More North Cascades trivia

[hopalong]

I think it said Keroak(sp) was doing it up there too.

[MisterMo]

Where is there a log cabin located between the Eldorado Gravel Pit and the Cascade Pass Parking Lot?

 

Right on the left, by the next gate.

 

Pretty cool one too.

 

This is Gilbert's cabin, correct?

[tread_tramp]

I think it said Keroak(sp) was doing it up there too.

 

Yeah; Kerouac wrote about his stay at the fire lookout on Desolation Peak at the beginning of the novel Desolation Angles . He went stir crazy up there and couldn't wait to get back to the scene in SanFrancisco.

[Lowell_Skoog]

Over a year ago in this thread, I wrote:

 

A couple years ago, as I was beginning my ski mountaineering research, I sent Fred Beckey an email telling him about my project and asking him for leads. He responded that he had "done nothing worth reporting on skis" and suggested that I "try old timers - they might know." I got a good chuckle out of this because I thought to myself, who is more of an old timer than Fred?

 

Later it became clear that Fred was thinking of Wolf Bauer. I've since interviewed Wolf, who is 90 or 91 today. So yes, to Fred, Wolf Bauer is an old timer. Earlier in this thread, Harry described how Wolf placed the first piton in the North Cascades on Mt Goode in 1936. Wolf also founded the Mountaineers climbing course in 1935, which Harry rightly called "the single most influential event in the history of Cascades Mountaineering." Wolf was a mentor to the Ptarmigans while they were still Boy Scouts and was one of the co-founders of the Mountain Rescue Council in 1948. He introduced kayaking to the Northwest and founded the Washington Kayak club. He skied in the first slalom race west of the Mississippi in 1930 and took 5th in the first Silver Skis Race in 1934. Most Northwest climbers probably don't even realize that Wolf is still around, still sharp and still active. He's a bona fide living legend.

 

Harry Majors and Fred Beckey are active historians, still researching and writing, so in a sense Harry is correct that he and Fred are the only living major direct links with the past. Wolf Bauer isn't writing a book (though his friends have urged him to do so) so it falls to others to preserve those links. I'm glad that Fred and Harry have stepped up to the task, and I wish them Godspeed in their efforts.

 

Yesterday I visited Wolf Bauer to copy some photographs for a profile of him I'm working on. As I was flipping through his mountaineering papers and photos, I came across a hardcopy of this post. It was clear that Wolf had carefully read it, since several portions were underlined. He later said one of his children (grandchildren?) found this and other information about him after a few minutes on the internet.

 

I've always tried to remember that you should always write on bulletin boards as if anybody you can possibily imagine might some day read your words. It's never been more effectively demonstrated to me than this.

[Alpinfox]

...you should always write on bulletin boards as if anybody you can possibily imagine might some day read your words...

 

Oh lord. I'm doomed.

[Skeezix]

What was the name of the big mine that was located about .1 mile from the beginning on the Boston Basin trail?

[Skeezix]

Where in the North Cascades is there a tiny hut, above treeline, which contains rescue equipment? Hint: the hut is a about the size of a two-man tent, and was originally installed by the U.S.G.S. as part of a research project. It's not the S. Cascade Glacier. In fact, it's N of Hwy 20, W of Ross Lake, on a ridge adjacent to a prominent glacier. If it has been removed since I was last there, please translate the question to past tense...

[Skeezix]

Name the Whatcom County Deputy, still serving in that capacity, who survived the crash of the Navy helo at Perfect Pass.

[Skeezix]

Name 3 lakes that support populations of golden trout.

[Skeezix]

That should keep you busy for a little while...

[Lowell_Skoog]

What was the name of the big mine that was located about .1 mile from the beginning on the Boston Basin trail?

 

Value-mines, wasn't it? As proof that I'm a genuine geezer, I have a picture of my wife sitting in my old car right next to the old mine building. You could still drive to them in the early 1980s.

[Colin]

Are you talking about the rescue cache near the summit of Shuksan, on the rock ridge adjacent to the Sulphide Glacier?

[Skeezix]

Value Mine ...bingo. The NPS maintenance folks erased the mining developments and rehabbed the area nicely. It's hard to tell there was ever a large arrista and a bunkhouse there. Rescue cache on Sulphide Ridge ...bingo. Now, three lakes that support populations of golden trout? Hint: Two of them are relatively easy to get to...

[Blake]

Here's the elevations of those lakes: 5023', 4682', 4908'

[Skeezix]

I was thinking more 4921', 5085', & 5905'.

[Blake]

According to this NOCA document http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:VJ0wf...rout"&hl=en

 

There are three lakes in that study alone which had goldens, they call the lakes "DD1, DD5, and M19". They give elevations, depths, and acreages for all of them, but not their common names. WDFW stuff I've read have also suggested the Thornton Lakes and Hidden Lake as having goldens.

[Skeezix]

Name the hospitable hermit of Baker Lake.

[ncascademtns]

Name the hospitable hermit of Baker Lake.

 

Don't know, I haven't read the book yet.

[MisterMo]

Name the hospitable hermit of Baker Lake.

 

Joe Morovitz

[MisterMo]

What was the name of the big mine that was located about .1 mile from the beginning on the Boston Basin trail?

 

Value-mines, wasn't it? As proof that I'm a genuine geezer, I have a picture of my wife sitting in my old car right next to the old mine building. You could still drive to them in the early 1980s.

 

Valumines was the name of the company; I always just referred to it as the Boston Mine. They were in limited operation in the mid 70's. Finding the Boston Basin trail in those days involved finding and following the black plastic water pipe above the mine. The Cascade Pass trail started at the mine as well and was much shorter than the existing one.

 

Regarding the obliteration and "rehabilitation" of the mine site I hope there's room for another point of view: that the obliterators and rehabbers have either no sense of history or a very finely focused one, and that removal of all traces pretty much amounts to an act of vandalism. The bunkhouse had been pretty much destroyed by a snowslide but I submit that the concentrator should have been left intact. Mining, like it or not, is an important part of Cascades history.

 

This isn't meant as a troll, BTW, though I admit it's probably pretty non-PC.

[MisterMo]

What exactly is a toilet vault anyway?

 

see: Beckey, Fred Challenge of the North Cascades P9

[klenke]

I read P9. All he talks about is climbing ("vaulting"?) over toilets. Am I missing something?

[Skeezix]

A toilet vault is a fiberglass box with a hole in the top. The vault sits inside a wooden toilet box and is a receptacle for shit and pee. It must be dumped periodically.

[spicoli11]

A< vault >is a roof, a burial chamber, reaching for heights, or the act of jumping over something according to the webster. So are we jumping over the shit, putting it in the ground,, or launching it to new heights?

[spicoli11]

At it's peak, how tall does ponderosa pine grow east of the cascade crest in the agnes,railroad, and the stehekin? How far has this pine introduced itself into the north cascades?