Conscious Choice: Into the Wild

January 2008 | Escape the Pace

Into the Wild

Just 90 Minutes from Downtown: Wild Sky Wilderness

By Crai S. Bower

Ecologists call it island biogeography: natural environments that offer ideal wildlife habitats, but are surrounded by inhospitable areas of human development. Wild Sky Wilderness feels more like a continent than an island. The 106,000 –acre landmass just 90 minutes northeast of Seattle meets up with the Henry M. Jackson Wilderness to complete a verdant biomass jigsaw puzzle even by our Evergreen State standards.

Back in 1988, when I studied ornithology at Evergreen State College, I worked one summer looking for spotted owls. Deep wilderness was disappearing throughout Washington, except in the national parks. To think that this much wild land still exists two decades later is astounding. I can’t wait to explore every acre of it, from learning to snowshoe in the winter to taking my kids camping in the summer.

Even after the 1984 Washington Wilderness Act resulted in the Jackson Wilderness, supporters of the Wild Sky Wilderness, which comprises of lower elevation Ragged, Eagle Rock and Cady areas, cast political differences aside and worked tirelessly to preserve the entire region. Wild Sky will soon be the first nationally designated wilderness area in Washington in 20 years.

During a time of extreme environmental degradation and public guilt, it’s hard to comprehend the magnitude of Wild Sky’s success. But observe the turbulent pools of spawning salmon along 25–miles of undisturbed habitat, listen to the drawn buzz of the varied thrush (a rare altitude migrant who travels each winter from high to low elevation rather than from northern to southern latitudes) and you realize the protection of a complete watershed is still possible in this country.

Four rivers run here, including the most pristine steelhead runs in the state. Much of this area was logged a century ago, but the many riparian ravines of Wild Sky proved too steep for even the most ambitious logging companies. Today, the Douglas firs, hemlocks and cedars in the old growth forest truly combine with mature forest. Ironically, access (a road does run through it) is exactly what makes Wild Sky such a fantastic natural escape.

“Wild Sky is a country of tremendous forests punctuated by gorgeous peaks embellished by incredible streams, rivers and lakes,” explains Mike Town, one of Wild Sky’s principal stewards and resident of adjacent Index, Washington. “Just about anyone can enter this area for backcountry exploration, skiing or day hikes.”

There is funding within the current legislation to create a boardwalk through the low elevation old growth forest as well.

Town, who teaches biology at Redmond High School, adds that Wild Sky’s abundant low elevation old growth forest is extremely rare because it has easy access to so many alpine lakes including Barclay Lake, Blanca Lake and Eagle Lake.

Most alpine lakes serve as the bejeweled reward after a strenuous and sweaty trek. The Wild Sky hiker discovers lakes after a gradual meander.

“The great thing about the two mile Eagle Lake Hike,” agrees Jennifer Stephens, Communications Director for the Wilderness Society’s Pacific Northwest Region, “is that you can drive up the Beckler River Road, park and within ten minutes be walking through an old growth forest.” Stephens took her kids hiking to Wild Sky this fall. “You emerge into Paradise Meadow, which is a great alpine meadow, before arriving at Eagle Lake, where you can camp.”

The roads are not maintained in the winter, which creates an ideal trail for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing as well as a vast environment for snow play. Unlike national parks, wilderness areas also permit dogs.

“I consider the north folk of the Skykomish one of the cleanest, coldest, and purest rivers in the cascades,” says Town, who’s explored the area for 25 years and remains in perpetual awe of the rivers. “By keeping the forest protected, we keep the river clear.”

Bald eagles perch in snags above the white water, spotted owls have been heard calling in the night and spied during the day. One observes each and every personality of our northwestern rivers while exploring here.

Kayak and rafting tours run year-round on the river. Anglers make the easy hikes to the Skykomish’s banks, as well as to the Beckler, Sultan and Rapid Rivers, fisheries, which possess some of state’s best anadromous runs as well as habitat for native bull trout.

Not all of Wild Sky is old growth of course, but the last logging operation left almost a century ago. This combination, of primitive forest and restored habitat, may explain the bipartisan support for wilderness in Congress, as well as the current Administration’s commitment to sign the legislation into law.

“The amazing thing about Wild Sky is how close it is to Seattle,” concludes Stephens, herself a city resident. “It provides great recreation potential for families all over Puget Sound.”

Wild Sky may not be the largest of northwestern Washington’s 4.3 million acres of federally designated wilderness. It may not possess the altitude of Glacier Peak or the grandeur of North Cascades National Park, but Wild Sky’s proximity to Seattle, coupled with its astounding accessibility, may yet play the largest role in teaching our children why, as Henry David Thoreau observed, “in wildness is the preservation of the world.”

Crai Bower is a Seattle-based writer. Check out his work at: www.FlowingStreamWriting.net

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