marylou

Actually, that's all written down in the Act. I think the horse may be out of the barn on that issue.

Has anyone seen an updated map as to what roads have and have not yet been repaired from the 2003 flood/storm dealo?

montrail D7s on clearance at Hikey Town

Dark Divide is kind of a rarity in SW Wa in that it has not been completely crisscrossed with roads. It's been a favorite of conservation groups for years, but I don't think I've ever heard of any talk of making it a Wilderness, nor do I think it would ever become one. There has been a push to leave it roadless, which is obviously not the same thing.

Widernesses are not "gerrymandered," silly. They have wavy lines because they follow natural geography (much more so now than in 1899 when MRNP was formed) and have to be drawn to the exclusion of roads, and in some cases, inholdings. This is not some vast left-wing conspiracy!

Here is a website with some information about the proposed Wilderness. Peter, I'm not sure what you hope to accomplish with your theoretical Rorsach Test of Washington's Wildernesses. Very few people would be able to call out the chronology of their creation, let alone even name them all.

Hey Winter, that's very interesting. I did not know about that! The FS people I have spoken with never mention that. Can you direct me to more information like that? I'm always interested in reading up on issues like this.

The FS gets its budget from Congress. The FS does not keep the proceeds from timber sales, they go back into the General Fund. Once upon a time, the FS generated a fair amount of revenue from timber sales, and was pretty well-funded by Congress. Nowadays, for a number of reasons, the FS is not generating much revenue from timber sales, and coincidentally (?!?) is not very well-funded. Additionally, the national priorities do not lie in conservation or in the environment. In six hours of presidential and vice presidential debates last fall, there was exactly ONE question about the environment. It is just not what people care about. I do not much care for having to designate in order to avoid lawsuits and deal with budget constraints, but if that is what it takes, then so be it. Criz, thanks a lot for weighing in. Keep talking.

Peaks: somewhere in the Cascades, a long time ago. Probably involved brush. Rock: mid-late 1990s. I should stick to peaks and choss.

If REI stops selling climbing gear, won't more people go to Pro Mountain Sports for climbing gear? Seems like the unintended consequences might have some payoff.....

OUCH!!!!!

Air Berjaya leaving Tioman Island I did not enjoy this takeoff, especially after watching the plane land. I wish I could get the image tag function to work.

My experience with the Transition has been the same. Best when worn on the outside, and only at its best when you are moving. The second I stop I need to put on another layer to keep from getting chilled. Good piece for the right applications though, like cool spring days doing something fairly aerobic like skiing.

Once an area is developed in the way you describe, it can never really return to a natural state. That's why I think it's good to err on the side of caution, and make more Wilderness rather than less. I know that's a somewhat simplistic argument, but so be it.

Pretty much every Wilderness in the state has valley bottoms in it, and many of them have been logged before. If you look at where they have been left out of a Wilderness via a "cherry stem" road, it's historically been due to inholders. There may be good reasons to not designate Wld Sky as a Wilderness, but lowlands is not one of them.

Manila line is still widely used in theatrical applications. Most of it's 3/4" laid line but we also use 1/2" for some things.

Well-written, but not funny. You must get lonesome up there on the high horse.

I went in that Skeleton Cave once. it was Cree Pee in there!

Come ON, Coffee Boy!

Chatter time!!

I know there are a lot of other ipod/MP3 player owners on this board. The most popular headphones seem to be the Sony EX 71s and 51s, which are the same except for the length of the cord and available color options. They come with three sets of silicon earbuds. I use the Mediums, and would like to trade my Smalls and Larges for spare Mediums. The 'buds are apparently pretty spendy from Sony, and I'd like to get some spares before I lose one. PM me if you want to trade.

I have a pair of super duper lightweight Nikes that I use for camp shoes that are just awesome. Since we're talking about really light footwear options, I just popped over to Nike's website to see what they are called, and guess what? Looks like they are not making them any more!!

I think they call the Exums an approach shoe actually. I've had a pair for about 6 months. Great pair of tenny runners, not as good a climbing shoe as say a Montrail D7. Other thing about the Exums is that they have mesh pretty far down the shoe, which means if you walk in mud or water, you will get some in your shoes. Very comfy though.

That's the one I was thinking of.