History of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness

“It was here the ice had truly done it's magic. Twisted and gouging, it had sculpted the land. Making the region unlike any other in the Cascades, it had scooped and shaped pockets, which filled with water and became a dazzling array of lakes. Over six hundred were carved from the landscape between what later were called Stevens and Snoqualmie passes. Randomly scattered, they were an incomparable assortment of high, granite-bound tarns, shadowy ponds on the mountainside, and wide, long lakes in the valleys.” 
― David Knibb, "Backyard Wilderns The Alpine Lakes Story"

Alpine Lakes Wilderness where I am working was designated as a Wilderness Area in 1976 after a lot of work and research by Washington residents. It was originally supposed to be proposed by an ineragency study team in the 60's but the team could not agree on boundaries for the area. The Forest Service initially proposed two areas bisected by Jack Creek (there was talk of creating a road through to Leavenworth) and Epps Pass (where there were mining claims and at one point claims for the owners to want to develop a ski area) while Department of the Interior wanted one large area. In the fall of 1968 a group of Washington residents formed the Alpine Lake Preservation Society (ALPS) in what would turn out to be a multi-year effort to protect the Alpine Lakes area. ALPS worked to decide where Wilderness boundaries should be while at the same time other conservation-centric groups (Sierra Club, North Cascades Conservation Council, Mountaineers, Mazamas) were working on their own proposals for Wilderness designation.

In the September of 1971 the Washington state congressional delegation requested some resource studies from the Forest Service to help in the decision making of the potential Wilderness. The Forest Service said it would not be able to complete these studies until fall of 1973 which upset ALPS and the other conservation groups because the more time went on with no Wilderness designation, the more roads were being pushed into the potential Wilderness and the more commercial logging and mining development was happening. Some of the logging companies ramped up their operations, acquiring more mills in hopes to capitalize on forest areas before they were closed to logged by Wilderness protection. However, in November of 1971 Governor Dan Evans asked the Forest Service not to push development into any area that any group was proposing as potential Wilderness.

In 1973 four bills were introduced to Congress by the following groups: ALPS, Forest Service, CWCST (Central Washington Cascade Study Team, a group made up by timber company representatives/ supporters), and the conservation groups (Sierra Club, North Cascades Conservation Council (NCCC), The Mountaineers, Mazamas). Though initially working on separate proposals (ALPS's had less Wilderness and included a "National Recreation Area" (NRA) which similar to designated "Wilderness" adds another level of protection and management regulations to federal land), ALPS teamed up with these other groups in fall of 1974 and came to an agreement with them on boundaries to strengthen their support for the proposal; their joined proposal would have 575,000 acres of Wilderness. In 1975 there were now three bills submitted to the congressional Subcommittee on National Parks and Recreation. Though each proposal was different based on the interest group that submitted it, ALL four bills proposed some amount of Wilderness protection. There was then a series of public hearings where public could voice their opinions on the proposals, one of which brought out a lot of conservation/Wilderness supporters and another that brought out a lot of support for the CWCST proposal....made up largely of people whose livelihood depended on the logging industry.

The subcommittee amended the bill proposed by ALPS and the conservation groups. The amended subcommittee bill proposed 304,00 acres of Wilderness plus about 80,000 more acres to be added in when private land plots were acquired/bought by the federal government. The NRA portion of the proposal was tossed out and the amended bill was approved by the House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee in February of 1976, despite opposition by the current President (Ford) and Forest Service. The Forest Service opposition was based on costs to acquire private land that would fall within proposed Wilderness boundary and restrictiveness on managing the land. In June the bill was submitted to the full House and then the Senate. It was approved by both. On July 12th, 1976 despite earlier proclamations against the bill, President Ford signed it and Alpine Lakes Wilderness was born and 393,000 acre were to officially be preserved under protections set forth by the Wilderness Act. This past December 2014, congress voted to add 22,000 acres to the Wilderness bumping the acreage up to 414,161 acres!


Alpine Lakes Wilderness proposals:
-CWCST: 223, 580 acres
-Forest Service: submitted various options falling around 200,000-300,000 acres
-Sierra Club: 533,000 acres
-North Cascades Conservation Council: 580,000 acres
-ALPS: can't find acreage on this
-conservation proposal put forward when ALPS, Sierra Club, NCCC, the Mountaineers joined forces: 575,000 acres

Most of the information in the post was gathered from the book Backyard Wilderness The Alpine Lakes Story by David Knibb. Seattle: The Mountaineers, 1982.

Forest Protection Officer certification

“His supervisor, a well-liked ranger by the name of Dick McLaren, gave Randy a line of advice to which he would adhere for the rest of his career: 'The best way to teach the public isn't with a citation, it's with communication.”

― Eric Blehm, The Last Season

I spent a week in Coeur d'Alene in the Idaho panhandle getting my Forest Protection Officer (FPO) certification. This certification will allow me to write people tickets for forest violations. While there is a huge laundry list of laws that are specific to what you can't do on Forest Service land, and I am now able to write a ticket for any of those, generally, any ticket writing I do will mostly be focused into the more common violations we see in Wilderness areas. The more common issues in Wilderness areas (all of which have laws protecting them and are ticketable offenses) are:

-building a fire during fire restrictions

-not extinguishing a fire completely/ unattended campfires

-leaving trash (mostly in their fire pits...people try to burn trash but most of it doesn't burn completely)

-not disposing of waste properly (poop should be buried in a 6" hole)

-not abiding by camp site restrictions (many areas have 100-200' set backs from water sources and trails, some places have entire areas closed to overnight use)

-not getting a Wilderness permit

-improper food storage (many places where bears are an issue require all smellables to be stored in bear proof containers)

-cutting of live trees (firewood must be from things that are dead and on the ground already. Sometimes people will cut trees to make structures...like a lean-to)

-improper stock use (leaving stock tied too close to water, tying stock directly to trees, bringing untreated hay etc)

-caching gear 

-riding a bike (the Wilderness Act was written to preserve areas as primitive with no motorized or mechanized use allow, so only foot and horse travel are allowed)

As an FPO and I not allowed to use force (physically detain visitors) nor am I armed. I'm not allowed to enter any situations involving guns, alcohol, drugs or violence. I am not a "law enforcement officer" (though we do have LEOs aka police that are specifically for Forest Service lands), the FPO certification is just for writing tickets. The training was a lot of classroom time and then we spent a day going through role-playing scenarios where we had to enter into an acted out violation and decide how we handle it. Probably more important than being able to write tickets is becoming familiar with the laws so I can document misuse and we can take action accordingly (example: if we gather enough definitively documented cases of misuse and impacts issues, management can take actions like having trailhead quotas or only allowing camping in pre-designated sites to try and mitigate those impacts or issues. But to do something like that we really need lots of documented examples of the misuse and that doesn't need to be tickets, it can also be written up as an incident where no one gets cited). As with any Forest Service trainings one of the best parts was getting to be around other Wilderness Rangers and hear about other Wilderness areas. There were people at the training from Forests in OR, WA, ID and MT. I got to carpool with the rangers from the next district over...one of them has worked as a rafting guide and another was a climbing ranger on Mt Rainier for 3 seasons and he also trains dogs to search for avalanche victims! I also met a ranger who as a girl went through a lot of the GirlVentures programs (where I have done some volunteer as well as paid contract work)....very cool to see a GirlVentures alum working in the Wilderness!

New season, new ranger district

"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year"
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

I'm very excited about the 2016 season! I landed a spot in my first choice district which I picked for it's alpine mountain scenery, it's opportunities to learn new things/get new certifications and it's proximity to Al's district (now we are only 4 hours apart! Last year I had a very unusual schedule for a Wilderness Ranger and so I went 5 months without seeing him...it was worth it because I love the job but it wasn't easy!) In addition to my regular ranger patrols I'll be helping out the trail crew, moving up a level in my crosscut saw certification, getting certified in chainsaw use (as I'll also sometimes be helping the trail crew out on non-Wilderness trails), getting my "Forest Protection Officer" training (ability to write people tickets), get my "Red Card" (so I can help fight wildland fires), I will probably also get to staff the fire lookout on our district (!!!!) when lightning is forecasted and may even get to learn how to ride a dirt bike and shadow the OHV/motorized trails rangers. I'm going to get to do a lot this summer and I'm so excited to learn new things and see new mountains and Wilderness!

I've only been here one week but I already went to a crosscut saw training/certification where I got to meet a bunch of other Wilderness/trails folk from around the forest. I love going to things like that. It's great to be around other people who are passionate about Wilderness and trails... it's like finding long lost family.

On Thursday I went out with our noxious weed guy and look for and document invasive plants. We hiked along the Pacific Crest Trail and then cut over traveling cross-country to an old logging road. On forest lands noxious weeds are most liable to spread on those roads as opposed to trails because of all the vehicles that can carry dirt and seeds. It was nice to get out on the trail and learn some new plants.

Joe our ranger district's noxious weed guy references his weed guide on the trail

Orange hawkweed...we spent the day looking for and documenting these invasive plants

 Headed east from Snoqualmie Pass

We traveled off-trail to get from the PCT to the old logging road. It put us in this old clear-cut, you can tell where the clear-cut was made in this photo because of the shift in height of the trees.

It's going to be a great year. Everyone in my district seems happy and supportive of each other and the trails folk I'll be working around all seem very cool and fun.

Ode to the off-season

"You can not do a kindness too soon for you never know when it will be too late" -Ralph Waldo Emerson So like the majority of people who work for the Forest Service, my job is seasonal. This has to do with the federal budget not allocating enough money to pay people for the entire year but is also due to the fact that many of the places I patrol are under snow for the other half the year and rather inaccessible and visitation is very low compared to summer time. So here's an ode to ranger related work I did this off-season. I helped out my friend Hummingbird who helps manage the Girl Scouts Nor-Cal camp properties. We did trail work at Camp Bothin which I actually attended as a camper back in the mid-90s! We had new trail construction, mitigating a trail washout/erosion and also some stair projects. I learned a lot. I had never made trail steps with wood before, only with rock so that was different. We had fun! scratching in the new trail construction before and after of one of our stair projects Hummingbird at the bottom of one of our stair projects My good friend Robin is working on her master's thesis and her field experiment has to do with testing a method of controlling an invasive plant called Sesbania without herbicide. I went with her a few times to help out, her test sites are along the San Joaquin river. We counted and measured the plants on the test plots where they were growing back. We also collected and counted seeds in the soil around the plants. Robin carrying the soil sieve she made for us to sift seeds one of the sesbania plants this is after we dug out the area around it to sift for seeds

I also had some contract work for GirlVentures which is an awesome organization that leads outdoor adventure/education trips for middle school girls. I got to help girls learn to rock climb and lead them in team-building, confidence building and outdoor ethics activities. In addition to those things I also spent some time helping friends with their own projects...hanging dry wall for a friend's home improvement project and weeding and cleaning another friend's home. I like to be productive and since I'm not always great at socializing it helps me with anxiety. Of course there was plenty of time spent climbing, hiking and backpacking too!

Backpacking in the mountains in winter

"Then come days of quite another kind. The winter clouds grow, and bloom, and shed their starry crystals on every leaf and rock, and all the colors vanish like a sunset"
-John Muir, "The Mountains of California"

Some of us are ocean people, some of us are desert people, and some of us are mountain people. For those of us that are mountain people, it's very hard in the winter when the snows start and realizing you may not be in the mountains for months at a time. For those of us that are willing to tolerate cold temperatures and snowy conditions we will NOT wait until next summer to be in the mountains, we can't. But backpacking in the snow is a big undertaking, there's lots to consider and because in the past year I've noticed a lot more people I know getting into backpacking in the mountains, I wanted to write a post about backpacking in the mountains in winter. There is no quiet I have ever known like the stark and stirring silence of the High Sierra under a blanket of snow on a windless day. It's an amazing experience we don't have access to in urban areas. When you can hear that kind of quiet, it just takes your breath away. I have never seen another backpacker on any backcountry winter trip I have done. Winter backpacking almost guarantees you opportunities for total solitude.

Kings Canyon Wilderness, Rae Lakes looking south, November 2014. Doesn't look like much snow but it was 2' in places and temperatures dropped to at least 12°. Some say this is the most popular place to go backpacking in the Sierra Nevadas, but since we went once snow was one the ground, there was no one else out there.

A lot of the same rules from summer backpacking apply but here are some more winter specific things I've learned when backpacking the mountains in winter:

Mileage- You must learn to swallow your pride in many ways when backpacking in winter. You just may not be able to do the kind of mileage you can do on dirt! Walking on snow by foot or snowshoe takes a lot more energy than walking on dirt. You will get tired more quickly and won't be able to go as far. I like going 10-15 miles a day in the summerfor personal trips, in winter the number of miles I'm comfortable with, depending on conditions can be as low as 5 miles. Skis are another story, a story I don't know much about so I can't give any good information on them. You also need to remember you won't have as much daylight to travel by.

Energy- Your body is working harder to go mileages you are used to. You are burning extra calories just to stay warm in the cold temperatures, plus it takes more energy to walk in the snow so you need a lot more calories. When I was out on my last trip in Kings Canyon a few weeks ago, we were eating two hot dinners a night. Bring more food! Burning calories is what keeps your body warm.

Gear- You need appropriate gear for the cold and snow. Rain gear (top and bottom), snow gaiters, waterproof boots, warm insulating layers, a sleeping bag and mat that are rated to appropriate temperatures, snow shoes, ice axe and a tent that is shaped in a way that sheds snow are the most important things. We don't have a "4 season tent" but our 3 season Big Agnes Fly Creek 2 is shaped in a way that it can shed snow and so we've made it work in the winter. It got us through a night of having a foot of snow dumped on us and the tent didn't cave at all, we didn't even know it has snowed until we opened the door. We only close the fly if it's snowing out, leaving the fly door open takes care of condensation issues we have in winter. And if it does snow and we have to close the fly and things get moist from condensation inside the tent....we just have to take the time to dry them in the sun the next day, it's just something we have to deal with sometimes. We have done some snow backpacking trips without snowshoes because we didn't think there was going to be snow. It's not fun. Sinking down a foot or more wastes a lot of energy and is really frustrating. From now on, when backpacking in the Sierras between the months of November and April/May I will always bring them...things could be snow free and then you get to a north facing aspect with a couple feet of snow! It's very important to also reserve layers to put on at camp. If you get to camp and you are already wearing everything you have and it's moist because you've been sweating, you will get cold very quickly. It's important to stay dry so you don't get cold and run the risk of hypothermia. Bring an ice axe. In the summer we are spoiled with level trails that sidehill steep slopes, it's amazing how different that same hill feels when it's covered in snow without a leveled trail...a hillside that you would never think twice about will feel very alarming when covered in snow and often dangerous. Get an ice axe and go practice self-arresting with it. It's a good idea to have crampons too, in case you come to a steep slope that is icey.

Navigation- You may not be able to go as deep into the mountains as you do in the summer. Try hiking along unplowed Forest Service roads, they are easy to follow. It's a great way to do a snow camping trip if you are not confident in your navigation, it may be less glamorous than a trail but it's better than being lost! No one should head into the backcountry in winter unless they feel outstanding about their navigation skills. You may not be able to see the trail and signs may be covered in snow so it's very important not to go out unless you are very good with your map, compass and topographical skills. When you're out there, keep your eyes peeled for cut logs (signs of trail maintenance) and blazes on trees (but keep in mind, trails get rerouted and blazes are always old and can still lead you astray) to help you stay on trail. The Tahoe area Sierra Club huts are a good destination if you are apprehensive about snow camping. Peter Grubb Hut is on a popular snow trail that tends to be very obvious and generally the trail is already broken. Ludlow Hut and Bradley huts both follow unplowed Forest Service roads so it's also easier to navigate to.

Access/Winter weather- This, to me, is the number one issue. You can go to the websites of the government land management agencies and they will say things like "our park backcountry is open year round" but the road to the trailhead you want isn't plowed adding up to 15+ miles to your trip. Often the only way to find out what roads are closed, and where they are locked is to contact the ranger district directly. It's also hard to get accurate information on snow levels. I check out this site that has links to web cameras of the Sierra Nevada and if you are as obsessed and in love with the Sierras as I am, you probably know where most of these cameras are without having to look at a map! Check on the Caltrans map to see what mountain passes are even open, if you need chains, plus there are more webcam here to look at as well. Use the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) snow map and select "snow depth" from the drop down menu to get a sense of snow depth but take it with a grain of salt, I have now gone on 3 backpacking trips where this map was showing 0" of snow and there ended up being 1-2' it seems this map calculates for south facing slopes which, because the sun arcs along the south horizon, are often snow free while the north facing slope just on the other side has a few feet. Wunderground has a great option where you can select "change station" (circled in red in screen shot below) and a map pops up with locations of weather stations (including personal ones! ) around the original town you searched. I used it to check the weather at Charlotte Lake (which is the white 12° marker in the middle of the screen shot below) which is 8+ miles into the backcountry and as you can see the temperatures there were very different from the weather stations in Independence the closest town (circled in yellow)....over 20° colder in the mountains...important information! 

NOAA also has a good way to select specific backcountry locations for weather. Go to weather.gov and type in a location or zip somewhat near to where you will be hiking. Then scroll down until you see the topo map (circled in yellow in the screen shot below) and use that map to find where you are hiking, click the location on the map, and it will give you the weather station closest to that exact spot. It doesn't give personal weather stations like Weather Underground, but if you are just interested in the "official" weather stations, it's great!

One of the big lessons I have learned even with these excellent resources, you have to be willing to accept that snow depth in the backcountry is hard to nail down. I've found that an important part of backpacking the mountains in winter is willing to adapt...mostly willing to adapt to more snow than your sources told you!

Another access issue is water crossings. A crossing that is a hop skip and jump in the fall could be a death trap in the winter and spring. When looking at topo maps for trip ideas, look for places that have bridges or no water crossings so you aren't disappointed when you get to something and it's too dangerous to cross.

Also, it's important to keep tabs on weather before you go out to make sure you are not going out after a big storm or during one. Read up about avalanche safety, the most important thing to know is most avalanches especially in the Sierras happen 24-48 hours after heavy rapid snowfall (a foot or more). So don't go out after big storms, snow needs time to settle and bond before it's really safe to travel on. The vast majority of avalanches happen on slopes between 30-45°. Slopes steeper than that shed snow regularly so traveling on ridges (just be aware of cornices) and down in flat areas (but be wary of the terrain that comes out of flat areas as avalanches often empty down into topography like that) are generally your safest places. The easiest way to sort out slope percentage is to go to Caltopo.com and print out a map ahead of time that has slope angle shading selected. Most avalanches are caused by wind shifting large amounts of snow on the lee side of slopes so be aware of windy conditions and areas. Listen for "womp"ing sounds of air pockets settling in snow that you are stepping on....a sign that the snow is not settled therefore not safe. Look for breaks in the snow where avalanches have happened before, this likely means this slope can only hold onto a certain amount of snow before releasing it as an avalanche. Be wary of dramatic temperature warming that can affect the snow conditions making it unstable. Know the aspects of the slopes...in the northern hemisphere most north facing slopes are less stable mid-winter (because due to less sun exposure consolidation/stabilization of the snow pack takes longer than the south facing) while in the spring when the sun is out more and temperatures are on the rise, south facing slopes have more avalanche occurrences and tend to be the less stable option. Most US avalanche fatalities are people on snowmobiles. Over the last 10 years:
-across the US there have been about 2 to 3 dozen avalanche fatalities a year
-in California the average fatalities are 1-2 a year
-1 avalanche fatality in California has been a hiker
(statistics based on data from: avalanche.org)

For you own safety and the sake of your Wilderness (proof of visitation make getting funding easier) be sure to make sure you have permits if need be, many Wilderness Areas still require them in winter.

Being able to be flexible is key to winter backpacking. You must be willing to do things like change your route or turn around if a water crossing is too dangerous/swollen from rain/snow or you see avalanche danger on your route, opt to cancel a trip when a recent storm has passed through and cut a trip short if a storm is coming in. There are more risks in the winter and it's very important to be able to swallow your pride and turn around or change plans to be safe.

Marble Mountains Wilderness, May 2014. This was a trip where the NOAA snow chart said there would be 0" and in places we found it to be 5' deep. In this photo I'm on the ridge west of Summit Lake, a good spot to check the map topography against a long distance view.

Designated sites in the backcountry

"Live in the sunshine, swim in the sea, drink the wild air." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Another thing I have come across here in Washington that is different from where I worked this summer in California is designated camp sites within Wilderness. There are a few areas in Indian Heaven Wilderness that are so highly visited, Wilderness management has decided to ask people to only camp in designated sites. At the trailhead there is information posted as well as little leaflets you can take telling you about this system:

Areas are sometimes visited so much that they get loved to death. This site designation system helps concentrate human impact on areas that are less sensitive (ie away from the lake shore) and already impacted to limit new impacts. It makes cleanup (less fire rings to knock down because folks use the ones at the sites!) and patrolling easier for the rangers because we know where to find people. Unlike the developed recreation sites (aka car camping sites) these sites in Wilderness are spread out and quite far from each other so you can still have that sense of solitude.

There are markers pointing you towards the site and markers at the sites themselves as well as some signs posted at areas where people have camped in the past that are not appropriate locations... so there's no question or confusion where you should be:

You don't sign up or have to pay for these sites, you just hike around and find one that is open and suits you!

Hiking in this area has really made me appreciate how easy it is to find a spot to camp in the eastern Sierra Nevada. The vegetation is so sparse and wide open, the easy to navigate granite is so inviting, that heading off trail to find a spot is generally a breeze. Here in the areas around the Columbia River Gorge, the vegetation is very dense and many of the trails are along steep hills where there's nowhere to camp. The red arrow in this photo shows where the trail is (photo is from Trapper Creek Wilderness, one of the Wilderness areas I have been patrolling here in Washington)....look at all that underbrush where in the world could you pitch a tent in terrain like that?!:

The idea of traveling off-trail here is daunting. I've noticed that places people set up camp in the backcountry here is often very close to the trail and obviously very well used....because there's just not as many places to easily camp here!

Gifford-Pinchot National Forest Wilderness permit system

“distance is not for the fearful, it's for the bold. It's for those who are willing to spend a lot of time alone in exchange for a little time with the one they love. It's for those who know a good thing when they see it, even if they don't see it nearly enough”― Meghan Daum

I got my seasonal lay off for my job at the end of September. Al's district isn't laying him off until the end of October (he started later than I did, we both end up having about a 5 month season) so I came up to the Columbia river gorge where he works until his season ends. While he's at work during the week, I have been volunteering with the local ranger district, doing many of the same things I did down in California but it's neat to see how things vary forest to forest and district to district.

The biggest difference here is the permit system. In the Hoover Wilderness where I worked, you need a permit only for overnight travel, here in Gifford-Pinchot National Forest you need it even for day use in their Wilderness areas. They track their Wilderness use very closely and use the permit system to apply for grant money. Also, instead of going to the ranger station to get a permit (what we have people do for the Hoover Wilderness), here you just self issue at the trailhead. That's very user-friendly which I like. Since my district has seasonal quotas on trailheads, we can't do this. We regulate how many people enter our more popular trailheads during the busy season to ensure a degree of solitude...Wilderness areas that are less visited don't need to do this.

Here's the box at the trailhead in Indian Heaven Wilderness, you open it and there are blank permits inside. (Love that routed lettering inside the box!) 

The permits are carbon paper, the top white copy gets left in the box and the bottom manila paper portion is the user's. The idea is to use the little elastic strap to put it on your pack. It's a bit wet up here right now for this to work but I have come across a couple people who did in fact strap it to their pack.

I come in and unlock this bar and slide it out, lift up the little board, and collect the filled out permits! I love these little boxes, such a lovely simple design...perfectly in line with the Wilderness state of mind.