Hark! The Herald (Skagit Valley) and the PI too run Christmas Day stories on moi!

A nice Christmas surprise this year was having two Washington papers run a story on me on Christmas day. No, not in the police blotter! In the Seattle PI, I'm featured in Karen Sykes' Hike of the Week column at Anacortes' Heart Lake. In the Skagit Valley Herald, Vince Richardson did a piece on me and Heather enjoying all the good snow by cross-country skiing in the Skagit Valley. Thanks you two for the nice stories. And when you are ready to do a little more hiking, skiing, or just hanging out in the great outdoors- give me a call!

(photo- Heather enjoying the recent winter blast at Sedro-Woolley's Northern State Recreation Area)

Buon Natale!

Giuseppe and I wish you all a Merry Christmas-even you scrooges out there! Peace on Earth - Goodwill Towards all Men! Tis the season (actually all year) to count your blessings and assess what really matters- family, friends, and freedom! Times are tough out there for many, and we are heading into another year of anxiety. With faith, self-resolve, and self-determination, we'll make it! We always do! Christmas is not about how much junk you acquire- it is about appreciating what really matters-and family, friends, and spiritualism is what really matters! No recession is going to take that away! Merry Christmas all and to all my friends in New Hampshire and Washington- enjoy the snow! Okay, time for Heather and I to go for our Christmas morning run!

Snow More!

Wow, it just won't stop. Yesterday morning I cleared 4 more inches of snow off of my driveway and there is another 4 inches waiting for me today. Since Saturday the 13th it has snowed about 5 times- and we have received now close to 2 feet here. If that isn't a record for the Puget Lowlands it has to be pretty darn close. Talk about climate change! And if this is what we are in for, for the climate change gurus say we should get more extreme weather, then we better start preparing for more of these snow bouts. So, Seattle and its satellite communities, how about less money for studying climate and more money for controlling it in the form of snow plows and sanders. Snowfall here does occur enough to warrant purchasing more snow removal equipment. We spend millions of dollars preparing for earthquakes and floods and we receive (thankfully) far less of them than snow storms. So, let's start getting better prepared for dealing with the white stuff- shall we? Perhaps our New Years resolution?

Happy Winter Solstice!

Sunrise this morning in the lower Skagit Valley: 7:58 am. Sunset this evening: 4:18. Snow on the ground: 16 inches- Yep it snowed again last night. Temperature this morning: 28 degrees. And for the first time in nearly 20 years of living in Western Washington, it truly does feel like the first day of winter. And what a winter it has been so far even though it just officially began today! I can go for a reprieve from the flakes (we've got enough flakes as it is on the west coast!) but I sure do welcome the extra minute (s) of light in the upcoming days. Happy Winter Solstice everyone- and Happy Hanukkah too at 4:18 pm.

(a rare sight indeed-fresh cut ski tracks at Northern State Recreation Area in Sedro-Woolley, WA)

Skiing Sedro and Saving Storm!

What a morning! It was 10 degrees at the homestead. Blue sky-sunlight dancing on the snow crystals blanketing the countryside. Heather and I decided to go cross-country skiing at the Northern State Recreation Area in Sedro-Woolley. Yep- Sedro- Woolley! When was the last time you got to go skiing in the lower Skagit Valley? Must have been about 14-15 inches of dry powder there. It was like skiing in Eastern Washington. It was cold and windy too- but what a glorious day. We chatted with Vince Richardson of the Skagit Valley Herald (keep your eyes on the paper) before heading off to break tracks in the newly fallen powder. Not another human soul out there. But as we soon found out- there was a little kitty soul out there. Huddled and shivering beneath a snow covered bench was a tiny black kitten. He had probably been out there for days-hungry and near hypothermia after surviving a record cold evening. I was able to get the little guy and handed him off to Heather. She skied a quarter mile with him huddled up against her jacket falling a couple of times but the little kitty didn't mind as he knew he was being rescued. We wrapped him in a blanket and put him in a warm car and after skiing a bit more (Hey, I'm compassionate but we had to get some more rare Skagit Valley skiing in!) we took him to the Humane Society of Skagit County just north of Burlington. I named the little guy, Storm, for surviving the biggest snow storm I've seen in these parts. He's recovering well now and will be looking for a home soon. Perhaps you may want to adopt him. Head on over to the Humane Society of Skagit County. Perhaps you'll be taken by storm- and take Storm home!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Well, the scene here in western Skagit County is white! Over a foot of snow fell on us these past two days. Of course driving is treacherous, but the skiing has been grand. Second day in a row now Heather and I skied from our house to the Skagit Playfields. I have never seen this much snow in the Puget Lowlands-can't wait to see what the mountains look like! Looks like much of Puget Sound will be getting a White Christmas this year too! Spread the festive cheer!

Good Thing I'm a House Cat!

Giuseppe stares out the kitchen window this morning and wonders where the yard went! Looks like over a foot of snow now he thinks. And he's right as we received another 3 to 4 inches last night on top of our previous two bouts. Craig will go out later to clear the driveway one more time and do an official snow reading. Stay tuned!

Let it Snow!

Giuseppe got to experience snow for the first time in his life. We received a nice dose of it here in western Skagit County last night. Starting to look a little like Christmas out there-and its going to stay that way for awhile too! Temperature right now is a cool 28F. It won't be getting above freezing until at least next weekend. We are on track for one of the coldest streaks in quite sometime and perhaps break a record or two. Over in Republic in north central Washington the mercury isn't expected to rise much above 5F for the next few days. Hey its climate change! And there's nothing you can do about it-so hunker down, get out the hot chocolate, stoke the fireplace and throw in a copy of Its a Wonderful Life in the DVD player.

Merry Christmas Washington State!

Ahh, tis the season when angry liberals and uptight secular progressives, and other inane folks take it upon themselves to steal Christmas. The scene in my adopted state of Washington is ludicrous and just downright sad. It never amazes me how pathetic things can get on the Left Coast. Displaying a Nativity Scene and Menorah at the Washington State house in Olympia was prudent and respectful and in line with celebrating diversity. Allowing all the other displays of tripe and hatred and silliness was just downright despicable. None of those other signs that denounced religion or spoofed holidays in general that were allowed had anything to do with the Christmas season. They were placed by foolish and spiteful people meant to polarize and denigrate the majority of the population.

Let me ask you this Governor Gregoire. On Martin Luther King Day would you let the Klan place a sign extolling the virtues of segregation? On Independence Day perhaps allow a placard with a counter point from the British? On Veterans day allow an anti military poster? Then what ole what dear Ms Gregoire was the reason behind the pure idiocy that you allowed at our statehouse? Christmas is a legal federal holiday. It has been since 1870. Its a holiday and deep part of the American tradition with both religious and secular roots. You either celebrate it or you don't. It is either religious to you or isn't. And if you don't celebrate it and don't care for its religious underpinnings then you just tolerate that others do hold it dear and leave it at that. But, no you turn the statehouse and our state into a clown show.

So here's a lesson for you Governor Gregoire and all you spiteful grinches out there- this is the CHRISTMAS season! Not the holiday season (there are lots of holidays-and this one is called Christmas). Its a CHRISTMAS tree not a holiday tree. The Easter bunny isn't called a holiday rabbit and Thanksgiving dinner isn't called the 4th Thursday in November grub fest. For you sorry and angry souls out there who hate Christmas and all that it stands for- let me ask you this. So, just what part of Goodwill Towards Men and Peace on Earth do you find so objectionable? Yeah, so much for the faux principles of tolerance and celebrating diversity that you cling to and spew without conviction.

Christmas happens to be a secular holiday here in America too- it has been for almost 140 years. The 25th of December is called Christmas! You don't have to be a Christian to celebrate it. I'm not Irish, Chinese, or Jewish yet I celebrate St Patrick's Day and the Chinese New Year and wish my Jewish friends a Happy Hanukkah. And if someone wishes me a Happy Hanukkah, Happy St Patrick's Day or Happy New Year anytime of the year, I thank them . Why would I be offended over someone wishing me good tidings? So if I wish you a Merry Christmas it doesn't mean that you have to accept Jesus, Santa Claus, flying reindeer or Mr Hanky. Just have a good day! Heaven knows if you get upset over a friendly salutation, you need it! Is that hard to fathom? Just what do you find offensive about having a good day- or a good Christmas, secular or religious? What?

This December I pray that the Christmas spirit may actually reach all of you angry "progressives." God knows you need it! Peace on Earth Goodwill Toward Men- all men (women included) even those who want to steal Christmas!

Award Winning Christmas Tree!

I have finally figured out what to do with all of those half-marathon and marathon finisher medals that Heather and I have acquired over the years. Decorate the Christmas Tree with them! Now, I must admit that I didn't come up with this ingenious idea. I learned it from Interurban Running Club members J Ellis and his lovely wife Meridith when I attended one of their infamous Christmas Parties. What a great idea!

Once a year for a month or so I get to let all that shining hardware dangle among my favorite ornaments. And what are some of my favorite running medals? Well based on their designs and not necessarily the race they represent, some of my favorite tree-decorating medals are:

The Eugene (OR) Marathon, the Manchester (NH) Half Marathon, The Calgary (Alb) Stampede Marathon, the Saskatoon (SK) half-marathon, and the Republic (WA) Gold Rush age-division winner medal.

The last one wasn't a marathon-but it was one of the hardest 10ks I have ever run-and the medal-is one of the coolest I have acquired with its rock-pick and shovel design. Anyone else out there with an award winning tree?

Smashing Success in Chilliwack

Two weeks ago I gave a book talk at an elementary school in Chilliwack, British Columbia to the Chilliwack Outdoors Club. Chilliwack sits at the confluence of the Fraser and Chilliwack Rivers (Vedder) at the northern limits of the Cascades. It is a strikingly beautiful area of broad fertile floodplains surrounded by towering summits. The community is small and quiet and not too far from the US Border, about 100 kilometers east of Vancouver. Unfortunately Vancouver's drug influenced street crime has swept into this small community.

Before presenting my talk I headed to the Vedder River Trail in town to do a run. At a very popular parking lot in broad daylight was a smashed out window in a van. Smash and grab- someone's nice walk or run was about to finish on a sour note. I headed to another parking lot-and opted not to park there for the ruffians that were loitering there. Traveled again to yet another parking lot-seemed quiet enough but plenty of broken windshield glass in the parking lot still demanded vigilance.

At the club meeting before my talk, reports were given to the amount of car break-ins that were occurring at area trailheads. Then the unimaginable happened. While I was presenting my slide show and talk to 80 enthusiastic outdoorspeople, nefarious souls were cruising the school parking lot outside. One of the members returned to her vehicle with a smashed out window. The crooks absconded with a jacket-she knew better than to leave anything of value in her car.

I quickly concluded (and later confirmed through research) that car break ins are a serious concern in the Chilliwack Valley. Why? Club Members hypothesize that homeless druggies from Vancouver are drifting east to set up camp in the valley where law enforcement is lax. Also large numbers of alcoholic First Nations members live outside of town. And of course the overlying permissive attitudes of so many Canadians on drug use. One club member told me that at least in the US when you catch one of these doped out scoundrels you lock them up for six years. We in Canada just set them free over and over again!

Drug use is not a victimless crime. Burglaries and car break ins are almost overwhelmingly being done by no-good junkies. True, in America we are a bit tougher on the window smashing dirt bags than in Canada- if we can catch them. But we still don't seem to take this problem serious enough. In Chilliwack it is affecting tourism not to mention disrupting honest people's lives and costing them dearly in property damage and peace of mind. Many hikers are avoiding the region especially when parking at certain trailheads almost guarantees that you'll be a victim. This is a failure of government not to protect its law abiding citizens. Stake these trailheads out and arrest and lock up the perpetrators. Then sentence them to mandatory detox and work camps in the public lands repairing the damage they have wrought. If they don't come clean, keep them locked up!

In the current economic downturn it is only going to get worst. Places in Washington like the Mountain Loop Highway and Olympic Peninsula have been hot beds of trailhead crime even during good economic times. I dread thinking about the increase in crime that we are about to experience. One need only to look at the Chilliwack Valley to see what is coming. Such a shame-and aside from property loss and general hassles these tweaking dirt bags endanger people's lives. Get them out of our forests now!

Lock them up (not in prisons with violent criminals but in work camp drug detention centers)- clean them up-make them pay back their way into society-and if they can't contribute to society in a positive way then they need not be readmitted to it. And for law abiding citizens- how much longer will you tolerate your government's failure to keep your public lands safe? Instead of regulating what I can eat, read, listen to, and what kind of car I can drive- how about spending that energy going after the dregs in society-the one's who pay little in taxes (if any) but drain the coffers because of their irresponsible behavior. And I dread to think of the consequences if our government doesn't start making law enforcement a priority in our public lands. You think gun sales went up during Obama's election win? Wait until you see what happens as this economy continues to tank.

Rebirth of a Valley

Last week I had the opportunity to hike the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River Trail. I had hiked the upper reaches of this valley back in 1991. Back when the valley was a dumping ground, shooting ground, and a refuge for fugitives and meth-heads. It wasn't a very nice place back then and a place you definitely did not feel safe in. Boy, have times changed-and for the better! The Middle Fork is transforming into what it should have been from the get-go a recreation and wild haven- Seattle's backyard wilderness- and a great place to hike, camp, explore and play. Much of this transformation has been the result of concerned citizens and in particular the vision of the Mountains to Sound Greenway. The greenway, a non-profit non-partisan organization made up of a wide array of members continues to transform this valley as well as the I-90 corridor from Seattle to Ellensburg into a top-notch wildlife and recreation gem. Bravo! Where once I thought I had seen enough to discourage any further hiking, I now look forward to returning. My two upcoming projects- Winter Hikes and Backpacking Washington both contain Middle Fork Destinations. I think people will be pleasantly surprised to find such a great area so close to the city. I look forward to more explorations here. But please upgrade the road! It is still a God-awful pothole ridden aggravating byway!

(photo- alpenglow on the Russian Buttes above the Middle Fork of the Snoqulamie River)

Vive la foret!

More good news from eastern Canada. Following the lead of Ontario, Quebec is moving to protect large tracts of its boreal forest as well. Last month Quebec Premier Jean Charest became the second leader to commit to protecting at least half of his province's northern Boreal forest from industrial development, following Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty's landmark commitment in July. On behalf of all the wild critters and those of us who like to recreate in this vast and beautiful province- Merci beaucoup!
For more information on wilderness protection in Canada and how you can get involved check out CPAWS, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.

(photo- boreal forest in northern Ontario along the Turtle River)

ORVs Told to Take A Hike in Ferry County! Good news for lovers of sanity, tranquility and environmentally-sensitive modes of recreation, the Ferry County Commissioners were handed an injunction for their cockamamie ordinance that would have converted miles of roads (and probably trails too) into ORV raceways. The good folks at the Quiet Communities Coalition were responsible for stopping this madness from happening. But we can not rest on our laurels, for the wacky wheelies will be back. Stay tuned.

Read the release below on the good news and visit The Quiet Communities Coalition for more information on the coalition and the Ferry County Rail Trail for more information on what could become one of the biggest and best non-motorized rail trails in Washington State.

Ferry County Permanently Prohibited from Implementing Off Highway Vehicle Ordinance

On November 20, 2008 Superior Court Judge, Michael P. Price signed and entered a stipulated order granting a permanent injunction in the case between Quiet Communities Coalition and Ferry County Commissioners.
The Order provides that:
1. Ferry County Ordinance 2007-22 and Ferry County Ordinance No. 2008-06 violate RCW Ch. 46.09, as at least some of the roads and road segments designated for off-road vehicle or off-highway vehicle use in those Ordinances fail to create direct connections between off-road vehicle recreation areas and cities of less than 3,000 people.
2. Ferry County must conduct an Environmental Impact Statement before enacting a new OHV ordinance.
3. Ferry County is permanently prohibited from implementing Ferry County Ordinance 2007-22 and Ferry County Ordinance No. 2008-06.
4. The Court retains jurisdiction over continuing disputes that may arise between the parties regarding Ferry County’s efforts, if any, to enact and implement ordinances that purport to permit off-road vehicle use or off-highway vehicle use within Ferry County.
Ordinance 2007-22 was enacted in December 2007 to authorize use of Off Highway Vehicles on 54 Ferry County roads. Quiet Communities Coalition challenged the ordinance with a legal complaint based on non-conformance with RCW Ch. 46.09 and failure to comply with the State Environmental Policy Act.
The Commissioners then attempted to correct their errors by enacting a replacement Ordinance, OHV Ordinance 2008-06, in June 2008, on the same day of the Court hearing to challenge the first ordinance. After oral argument, the Court issued a temporary injunction preventing either ordinance from going into effect.
Quiet Communities Coalition is pleased that this court order represents a complete victory on both its claims. QCC will continue to closely monitor Ferry County’s efforts to enact any new OHV ordinance.

(photo- Golden Tiger Rail Trail in Republic, Ferry County, WA)

Hunting for new Hiking Grounds

Non-hunting hikers may not be aware of all of the public land owned and managed by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Nearly a million acres actually! And while these lands are primarily managed for sportsmen and women, hikers will find much to their liking on many of the properties. Up here around Skagit County the WDFW has some wonderful properties for hiking along the Skagit, Samish, and Stilliguamish River flats. Of course, if you plan on visiting these lands be aware of hunting seasons and dress appropriately. And if you want to see what lands are out there- the department has just launched a new website detailing them. Check out the release below. And be aware too that you'll need a parking permit (available at retailers who sell hunting and fishing licenses) to visit as well. It'll set you back a mere $10.95 and its good for an entire year. Have fun exploring!

WDFW NEWS RELEASE Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501-1091 http://wdfw.wa.gov/
November 19, 2008Contact: Jennifer Quan, (360) 902-2508
State wildlife areas featured on new WDFW website
OLYMPIA - A new Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) website offers viewers quick and easy access to a wealth of information about Washington's public wildlife lands.
The website, which can be viewed at http://wdfw.wa.gov/lands/wildlife_areas/ , includes descriptions of WDFW's wildlife areas, maps, directions, water access sites and amenities. Each wildlife area's management plan is also posted on the site.
With its ease of use and up-to-date information, the new website is a resource for Washington citizens and visitors to the state who want to learn more about WDFW's wildlife areas and recreational opportunities, said Jennifer Quan, WDFW lands division manager.
"The site is user friendly and offers several selection choices from one centralized location," Quan said. "Viewers can search by wildlife area, county or region. Once they make a selection, they'll find even more information about the area, how to get there and what is available."
Quan said information on vehicle-use permits, which are required when using a designated access site on WDFW wildlife lands, is also included on the site along with the department's public conduct rules. The conduct rules were enacted earlier this year to protect fish and wildlife habitat, ensure public safety and promote responsible use of public lands.
WDFW oversees approximately 900,000 acres of public land divided into 32 designated wildlife areas across the state. The lands are managed to protect fish and wildlife species, preserve habitat and provide recreational opportunities for the public. The department also maintains more than 150 water access sites, which provide boating access to lakes, rivers and marine areas in or near state wildlife areas.
Information on water access sites is also available online at http://wdfw.wa.gov/lands/water_access/index.html .

(photo- Leque Island near Stanwood, WA)