Fairweather

It's funny, I hiked the Grand Canyon earlier this month. NPS is building a GIANT pump house along the Colorado River near Phantom Ranch and installing a 10" pipe all the way up to the south rim along the Bright Angel Trail. Also a large pump station at Havasupi Gardens humming away in an otherwise pristine setting. NPS is getting ridiculous--compare the wilderness zealots at NOCA with the industrial scale recreation at Grand Canyon with the political grandstanding at Yosemite. Makes no sense. Pretty clear there has been no definable mission at Interior for a long, long time.

Awwww Porter, c'mon. Just when we were starting to have a good dialogue, you pout & get all bitchy. A common problem with progressives--and products of Olympia Public Schools. Truth is, I'm not "religious" at all. But I do believe in God. And I will take a Representative Republic over a theocracy or your mob democracy any day of the century. I just think America works best when it adheres to its traditional values. It's difficult for you, I get it.

100% agree. And yet the Washington State Senate Majority Leader, Jamie Pedersen, has lectured parents again and again about their limited roles if their kids are 13 or older. Ditto, Chris Reykdal, State Superintendent of Public Schools. Democrats just removed key parental notification rights regarding gender reassignment, SB 5181. Signed by Governor Cuck Ferguson. Maybe it's time to let public schools die off.

What you describe is nihilism. And according to Neitzsche, if God is dead then all bets are off. We can do whatever we want without consequence. He died in 1900 and, as he predicted, 20th century faith in government resulted in the biggest bloodbaths in human history. When government supplants God, nothing good happens. This explains why leftist, progressive and liberal governments tolerate, or even lead, attacks on believers and traditional family. Because these two institutions are its only real competitors. Truth is, atheists don't bother me--but far too many of them behave like anti-theists. And their proselytizing sounds a lot like the words they claim to despise.

No to both questions. The myth of separation comes from the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. If there is no God, then to whom do we answer? The state?

Whose God? Ours. The One proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, the Pledge of Allegiance, and most State Constitutions--including Washington State's. Kids, we agree. I don't even think parents should have the right to alter their children--much less their public school teachers. Adults? Like you, I don;t really care--until they start stealing my granddaughter's trophy or scholarship and make absurd demands that I "properly" gender them. I choose to not participate in a fantasy. Sorry, O'Brien, but two plus two does not equal five. Men cannot become women. They don;t menstruate. They can't have children. Re Yosemite NP, well, what's bizarre is hanging a giant banner proclaiming that "Trans is Natural." But my complaint is entrenched government meting out different responses to different interests. The first amendment doesn't include defacing national parks--or impersonating a federal LEO.

That's easy--when parents and teachers start mutilating God's beautiful children. Or when a man demands I call him a woman under threat of career--or even law. That's when.

Trans Is Natural! Well, except for all those hormone injections and scalpels and stuff. It's a mixed up world, a shook up world...

Washington State's biennial budget twelve years ago was $18.5Bn. Today's is $76Bn. A state income tax won't solve wilderness access problems. And an additional sales tax would get funneled straight to politically-connected orgs just like Inslee's "Climate Commitment" carbon auction fraud.

Great topic. I wrote a master's thesis on wilderness access and your work reminds me of that long-ago project. You mostly avoid the effect wilderness/green orgs have had in limiting access vis-a-vis litigation and road closures. Back in the day NCCC and ALPS--and even the WTA were advocating for very limited/restricted access to virtually all wild areas and a strict interpretation of WA1964. Ditto the Pilchuck Audubon Society--and even some pretty radical NPS Superintendents like Bill Briggle. Other than theorizing that wilderness provided a sort of escape valve for capitalism, I didn't map out the economics as you have. I like what you've done!

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/activists-unfurl-trans-pride-flag-on-iconic-yosemite-cliff-hate-is-unnatural/ar-AA1FdKxT?ocid=BingNewsSerp Again, imagine a MAGA banner hanging from NA Wall and what the NPS response would be. And again, this is an NPS management problem. Fire everyone at Yosemite; rehire and reassign the handful who may not be ok with this.

https://youtu.be/GKdl-GCsNJ0?si=K8eSuFZnqx3Ygs2u

Trip: Grand Canyon Rim to Rim - Down South Kibab, Up Tonto and Bright Angel Trip Date: 05/07/2025 Trip Report: Finally saw the Grand Canyon. Intended to do a South Rim to North Rim--but the highway up north was still closed. Day trip. Gear Notes: High top Merrels Approach Notes: Nice trails blasted out of cliff bands

We did the traverse two summers ago. It's a beautiful peak.

Redstone and Tyee might be approachable from Lake Eleanor. Or just ebike to Ipsut Campground using the Foothills Spur Trail and Carbon Road above the bridge?

I thought you already climbed Challenger? Chimney Rock scares me; no desire. Whitney is a state high-point I haven't done yet. I don't do well with paperwork and government. Headed to AZ, NM in May and might collect those.

I still have seven Irish Cabin Peaks missing from my sash. And my time spent in the PRWA is less and less. Now that the road is closed, I might not make the list! Still need Pitcher, Redstone, Squaw, Tyee, Mineral, Gove, and Castle.

Take a deep breath, Oly. You don't have to respond every single time someone says something you don't like.

"Methinks." Another sad tardanachronism echoing here in the dank.

https://wsdot.wa.gov/about/news/2025/sr-165-carbon-river-fairfax-bridge-closed-until-further-notice

Cabinet Range, complete traverse. S-->N Baranof Island, Peak 5390. Sarkar Lake Canoe Loop. Poaching the Northern Loop Trail on my mountain bike. (Patrols should be light!)

I rarely see "meh" used anymore. Even in its day it was a dismissive used almost exclusively by self-important libtards--like TTK.

Channeling TTK?

My wife, 63yo, bought an ebike a couple years ago and I spent a year trying to keep up with her on my Yeti ARC--but finally gave up and bought a Specialized (yes, I know) Turbo Levo. I've been going back and forth, but the logic of the non-ebike is starting to escape me. Riding my human-powered hard tail after a day on the emtb feels like running with a 100 pound pack on. I'm not tracking any of my elevation gain while on the ebike; it's not my effort. Not sure where this is heading. But it's a good time to be getting old.