Stop Typing and Start Talking!

I've been busy plugging away on my next book, Day Hiking North Cascades (Mountaineers Books, spring 2008 release)- hiking the last few trails for the book- I have 12 left to do out of the 125 in the line-up- sketching maps- organizing photos- and putting the manuscript together-I believe I just typed word number 62,235. Okay-enough! How about talking about the two books that I just wrote, Day Hiking Olympic Peninsula and Columbia Highlands: Exploring Washington's Last Frontier? That's exactly what I plan on doing this weekend at TrailsFest at Rattlesnake Lake just outside of North Bend, WA. My first talk will be at 10 am then I do another one at noon. I look forward to meeting some of you there. After that, it is back to work on the North Cascades Book! Ciao.

Pinnacle Lake One Year Later

Hard to believe now that it has been one year since the horrific murders of two hikers on the Pinnacle Lake Trail last summer. I distinctly remember that day. It was a gorgeous July day when the news broke out. I remember all of the initial speculation. I remember driving to the Mildred Lakes Trail the next day and not getting this story out of my mind. I remember too that now we could never go back. My mountain playground had been tarnished.

I didn't know the two women that were murdered, but when something like this occurs in the hiking community-we all feel it. Sure there has been mayhem in the backcountry before. But for some reason this case struck a particular chord. Pinnacle Lake- in broad day light- with other hikers out and about. And sure it was off the Mountain Loop Highway, a place long known for sketchy characters and trailhead crime. But murder of innocent hikers? Preposterous. What is still so alarming to this case is that it is still unsolved.

Is the murderer still up there? Far away now? On another trail? Or was it like so many murders- a crime committed by someone who knew the two hikers? This would certainly put to rest the chance of more random attacks. Still, our trails remain fairly safe places to be on. Certainly far safer than most city streets. But as I hiked Pinnacle Lake last month-all alone-and thanks to a road washout now making this trail even lonelier-I couldn't keep this event off of my mind.

All the way up the rugged trail; I kept envisioning the crime. And I kept thinking what it must have been like to have your life abruptly ended in such an unexpected way. Just like it was for the Twin Towers workers on September 11, 2001. As I sat at the pretty lake I imagined too that the two women had no idea that this beautiful scene would be the last place they would ever hike to-and unbeknownst to them a murderer was on the trail just up ahead.