[-lol-]

[Backpacker Joe]

Is this wilderness area a garentee, or still in the planning stages yet?

[MtnGoat]

What I get a kick out of is increasing usage via a very long spread on Eagle lake and intentionally mentioning the short route, while complaining about overusage. Especially coming from the organizer of this initiative, who is shown walking through the bogs while commenting on how rare and pristine they are!

[Ice Girl]

It's interesting the article states that the trail is a USF trail, but when i was up at Sky, ranger station, the comment i got was.. the trail to Eagle Lake from Beckler River is a fishermans trail and they wouldn't comment on conditions or dirctions. Got to wonder where they get thier info? Ice Girl

[MtnGoat]

It is fishermans trail, and not listed or maintained, so they may be legally limited in discussing it.

[Sundance Kid]

Cool article. I remember Mike Town from Redmond High School. I graduated from there in 1996 and it's awesome to hear that one of my teachers is involved in something cool like this. I only have experience in the area with Barclay Lake, which is beautiful. I would be interested in exploring more, and wilderness designation makes it all the more interesting.

[REJ]

Status of Wild Sky Wilderness Act of 2002 legislation: House Bill is HR4844 introduced by Rep. Rick Larson. Bill was approved by House Resources and Forest and Forest Lands subcommittee. Next step is a vote by the full House. Republican committee chairman expressed some reservations regarding the proposed legistation including a compliant that "some of the land designated in the bill does not qualify as wilderness" (e.g. old road to Mineral City). Expect some changes to the bill. Parallel Senate bill is S2565 sponsored by Senators Murray and Cantwell. Bill is currently in the Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committee subcommitte on Public Lands and Forests. Points of interest in the legislation. The wilderness covers 106,000 acres. Requires the FS to develop a new trails plan within 2 years but provides no money for trails development. Authorizes the purchase of private lands within the wilderness boundary. Allows the use of helicopter access to Forest Service communciation repeater site(s) within the Wilderness. Allows helicopter access to snowtel (snotel sp?) site(s) used by the Chelan public utility district. No exemption yet for float plane landings on Lake Isabel contrary to published reports. (Maybe added in the future versions of the bill) Mtn Bikes would be excluded from Mineral City and Johnson Ridge trails. Barclay Lake is not included within the wilderness boundary (Eagle Lake in within the boundary!) Good article covering recent issue from Seattle Times: Seattle Times article

[Mike Collins]

Barclay Lake was excluded to gain support from the Boy Scouts. With wilderness designation the group sizes are limited and that was a point of disagreement with the scouts. They like to have places to sing "Valereee...Valeraaaa" so as to annoy Catwoman.

[Brian Curtis]

The bill passed out of Senate committee yesterday. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134548249_wildskybrief03m.html

[kleet]

Interesting how both Senators from Oregon voted against the bill, apparently for very different reasons.

[REJ]

House bill HR4844 Wild Sky Wilderness Act of 2002 was amended and is on the calender for vote in the House of Rep. The following changes were made to the bill: 1. Trail plan is designated a "hiking trail plan" 2. Float Plane Access will be allowed on Lake Isabel inside the proposed wilderness boundary The House Resources Committee attached a Congressional Budget Office estimate of the cost of HB4844 for the fiscal years 2003-2007 $250,000/year Increased adminstrative cost $6million Cost of removing 41 miles of road within the proposed wilderness boundary $4million Design and implementation system of trails $7million Aquire nonfederal lands Note: The bill does not include an authorization for funds. The report with the bill includes the following statement "The Wild Sky Wilderness as proposed would be 106,000 acres adjacent to the Henry M. Jackson Wilderness and located in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forests. In addition there are 13,000 acres of lands identified in the Northwest Forest Plan as matrix lands to be used for adaptive management. Designating the matrix lands as wilderness would preclude their use for adaptive management purposes. The bill also includes lands that do not have wilderness character and do not meet the intent of the Wilderness Act of 1964. This includes a lookout tower used as a recreational facility, lands with patented mining claims, and lands with recent harvest activity and open roads."

[McPilchuck]

Why I Love Wilderness so: http://alpinequest.com/ode3fingers.htm

[Mike Collins]

McPilchuck...I greatly appreciate the photo and the image producing prose. If you were on the top Three Fingers though you were not standing on granite. The rock there is called Darrington Phyllite, part of the Mount Shuksan thrust plate. It got its start as part of the seafloor which is why the rock consists of metamorphosed sandstones and slates. It formed as deep water marine sediment laying on top of basalt while being transported to North America. If we have another get-together I can bring a chunk of it in as it can be found easily along roadside cuts in that area.

[#19]

Mike I appreciate the geology info and would like to learn more. But somehow "Here, in the Darrington Phllite void of the mountain top" just would not have the same ring to it. Ya know? I believe McPil is using poetic liscense. Nice picture and prose as usual McPil.

[Mike Collins]

There, surrounded by fantastic folds of phyllite...