IG: @tylerhikes
The clearcuts went on for miles. After you walk through four wilderness areas and 267 miles of unadulterated forests, walking out of Snoqualmie Pass was kind of a shocker.
Thanks for leaving one... Desecration of nature. Reuse your stuff!
Our first close view of Mount Rainier.
A herd of mountain goats up the hill!
A rainbow around the sun in the Norse Peak Wilderness!
The William O. Douglas Wilderness!
We spent our previous day in North Bend, WA taking a nero (nearly a "zero" mile day). During our brief respite from the trail, Wildfire's parents (I call them The Firestarters) took us to see Snoqualmie Falls after lunch. The only thing I remember thinking was, "Man, this world is getting crowded." The amount of cars, trash, noise, and the shoulder-to-shoulder standing room at the viewing platform to see a waterfall that had 90% of its flow diverted for Puget Sound Energy use made me wonder why I'd left the trail at all.
Back in the woods things were suddenly just as disconcerting. South of Snoqualmie Pass the land isn't protected. In fact, I'd say it is abused. Sure, trees are a renewable resource. They grow back. But no one tells you that it could take over 100 years for a clearcut to grow back entirely. I use paper products, but after this experience I promise to use less. Nothing about walking through a clearcut looks or feels right. The three of us walked through plenty of them for the next 3 days. The same irksome feeling hits me when I see a hydrofracking complex. Gross.
The clearcuts were flanked by burned areas.
When the last crackling power-line had been crossed and the last clearcut that The Lorax warns you about when you're a kid was finally behind us, we entered splendor.
Our stay at Government Meadows at the entrance of the Norse Peak Wilderness was enhanced by elk bugles in the evening and by our stay in Urich Cabin — one of the only shelters on the PCT. When we entered the wilderness the next day we were treated to ridgeline views of Mount Rainier! I stumbled across a herd of mountain goats. Half Jesus saw a porcupine. The wilderness certainly felt more appealing every single day.
When Europeans colonized America, there was an underlying fear of the wild. Many New England Puritans thought that the wilderness was the natural habitat of the devil. Where a wilderness existed, a garden should be made. The notion of Manifest Destiny made it seem that it was our God-given right to develop from coast-to-coast. The natives were pushed aside, we annihilated the buffalo, and now we are only left with fragmented pockets of beauty. If you look at a map of the United States, you'll notice that we did a pretty good job of modernizing this country, especially the east coast where few large wilderness areas remain. In fact, wilderness.net will inform you that only 2.7% of the conintental United States is designated Federal Wilderness. When you include state and tribal wilderness areas, you get to a meagerly 3%. Combine all wilderness areas together and you've got the state of Minnesota out of the entire Lower 48. That is pathetic. This means that 97% of our country will be or has been altered by man.
The good news is that the wilderness that does exist is incredible. I'll walk through 48 wilderness areas from Canada to Mexico along the Pacific Crest Trail, and these areas are stunning. Sometimes it just takes a short reintegration into the Cotton World (the world that you can wear cotton clothes in and not die) to remember how precious our wild spaces are. They aren't something to fear. Losing them is something to fear. Here are some highlights between the Norse Peak Wilderness, Mount Rainier National Park, and the William O. Douglas Wilderness before I reached White Pass... (This is the positive stuff. Sorry for being so controversial, I just really believe that we need more wilderness areas for all the cute animals and for our population that keeps growing and growing.)
Mount Rainier National Park entrance
Spooky Lake Tipsoo!
Just think... In 1803 President Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark across our great nation to explore the Louisiana Purchase. Everything they saw west of the Missippi River was pristine and wild. Just over 200 years later only 2.7% of the contiguous United States remains wild. Edward Abbey once said, "Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of a cancer cell." I think it's time for more young people to get outside and to see how spectacular our country is. Or maybe 2nd graders can stop singing "America the Beautiful," and instead learn "America the Paved."
