ISSAQUAH | SAMMAMISH
Friday, October 7, 2011
www.issaquahreporter.com
Study calls for bike park in Highlands Task force recommendations with Park Board BY CELESTE GRACEY CGRACEY@ISSAQUAH-REPORTER.COM
Actors get in cosume – and the mood – for this year’s ‘Nightmare at Beaver Lake,’ which begins Oct. 20 in Sammamish. The event also features family-friendly scares. CHAD COLEMAN, Issaquah & Sammamish Reporter
FRIGHT NIGHT
Nightmare at Beaver Lake returns to Plateau BY GABRIELLE NOMURA REPORTER NEWSPAPERS
At first glance, Dana Young is the last person who would scare you. The stay-at-home mom loves to bake and solve puzzles. She volunteers in her kids’ schools and greets her Microsoft husband at the end of each day. Plus, her 5-foot-2-inch stature is not what you’d call intimidating. But beware – appearances can be deceiving. Each Halloween season, this suburban mom transforms like a werewolf beneath a full moon. Young and 300 other volunteer actors are what make the haunted adventure, Nightmare at Beaver Lake, come alive with gory ghouls and spooky characters each year. Their one mission – scaring you.
This is not the typical haunted house with mechanical crows, pop-up monsters and the lackluster finale of a man holding a rubber chain saw. It’s a nightmare come to life, a thrillseekers paradise. “Our haunt is different because it’s theatrical, actors are coming up and interacting with you,” says Young, who has played every character from lunatics, to half-animal/ half-humans. “There are a lot of ways actors can scare you including startling, staring, sniffing and acting in a way that’s unexpected. Even if you came through the haunt twice, it would be different each time.” This improvised show put on by the actors is an essential part of the haunt, which takes place over three-quarters of a mile of haunted wood in Beaver Lake Park in Sammamish. The path winds through sets with
spooky graveyards, carnival kitchens or giant, swirling vortexes with trippy black light and clowns, depending on the theme that year. This October, visitors will face a haunt called “We Know What Scares You.” As usual, Young is looking forward to the adrenaline rush she loves, scaring the wits out of people’s minds – and sometimes, even something wet from people’s pants. “We do have a Pisser Pants Award for whoever can confirm making an adult pee their pants first,” said Young, the proud recipient of last year’s award. Young emerged as the winner when, in character as a ghoul, she went up behind a woman and sniffed, like an animal surveying its prey. SEE NIGHTMARE, 16
First hitting the trails in Arizona in the 1980s, Jeff Tanka is an original mountain biker. He lived through battles with Issaquah in the mid-’90s, while it closed trails to mountain bikes. Today, through the Issaquah Mountain Bike Task Force, he’s been able to help steer the future of biking in the city. The group wrapped up its meetings and released its study to the Park Board last week. For him, it’s more than just another political process. It’s a sign of changing times. “There has never been meaningful dialog between the mountain bike community and the City of Issaquah,” Tanka said. “Even though the recommendations are small and simple, that’s huge.” The completion of the study comes with quiet contention from hiking groups, who successfully saw several trails close to mountain bikers in the mid-’90s. Despite disagreement, the Park Board is expected to pass much of the study intact to City Council, that asked for it about a year ago. The plan calls for a trails commission, provides information and makes a couple recommendations. The task force called for a mountain bike skills park at Central Park. Reportedly, money already has been set aside and the land has already been cleared. The City Council is just waiting for the task force recommendation to move forward with construction. The park’s location is awkward at best. Bikers would have to loop around a massive power poll and SEE TRAILS, 17