[pct-l] Cascade trails are a mess after October storms

[captain at eskimo.com (James LaJocies)]

This news article was published in today's paper The Everett Herald. For 
all of you that may be interested in what the October Storms did to the 
North Cascades.
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Published: Saturday, November 8, 2003

Cascade trails are a mess after October storms

By Sharon Wootton
Outbound Columnist

I've soaked up the 90-plus degrees of Kennedy Hot Springs after a 
healthy fall hike up the White Chuck Trail, dropped down into a 
5-foot-deep cedar box, spring water easing through the rocky bottom and 
bubbling toward the surface. The springs would have been a stop on the 
next hike toward Red Pass, but now they're only a memory because they're 
a casualty of the late October storm system that beat up Western Washington.

"It's a good thing you weren't sitting there during a rain storm. The 
hot springs are literally buried," said trails expert Gary Paull of the 
Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. The bridge to the springs is 
gone, as is a nearby cabin built in the 1920s. "All that debris on top 
of it includes some pretty darn big rocks," Paull said.

"It's discouraging but it's also the way nature is," said Elizabeth 
Lunney, Washington Trails Association executive director.

"We're lucky to have as much access to those places as we do. It 
underscores the idea that we are visitors to those places," she said. 
"(What) made my heart sink is the number of bridges gone. They're the 
most expensive part."

The Forest Service and WTA will chip away at the damage."Nature is 
beyond our control, but that's part of why we want the trails and roads 
out there, to experience the softer side of nature," she said.

This year WTA volunteers have worked about 67,000 hours, the equivalent 
of about 33 full-time workers, Lunney said. "One of the bright spots is 
that we have really made a dent in the maintenance backlog on the forest 
(so we'll be able to) dedicate a portion of our program ... to 
addressing storm damage."WTA will need more volunteers than ever. 
Ironically, WTA held volunteer appreciation night Friday. Under the 
circumstances, Paull's Power Point program stressed the challenges, 
because with one powerful storm system, dozens of maps and hiking books 
were swept into the out-of-date category.

"The worse places tend to be anything downstream from Glacier Peak," 
said Paull, referring to significant chunks of missing trails and 
expensive bridges, including all the bridges on the Pacific Crest Trail 
between Red Pass and Miner's Creek, and crossings of the White Chuck and 
Suiattle.

Some trails are unsettled because their banks have been undercut. Much 
of the work can't be done by volunteers, Paull said, work that involves 
huge logs, steel beams, helicopters and blasting; and there's little 
funding. For some years, hikers will have to hike in new areas, Paull said.