Boundless Beauty in the Boundary Waters

I recently returned from a one week trip to Thunder Bay, Ontario on the shores of Lake Superior, gateway to the the incredible Boundary Waters Area. Aside from spending an amazing day hiking in Sleeping Giant Provincial Park and two days out in Quetico Provincial Park, I was treated to a float plane trip to White Otter Lake. From the air it is simply astonishing to look out at so many lakes and see so little human development.

Living most of my life on both coasts, I tend to forget how much wilderness and beautiful backcountry exists in the middle of the continent. Northwestern Ontario is an incredible area of rugged beauty, sparsely populated communities, thriving wildlife populations, and enough protected parklands to keep your paddling and hiking wanderlusting in full gear for many lifetimes. I'll be writing about some of these places in upcoming articles for various publications as well as for the Weather Network's website under their park report section. I'll keep you informed to when these articles appear. Meanwhile get those maps out and start planning some new adventures.

Trail Obstructionists

I recently stumbled upon (literally) this little guy while out hiking the Cady Ridge Trail in the Henry M. Jackson Wilderness in the Wenatchee National Forest. This industrious furry fellow decided to claim his new home site right in the middle of the trail. Quite an excavation job he did-moving small rocks and digging a nice spread right in the tread. Hey, he doesn't mind if you amble by, and I really don't mind his trail obstructing ways. The types of trail obstructionists that get me fired up are state and federal leaders who refuse to properly fund our trails, well-healed hikers who refuse to purchase trail passes and donate money and time to trail advocacy groups, and the worst obstructionists of them all-elitist hikers who think it should all revert back to pure wilderness so that no one except perhaps them and my marmot buddy here and his friends will have access to the backcountry.

Hey, I want to preserve more wilderness and protect wildlife. But I also want to be able to access and enjoy my public lands. And if people (ie., the citizen taxpayers) can't visit their public lands-they probably won't go to bat for them when it comes to funding them or stopping ill-conceived management plans. So, let's stop these trail obstructionists in the halls of Congress, Olympia and the streets of Seattle. Only tenacious marmots should have the right to block my passage in the wilderness.

High Praise for the Columbia Highlands

My Columbia Highlands: Exploring Washington's Last Frontier book recently received high praise in the North Columbia Monthly. The NCM is a great regional publication covering the lifestyles, issues, politics, history, and culture in northeastern Washington. In the review, written by editor Steve Rumsey, it appears that the book succeeded in its mission. Every point that Steve made about the book's content were exactly the points that I as well as my partners in Conservation Northwest wanted to come through in this publication. We are happy that it is succeeding in its mission to get this little known but extremely biologically diverse and important part of the state the recognition and protection it deserves. To learn more-visit the links above or come to one of our upcoming multimedia book talks. I'm scheduled to appear at the REI in Seattle on October 11th and the REI in Spokane on October 18th. Hope to see you there.