS BREWING COMPANY & BEER GARDEN

500 Carolina St. 360/922-6700 twinsistersbrewing.com We are brewery, restaurant, and beer garden. Our from-scratch kitchen offers a full menu with locally sourced ingredients, and our bar serves signature cocktails, wine, and of course craft beer.

Kids and furry friends welcome!

BURLINGTON SKAGIT’S OWN FISH MARKET

18042 Hwy 20 360/707-2722 skagitfish.com Offering the highest quality in local seafood. Daily lunch specials freshly prepared. Local jams, jellies, salsas, honey and sauces. Visit us on Facebook.

CONCRETE 5B’S BAKERY

45597 Main Street 360/853-8700 5bsbakery.com Skagit County’s premier bakeshop serving home-style breads as well as a full array of fresh baked goods and classic American desserts. Dedicated gluten-free.

Great food for everyone. Open 7 a.m.–5 p.m. Closed Tuesdays.

ANNIE’S PIZZA STATION

44568 State Route 20 360/853-7227 anniespizzastation.com Family-owned pizza restaurant focusing on fresh, homemade quality Italian fare.

Friendly service, helpful information and great food combine for an unforgettable experience.

DEMING THE NORTH FORK BREWERY AND BEER SHRINE

128 W. Main Street 360/966-2400 goodtogomeatpies.com Artisan Hand Pies made from scratch in the heart of Whatcom’s organic farmland has made Good to Go Meat Pies a popular destination place in both Everson and Lynden. Pastries are offered hot, chilled or frozen.

309 South Third Street 360/542-5022 thirdstreetcafe.coop Brought to you by the Skagit Valley Food Co-op, Third Street Cafe is a communityowned restaurant and bar offering a fresh perspective on Pacific Northwest cuisine with its made-from-scratch dishes and hyperlocal ingredients.

HERB NIEMANN’S STEAK HOUSE RESTAURANT

SKAGIT VALLEY CO-OP

203 W. Main Street 360/966-2855 eversonsteakhouse.com Nestled in the middle of Everson, serving a mouth-watering array of steaks, Bavarian specialties, seafood and desserts to customers since 1993. Offers atmospheres for adults and families alike, including parties up to 50.

GLACIER CHAIR 9 WOODSTONE PIZZA AND BAR

10459 Mt. Baker Highway 360/599-2511 chair9.com The perfect place to enjoy a great family meal or a brew after a day on the mountain. Bands play weekends. Try the “Canuck’s Deluxe” pizza, a staff favorite.

Open for lunch and dinner. Dine in or take out. Check music events on Facebook.

THE KNOTTY LODGE

360/303-2887 VRBO.com/563675 @knottylodge Explore, Relax, Repeat Premier Mt. Baker vacation rental 3 bed, 2 bath, luxury timber home with modern amenities, hot-tub, WiFi, gourmet kitchen, fireplace, fire pit.

Your perfect getaway base camp!

NEW COFFEE SHOP/eatery IN MAPLE FALLS

GRAHAM’S RESTAURANT

9989 Mt. Baker Highway 360/599-9883 Grab a stool at the legendary bar and enjoy rotating selections of fine craft beers, ciders and wine. New menu specials – appetizers, sandwiches and dinner.

WAKE ‘N BAKERY

6903 Bourne Street 360/599-9378 getsconed.com Open daily 7:30 a.m.–5ish p.m. Serving breakfast burritos, quiche, soup, lunch wraps and freshly baked goods. Savory and sweet gluten-free options. Organic espresso and coffee. Indoor and outdoor seating. Dine in or take out.

MAPLE FALLS JOE’S FINE COFFEE

6186 Mt. Baker Highway 360/599-2337 northforkbrewery.com Looking for a pint of fresh ale and handtossed pizza? This pizzeria, brewery, wedding chapel and beer museum is your place! Open to all. Monday – Friday: dinner; Saturday – Sunday: lunch and dinner.

7463 Mt. Baker Highway FB@joesfinecoffee Open daily 7 a.m. – 5 p.m. and 7 a.m.

- 6 p.m. on weekends. Serving espresso, and freshly made/baked pastries, muffins, bagels, paninis, burritos, sandwiches.

Dine in or take out. Also drive-thru.

WELCOME GROCERY

305 Grover Street 360/778-1111 goodtogomeatpies.com Artisan Hand Pies made from scratch in the heart of Whatcom’s organic farmland has made Good to Go Meat Pies a popular destination place in both Everson and Lynden. Pastries are offered hot, chilled or frozen.

5565 Mount Baker Highway 360/922-7294 Eat in or take out. Espresso, fresh-made home-style breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Hot and cold deli. Largest bottle shop in region. Plus, ethanol-free gas.

202 S. 1st Street 360/336-9777 skagitfoodcoop.com We make our deli food from scratch using fresh, quality ingredients, sourced from local and organic suppliers whenever possible. Stop in for entrees, side dishes, soups, salads, sandwiches, or our handmade, organic ice cream. We offer vegan, vegetarian, raw, gluten-free, and whole food choices for every meal.

10459 Mt. Baker Highway 360/599-9944 bluetlodge.com Conveniently located behind Chair 9 Woodstone Pizza and Bar, this sixroom inn is ideal for families or groups. Clean rooms have queen-sized beds, a full bathroom and private small patios as well as access to a meeting space.

LYNDEN GOOD TO GO MEAT PIES

Joe’s Fine Coffee opened in January at 7463 Mt. Baker Highway in Maple Falls. The contemporary design also features a convenient drive-thru. Owner Joe Pilat, in the gray hoodie, also owns Joe’s Gaming and Electronics in Maple Falls. He’s pictured with, from left, his sister Tanya, brother Aaron and cousin Evelina. Joe’s love of coffee inspired him to visit more than 100 coffee shops throughout the state and beyond before opening. The shop also serves food including sandwiches, breakfast burritos and baked goods. Joe’s Fine Coffee is open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends.

Photo by Louise Mugar.

EVENTS

find more events and submit your own at mountbakerexperience.com

FEBRUARY

APRIL

RECREATION NORTHWEST EXPO: February 23, Bellingham Cruise Terminal.

Recreation Northwest’s expo is back with a day of fun and education featuring industry speakers, professionals, networking, clinics, exhibitions and more. More info: recreationnorthwest.org

BIRCH BAY ROAD RACE: April 6, Birch Bay. 5K, 15K, 30K running and walking road race along the scenic shores of Birch Bay. More info: birchbayroadrace. com

CHILLY HILLY: February 24, Bainbridge Island. Kick off the cycling season with the 47th annual Chilly Hilly. The 33-mile tour around Bainbridge starts with a scenic ferry ride across Puget Sound, or you can join the crowd on the island. More info: cascade.org

ham. In its third year, Cascadia International Women’s Film Festival is bringing 37 films for its 2019 festival. The festival is one of a handful in the nation that exclusively shows films directed by women.

This year’s honored guest is Freida Lee Mock. More info: cascadiafilmfest.org

MARCH MUSSELS IN THE KETTLES: March

2, Coupeville. Take an early season mountain bike ride on Whidbey Island.

Don’t miss the world Famous Penn Cove Mussel Festival in nearby Coupeville. more info: musselsinthekettles.net, and thepenncovemusselsfestival.com

CASCADIA INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S FILM FESTIVAL: April 11-14, Belling-

WINGS OVER WATER NW BIRDING FESTIVAL: March 15-17, Blaine and

Birch Bay. Expert wildlife speakers, raptor presentations, photography work shop and more. More info: wingsoverwaterbirdingfestival.com

High School. Woodworking demonstrations, student woodworking projects and display booths featuring wood turners, traditional carvers and more. More info: sedro-woolley.com

MAY

MOUNT BAKER ULTRA MARATHON:

June 2, Concrete. The Mt. Baker Ultra is one of the world’s best mountain runs, going from deep in the Skagit Valley to the top of the world on an icy volcano. The 56-mile out and back starts at Concrete and includes nearly two miles of fixed ropes on the Squak Glacier to the summit of Mt. Baker’s Sherman Peak.

More info: mtbakerultra.com

BELLINGHAM SWIM RUN: June 9, Lake Padden Park. The sport where you swim and run, swim and run, swim and run.

Bellingham swimrunners will travel 15 kilometers in seven running legs and six swimming legs or try out the beginner friendly 5K. More info: questraces.com

VANCOUVER SUN RUN: April 14, Vancouver. The largest 10K race and one of the most beautiful in the world.

The course features views of mountains, ocean, beaches, skyscrapers and bridges.

More info: vancouversunrun.com

SKI TO SEA

MT. BAKER BEACON RALLY: March 9, Mt. Baker Ski Area. Bring your shovel, probe and beacon or use a demo for a free avalanche rescue workshop at Heather Meadows. More info: Mtbaker.us MT. BAKER SPLITFEST: March 1517, Glacier. The annual Mount Baker Splitboard Festival is a gathering of the uphill snowboarding tribe and one of the largest snowboarding events in the Pacific Northwest. It features clinics, demos a raffle and a surprise event this year! More info: splitfest.com.

WOODFEST: April 27, Sedro-Woolley

May 26, Bellingham. The iconic multi-sport race of the Northwest. Ski, run, bike and paddle from Mt. Baker to Bellingham Bay. Put together a team and register, or just join the festivities in Bellingham and Fairhaven.

More info: skitosea.com

TOUR DE LOPEZ April 27, Lopez Island.

Beautiful scenery, multiple route lengths and a limited number of riders makes for a great ride. Come for the day or the weekend and enjoy bbq, live music and a beer garden. More info: lopezisland.com

JUNE ASPIRE ADVENTURE RUNNING BEACH CAMP: May 31-June 2, Sucia Island.

Spend a weekend on a remote beach with delicious meals and stunning island running. More info: aspireadventurerunning.com

KULSHAN QUEST June 8, Bellingham. At Kulshan Quest Adventure Race you get a map with checkpoints 30 minutes before the start. Your team decides the route. Try the Recreation (4-6 hour) course that includes mountain biking and trekking or the Expert (8-12 hour) course, which also includes kayaking.

More info: questraces.com

Find more events online at mountbakerexperience.com

maple falls park

August 4, 2019

March 2 & 3 • Vancouver Convention Centre B.C.’s largest showcase of outdoor gear & adventure travel experiences!

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www.OutdoorAdventureShow.ca SPRING 2019 | MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE

43

Bellingham Grind Corps members on a gravel road on the east side of Mt. Baker. Matt Curtis photo.

Gravel’s on the menu

Bellingham Grind Corps’ take on the “gravel grind”

By Oliver Lazenby

B

ellingham cyclist Kerri Love went on her first Bellingham Grind Corps ride after seeing the group’s logo – a white-on-black road bike silhouette contorted into a pentagram. While the logo was intimidating, the community was not. She met up with about 20 or so riders at Fairhaven Park in Bellingham for a “gravel grind” – bike industry speak for riding on unpaved roads – to a viewpoint in the Chuckanuts.

In the middle of the ride, they stopped for a Southern brunch complete with champagne. Hooked on the community and the way the ride linked together sections of road and trail she’d ridden before, Kerri rode every Grind Corps ride that season.

“I pitch it to everyone I meet,” she said. “You’ll love it or hate it, but most people love it.”

Riding bikes on gravel and other mixed terrain has exploded in popularity in the last 10 years. With it, races and events have popped up worldwide. Locally, there’s Cascadia Super Gravel outside Olympia, Ride for Water in the Chilliwack Valley, Golden Ears Gravel Fondo that starts in Port Coquitlam and dozens more.

In Whatcom County, Bellingham Grind Corps organizes group rides throughout the summer. It starts with the Burnout Brunch, a warm-up for the series, with less than 30 miles of riding on mostly gravel. The menu of rides ramps up from there and the dessert is RAMBOD (Ride Around Mt. Baker in One Day), a roughly 125-mile invite-only ride with an 11mile hike in the middle. It requires participation in at least one ride in the summer series and a shakedown ride.

The 2019 series includes five rides and most are somewhere between the brunch and RAMBOD in terms of difficulty. The rides aren’t races – “It will never be a race,” founder and director Kip Zwolinski said. They’re not timed and they accommodate a wide variety of riders. Some race against their own time, while others are happy to chat and wait for friends.

“We call it the great equalizer. Bikes are something we all have in common and even if we don’t all ride at the same level, it’s a shared experience,” Kerri said.

Regarding the satanic looking logo and the play on the grindcore genre of heavy metal: “I always have to explain to people that Grind Corps is a genre of post-hardcore music and that it’s a joke. Except for the fact that I wear all black and I listen to a ton of the music,” Kip said.

Organizing and promoting Bellingham Grind Corps rides is a collaborative process. Kip, who also directs the Cascade Cross cyclocross race series, started Grind Corps in 2016, but he’s hesitant to take credit.

“I don’t see myself as a leader, I see myself as the glue connecting it all,” he said. “That’s what I like to do and I think for a lot of folks that’s the annoying part of pulling things off. Who wants to figure out insurance for rides? But it’s like a puzzle for me.”

Kerri screen-prints shirts and other Grind Corps merchandise and others help produce flyers and register riders.

Though most bicycle companies now sell “gravel bikes,” riding on gravel doesn’t require a special bike.

“I’ve seen people do it on mountain bikes or touring bikes

they scrapped together with fatter tires,” Kerri said. All it really takes is relatively fat tires, at least by road bike standards, and low gears; gravel rides in this part of the world are known for climbing, and Grind Corps is no exception. The Whatcom Grind later in the series has 6,600 feet of climbing over 30 gravel miles and 25 miles on pavement.

Grind Corps rides aren’t supported and they’re not for beginners. Riders must be self-sufficient and carry a spare tube and tools and know how to use them. But it’s more fun than many hill-averse cyclists would think, Kerri said.

“People need to give it a try and not be intimidated. It will open up new doors,” she said. “You can always turn around and go home. We can tell people where a safe turnaround spot is if they need to bail.”

For more information on Bellingham Grind Corps rides, which start on Sunday, March 24, visit bellinghamgrindcorps.com.

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A snowy “Burnout Brunch” in the Chuckanuts. Josh Parrish photo.

PARTING SHOT The Milky Way above Mt. Baker during a new moon.

Evan Skokzenski photo.

SPRING 2019 | MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE

45

CHAIR 9

Glacier, Washington

WOODSTONE PIZZA & BAR

Full Menu & Family Dining

Happy Hour

Upstairs Game Room Free WiFi

Mon-Fri 11am-4pm

Watch all your sporting events here! 6 big screen TVs

LIVE MUSIC - Check

Noww SSeeNrrvovin ing

Fresh Baked Goods BrB&earkfeasatkBufarritoss,t Strictly Organic Coffee & Espresso ASoupllL&uDQunaiccheyh Behind Milano’s Restaurant • Open everyday at 7:30 am Behind Milano’s Restaurant • Open everyday at 7:30 am

for schedule

PRIVATE ROOM available for parties and events.

CATERING for all your party needs.

10459 Mt. Baker Hwy Glacier, WA

360/599-2511 www.Chair9.com

Glacier’s Only Hotel

360-599-1943

Glacier Ski Shop

Located next to Chair 9 A great place to rest your head after your mountain adventure!

9966 Mt. Baker Hwy • Glacier • GlacierSkiShop.com Best Rates SEASON RENTALS

R ERENTAL N TARATES LS BEST Downhill ••Tele • Snowboards••Snowshoes Snowshoes Downhill Tele• •X-C X-C• AT • Snowboards

360/599-9944

Ask about pet-friendly rooms

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V O TVoTeD E D B E S BeST T EVER!

tune shop TUNE SHOP

Binding BootTunes Fitting BindingMounts Mounts••Hotwax Hotwax••Custom Ski & Board

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GLACIER, WA S H I N G T O N

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Serving great food 7 days a week

9989 Mt Baker HWY

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View Pictures & Book online at

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March 15th, 16th, 17th, 2019

MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE | SPRING 2019 MOUNTBAKEREXPERIENCE.COM

57th Annual

June 8 & 9, 2019 Free day parking!

Self-contained Camping Available with Reservations Located just 12 miles East of Bellingham, off the Mt. Baker Highway, on Cedarville Road.

Adults $8 | Kids $4 | Seniors $4

• 31 Events • Professional Acts • World Champion Speed Climbing • Loggers Breakfast Starts @ 6 a.m.

• Salmon, Beef & Chicken BBQ

MAIN SHOW 1 p.m.

EXHIBITIONS START 11 A.M.

www.demingloggingshow.com