The Signpost Blog
Fee Free Day & Road News
Fee-Free Day Nov. 11
It's a mid-week day in November, but if you're game, next Wednesday is a great day to head out to the woods to check the new-fallen snow.
The Forest Service and Park Service are celebrating our veterans and Veteran's Day by waiving all day use fees at parks and forests November 11th.
So leave your Northwest Forest Pass at home or gain free entry to Mount Rainier National Park, Olympic National Park or Mount St. Helen's.
Pass Closures
Three feet of snow have fallen on Chinook Pass since Friday, prompting the winter closure of the pass over SR 410 as well as Cayuse Pass on SR 123. The North Cascades Highway (SR 20) is currently temporarily closed, and with more winter weather in the forecast, it too could be closed for the season soon. All three passes typically close during the winter and reopen in the spring.
Cascade River Road Repaired
In other news to file away until the spring, the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest has completed repairs on the Cascade River Road. After two years of restricted access, the Hard Creek Bridge is finished and open for traffic. This is the road that provides access to the Mineral Park Campground and the popular Cascade Pass trailhead.
An avalanche in December 2007 damaged the bridge, and it has been closed or subject to weight limitations ever since.
Mount Tahoma Hut Reservations
Several years ago, I tagged along with some friends for a weekend at Mount Tahoma's High Hut. Since my cross country skiing skills are just a notch above novice, I was a bit anxious. But I got there and back without even falling. The gentle slopes, plus Mount Tahoma Trails Association's fine grooming on 20 miles of trails, make this area a great destination for all ages and abilities.
- One perk of skiing or snowshoeing to Copper Creek Hut - going inside and getting warm! Photo by Trip Report poster 'Wild Celtic Rose.'
And staying at High Hut was unforgettable. It was great to play outside in the snow, then return to its toasty interior and gaze out the window at Mount Rainier looming so close.
If this sounds inviting, you should definitely attend the Mount Tahoma Trails Association's Gala Fundraiser at REI on Saturday from 2:00-6:00 pm. By attending ($10 per person), you will not only be supporting the great work of this organization, but you will also get first dibs at signing up for their two backcountry huts and one yurt. View the Event Flier
At the event, they will be conducting a hut reservation lottery. This is most likely your only chance for getting a weekend reservation this winter.
Of course, you can always enjoy the huts and the 50 miles of ski trails during day trips. MTTA charges no fees for day use, and only processing fees and deposits for the huts. The Mount Tahoma trail system is located on the west side of Mount Rainier, near Elbe, WA. You'll need a snow park pass, but not a grooming sticker.
Check out some of the Trip Reports posted the past couple of winters here and here.
Harvey Manning film debuts Wednesday
First came the statue in Issaquah. Now comes the documentary.
The legacy of Harvey Manning, the legendary writer and conservationist, is heralded in a new film by Robert and Kathy Chrestensen. "The Irate Birdwatcher" is about wilderness preservation in Washington, as told in Harvey's voice.
You may remember Harvey Manning most from his distinct point of view in the 100 Hike series of guidebooks for Mountaineers Books (co-authored and photographed by Ira Spring). These and his other writings were instrumental in the creation of North Cascades National Park and in the passage of the Washington Wilderness Act of 1984.
A free public screening of "The Irate Birdwatcher" will be held at The Mountaineers new Seattle clubhouse at Sandpoint on Wednesday at 7pm. Here are the details:
The Irate Birdwatcher free public screening
November 4 - 7pm
Mountaineers Building
7700 Sand Point Way NE
Seattle
You can learn more about the film and Harvey Manning (including a 3 minute trailer) on the Crest Pictures website.
Preparing for Winter Hiking
After seeing a person snowboarding on the cover of Wednesday's Seattle Times, I can no longer deny that winter is right around the corner. The days are growing shorter, the mornings are colder and the trees are losing their leaves.
What's a hiker to do?
- Along the Duckabush River Trail. By Brandon Brownell
Keep hiking, for one. Or switch to snowshoes. There are many choices for great year-round snow-free hikes, and a whole new world opens up if your head out into the snow.
Here are three ways to find excellent destinations for November (or any particular month) on WTA's website:
- Search Trip Reports - See where other hikers typically trek in November. If you click on "Show Advanced Search Options" you can search by month or by specific date range.
- Browse WTA's Hikes of the Week - Last year's selections included Tunnel Creek in the Olympics, Boulder River near Darrington and Shi Shi Beach on the coast.
- Choose from our Seasonal Destinations - These are past features that provide ideas for every season, like River Hikes in the Olympics or Snowshoeing Mt. Rainier.
Hiking and snowshoeing in the fall and winter requires a little more planning and vigilance, however. Check out our Winter Safety Tips for information about snow safety and what additional items to include in your backpack.
You'll also want to know a bit more about the weather and road conditions. WSDOT has up-to-date mountain pass conditions, including cameras on five well-traveled routes.
The Northwest Avalanche Center's website provides not only detailed avalanche forecasts but also comprehensive weather data and forecasts for the mountains. For more lowland weather information, try the information from the National Weather Service.
So get outside and play this winter! And when you're done, please write a Trip Report to tell us about your adventure.
Susan Elderkin Returns as Web Editor
It's great to be back as the Web Editor at Washington Trails Association.
For those of you who don't know me, I joined the staff of WTA in 2007 and launched the latest redesign of WTA's website, an enormous project that took 18 months to complete. Just as I finished that project in the fall of 2008, my daughter Aliza was born. And now, after a year at home with Aliza and my four year old son, Aidan, I've returned with renewed energy to WTA.
I've been hanging around Washington Trails Association for years. Fresh off a thru-hike of the Colorado Trail in 1995, and eager to give back to the trail community, I discovered WTA. Greg Ball was just initiating trail maintenance work parties (I think WTA recorded 240 hours that year), and I joined him on a weekend party at Lake Quinault.
Before I knew it, I had joined WTA's Board of Directors, where I served for six years as President, Treasurer, Communications Chair & Board Development Chair (fortunately not all at the same time!). Even though I left the board in 2004, I still kept coming back to WTA to serve on ad hoc committees. The last committee I was on - the Website Committee - stuck, and so here I am.
I've been on the job for a week now, and had a blast writing the current feature on Haunted Hikes. Over the coming months you can expect more fun features like that, more articles that expand on the stories in Washington Trails Magazine, and more seasonal hiking suggestions.
I am incredibly excited about the addition of Mountaineers Books' Day Hiking series to WTA's Hiking Guide. In case you haven't seen our Hiking Guide recently, you can now read the actual guidebook descriptions for 600 hikes in Washington. With the Trip Reports right there, it really is the best place to start planning your next hike. A special thanks goes out to Mountaineers Books and guidebook authors Craig Romano, Dan Nelson and Alan Bauer for donating their content to WTA.
One of my goals for this winter is to iron out the remaining kinks to the Hiking Guide and Trip Reports and to be very responsive to edits and additions.
I am always looking for new ideas for features and articles, so if you have them, please shoot them my way at susan@wta.org. I look forward to providing you a great WTA website experience!
Web Feedback: We're Listening!
Washington Trails Association unveiled its new Trip Report and Hiking Guide formats nearly a month ago. The change, and some performance hiccups along the way, prompted lots of feedback - both positive and negative.
We want to let you know that we have listened and will be making some changes over the next month or so to improve the way it works for hikers like you. These include:
- Speed - By the end of October, pages should open up much faster.
- Freshest Trip Reports - Most people preferred how it worked before, so we will be emulating that experience as best as we can within the new format. We also suggest that you try out the Trip Report search page, which is ordered chronologically and can be filtered by region and more.
- Using the Back Button - If you've encountered problems using your browser's back button within a search, we're working with our programmers to fix this issue.
- Adding Search by Author - Like a particular Trip Reporter? We'll be adding a search field to Trip Reports that will allow you to search by author. Currently, you can view their entries by typing their name in the Keyword field of the Trip Report search.
- Improving Photo Uploading performance - There have been reported problems when uploading three or four photos to a Trip Report - both the size of the photo and slower connection speeds appear to be the culprit. We're working to see how we could make this work better for people.
- Login Issues - Can't remember your user name or password? Because this requirement is new for Trip Reports, chances are you don't have one. Try registering at www.wta.org/join_form - if your e-mail is already in the system, it will let you know.
- Design Tweaks - WTA will also be making some small design tweaks that you may or may not notice.
- Hiking Guide Entries - Where have the old ones gone? We're working on updating the old hiking guide entries (some were 10 years old!) and including them within the new format. More are uploaded every week.
- New Photo Gallery & Backcountry Kitchen - Look for improvements to these popular areas by the end of the year.
These all should be complete by the end of the year - if not much earlier. In the meantime, we suggest that you use some of your off-season free time to make additions and edits to our redesigned Hiking Guide.
The Hiking Guide includes standing descriptions and information that are written more like a guidebook entry. It's all wiki - so you and other hikers are indispensable in making this the best online source for hiking info around.
Have some more feedback for us? Send an email to: feedback@wta.org.
New Features, Changes to Website
By now, many of you will have noticed the changes to WTA's Trip Reports and Hiking Guide which debuted on September 10th. We hope you have had a chance to check it out and like what you see.
There are several new features to get to know. We're particularly excited about the integration of the Trip Reports into the Hiking Guide. Previously, these were separate - a general description about a hike, its location and driving directions were in a different part of the website than the user-submitted Trip Reports.
This left lots of people wanting for more information. After reading an enticing Trip Report, it was hard to find out where the hike was located and more details about it.
Now, with your help, we can really make the Hiking Guide a fabulous resource for hikers. Both the Hiking Guide and Trip Reports are "wiki." That means you can post reports about your hikes, write up guidebook-style descriptions, add statistics or driving directions and more about your favorite hikes. Then other users will see all of that on one handy page.
We also think that you will enjoy the new search features for the Trip Reports and the Hiking Guide.
- A great example of the power of the new features is here. Check it out!
- You can also learn more about what's new with the Hiking Guide here and the Trip Reports here.
Your Feedback is Helpful
We do realize that some functions aren't working perfectly. A few things we've noted are that the site may be a bit slower than usual; the Freshest Trip Reports page needs some design improvements to make it easier to view; the need for more entries in the Hiking Guide; and some hitches with new logins.
We are listening, and we'll be addressing these and more issues as they arise. For now, please send feedback to feedback@wta.org. We welcome your input and greatly appreciate it.
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