Fairweather

It's like a restaurant mob fighting over the desert bar while the buffet table remains almost untouched!

It's not 1872 I have a problem with. It's 1916. And the way those idiots have been interpreting 1964. Since 1973. And no, dogs are not allowed on NP trails--even if they're on a leash.

I was responding to your statement about NPs and being able to escape. And I was just saying that they are best avoided anyhow. But I agree, not being able to bring your dog is a real drawback to spending time at Rainier, Olympic--or North Cascades NP. Particularly ironic, since Stephen Mather had all the wolves (and mountain lions) eradicated at Mount Rainier NP in the teens, 20s and early 30s. IMO, dogs are just modern proxies for the beautiful animals he and his national park administrators had butchered almost 100 years ago. I digress. Sure, the parks were a great idea. In fact, most of the big, popular national parks--like MRNP--are older than the National Park Service itself. But times change. There are better ways to "manage" wilderness I think. Another example, Civil Service. It was a great idea too--better than Spoils. But fast forward 130 years and we have a bloated, dangerous bureaucracy full of overpaid career idiots who think they're somehow above the voters they serve. Full circle, NPS.

This is part of the problem: you automatically think of national parks as your only escape, when, in fact, NPs represent a relatively small part of what's available. National parks have become "concentrators" for urban and suburban folks who want adventure--but not too much. They even collect patches and bumper stickers and themed blankets. Enter the rule-makers and fee collectors! We have ourselves a real industry here. Yes, this might be the future of NCNP if it remains a park. Or expands. Read up on the Wilderness Society's 1930s opposition to Ice Peaks National Park and you might better understand what I'm saying.

Re that great video, well, it kind of makes my case. And more. Maybe the best way to diffuse outdoor recreation--and save mobbed landscapes and towns--is to abolish the entire national park system. Wilderness and the NPS were intended, in part, to provide a sort of "escape valve" for/from capitalism. One that was affordable to ordinary people. In just over 100 years, NPS landscapes and management is morphing into something else entirely.

Thanks for the link! I did that trip in early March of 1983, from Paradise as you did. No skis, we were on our fancy Sherpa snowshoes. I just remember it was very very cold, and the crevasses on the Cowlitz were huge and partially hidden as we were being forced too far down into the icefall. One of the few times I remember being extremely worried about the whole rope team going into the same hole. I went on to climb it three more times from Summerland and even threw in a climb of Ks Spire. Again, thanks for the memories!

Trip Report!

It's what happens when "public servants" forget who they work for, transcend multiple elected administrations, and begin to think they are our masters. Marblemount tends to be pretty anarchist/weird, and some of it might bleed into (or be driven by?) NPS staff. Just before Covid, I stopped to get gas there and someone had bashed in the windows of the station and painted a bunch of anti-oil company nonsense all over the rest. I've never visited their HQ in Sedro Wolley, don't know much about current Stehekin. I suspect the entire local unit suffers from group-think ala places like Port Townsend, Vashon Island, Fairhaven, Orcas. Fire and/or transfer everyone, maybe it can be saved.😎

USFS is more respectable than most--and light years better than NPS/Interior. They would manage the North Cascades wilds far better than they are managed under the current regime.

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/5180781ff7e142c1bf0d512e9fbae67d

As for USFS, well, I have issues with them too. Particularly regarding their partnership with the "Mt. St. Helen's Institute," and various permit and quota schemes. It's never funny when public agencies offer up a 'free-market solution' to an arbitrary quota they imposed. They provide the problem--and then sell us the solution. (Now available on recreation.gov!) That said, NPS often behaves in an utterly draconian manner couching institutional laziness in a green wrapper. The debacle along the road to Paradise this last winter was just the latest example. Back to NOCA, recall rangers frog-marching climbers and hikers out of the backcountry because they lacked a permit said ranger could have just issued on-site.

To whose "wilderness values" are you referring? I'm a conservative. And a conservationist. Sixty years of hiking, climbing, paddling, and yes, occasional mountain biking. One mistake urban liberals make is viewing wilderness as their inviolate playground, not realizing people of all political persuasions own it--and use it.

That might be the noble goal for park staff and urban elites--but the 1968 enabling legislation doesn't make it so. 93% of the park is now Stephen Mather Wilderness. The USFS can manage that just fine.

This is demonstrably untrue. Permits to climb? Lottery for the Wonderland Trail? Back country quota areas expanding every year at Olympic, and MORA--and NOCA? If there's no "loving nature to death" crisis in our NPs, then why all the restrictions?

Related. Sort of. https://www.wsj.com/articles/national-park-fees-booz-allen-68d4d6d8?mod=Searchresults_pos1&page=1

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Let's do it!

Don't particularly like the guy, better choices are plenty. But this nonsense cannot stand. Russiagate, Ukraine, Peegate, tax returns nothingness, on and on. I wish liberals loved their country more than they hate Trump. Their mania is leading us to a very very bad place. They should have just let him fade away.

Parked at about 1300' where the snow starts. Snowshoes up the road to the Washington TH parking area. There is a S#!t ton of snow up there! Not likely to melt out for a while.

I'd say some civil disobedience is in order here.

Are you talking about that goofy "Volcano Pass?" I've never heard of any permit needed to climb Mt Adams.

I hear radon levels there are off the charts at the LaQuinta Inn!

Don't believe everything that you breathe You get a parking violation and a maggot on your sleeve

That's very weird, I don't remember eating any corn.

The Mountain Goats: Up the Wolves