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Snowbrushy
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PostMon Jan 08, 2007 7:21 am 
I found these photos of Lester taken last Summer. http://web.archive.org/web/20070718063837/http://www.discoveryforyoureyes.com/lester/index.html http://www.ghosttowns.com/

Oh Pilot of the storm who leaves no trace Like thoughts inside a dream Heed the path that led me to that place Yellow desert stream.
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lopper
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PostMon Jan 08, 2007 11:53 am 
Great find, Snowbrushy. Last July, up at the lookout, some of us packmules were discussing the difficulty of getting in to Lester these days. I wonder................. what's the hangup about bicycles? Don't like that sign.

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Red Squatch
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PostMon Jan 08, 2007 1:19 pm 
Is Lester proper within the Seattle Watershed boundary, or is there any way to access it without tresspassing? Probably one of those 'Shhh! Don't bring that up again...' things? eek.gif

Good judgment comes from experience... experience comes from bad judgment... PPE
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lopper
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PostMon Jan 08, 2007 1:23 pm 
It is the Tacoma watershed......the slopes above Howard Hanson Reservoir. On my last outing, there were a lot of threatening signs to keep out hikers and bikers. The expansive clearcuts suggest that the restrictions don't apply to tree extractors and their heavy equipment.

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Sore Feet
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PostMon Jan 08, 2007 3:56 pm 
Last I heard, you could still drive to the townsite itself, but none of the backroads were accessible. This was a good 5 years ago, so things may have changed since. Kind of slimy, if you ask me, that these freight trains are allowed to rumble through the city's watershed, yet hikers can't access it on foot or bike. huh.gif

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Dogpatch
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PostMon Jan 08, 2007 4:45 pm 
Cool photos, Snowbrushy. If you drive in from Stampede Pass, you come to the "Walk-in only" sign. It's less than a mile from there into Lester, and okay to walk in. I don't think you can get anywhere close from the west side, though. As with most of the watersheds around here, hikers are forbidden - but logging is allowed. Go figure.

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." – Groucho Marx
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Snowbrushy
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PostThu Apr 03, 2008 7:12 am 
Here is some great history of Lester: http://www.wrvmuseum.org/journal/journal_ftbr_0196.htm

Oh Pilot of the storm who leaves no trace Like thoughts inside a dream Heed the path that led me to that place Yellow desert stream.
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touron
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PostThu Apr 03, 2008 1:06 pm 
Thanks for the link, Snowbrushy. I always wondered what that town looked like. up.gif up.gif
Quote:
Elmer Morgan cut timber along the Green River and lent his name to another small town, Nagrom (Morgan backwards.)
lol.gif

Touron is a nougat of Arabic origin made with almonds and honey or sugar, without which it would just not be Christmas in Spain.
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Snowbrushy
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PostMon Apr 07, 2008 8:06 am 
I like how these places and towns got named. I wonder about the City of Bonney Lake on highway 410. " William Bonney later described how that name was supplanted. Bogue sent an aggressive foreman to take charge of a trail cutting party camped near the summit. “The foreman came and announced to the cook that the food was furnished to feed men that were working for the company,” Bonney said, “that these men had severed their connection with the company [having quit when the gruff foreman arrived], hence were not entitled to be fed. Then was when the real stampede began.” A large fir near the camp was then blazed with the words “Stampede Camp.” " http://ci.bonney-lake.wa.us/section_community/community_resources/historical_society.shtml

Oh Pilot of the storm who leaves no trace Like thoughts inside a dream Heed the path that led me to that place Yellow desert stream.
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JimK
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PostMon Apr 07, 2008 8:53 am 
Here is the conclusion to the story in the above link: The Demise of Lester

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Dayhike Mike
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PostMon Apr 07, 2008 9:00 am 
Here's the archived copy of the initial link you posted, Snowbrushy: http://web.archive.org/web/20070718063837/http://www.discoveryforyoureyes.com/lester/index.html

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke "Ignorance is natural. Stupidity takes commitment." -Solomon Short
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PostMon Apr 07, 2008 11:46 am 
The Demise of Lester link from JimK is a great read, though the bureaucratic overreach and intransigence it describes makes my blood boil. mad.gif Also found some interesting pictures from the early 1990's regarding the Stampede Tunnel and a trip to Lester that involved driving a Chevy S10 over a railroad trestle. eek.gif

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Snowbrushy
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PostMon Apr 07, 2008 9:04 pm 
Dayhike Mike wrote:
Here's the archived copy of the initial link you posted, Snowbrushy:
Thanks Mike, I found some other pictures - http://www.ghosttowns.com Use the US map to navigate. Maybe I'll hike down to old Lester after the pass thaws some and take more pictures. There's a old Ranger Station in town as well as some cottages I'd like to photograph before they are torn down. Interesting stuff! Scary stuff with the Chevy S10!

Oh Pilot of the storm who leaves no trace Like thoughts inside a dream Heed the path that led me to that place Yellow desert stream.
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Beaucephus
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PostSun May 18, 2008 12:18 pm 
Lester is far from what it once was, both physically, and historically. I've read stories of a young musician, named Henry John Dutchendorf Jr., having once spent time there, and locals telling him he had no future in music. My family used to hunt the area, and spent numerous summers and falls enjoying the natural features of the locale. Elk and Deer were in such great numbers, that you had to actually choose which animal you wanted to harvest. Personally having seen herds of Elk numbering in the hundreds. That is all gone since the state and the city of Tacoma has opened the watershed to the indians for hunting any time they want. All in exchange for the right to run another water pipeline across the reservation lands near Auburn. You can spend weeks there now, without even seeing an Elk. The summer before the NO BICYCLE signs went up, my god children and I, then the next day, with their parents in tow. Biked into Nagrom, the former resort sight, of a once nationally famous hot spring, along the Green River downstream from Lester. My brother and I rode ATVs across the railroad tressle in the middle of the night one hunting season. Then a friend and I drove my Toyota pickup across the tressle one morning the next year. Somewhere out there, there are witnesses to that feat, as there was a hunting camp set up on the river below, and those folks were standing there with their chins on the ground in seeing it. There are still some excellent hikes available in the Stampede pass area, alot of beautiful lakes with fish waiting for a fly to dance across the the water's surface. But a person has to willing to put in the leg work, because Tacoma city officials will stop vehicles beyond their signs and gates. When we first started hunting the area, you could still drive into Lester. The floods which struck in the mid to late 90s cut the road, and washed away most of the former emergency airstrip which was located just east of Lester. Which made it easier for the powers that be, to gate and close down the roads. I can still remember being able to walk through the original train depot, and several homestead homes which were there. They have since been burned and dozed into oblivion. Only existing in people's memories. shakehead.gif

"And these children that you spit on, while they try and change their world, are immune to your consultations. They're quite aware of what they're going through" (David Bowie)
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Snowbrushy
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PostMon May 19, 2008 1:27 pm 
Beaucephus wrote:
That is all gone since the state and the city of Tacoma has opened the watershed to the indians for hunting any time they want. All in exchange for the right to run another water pipeline across the reservation lands near Auburn. Biked into Nagrom, the former resort sight, of a once nationally famous hot spring, along the Green River downstream from Lester. :
Hi, Thankyou for sharing! Is that the Muckleshoot Tribe? I was not aware of a hot springs in that area. Is it still there?

Oh Pilot of the storm who leaves no trace Like thoughts inside a dream Heed the path that led me to that place Yellow desert stream.
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