HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!
A hike that’s easy — and wild
E1
06.21.2015
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Everett, Wash.
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HeraldNet.com
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Reclaiming the Suiattle MARK MULLIGAN / THE HERALD
Elson Floyd
WSU leader dies Associated Press and Herald staff PULLMAN — Elson Floyd, president of Washington State University, whose leadership helped establish WSU’s growing presence in Everett, has died at 59 of complications from colon cancer. Floyd had been president since 2007 and went on medical leave earlier this month. He died Saturday morning at Pullman Regional Hospital, said a school spokeswoman, Kathy Barnard. “Though his prognosis and outlook remained positive, recently the illness took a more serious turn,” wrote Board of Regents Chair Ryan Durkan in an email to the faculty and staff members. “Higher education has lost a giant, and the world has lost one of its kindest human beings,” Durkan said in the statement. Floyd’s influence across the See FLOYD, Page A12
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MARK MULLIGAN PHOTOS / THE HERALD
Dan Perkins (right), of Marysville, and the Washington Trails Association’s Zachary McBride double-buck a tree blocking the Suiattle River Trail on May 1.
Flood-damaged river road is open after 11 years but trail volunteers have plenty of work ahead By Kari Bray
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Herald Writer
ARRINGTON — The overgrown Milk Creek Trail ends suddenly at a dropoff above the silver Suiattle River. A sturdy bridge once spanned the gap. It connected the first segment of trail to the rest of the wandering route into the Glacier Peak Wilderness. The Milk Creek Trail is one of several once-popular paths that branch off the main Suiattle River Trail and ramble into Snohomish County’s vast, wild backyard. Over the past decade, nature has been erasing those manmade walkways. It will take long days and dedicated volunteers to restore the network of trails for hiking, backpacking and horseback riding that made the Suiattle River Recreation Area a magnet for outdoor enthusiasts before storms and floods began devouring the access road a dozen years ago. Adventurers still can find the Milk Creek Trail bridge, though it won’t do them much good. The
tangle of metal and wood, twisted like a paperclip and swept several hundred yards downstream, is evidence of the violent floods that ripped through the area in 2003 and 2006. Raging water carved away riverbanks and toppled trees, laid out now like hundreds of toothpicks in neat piles. Some of the worst damage was to the only road leading here: the 23-mile Forest Service Road No. 26, better known as the Suiattle River Road. The road washed out in two places. Faced with the extensive damage, engineers opted for complete rebuilds of those sections rather than repairs. The road closed at milepost 12 after the 2003 flood. Eleven years and $3.8 million later, it reopened. That gave wilderness more than a decade to reclaim hundreds of miles of trails and dozens of campsites. Though hardened backpackers, mountain bikers and horse outfitters still trekked up, traffic slowed from a steady summer stream to a trickle.
A log stretches over the Suiattle River.
How to help with the trails To sign up for a Washington Trails Association work crew, visit www.wta.org/volunteer/trail-work-parties.
See more For more photos, videos and maps of the Suiattle River area, go to www.heraldnet. com/suiattle.
See SUIATTLE, Page A13
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FROG FOR A DAY
TRUE TO TV TYPE?
THE ENVIRONMENTAL POPE
M’s Iwakuma feeling strong after rehab start with AquaSox. Sports, C1
Which television icon of fatherhood are you closest to? Good Life, D1
Letter is a call to action to care for ‘common home.’ Viewpoints, B7
Great 73/52, C10
SUNDAY
VOL. 115, NO. 129 © 2015 THE DAILY HERALD CO.
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