Parallel Universe Newsletter Summer 2009

8/9/2019 Parallel Universe Newsletter Summer 2009

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/parallel-universe-newsletter-summer-2009 1/12

GRAYDON RESERVE INDEX, WASHINGTON SUMMER 2009

A PANORAMA OF RIVERS and mountains fills the view in this photo from the summitof Mount Persis. The new Wild Sky Wilderness includes Gunn and Merchant Peaksand Spire Mountain and many other high alpine areas and lowland forest.

Spring saw a few niceupgrades to the old Gray-don Reserve. We added twopicnic tables to replace thetwo that went downriverwith the November 2006flood. Muir Woods is nowmore open and walker-

friendly thanks to a bit ofclearing. There we plantedsome twinflowers, Solo-mon’s seal, black lily and,believe it or not, the ubiqui-tous bluebells. The route toHighview is now clear ofwinter blow-down. The wet-land garden and rockery have a host of new plantsto join the old favorites. Theping-pong table is up andrunning. And six little in-cense cedar are taking root

along the river.

In a place of beauty,high hopes for the future

If you like what you see around here,

you’re in luck. The scene may look the

same far into the future. Much of the

landscape on all sides — a sparkling

river, jagged peaks, forested hills — is pro-tected one way or another.

Last year brought two great conservation

victories. First came creation of the federal

Wild Sky Wilderness. And then Heybrook

Ridge, prominent in any view from around

here, was permanently saved from logging.

I’ve spent some of my best days over the

past 20 years scrambling up the mountains

that are now within the 106,000-acre wilder-

ness. My favorite is Mount Baring, the

double-summit peak that stands in proud iso-

lation just east of here.

In fact, without Mount Baring I don’t think

there would even be a Graydon Reserve. My

son Andy and I were high in a snow chute be-

neath Baring one day in the spring of 1990

when the route got too dicey and we turned

back early — and this gave us time to check on

a realtor’s sign for land on the banks of theSkykomish. I bought it.

The Wild Sky Wilderness that spreads out

north and east of Index also encompasses

Gunn Peak, a tasty lure for weekend alpin-

ists, the meandering highland paradise of

Cady Ridge, old-growth forest, salmon

streams, hidden Lake Isabel, and a lifetime of

other treasures.

It even includes the point we privately re-

fer to as Graydon Peak. My climbing buddy

Dick McConaughy and I trekked to the top

one day and realized that such an impressive

summit deserved a name, even though it’s

simply the western high point of the long

ridge leading from Gunn Peak, which is just

22 feet higher.

It took nine years of congressional ups and

downs to make the wilderness designation a

reality. The Senate approved the Wild Sky

twice, only to have it killed in House commit-

tee. For supporters of the Wild Sky, the vil-

lain of the story was the Republican chair-

man of the House Resources Committee,

Richard Pombo.

After voters in Pombo’s California district

sent him home, the House passed the bill. But

it took a couple more years of political dealingbefore the bill finally ended up on the desk of

President Bush, who signed it May 8, 2008.

Logging, mining and motorized vehicles

are prohibited in a wilderness area. Hiking,

climbing, hunting, fishing, rafting and other

recreational activities are permitted.

THE HEYBROOK RIDGE story was an-

other cliffhanger. Would the town of Index —

population 157 — be able to raise more than a

million dollars to buy the 129 acres before the

PLEASE SEE PAGE 8

What’s new



SUMMER 2009

Eily’s Park is getting the usual tourists: a young New

Mexico couple sunbathing on a blanket, another couple

basking on lounge chairs, a roaming gang of

schoolkids. Meanwhile Don cuts grass, Jonelle gardens. Can’t

waste a sunny day by lying around. . .

. . One green, one blue, one yellow,two undecided: the picnic tables

here are beginning to look like a

box of Crayolas. . . . Down the road

at Wave Trek, river guide Erika Morris

says their coffeeshop is still in the

works. It can’t come too soon. . . . .

Whitewater freaks are lining up at Wave Trek

for their turn at a run down the wild Sky. The operation run by

Blair and Kathy Corson has transformed the

former Index Tavern into a magnet for outdoor

adventurers. Goodbye lounge lizards, hello

river rats. . . . Forget the Roundup: the new

Index Community Gardens site is strictly a

chemical-free zone. To see about planting your

veggies at one of the prettiest places in town,

contact Sue Cross or David Cameron.

―Record snowfall, blizzards, freezing rains, avalanches, mud-

slides and high winds.‖ With these chilling words a Seattle Times

story explained why a batch of counties in-

cluding our very own Snohomish qualified for

federal disaster money for last winter. . . . .

The good news: we did not get 100 inches of

rain last year. According to David Cameron’s

rain gauge, the total was only 99.515. . . . .

And no major floods over the winter. But the

snowfall! Upper Avenue A became a slippery

one-lane, four-wheel-drive track bordered by

walls of white. Our vehicles stayed below by

the road while we got our daily workout hik-

ing up and down the long steep driveway. . . . . And how do you

know when you’re leaving the incorporated town of Index and

entering Upper Avenue A? Well, you could read the sign on the

power pole outside Pastor John’s house. Or you could just

glance down at the river’s overflow channel and spot the beaver

dam that’s right on the boundary line.

Erynn Sullivan is away from Avenue A for a

while to study surveying at Renton Tech. It

agrees with her: ―For the first time in my life I’ve

got a 4.0.‖ . . . . There was Norbert Sorg, gamely digging up the jungle of blackberry

vines in front of his cabin. You could almost

hear each vine hissing the words of another fa-

mous unkillable organism: ―I’ll be back.‖. . . .

Our closest neighbor, War-

ren Hartz, says he’s partially red/green color-

blind. Quite a confession coming from an art-

ist who creates gorgeous hand-dyed silk ties.

At silkfromthehartz.com, he explains that he

consults on colors with wife Edie and daughter

Lisa. . . . . We seem to get one new house per

decade on Upper Avenue A. In the 90s it was WARREN

NORBERT

Citizen reacts toIndex weather

Don’s green house on the hill. This decade brought Kevin and

Norbert’s cabin. And now Micky Doner is putting in a road and

clearing a site for the house of the 2010s.

The county creeps toward rebuilding Index-Galena Road, closed

since the disastrous November 2006 flood.

Standing not so patiently by arethe people who used the road

to reach their cabins or to hike

and fish in the paradise of the

upper Sky. Current cost esti-

mate: ten to twenty million dol-

lars. Completion date: unknown.

. . . . With the sudden appearance of No

Trespassing signs at the Index Lower Town Wall, rock jocks were

jolted into action. Matt Perkins of the Washington Climbers Coa-

lition says they now have an 18-month option to buy the prop-

erty from the owner. Price is $115,000. And for

now, the signs have been taken down. . . . .

Tobey and Cobi and one-year-old James areback east while Tobey installs two climbing

walls. Before leaving, T&C packed their skis up

the scramble route toward Gunn Peak, then

skied a chute that dumps into Lewis Creek. Says

Cobi: ―Scariest run of my life.‖ Says Tobey: ―I’ll

be back.‖

The lovely drive to the Graydon Reserve passes through Frank’s

junkyard, a kind of highly disguised blessing. We treasure it as

the black hole that sweeps us into our little parallel universe. (Or,

as Paul describes it, ―the storm before the calm.‖) . . . . ―And

what,‖ I am asked, ―is a Graydon reserve? A reserved Graydon?

A Graydon in reserve? A way to reserve a Graydon? It doesn’t

make any sense.‖ I try to respond calmly. ―Now now, it’s just astate of mind. It means nothing and everything.

It makes me happy.‖ . . . . Big black Lewis was

first. Then in late May, sleek brown Boca and

fast white Blanca become the second and the

third dogs to reach Highview, including a

climb up the wet and slippery Keyhole. . . .

The Cantina del Rio (formerly the storage

shed), a big hit at Dana and Jordan’s wed-

ding, is getting a major upgrade. We’ll splash on more garish

primary colors inside, decorate with Don’s Baja souvenirs, and

send the invites for a late-summer Cerveza

Madness party . ¡Viva Mexico! . . . . Not to be

outdone by the new flag at the Index town over-look, Jonelle sewed up a new flag for Skyview,

high above the reserve. Spot it if you can. . . . .

Sarah Witzel celebrated a sunny Saturday birth-

day at the reserve when she turned nine on May

23. Sarah and sister Anya and parents Paul and

Lisa are off to Shanghai the end of July for a two-year

teaching stint at Shanghai Community International School.

¡Viva Index and Shanghai!

[DON]

TOBEY

SARAH

BLANCA & BOCA

ERIKA



“We’re not in Kansas anymore.”

The Pinwheel Galaxy meets the Swirl.Galaxy photo: Adam Block, Mt. Lemmon Sky Center, University of Arizona

A publication of the Graydon ReserveSummer 2009

Editor Don GraydonAssociate Editor Jonelle Kemmerling IT Support Paul Witzel, Brad Music

Contributing Writer Bob Hubbard Publisher Yellow Submarine Press Photos and Design Don Graydon Printer Kool Change Printing

Scientists envision a vast number of parallel universes, some of them much like our own . . . only different. I often feel that the Graydon Reserve exists in a paralleluniverse—a place similar to the everyday world, but blessed with a touch of over-

the-rainbow magic. The concept of a reserve was inspired by a visit to the BloedelReserve on Bainbridge Island. There, Jonelle and I discovered the kinship betweenthat landscape of dark fir and cedar forest rich in mosses, ferns and wildflowers and

our own home on the western edge of the Cascade Mountains. Our eight acres, areserve in spirit if not in fact, begin at the Skykomish River and rise hundreds of feet

through woods and cliffy terrain with narrow whitewater streams and tiny waterfalls,

the spires of Mount Index lording over it all. I hold the deed to this place, but canyou ever really own such beauty? Jonelle and I offer this newsletter as a way to

share our love of the reserve and as an invitation to come enjoy it with us.

GRAYDON R ESERVE 51303 Avenue A PO Box 166 [email protected], Washington 98256 [email protected] See map of the reserve on pages 6-7

SUSAN WALLACE CARTOON

Next time you visit the littlehideaway throne near thehut, you’ll also be able toadmire the work of sisters

Anya and Sarah. Anyapainted the bold sun on the

lid, while Sarah stood onher head to create themountain scene inside.

SUMMER 2009 3

The public faces lockout from two roads

that head into the mountains near Index. The

roads are managed by the Forest Service.District Forester Barbara Busse okayed

the closures after requests from the timber

companies that own lands along the roads.

Regarding Forest Road 6028, the timber

company complained about garbage dumping

on its property. The road starts just east of

Baring and heads north into the lands be-

neath Grotto Mountain and the south peak of

Mount Baring. The road is now barred.

For Road 62, Longview Fibre reports

dumping, vandalism and illegal shooting.

Road 62 takes hikers and climbers to the

trailhead for two of the finest summit scram-bles in the region: Mount Persis and Mount

Index. As of mid-June, the gate had not yet

been locked.

The closures are especially troubling be-

cause flood damage to other roads has already

cut access to some of the area’s best hikes and

viewpoints.

For me, the Road 62 situation is an old

story. The road was gated ten years ago, then

later reopened after ne-

gotiations among hik-

ers, Longview Fibre

and the Forest Service.

I and fellow hikers Neil

Bresheare and Dave

Letcher became the

citizen activists who

campaigned to reopen

the road, planning

work parties to clear

the roadside of years of

illegal dumping.

This time around,

Neil is back on the

phones, again looking

for a solution. On his

call list are folks at theForest Service, Long-

view Fibre, the county council and the sher-

iff’s office. Hikers and climbers are debating

the issue on the forums at nwhikers.net and

washingtonclimbers.org. Neil is at 425-388-

7651; Barbara Busse is at 360-677-2414.

For myself, I’d hate to again lose practical

access to Mount Persis, with its spectacular

views from the summit — including a look

directly down to our little town of Index.

[DON]

HERE WE GO AGAIN

Locked gateson forest roads

Don and Neil on MountPersis, with Index below.



SUMMER 2009

Muir Woods is much larger than it

looks on the colorful little map of

Don’s place. For a two- to three-

acre woods it is at once too small to get lost in

and too big not to. It is perfect for wandering.

Topographically it’s a gently sloping bench

sandwiched between a moderately steep

lower slope (that rises from Avenue A and

ends at William’s Meadow) and a quite steepupper slope (beginning around the Alder

Meadow area). Low knoll-like ridges inter-

finger with shallow swales throughout Muir

Woods and are serviced by a vein-like system

of trunk trails and capillary paths.

I was on a scouting mission of sorts, to see

if I could douse out a few stories from the for-

est. From the top of William’s Meadow I wan-

dered uphill and to the right, to the head-

waters of Saw Creek.

ON THE WAY IN it was obvious this was

a diverse forest, not some timber company’s

monoculture: you could look up almost any-where and have trouble finding three trees in

a row of the same species. You could look

down and see five or more species of herbs or

ferns without moving your head. Standing

above the sylvan pools of Saw Springs I

counted twenty-six species of plants just by

turning in a circle.

The world around me was exploding with

life and incident. I was sitting with my back

to a stump, brain foaming over with data,

looking for some sort of theme that might

unite all these growing things. I was rapidly

approaching information overload and de-cided to look for something simpler to contem-

plate than complexity.

In Muir Woods the curtain was up on the

late-spring wildflower show. An easygoing

look at a few of the more prominent wild-

flowers seemed like just what I needed in this

crisis.

People who are used to the big showy flow-

ers of florist shops and urban gardens might

initially have trouble finding and appreciat-

ing the forest’s smaller, often hidden, flowers.

As you stand looking down, half-inch-wide

flowers don’t look that impressive. But close

up — especially when viewed through a good

magnifier — they reveal their complex geome-

tries and simple beauties.

I looked around. The trilliums were past

their prime, and the tepals had already fallen

off the fairy bells. The false lilies-of-the-valley

were starting to whiten up their flower spikes

with the tepals of their tiny flowers, while theplants known as twisted stalk were putting

out lines of their own little bell-shaped flow-

ers along their stems, like pennant flags at a

used-car lot.

A bit of plant anatomy here: Just as petals

surround a flower’s seed- and pollen-

producing organs, the sepals surround the

petals. Sepals are usually green, though pet-

als may be any color. Before the flower opens,

sepals cover and protect the developing pet-

als. When petals and sepals are identical in

form and color, they are just called tepals in-

stead. Class dismissed.Between wintertime, when the forest floor

is relatively bare, and summer, when the

place is rank with flowers and tall growth,

there are a few weeks when just a few wild-

flowers are out and blooming, when the place

is lush and green and not too complicated. I

call it Lily Time because most of our local

wildflowers in the lily family tend to bloom

then.

Plant blooming times aren’t chained to a

calendar. Some years the blooming season

starts earlier, some years later. Some years

many weeks pass before a plant species goes

from flower to seedpod, and some years it

seems to happen quicker. This is one of those

latter years: things were happening fast.

TRILLIUMS ARE THE first of our lilies

to bloom and have the largest flowers. The

flower consists of a whorl of three large white

petals alternating with three smaller, green

sepals. The petals start out white, but gradu-

ally turn wine-red with age.

It’s not unusual to run across folks who

claim the red-petaled trilliums are a different

species. You can confound those people by

Naturalist Bob Hubbard

holds a degree in forest man-

agement, with additionalstudies in botany, entomol-

ogy and geology. He is an

Index town councilman and

past chairman of the town’s

planning commission. He’s

also a trailblazer, literally,

currently developing trail

routes for the new Heybrook

Ridge county park.

Wildflower time

A WALK IN THE WOODS

I countedtwenty-six

speciesof plants

just by turningin a circle.

is a bloomin’ wonder By BOB HUBBARD



SUMMER 2009 5

pointing out that if they would merely hang

around and watch, they could actually wit-

ness the white trilliums change their species.

Less well-known are the fairy bells, proba-

bly because their flowers are much smaller

and hidden from casual view. Ours are

Hooker’s fairy bells— large herbs up to two or

three feet tall, but spare and sparsely

branched.Teardrop-shaped leaves up to four inches

long attach to the stems at intervals, on alter-

nate sides. A two-foot fairy-bell plant might

have only a dozen branch tips, and half of

those might lack flowers. The small, white,

bell-shaped flowers hang down from the

branch tips in pairs, hidden beneath the

outermost stem leaves.

Twisted stalks look a lot like fairy bells,

but the twisted stalks grow larger and have

flowers not just at the branch tips but all up

and down the stems. The leaves of twisted

stalks flare out around their bases and ap-pear to clasp the stem, giving this species the

common name of clasping-leaf twisted stalk.

A fine large pair of twisted stalks grows on

the creek banks up at Saw Springs.

False lilies-of-the-valley are a big part of

the show. You’ll see them as soon as you pass

William’s Meadow and enter Muir Woods.

Their dark green, heart-shaped leaves some-

times blanket the forest floor so densely that

it feels like you’re walking in salad.

AS LILY TIME begins to wane, Saxifrage

Time waxes: fringe cups start to bloom, fol-

lowed by mitreworts, and then thousandmothers. Each of these plants sends up little

sticks of flowers from remarkably similar

tufts of basal leaves.

Whereas our lily flowers have simple-

shaped white petals or tepals, the flowers of

saxifrages are host to fantastically shaped

petals. Fringe cup has tiny petals that are

strap-shaped, like long tongues, and fork into

many outer tips. They spill over and hang out

of the cup-shaped flowers like so many minia-

ture snakes’ tongues. Like trillium petals,

they turn red with age.

Thousand mothers (also called youth-on-

age or piggyback plant) have little flowers

that almost defy description. When I look at

them, I see dragon heads sprouting Salvador

Dali mustaches from upper and lower lips.

But to judge by the name, somebody some-

where must have seen little mothers all lined

up, stuck to the stem by their heads.

OF ALL THE FLOWERS I saw that day

at Saw Springs, I think I like mitreworts the

best. Their petals are like long, thin crosses

with not one but many crossbars. Each min-

uscule petal tip is tapered to a point and the

overall look is more like a feather than a

petal. Even though the whole five-petaled

flower is only about half-an-inch wide and the

plant is barely six to eight inches tall, it’s well

worth the effort to seek these flowers out and

put a magnifying glass to them.

Lily Time and Saxifrage Time go togetherwell: their flowers all bloom in a contiguous

stretch of time, and each species brightens

the forest in its own unique way. If you miss

one flower’s blooming time you still might

catch another’s.

I roamed a bit more, noticing ever more

wildflowers: bleeding hearts, candyflowers,

violets, bittercress, devil’s club, enchanter’s

nightshade, salmonberry, foamflower . . . .

I was flirting again with information over-

load, so I found my way back out to the drive-

way, the world of humans, and dinner.

ON A WALK THROUGH THE WOODS at the Graydon Reserve, Bob Hubbard points to astand of thousand-mothers plants (piggyback plant). Or could it be fringe cup?The two can look remarkably alike to the untrained eye.

THE DISTINCTIVE three-petaledtrillium is an early springfavorite in the Northwest.



A L D E R F A L L S

Cocoa takes a break.

T H E B

A R I N G H U T

Anya and Sarah play while Jonelle works.

T H

E S E C R E T G A R D E N

Nick and Krista share a secret. T H E W A L L

Kathleenclimbs

to the hut.

F

A L L I N G W A T E R

A free-flowing fall day.

E M I L Y ’ S P A R K

Jordan and Brad laze about. S K Y K O M I S H R I V E R

Don with his beloved rocks.

P E N N Y L A N E

An autumn stroll.

S W I R L

Payton stands at the center of it all.



M U I R W O O D S

Jacque and Nita gaze in wonder.

S K Y V I E W

Jim strikes a pose.

H I G H V I E W

Don and Jonelle high above the river.

Waiting for its next climbe

W E T L A N D G A R D E N

Yellow iris line the pond stream.

Foxglove rise behind a field of sweet William.

H O U S E O N T H E H I L L

Henriette and Andy bathe Graham.

C A N T I N A D E L R I O

S E R P E

N T I N E

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Belly up to the bar.



SUMMER 2009

Alpine

splendor

awaits

at the

end

of the

Serene

trail

chainsaws went to work? The answer is

yes, but only after residents led by

Louise Lindgren ignored the odds and

set to work like the Little Engine that

Could.

Across the river from Index town,

the forested ridge dominates the lower

half of the view, with that behemoth

Mount Index high above. A huge de-nuded hillside would not be a pretty

sight. Owners of the ridge put their

clearcutting plans on hold to give the

town one year to find the money.

Donations trickled in. But you can’t

raise a million dollars from barbecues,

raffles, T-shirt sales, and bluegrass hoe-

downs. Louise and her hardcore ac-

tivists also blitzed the media, govern-

ment officials, potential big-money do-

nors, conservation groups, anyone and

everyone who could help the cause. The

Association of Professional Book Index-

ers took a fancy to the town’s name and

sent $500.

The breakthrough came with a half-

million-dollar gift from an anonymous

Seattle donor. And they went over the

top August 4, 2008, when the Snoho-

mish County Council voted to con-

tribute $700,000. Heybrook Ridge will

now become a county park.

HERE AT THE Graydon Reserve,

we’re bounded high on the north by

land set aside for Forks of the Sky State

Park and on the south by the Skyko-

mish River. No room for Costco or Wal-

Mart.

The North Fork of the Sky is not a

federally designated Wild and Scenic

River, but it most certainly is a wild

and scenic river.

From our house, we hear the kayak-

ers and rafters shouting as they ride

the whitewater past Emily’s Park.

Government constraints on such ac-

tivities as tree cutting and habitat de-

struction give considerable protection to

the river. I found this out rather

abruptly some years ago when the state

forester ordered my contractor to stop

cutting trees near the river, where I

wanted an open picnic area. I got off

without a fine but had to come up with

a revegetation plan.

With the state’s current budget

woes, there’s no telling when Forks of

the Sky State Park will be developed.

We don’t mind. The steep forests are

wonderful as is. And on the river we

have our own park, a half-acre with a

frisbee field, firepit, picnic tables. Emily

Graydon, born a century ago, would

have the time of her life in the park

named in her memory.

[DON]

FROM PAGE ONE

Citizens go to work, and a park is born

THE LAKE SERENE trail takes hikers to a dramaticbasin beneath the east walls of Mount Index. Themain trail ascends steep forest to the lake. A spurtrail leads to the base of the upper falls. An oldscramble route (dotted line) ascends from theupper falls (for the fit and adventurous only).

and snowfields that rise 3,500 feet to the In-

dex summit. Hike in summer to bask in the

immensity of the setting.

The lake is serene, but you won’t find se-

renity there on a sunny weekend. The fine

trail completed a decade ago attracts nature-

hungry lowlanders by the dozens. Try to go on

a weekday. If you must hike on a weekend,

start early.To get to the trailhead, start at the Index

General Store. After stocking up there, drive

back to the main highway, U.S. 2, turn right

and cross the bridge over the river. Turn left

immediately past the bridge onto Mt. Index

Road. Take the right fork in less than half a

mile and pull into the parking lot. (You need

a parking pass, available for sale at the store,

or park along Mt. Index Road.)

FROM LOW IN THE Skykomish Valley,

the trail climbs 2,000 feet to the lake in about

four miles. The first mile or so follows an

abandoned roadbed, crossing a stream nearthe start. If you don’t like the narrow, angled

footbridge (no railing), just rock-hop across

the stream.

Soon after leaving the roadbed and enter-

ing deep forest, a right fork in the trail climbs

steeply in half a mile to the base of the main

Bridal Veil Falls. Head on up if you want a

close look at the most dramatic of the falls fed

by Lake Serene.

From the base of these upper falls, an old

fisherman’s track ascends sharply to the lake.

Old-timers who know the track sometimes

Lake Serene. The name alone makes you

yearn to be there. But this high mountain

lake is much more than a pretty name. Its

spectacular place beneath the awesome east-

ern ramparts of Mount Index make it among

the most prized of Cascade lakes.

Hike through the snow in May and watch

from the lake as avalanches pour off the cliffs

8



SUMMER 2009

take this scramble route up and the tourist

trail down.

A short distance beyond the trail fork, hik-

ers on the main trail reach a footbridge that

affords a fine view of Bridal Veil Creek as it

plunges over a large lower falls. A bit farther

on, you’ll come to yet another impressive cas-

cade, a channel of the creek that pours over

great smooth rock slabs.For the next mile and a half, the trail

switchbacks relentlessly up and up. A long

traverse near the top takes you to the lake

basin. You’re in a new world here, quieter,

calmer than on the exposed trail.

Cross the long log bridge over the lake’s

outlet for a walk along the northern edge of

the water. When the trail starts to head

steeply upslope, keep going. You’ll arrive in a

few minutes on the big rounded Lunch Rock

that rises from the lake, the perfect place to

sit and savor the scene.

For climbers, Lake Serene is only the

starting point. Technical climbers with an eye

on the North Peak of Index continue on up

the northern shoulder to the start of the

climb. Adventurers aiming for the easier (but

not easy) scramble route to the main peak

will hike all the way around the lake (or walk

over it during freeze-up), climb the steep

ridge at the end of the lake, then make their

way to the base of a great chute, or couloir,

that climbs another 1,300 feet to the broad

open ridge that leads to the summit.

THE LAKE SERENE TRIP is only one of

many glorious hikes around Index. Favoritesfor family hikes are Wallace Falls, Barclay

Lake, Heybrook Ridge and Tonga Ridge. More

ambitious day hikers trek to Eagle Lake or

Malachite Lake. Some of the prime hikes, like

the trails to Blanca Lake and Cady Ridge, are

now less accessible with closing of the Index-

Galena Road due to flood damage.

Folks who like some routefinding chal-

lenge in their hikes try the rough trails to the

Index Town lookout and the top of the upper

Index Town Wall. Starting at the Graydon

Reserve are short, strenuous ascents to the

Skyview and Highview lookouts.

Mountain scramblers take on the standard

routes up Mount Persis, Mount Baring and

Merchant Peak. For a bit of technical chal-

lenge, there’s Gunn Peak and Mount Index.

I’d be happy to point the way to any of

these hikes or climbs. I might even tag along.

[DON]

Check out the endless hiking possibilities

in the neighborhood in “55 Hikes Around

Stevens Pass,” from Mountaineers Books, by

Rick McGuire with photos by Ira Spring. Buy

a copy, or read the one at the reserve.

9

Extremely Important

Information

The annual Index Arts Festival fillsdowntown Index (the whole block)with arts and crafts, music, food andmore art. Saturday, August 1, 10a.m. to 6 p.m. indexartsgroup.org.

INDEX ARTS FESTIVAL

Randonee alpine touring skis. Kahru175 cm skis with Ramer bindings.Good gear, fine shape, 14 years old,lightly used. $85.

20-inch Stihl chain saw, model 034 AV Super. With chains, files, case.Excellent shape, though not run inseveral years, so will need cleaningand tune-up. 18 years old, but it is aStihl. $100.

Four-step collapsible stairs, for entry to a small camper. Heavy hammeredmetal, with bracket. Free to a goodhome.

Contact Don for all. 360-793-9148

CHEAP SKATES

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. BarbaraKingsolver and her family set out tospend a year eating only the food they could grow or buy locally. In beautifulprose Kingsolver outlines our national―eating disorder‖ and tells how shefound a better way to eat. [LISA and DANA]

Preaching the Blues , with Johnny Horn. Sundays 9 a.m. to noon, FM

90.3. Mellow blues, new and old.Music, not commercials. [JORDAN]

Ode magazine. A hymn to the possi-bilities for individual and social pro-gress. Ode tells the success stories ofpeople and ideas that make a differ-ence. odemagazine.com. [JOANNA]

The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of theBeautiful Basics of Science. Baffled by science? Let New York Times sciencewriter Natalie Angier make you actu-ally care about—maybe even under-stand—physics, chemistry, biology,

geology and astronomy. [PAUL] Roman Holiday. Gregory Peck is thenewsman who finds his princess in thissad and funny film about yearning,duty, love and heartbreak. Has any-one else ever been as sweetly beauti-ful as Audrey Hepburn? [DON]

BEST IN THE UNIVERSE

Index town: indexwa.orgN. Fork Skykomish: skyko.orgIndex artists: indexartsgroup.orgWave Trek:

outdooradventurecenter.com

Washington Climbers Coalition:washingtonclimbers.org

OUR WORLD ON THE WEB

”This place is peaceful,cozy, green, and agreat place for kids!”

SARAH SEZ

● More dismal rainfall statistics

● Bob Hubbard’s beetlemania

● The Serpentine revealed

● Italian stew recipe

● The latest natural disaster

● Secrets of the Swirl

● Relativity explained (if space permits)

IN THE NEXT ISSUE (if any)

This week’s special:

Help create the Serpentine, a monu-mental piece of land art in Emily’sPark, using the mounds of flooddebris collected over the past 12years. Saturday, July 4, 9 a.m.–6p.m. No experience necessary.

Ongoing opportunities:Garden the climbing crag with wirebrushes, from ground or on rappel.

Bushwhackers special: Help discovera new route from the hut to theDark Tower. For the very hardy.

Splash the interior of Cantina del Rio

with gallons of gaudy color.Cerveza? Of course.

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIESAT THE GRAYDON RESERVE



SUMMER 20090

Like any gardener, I have a need to fill

in the empty spaces with things that are

lovely to look at, delightful to know, and

heaven to smell. (Sounds like that old song,

doesn’t it?) This has become particularly true

with our wetland garden.

In our lower front yard, water flows much

of the year. It comes as runoff from Deer

Creek Plateau and apparently from an under-

ground spring. The spring was once an im-

proved water source for someone (probably

early twentieth century), as evidenced by a

ten-foot-long timber and a small rock wall,

uncovered several years ago when Doncleaned the muck out of the upper part of the

wetland and built a pond.

In taking on the challenge of gardening in

a wetland, I’ve learned a number of things:

■ Flowing water plus heavy, frequent rains

equal a need to replenish soil. Otherwise, all

that remains in the wetland is granular gran-

ite and algae.

■ If you have a favorite alpine wildflower,

don’t expect it to appear the same if you

transplant it or buy one from a nursery and

plant it down at an elevation of 600 feet.

■ It’s beneficial to your health if you wear

high rubber boots and learn to balance with

your feet and one elbow on three rocks, each

at a different height.

It’s been a pleasure to find both native and

non-native plants that like the wet habitat.

While the areas surrounding the wetland

abound with bleeding heart, spring beauties,

forget-me-nots and Indian plum, the only

original flowering plants in it were the piggy-

backs and dandelions. We gradually added

more color than was provided by those and by

the native grasses and rushes.Now when our late spring finally arrives,

and on into the fall, we gaze on patches of

bright blue ajuga, marsh marigolds, skunk

cabbage (yes, we love both the leaves and the

aroma), deep pink candelabra primrose, yel-

low water iris, deep blue Siberian iris, crim-

son flag, turtlehead, spiderwort, hostas and

ligularia. Deer fern, sword fern and other

ferns add foliage interest.

Some plants thrive under adverse condi-

tions: snow, flood, drought, rocky soil. In fact,

it may not be a good idea to transplant them

into a gentler habitat. My experience with

transplanting marsh marigolds (my second-

favorite wildflower) from an alpine home into

our low-elevation wetland was an eye opener.

They flourished the rest of the season. The

next spring: nada. No sign of them.

Next I resorted to a nursery-purchased

marsh marigold. For three years it has been

rewarding me with a mass of lovely blooms.

But the big blowsy bush bears only a little re-

semblance to the pristine, ground-hugging

plant we see in the sparkling early-spring

runoff in the wild. Thus during a recent nurs-

ery visit, I resisted the urge to buy a pot of

my favorite — the mountain pasqueflower, or

western anemone. I’ll await the thrill of see-

ing it poking up out of the snow on a high

mountain hike.

Our only unwelcome residents are the

buttercups that keep trying to take over and

the slugs that chew up the ligularia, hosta

and marsh marigold. Although I gave up on

showy scarlet lobelia cardinalis after two

roaming deer chomped the plants to the

ground, I admit it’s fun to take photos of thelovely creatures before I shoo them away to

Penny Lane.

You may be familiar with a rose named

Sheer Bliss. When little blue butterflies use

the ligularia flowers as mating grounds and

swallowtails flit through the garden to the

sound of the water flowing from the pond,

the wetland garden is a wonderland. Then I

think of that rose.

[JONELLE]

Secrets of a wetland garden

THE BEAUTIES of the wetlandgarden include Siberian iris(upper left) and (above) thequieter pleasures of purplishspires on the tall royalpickerell, deep-red lobeliacardinalis and pink turtle-head. Vying for attentionbelow are skunk cabbage,marsh marigold, and aswallowtail butterfly on the

blossoms of the ligularia.

Be patient, humor the deer and wear high rubber boots



SUMMER 2009

Vandalismat the

Reserve!

11

enjoy a bit of hiking for the reward of spec-

tacular scenery along with their wine and

cheese on the deck. I use the hut as a base

camp for my trail-building and explorations

even higher up the slopes.

The hut is put together like a tiny RV or

sailboat. In a room barely 10-by-10 you’ll find

a dining table, pantry, bookshelves, two-

burner stove, cooler, sink, chairs, double bed,floor cabinets, gas heater, and lots of bedding

and kitchen gear, wine glasses included. (The

outdoor toilet is a bit farther up the trail.)

The official name is the Baring Hut, for the

distinctive double-summit peak to the east,

Mount Baring. It’s also a climber’s hut, sup -

plied with ropes, harnesses and carabiners for

folks who want to try their hands and feet on

the near-vertical west wall of the hut cliff.

Of course I didn’t create the hut alone.

Here are my helpers (listed in the category

where they gave the most help):

ConstructionBill Poulson

Andy Graydon

Pete Bjordahl

Climbing-wall

cleaning

Jens Hauch

Jerrett Harms

Ron Hobbs

Warren Wilson

Penny Giering

Tree-cutting

Jim Burgess

Dan Finley

Toilet-seat

painting Anya Henning

Sarah Witzel

Contributions

Windows: Dick and Beth McConaughy

Door: Paul Giering

Lumber: Paul and Lisa Witzel

Tile: Twila Gagnon

Lamp: Tom Morgan

Water barrel: Dana Kemmerling, Jordan Rabinowe

Climbing rope: Dan McLaughlin

Lantern: Ann Urich

Lumber, countertop, construction,

painting, trailwork, etc.

Jonelle KemmerlingOvernight reservations

360.793.9148

[email protected]

[DON]

It seems to me you have two options for

building a little getaway hut on your own

property:

1. Buy a storage shed at Home Depot and

have it delivered. Paint it pretty, then bring

in a cot, a few chairs and a cooler. Have your

friends over that evening for beer and a

barbecue.

2. Find an inaccessible location high on

the cliffs at the back of your land. Build a

trail to the site. Off and on over the next five

years, haul Quikrete in your backpack forfoundation posts, drill holes in the rock for

more supports, hand-carry beams and lumber

and windows and tin roofing up a quarter-

mile of switchbacks, and build a tiny cedar

hut at the brink of a 40-foot granite cliff. Pop

open a brewski and take in the views of river

and mountains. Then head back down for

another load.

I picked option number 2.

It was more than worth it. Now the hut

welcomes visitors throughout the year who

How not to build

a hut

JIM GRAYDON NEVER walks when he can climb.Here he scrambles the south cliff below the hut,heading for the climber’s gate in the deck railing.

MOUNT INDEX presides overJonelle’s breakfast on the deck.

Teenagers!Beavers!MotherNature!

WHICH IS WORST?

A board on top of thenewly painted yellow picnictable was broken at the

end, clearly the work ofvandals. Nearby, a big up-right sitting log had beencast down, and one of theEmily’s Park swing seatshad been torn off the rope.Perhaps worst of all, some-one had cut down a smallIndian plum tree.

Then the next day, an-other tree cut down, thisone a young cherry.Jonelle discovered theculprits. Not teenagers.

Beavers. The family thatbuilt the dam just down theroad from us was roamingafield in search of food.

After consulting theexperts, we spent $45 onwire mesh fencing andwrapped it around thetrunks of favored trees: afew cherries, a couple ofapples, some vine maple,and a nice cedar. Now wewait and see.

Meanwhile up at the

hut, another vandal was atwork. From a scar in thecliffs less than 50 feet eastof the hut, Mother Natureloosed a granite boulderthat upended an old logand blocked the entranceto the Path Less Traveled.

An earthquake in 2001created the original scar.Beaver: fotosearch.com. Teenager:Christopher J. Menning, audiophysi-cal.squarespace.com. Mother Nature:Qczma, qczma.deviantart.com



N. Fork SkykomishRiver

Use this handy guideto find your way here

from anywherein the cosmos

UNIVERSAL LOCATOR MAP

NGC 1333 b l St h L hi (th i l t d) E th f R t Stö kli N i El S l M it J t ft Nil St t USGS I d i l G l E th

RECURRENT RUMORS of heavy rainfall in Index

appear to be true. These monthly statistics for

2005 through 2008 plus the first five months

of 2009 are from the home rain gauge of

Index resident David Cameron.

RAIN BY THE BARREL

Now you see it,now you don’t THE BIG BOULDER known as Beer Rockappears and disappears at the whim

of the river. On May 30, competitors inthe Trioba adventure race had to goover or around the submerged rock.But last summer, Anya Henning just

swam to it and climbed on board.Until November 6, 2006, Beer Rock

rested placidly on the shore at Emily’sPark. The great flood of that day sent it

about 80 feet downstream and outinto the current, where it sits today.

Documents

Parallel Universe Newsletter Summer 2009