BOOK CAPTURE PACIFIC NORTHWEST LIFE

(C) photos

A sample of the mountain range that lies between the north-south Columbia River channel and the westernmost coastline of Washington State (except for the Olympic Peninsula), where myriads of islands dot the waters of the Salish Sea (Puget Sound) between Bellingham WA and Victoria BC. Publisher Caxton Press has released two of my books about this paradise of beautiful lands: San Juan Islands: Into the 21st Century(2011) and The Columbia River.(late 2013).

I am fortunate enough to live in the northwesternmost part of this Pacific Northwest for half my life (after leaving Los Angeles CA). For research on the Columbia River I traveled its entire length. To comprehend the happenings of a 1243-mile river, and with 12 months to complete the original book, I began at the first mile far up in Canada and researched 100 miles of river for two weeks, then returned home to my office to write for two weeks. I returned to pick up where I left off at mile 101" for the next 100 miles, and so on. As I came to the Pacific Ocean at Astoria OR on the last miles, I found that a drama was unfolding right then where the Columbia enters through a turbulent channel into the salt water.. Furthermore, a group happened to be in Astoria that day to remember friends lost  by the Coast Guard and other rescue personnel years ago in that same entrance, who tried to save an incoming commercial ship. How strange timing for me as I ended the Columbia River's story..

The mountains above are in the heart of the North Cascades Range , a photo taken in May 2014, just as the snow was melting. The peaks average 8,000 feet and above (some peaks to 14,500''), Over several years I have backpacked and ridden my horse along many trails in these mountains, marveling at the intense beauty of this country. I had a well--trained and reliable leopard Appaloosa mare that I trusted with my life, and she with me. Sometimes we were on park or forest trails only four feet wide with a cliff at one side. One would not want a skittish mount there, indeed.

Moving farther west again off the coast of mainland Washington into the Salish Sea, my family had a cabin on one island that was restricted only to a few residents. This meant long summer days lolling under red-trunked madrona trees, hiking old logging roads, swimming in a couple of small lakes, and admiring sunsets over other islands nearby. Visitors truly do not understand this Pacific Northwest and its climate. West of the mountains it rains often from November to March and virtually not at all from late June to October. Average rainfall is about 35" at Bellingham annually, almost all in the winter months when the temperatures are usually about 45-55 degrees. The exception is a part of the Olympic Mountains that border the outer mainland coasts south of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which intercept incoming showers borne on a normal southwest wind and absorb as much as 100 inches there.

Researching these two books and others meant learning about international sailing and fishing, logging verdant forests and having the good sense to start conservatively "farming" the woods, instead of cutting it all down. It is a renewable resource. I talked to ship and barge captains on ocean and rivers, ranchers and farmers, railroad workmen and the corporations that managed to push railroads through mountains such as the ones above (actually, they never were able to get through the first 70-90 miles of  USA mountains south o9f the Canadian border .) The tales of railroads are part of the book, Stevens Pass, also published by two different companies -- Mountaineer Books and later Caxton Press again , I have been lucky to ramble and boat through such unusual lands and hope this vibrant spirit of the land itself comes through to you, a hoped-for reader.

SAN JUAN ISLANDS bet. Bellingham WA & Victoria BC

The San Juan  Islands Winery on San Juan Island is a popular stop near the town of Friday Harbor, the county seat of the islands. The islands are mostly forested but do have large, grassy plains or valleys, where early farmers were and are able to make a living. The San Juans are far from the Columbia River about which I have been blogging more often. Indeed, the San Juan Island group lie between Bellingham WA on the mainland and Victoria BC on Vancouver Island in an arm of the North Pacific Ocean, really. The Columbia runs down the eastern side of mountain ranges that go north and south (more or less) of eastern BC and Washington.

I just returned from a cabin on one of the islands that my family has enjoyed for more than 40 years. It was sunny and warm, so warm that a group of guys celebrating their college graduation actually went swimming VERY briefly in the 59-degree waters of the Salish Sea (as Puget Sound is recently named by scientists). The islands lie in the shadow of the Olympic Mountains that form a barrier between them and the open ocean and enjoy only 20-24 inches of rain annually, almost all of it in fall-winter, and a spring and summer temperatures daily of about 60-75 degrees. (My educated estimates as a part-time resident.)

My children have grown up wandering this one island, swimming in a deep water lake at about 1,000 feet elevation there, and roaming the old logging roads that date back to 1900 and earlier. No dangerous wild animals inhabit the islands. I guess they just did not want to swim there from the mainland. Just raccoons and deer abound and, on some islands, squirrels. No snakes other than garter snakes near ponds sometimes. Such an ideal place. It is said to be similar to northern France.

I must share a personal story about the garter snakes. A Los Angeles friend of my son who was visiting said the pet shops in LA would pay good money for such snakes to be sold as pets. My son and the boy (both about 12 years old) caught about 20 of them before the visitor returned home. With his mother's permission and stern warning about the matter the boy personally had them in a sturdy container on the plane while flying home. Can you imagine the chaos if the snakes had gotten out, regardless of how small and harmless they are!

Next weekend I must talk to a group on Lummi Island, not officially one of the San Juans but considered one. It is accessible from Bellingham area's mainland by a small ferry for a 10 minute trip. I must speak about the last 75-100 years of the San Juan Islands, based on my 2011 book about them published by Caxton Press, which also published The Columbia River and Stevens Pass that I wrote.

Getting to the islands and getting marketable products off the islands has always been a problem, since most of them lie a few miles from any mainland access. Ferries and steamers of the past have been the only access, no bridges. Today the Washington State Ferry system stops at only four of the larger islands; others use private or commuter boats, fly small planes, or hire one of the barge companies to take vehicles or large items to and from the islands. The islands had just one doctor in 1950, who would care for his patients day or night by reaching them on a small boat, later a small plane for some.

In the book I write about the changes from raising cattle to alpacas or from grains to lavender, about the resident pods of black-and-white orcas (once called killer whales), tourism and summer home building, very active conservation efforts by almost all residents, the beauty of the madrona trees and lush flowers, and the benign living afforded residents and visitors by these stunningly lovely islands.

MORE ON SPRING RUSH OF WATER & MISSOULA FLOOD, TOO

 

The Chief Joseph Dam, a few miles downstream from the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington.

In late May I followed the Columbia River upstream from the little town of Brewster, just for fun and to see the rush of water following the high mountain snow melts. The first dam I encountered was this one, and I literally gasped at the mist thrown up possibly 40-50 feet by the water coming over the dam. An access road on the left was deserted and brought me within a few feet of the left side of the picture. Only a sturdy, high fence separated me from the rush of water drenching me with mist. I took photos impossible to do justice to the grandeur and noise of the water. As I said in my 5/27 blog, I would continue explanation of the unusual geology of this part of central Washington.

I continued to Grand Coulee and marveled at the width of the lake above it in spring, then went on southward through the coulee itself. It was a living natural painting of green on the stark cliffs. Even the rocks far above managed to host some small greenery.  This led me to the Dry Falls area where the Missoula Flood had plunged over cliffs this high to dwarf Niagara Falls in depth and width at the time. Today those cliffs and the almost round depression into which the water fell are still there but little water falls, because of the Coulee containment.  In the geologic past the Columbia had then ravaged onward to leave a few smaller lakes still functioning today, then continued all the way to today's Oregon border when it finally turned westward to the ocean, continuing to rip its way through ancient basalt and rock. I would like to have hovered above this floods (for they recurred a few times) to view this spectacle, wouldn't you?

The cliffs above the Columbia in places still retain a few bones and artifacts of evolutionary life, and several caves remain in the remote areas. One was used to keep their food and water cool by 19th century railroad construction crews.