By Steven Gary
“Let it burn,” I said, referring to wildfire in the Wilderness. I almost reacted to Bob’s (unsure of his real name) retort. “NO!” he snapped and walked on up the trail.
My wife, Ellie, and I were on our fifth day in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness when we had run into “Bob” and his wife on the trail, our first people to see in five days. Bob, who announced right away that he was 65 years old, stopped immediately without any introductions, and shared part of his life story of growing up in Leavenworth, Washington.
He shared how many people had made a living up Jack Creek before it was made a Wilderness area in 1976. During the winter, he and several other off-season loggers would trap pine martens until they were declared endangered in 1984 (they have since rebounded in population).
He longed to go back to those days when trappers had their secret cabins tucked away in the woods many miles up Jack Creek at the foot of Mount Stuart, the highest non-volcanic peak in Washington State at 9,415 feet. He complained to us about downed trees across the trail as he said there was once an arrangement between an outfitter who had an illegal semi-permanent tent camp up a side canyon in exchange for keeping the trail free of downed trees.
I asked Bob how long ago the Jack Creek Fire occurred, and he said it was about seven years ago. He added with disdainful accusation that the district ranger let it burn in Wilderness too long until the fire jumped into the Eight Mile drainage and threatened the town of Leavenworth.
That’s when I reacted by saying, “Let it burn!” The mostly one-way conversation ended abruptly, an opportunity lost to hearing more history and being a listening presence to his obvious suffering. I didn’t realize that until contemplating the interaction that evening in our last camp of the trip.
Ellie, age 81, and I, age 74, are avid backpackers. We had a beautiful solitary six days in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness going up the deep old-growth forests, quiet and somber with trails lined with thousands of mushrooms. There were red, brown, white, and yellow mushrooms. Some were spotted and beautiful, some were blotchy, bumpy mushrooms. Many were knocked over and chewed on by some hungry critter. Some mushrooms were as tiny as a fingernail and others as giant as a frisbee.
It was a fairy land amongst towering Douglas fir and red cedars that stood as sentries along the moss lined path and gateways to stream crossings into clear, rushing water. We spent two nights of solitude at an alpine lake at around 6,200 feet elevation. The cold, crisp days were enhanced by the yellow larch trees and the spectacular views of Mount Stuart.
We noticed while looking up at the sky after napping in the warm sun, that we were on a flight path for migratory bald eagles, hawks, geese, and ducks. Several Barrow’s Goldeneye ducks stopped over at the lake to tank up on invertebrates.
In the evening, the clouds would encircle the ridgelines and glow red, orange, and blue-grey in the setting sun. One night I got up to relieve myself at about 2 AM and noticed the Northern Lights flashing reddish-white across a clear, starry sky. Ah, how I love Wilderness. The bull elk bugled their approval.
Bob grew up in these wild places. He saw many people who made a living off the exploits of the forest, minerals, and streams. He lives those memories in his heart—memories that were his alone.
My memories are of solitude and awe of the spacious beauty, rewards for the strenuous trekking up steep trails, crossing cold streams, weathering storms, and smiling often. Bob had those memories, too. Wilderness designation includes different experiences for different local cultures. I hope we can remember that Wilderness includes grief for gone by days for friends like Bob. I hope to listen more deeply when the opportunity presents itself again. The history runs deep in these glaciated valleys.
Ellie and Steven are seniors who love to backpack in Washington State, Southeast Utah, and the Grand Canyon. Preserving Wilderness is always a priority for them. “We move slower these days but still cover some awesome territory.”
40 Comments
I respectfully request the further acknowledgement of wilderness by you.
Wilderness is needed not only by wildlife but by US – whether we are fortunate enough to physically see and feel it or not.
The wildlife and habitat must be saved.
NOT logged, grazed, mined or drilled!
The current tenants of the WH have no concept of anything except what you can get out of extraction – all extraction. Nature, wildlife, the environment? None of those are of interest to these people.
To them, Nature is a golf course – no more no less.
Nature and all it entails is the heartbeat of human and animal life as we know it. If we don’t take steps to protect it then we will sign our own death warrant as human life is dependent upon the environment more than some people care to admit!
We really need to protect the wild places.
Thank you for sharing this beautiful story. I love backpacking. I love the wilderness and the wildlife. We must preserve and protect the wilderness and the wildlife. Please do not let Trump, Musk, oil companies, mining companies and lumber companies destroy it. They just want to line their pockets. To save the planet we must protect the trees and re-wild the areas that have been destroyed. Deforestation is the leading cause of climate change. We must protect the environment and the wildlife.
We need to save wildlife and their natural habitats.
May you live a long time Ellie & Steven to enjoy the wilderness.
Our job as human beings is to be the stewards of the Earth; not the destroyers. It is our imperative, it is our mission, it is the expectation.
Save everything the hikes trails
Save the wilderness.
There are many manmade marvels in this world but nothing as beautiful and awe inspiring as the wilderness and its serenity. We must preserve it, not only for its beauty but for the intricate part it plays supporting life on this planet.
If Trump and the Republican Party have their way, wilderness will be a thing of the past.
I remember Jony Mitchel and the song Pink Paradise..
We need to preserve nature so that the next generations will have it to enjoy..
a really beautiful story to be told for the next generation. and constantly retold for every generation. we’ve got to work hard to keep from losing such amazing beauty. for once it’s gone. it’s gone forever.
Our wild beautiful places need to left alone from development. Once destroyed they can never be brought back.
These are our public lands, My Wilderness areas, our wildlife to protect, the future for our family, our community, our Planet Earth! I
The world each of us perceives is unique. Because we, and ALL individual life, is different, from genes, epigenetic marks silencing or activating them to make unique proteins, to the experience of wonder upon waking, whether we are seed, punching from egg, breathed upon my mother octopus, or you or I.
I invite you to look at the newly sprouted plant, rising from earth, just as so many ancient peoples recognizedas origin, into sunlight, rain, momentary late snows.
“Life is Eagerness” I realized as a child. Ancient wise texts use near-synonyms, but the young blacktail the other day could not help herself from bounding at every step when browsing the young plants.
Often experiencing the wildernes, if under high moonlight in winter snow having skied miles from the tiny town into hills and conifers , over the frozen stream leading to the great river,
or the desert canyon turning to heat when in th shade a lizard in torpor could not yet move. I warmed him; he suddenly shot off faster than eye could track.
In a wild land, under the huge mesa by the sea at least 77 miles from nearest village, we spoke, I asking why in halting language, each beached fisherman had chosen to return. “Because here I am free like the Eagle.” my translation of the young reply.
first memories in yard along a deadend dirt road: Flowers, a dragonfly hovering near my face, The airs smoothly entered into sound: in th eforest below and extending out beyond, wolves sang, picking up from th eoriginal caller.
A decade in wilderness with a tragically captive born Wolf, who chose me becxause I played, traded leads into freedom each day, or night. The Wofl, you see, joys in winter da, most comfortable when below 42F-5C. Encountering snow for his first time, he rolled onto his back and wriggled, sliding down the avalanche chute. Their language is somatic, gestural, embodied, and they perceive things through their senses that we have largely lost. Yet, being taught, I relearned, the scents of upwind, the difference of leaf fall, hoof step, and bear crunch. Other animals do not march, but hesitate and we can make no inference of their more silent travel.
The years among them would take years to describe.
I think the word Wild, Wildness Wilderness has been parsed by advocates, reminding us that wild is willed, self-willed. Wilderness, willed-ness the state of having it, their, own will, Never tamed.
Each blade of grass sprouting in your concrete walks, remains untamed, always giving and taking in harmony. The elements will break concrete into bits, grains, sand, blowing away.
Our very brains are evolved, selected for, adapted to recognize movement as life; we impute breath, esprit- mind – in the invisible wind. All of our delusion arise from mistaking what is real for something personally affecting us. Yet, it does.
I worked the summer as one of the emps in Glacier Park back in the far distant age, and I can safely say that I have never had such a wonderful experience in nature. Those beautiful mountains and streams to a flatlander like me was a life changing experience. I have wanted to take my children back before it is all gone except for the Garden Wall but haven’t managed it in time. I have told them about it all their lives and I just wish we could have afforded fit before they got lives of their own and don’t have the time. For me, awesome is just not strong enough a word. I can’t think of a better one though.
Glad to hear that people are still enjoying the outdoors, both young and old. Hope this couple carry a Transponder/GPS Sat Phone for emergencies where there is no cell service.
The path less taken.
Thanks for sharing perspectives. Over 40 years ago I backpacked up Aasgard Pass into the Enchantments, in harrowing weather conditions that nearly stranded us. What an adventure! Now that I’m in my 70s and disabled I treasure the memories and share the passion for preserving these areas for future generations.
We must do a better job saving our environment—-stop killing our world/our wildlife/our forests-now!
Preserve hiking trails & the staff to maintain them. Prohibit motorized vehicles.
Thank you Steven for sharing you and your wife Ellie’s experience exploring Washington State’s spectacular North Cascades.
Your interaction with Bob reminds me of the old folk saying, “Listening is more important than speaking. That’s why we have one mouth and two ears.”
Here’s to many more wilderness adventures.
Please preserve our last national heritage & lands
Save our wilderness
SAVE EARTH
Wilderness designation includes different experiences for different local cultures. I hope we can remember that Wilderness includes grief for gone by days for friends like Bob. I hope to listen more deeply when the opportunity presents itself again. The history runs deep in these glaciated valleys.
Bob, Ellie, and Steven all have valid points of view that deserve respect and compassionate listening.
However, The Wilderness Act of 1964 was only passed after decades of debate of these issues and was an important step towards saving our national heritage and our planet. It is now the law of the land.
My vote goes for full compliance with The Wilderness Act and all lands so designated as Wilderness.
There is nothing legitimate about killing other species unless you eat them, and humans should only be killing natural prey animals for that purpose. Neither trees nor martins are prey animals, so humans should never kill them. Bob does not have any legitimate points: he’s an unevolved, mean-spirited fool, and unfortunately, there are many like him. His comments so disgusted me that I couldn’t read past the first third of this essay.
Hear here!
These are MY public lands, My Wilderness areas, MY wildlife to protect, the future for MY family, MY community, MY Planet Earth! It does NOT belong to trump/musk or the lobbies, the “oil barrens” or “big money influences” and the billionaires that don’t give a dam about the PEOPLE of America!
STOP THIS MADNESS, NOW!!!!! 🎶”This Land is MY Land”🎶. It MUST be kept that way — MY LAND! Not trump or musk’s rich friends! “NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!”
I Enjoyed reading the post about the forest,,,
My heart hopes SO much that the RIGHT thing is done so that ALL living can live their life 🙏🏽🙏🏽. What if YOU were any other living thing, how would YOU want to be treated and live YOUR life.🙏🏽🙏🏽
Protect the environment.
PLEASE do everything in your power to protect the environment, if we don’t who will? thank you.
Bonanza is the highest nonvolcanic peak in the state of WA. Not Stuart.
Let’s keep it as it is for present and future generations to enjoy. We need to preserve what we have.
Your description of the beauties of wilderness evoke my years living close to the land on the tip of a narrow, wooded peninsula reaching into cobscook bay, downeast in Maine, close enough to the Bay of Fundy to enjoy a16 to 24 feet tidal change. Wild, surging currents flowed in whirlpools through the channels on both sides, in whose frigid waters we swam. We lived skin to nature, learned that we belonged to the land, that our own power came from that understanding. We MUST preserve wild nature!
Thank you for this beautiful story. Listening is something we all need to do more of so we can better understand the experiences of others. Then as Mother Nature tells us, we can better co-exist instead of trying to compete
A wonderful account with a compelling message, although I share Steven’s reverence for Wilderness, rather than an exploitive perspective.
That is so awesome, it was nice to read about this. Enjoy.