Does Storm Damage Equal More Trails?

Do washed out roads mean more hiking opportunities?

Well, yes and no.

Over at Sightline Institute's blog The Daily Score, Eric de Place writes an interesting post about turning storm-damaged roads into new hiking opportunities. Rather than repairing some washed-out roads, he argues, we should convert these areas to "wilderness lite"--places where hikers, bikers, and equestrians can all experience the woods together. He points specifically to the washed out Dosewallips River Road as an example:

So, there's an optimistic take on the Dose washout: we didn't lose 5 miles of road so much as we gained 5 miles of trail. And the former road bed is a "trail" that mountain bikes can use too, which are rightly verboten on actual trails in national parks.

Well, yes...hikers did gain a lovely 5-mile river walk. But they've also lost many miles of day hiking opportunities, including Lake Constance. And to his credit, de Place acknowledges this. What's happening with storm damage is a trade off: we may be gaining more low-elevation road walks, but we're losing access to the high country. And there are various reasons behind this trade-off: lack of funding, environmental concerns, and relentless erosion.

Some roads are probably destined for a similar fate: the washed-out Carbon River Road in the northwest corner of Mount Rainier National Park, in my opinion, will probably become the kind of hiking/biking route de Place envisions. But what we'll lose is a fantastic day hike to the Carbon Glacier.

Certainly, many forest roads should be decommissioned-- particularly spur roads and those mazes of logging roads that don't lead to anywhere but old clearcuts. Olympic National Forest, for instance, is laced with these. Some of these roads might even be converted into worthwhile hikes to make up for the loss of the upper Dose Road. Why not convert FS 2350 above Murhut Falls to a trail, for instance? Or perhaps some of the old roads on Jefferson Ridge in the southeast Olympics could be connected to a long-neglected trail there.

Does this mean every forest road should be left to nature's devices? Absolutely not. Core mountain roads that provide access to important day hiking and backpacking destinations need to be rebuilt--in an environmentally sensitive way. The Suiattle River Road, the road to Tonga Ridge, and the Index-Galena Road are three examples of roads that need to be restored.

Sure, I love multi-day backpack trips that take me deep into wilderness. And yes, I've taken my kids on lovely river trails that were once forest roads. But our citizens also deserve access to day hikes into the high country. Novice hikers and families need opportunities to see what an alpine meadow looks like, or to glimpse a view from the top of a mountain peak. In an age when kids are increasingly not getting outdoors and succumbing to "nature deficit disorder," the solution is not to make the high country even more difficult to get to.

More on this topic, including the Dose Road, tomorrow.