G RAYDON R ESERVE I NDEX , W ASHINGTON S UMMER 2009 A PANORAMA OF RIVERS and mountains fills the view in this photo from the summit of Mount Persis. The new Wild Sky Wilderness includes Gunn and Merchant Peaks and Spire Mountain and many other high alpine areas and lowland forest. Spring saw a few nice upgrades to the old Gray- don Reserve. We added two picnic tables to replace the two that went downriver with the November 2006 flood. Muir Woods is now more open and walker- friendly thanks to a bit of clearing. There we planted some twinflowers, Solo- mon’s seal, black lily and, believe it or not, the ubiqui- tous bluebells. The route to Highview is now clear of winter blow-down. The wet- land garden and rockeryhave a host of new plants to join the old favorites. The ping-pong table is up and running. And six little in- cense cedar are taking root along the river. In a place of beauty, high hopes for the future I f you like what you see around here, you’re in luck. The scene may look the same far into the future. Much of the landscape on all sides —a sparkling river, jagged peaks, forested hills —is pro- tected one way or another. Last year brought two great conservation victories. First came creation of the federal Wild Sky Wilderness. And then Heybrook Ridge, prominent in any view from around here, was permanently saved from logging. I’ve spent some of my best days over the past 20 years scrambling up the mountains that are now within the 106,000-acre wilder- ness. My favorite is Mount Baring, the double-summit peak that stands in proud iso- lation just east of here. In fact, without Mount Baring I don’t think there would even be a Graydon Reserve. My son Andy and I were high in a snow chute be- neath Baring one day in the spring of 1990 when the route got too dicey and we turned back early —and this gave us time to check on a realtor’s sign for land on the banks of the Skykomish. I bought it. The Wild Sky Wilderness that spreads out north and east of Index also encompasses Gunn Peak, a tasty lure for weekend alpin- ists, the meandering highland paradise ofCady Ridge, old-growth forest, salmon streams, hidden Lake Isabel, and a lifetime ofother treasures. It even includes the point we privately re- fer to as Graydon Peak. My climbing buddy Dick McConaughy and I trekked to the top one day and realized that such an impressive summit deserved a name, even though it’s simply the western high point of the long ridge leading from Gunn Peak, which is just 22 feet higher. It took nine years of congression al ups and downs to make the wilderness designation a reality. The Senate approved the Wild Sky twice, only to have it killed in House commit- tee. For supporters of the Wild Sky, the vil- lain of the story was the Republican chair- man of the House Resources Committee, Richard Pombo. After voters in Pombo’s California district sent him home, the House passed the bill. But it took a couple more years of political dealing before the bill finally ended up on the desk ofPresident Bush, who signed it May 8, 2008. Logging, mining and motorized vehicles are prohibited in a wilderness area. Hiking, climbing, hunting, fishing, rafting and other recreational activities are permitt ed. THE HEYBROOK RIDGE story was an- other cliffhanger. Would the town of Index —population 157 —be able to raise more than a million dollars to buy the 129 acres before the PLEASE SEE PAGE 8 What’s new
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A PANORAMA OF RIVERS and mountains fills the view in this photo from the summitof Mount Persis. The new Wild Sky Wilderness includes Gunn and Merchant Peaksand Spire Mountain and many other high alpine areas and lowland forest.
Spring saw a few niceupgrades to the old Gray-don Reserve. We added twopicnic tables to replace thetwo that went downriverwith the November 2006flood. Muir Woods is nowmore open and walker-
friendly thanks to a bit ofclearing. There we plantedsome twinflowers, Solo-mon’s seal, black lily and,believe it or not, the ubiqui-tous bluebells. The route toHighview is now clear ofwinter blow-down. The wet-land garden and rockery have a host of new plantsto join the old favorites. Theping-pong table is up andrunning. And six little in-cense cedar are taking root
along the river.
In a place of beauty,high hopes for the future
If you like what you see around here,
you’re in luck. The scene may look the
same far into the future. Much of the
landscape on all sides — a sparkling
river, jagged peaks, forested hills — is pro-tected one way or another.
Last year brought two great conservation
victories. First came creation of the federal
Wild Sky Wilderness. And then Heybrook
Ridge, prominent in any view from around
here, was permanently saved from logging.
I’ve spent some of my best days over the
past 20 years scrambling up the mountains
that are now within the 106,000-acre wilder-
ness. My favorite is Mount Baring, the
double-summit peak that stands in proud iso-
lation just east of here.
In fact, without Mount Baring I don’t think
there would even be a Graydon Reserve. My
son Andy and I were high in a snow chute be-
neath Baring one day in the spring of 1990
when the route got too dicey and we turned
back early — and this gave us time to check on
a realtor’s sign for land on the banks of theSkykomish. I bought it.
The Wild Sky Wilderness that spreads out
north and east of Index also encompasses
Gunn Peak, a tasty lure for weekend alpin-
ists, the meandering highland paradise of
Cady Ridge, old-growth forest, salmon
streams, hidden Lake Isabel, and a lifetime of
other treasures.
It even includes the point we privately re-
fer to as Graydon Peak. My climbing buddy
Dick McConaughy and I trekked to the top
one day and realized that such an impressive
summit deserved a name, even though it’s
simply the western high point of the long
ridge leading from Gunn Peak, which is just
22 feet higher.
It took nine years of congressional ups and
downs to make the wilderness designation a
reality. The Senate approved the Wild Sky
twice, only to have it killed in House commit-
tee. For supporters of the Wild Sky, the vil-
lain of the story was the Republican chair-
man of the House Resources Committee,
Richard Pombo.
After voters in Pombo’s California district
sent him home, the House passed the bill. But
it took a couple more years of political dealingbefore the bill finally ended up on the desk of
The Pinwheel Galaxy meets the Swirl.Galaxy photo: Adam Block, Mt. Lemmon Sky Center, University of Arizona
A publication of the Graydon ReserveSummer 2009
Editor Don GraydonAssociate Editor Jonelle Kemmerling IT Support Paul Witzel, Brad Music
Contributing Writer Bob Hubbard Publisher Yellow Submarine Press Photos and Design Don Graydon Printer Kool Change Printing
Scientists envision a vast number of parallel universes, some of them much like our own . . . only different. I often feel that the Graydon Reserve exists in a paralleluniverse—a place similar to the everyday world, but blessed with a touch of over-
the-rainbow magic. The concept of a reserve was inspired by a visit to the BloedelReserve on Bainbridge Island. There, Jonelle and I discovered the kinship betweenthat landscape of dark fir and cedar forest rich in mosses, ferns and wildflowers and
our own home on the western edge of the Cascade Mountains. Our eight acres, areserve in spirit if not in fact, begin at the Skykomish River and rise hundreds of feet
through woods and cliffy terrain with narrow whitewater streams and tiny waterfalls,
the spires of Mount Index lording over it all. I hold the deed to this place, but canyou ever really own such beauty? Jonelle and I offer this newsletter as a way to
share our love of the reserve and as an invitation to come enjoy it with us.
stalks flare out around their bases and ap-pear to clasp the stem, giving this species the
common name of clasping-leaf twisted stalk.
A fine large pair of twisted stalks grows on
the creek banks up at Saw Springs.
False lilies-of-the-valley are a big part of
the show. You’ll see them as soon as you pass
William’s Meadow and enter Muir Woods.
Their dark green, heart-shaped leaves some-
times blanket the forest floor so densely that
it feels like you’re walking in salad.
AS LILY TIME begins to wane, Saxifrage
Time waxes: fringe cups start to bloom, fol-
lowed by mitreworts, and then thousandmothers. Each of these plants sends up little
sticks of flowers from remarkably similar
tufts of basal leaves.
Whereas our lily flowers have simple-
shaped white petals or tepals, the flowers of
saxifrages are host to fantastically shaped
petals. Fringe cup has tiny petals that are
strap-shaped, like long tongues, and fork into
many outer tips. They spill over and hang out
of the cup-shaped flowers like so many minia-
ture snakes’ tongues. Like trillium petals,
they turn red with age.
Thousand mothers (also called youth-on-
age or piggyback plant) have little flowers
that almost defy description. When I look at
them, I see dragon heads sprouting Salvador
Dali mustaches from upper and lower lips.
But to judge by the name, somebody some-
where must have seen little mothers all lined
up, stuck to the stem by their heads.
OF ALL THE FLOWERS I saw that day
at Saw Springs, I think I like mitreworts the
best. Their petals are like long, thin crosses
with not one but many crossbars. Each min-
uscule petal tip is tapered to a point and the
overall look is more like a feather than a
petal. Even though the whole five-petaled
flower is only about half-an-inch wide and the
plant is barely six to eight inches tall, it’s well
worth the effort to seek these flowers out and
put a magnifying glass to them.
Lily Time and Saxifrage Time go togetherwell: their flowers all bloom in a contiguous
stretch of time, and each species brightens
the forest in its own unique way. If you miss
one flower’s blooming time you still might
catch another’s.
I roamed a bit more, noticing ever more
wildflowers: bleeding hearts, candyflowers,
violets, bittercress, devil’s club, enchanter’s
nightshade, salmonberry, foamflower . . . .
I was flirting again with information over-
load, so I found my way back out to the drive-
way, the world of humans, and dinner.
ON A WALK THROUGH THE WOODS at the Graydon Reserve, Bob Hubbard points to astand of thousand-mothers plants (piggyback plant). Or could it be fringe cup?The two can look remarkably alike to the untrained eye.
THE DISTINCTIVE three-petaledtrillium is an early springfavorite in the Northwest.
Mount Index high above. A huge de-nuded hillside would not be a pretty
sight. Owners of the ridge put their
clearcutting plans on hold to give the
town one year to find the money.
Donations trickled in. But you can’t
raise a million dollars from barbecues,
raffles, T-shirt sales, and bluegrass hoe-
downs. Louise and her hardcore ac-
tivists also blitzed the media, govern-
ment officials, potential big-money do-
nors, conservation groups, anyone and
everyone who could help the cause. The
Association of Professional Book Index-
ers took a fancy to the town’s name and
sent $500.
The breakthrough came with a half-
million-dollar gift from an anonymous
Seattle donor. And they went over the
top August 4, 2008, when the Snoho-
mish County Council voted to con-
tribute $700,000. Heybrook Ridge will
now become a county park.
HERE AT THE Graydon Reserve,
we’re bounded high on the north by
land set aside for Forks of the Sky State
Park and on the south by the Skyko-
mish River. No room for Costco or Wal-
Mart.
The North Fork of the Sky is not a
federally designated Wild and Scenic
River, but it most certainly is a wild
and scenic river.
From our house, we hear the kayak-
ers and rafters shouting as they ride
the whitewater past Emily’s Park.
Government constraints on such ac-
tivities as tree cutting and habitat de-
struction give considerable protection to
the river. I found this out rather
abruptly some years ago when the state
forester ordered my contractor to stop
cutting trees near the river, where I
wanted an open picnic area. I got off
without a fine but had to come up with
a revegetation plan.
With the state’s current budget
woes, there’s no telling when Forks of
the Sky State Park will be developed.
We don’t mind. The steep forests are
wonderful as is. And on the river we
have our own park, a half-acre with a
frisbee field, firepit, picnic tables. Emily
Graydon, born a century ago, would
have the time of her life in the park
named in her memory.
[DON]
FROM PAGE ONE
Citizens go to work, and a park is born
THE LAKE SERENE trail takes hikers to a dramaticbasin beneath the east walls of Mount Index. Themain trail ascends steep forest to the lake. A spurtrail leads to the base of the upper falls. An oldscramble route (dotted line) ascends from theupper falls (for the fit and adventurous only).
and snowfields that rise 3,500 feet to the In-
dex summit. Hike in summer to bask in the
immensity of the setting.
The lake is serene, but you won’t find se-
renity there on a sunny weekend. The fine
trail completed a decade ago attracts nature-
hungry lowlanders by the dozens. Try to go on
a weekday. If you must hike on a weekend,
start early.To get to the trailhead, start at the Index
General Store. After stocking up there, drive
back to the main highway, U.S. 2, turn right
and cross the bridge over the river. Turn left
immediately past the bridge onto Mt. Index
Road. Take the right fork in less than half a
mile and pull into the parking lot. (You need
a parking pass, available for sale at the store,
or park along Mt. Index Road.)
FROM LOW IN THE Skykomish Valley,
the trail climbs 2,000 feet to the lake in about
four miles. The first mile or so follows an
abandoned roadbed, crossing a stream nearthe start. If you don’t like the narrow, angled
great smooth rock slabs.For the next mile and a half, the trail
switchbacks relentlessly up and up. A long
traverse near the top takes you to the lake
basin. You’re in a new world here, quieter,
calmer than on the exposed trail.
Cross the long log bridge over the lake’s
outlet for a walk along the northern edge of
the water. When the trail starts to head
steeply upslope, keep going. You’ll arrive in a
few minutes on the big rounded Lunch Rock
that rises from the lake, the perfect place to
sit and savor the scene.
For climbers, Lake Serene is only the
starting point. Technical climbers with an eye
on the North Peak of Index continue on up
the northern shoulder to the start of the
climb. Adventurers aiming for the easier (but
not easy) scramble route to the main peak
will hike all the way around the lake (or walk
over it during freeze-up), climb the steep
ridge at the end of the lake, then make their
way to the base of a great chute, or couloir,
that climbs another 1,300 feet to the broad
open ridge that leads to the summit.
THE LAKE SERENE TRIP is only one of
many glorious hikes around Index. Favoritesfor family hikes are Wallace Falls, Barclay
Lake, Heybrook Ridge and Tonga Ridge. More
ambitious day hikers trek to Eagle Lake or
Malachite Lake. Some of the prime hikes, like
the trails to Blanca Lake and Cady Ridge, are
now less accessible with closing of the Index-
Galena Road due to flood damage.
Folks who like some routefinding chal-
lenge in their hikes try the rough trails to the
Index Town lookout and the top of the upper
Index Town Wall. Starting at the Graydon
Reserve are short, strenuous ascents to the
Skyview and Highview lookouts.
Mountain scramblers take on the standard
routes up Mount Persis, Mount Baring and
Merchant Peak. For a bit of technical chal-
lenge, there’s Gunn Peak and Mount Index.
I’d be happy to point the way to any of
these hikes or climbs. I might even tag along.
[DON]
Check out the endless hiking possibilities
in the neighborhood in “55 Hikes Around
Stevens Pass,” from Mountaineers Books, by
Rick McGuire with photos by Ira Spring. Buy
a copy, or read the one at the reserve.
9
Extremely Important
Information
The annual Index Arts Festival fillsdowntown Index (the whole block)with arts and crafts, music, food andmore art. Saturday, August 1, 10a.m. to 6 p.m. indexartsgroup.org.
INDEX ARTS FESTIVAL
Randonee alpine touring skis. Kahru175 cm skis with Ramer bindings.Good gear, fine shape, 14 years old,lightly used. $85.
20-inch Stihl chain saw, model 034 AV Super. With chains, files, case.Excellent shape, though not run inseveral years, so will need cleaningand tune-up. 18 years old, but it is aStihl. $100.
Four-step collapsible stairs, for entry to a small camper. Heavy hammeredmetal, with bracket. Free to a goodhome.
Contact Don for all. 360-793-9148
CHEAP SKATES
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. BarbaraKingsolver and her family set out tospend a year eating only the food they could grow or buy locally. In beautifulprose Kingsolver outlines our national―eating disorder‖ and tells how shefound a better way to eat. [LISA and DANA]
Preaching the Blues , with Johnny Horn. Sundays 9 a.m. to noon, FM
90.3. Mellow blues, new and old.Music, not commercials. [JORDAN]
Ode magazine. A hymn to the possi-bilities for individual and social pro-gress. Ode tells the success stories ofpeople and ideas that make a differ-ence. odemagazine.com. [JOANNA]
The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of theBeautiful Basics of Science. Baffled by science? Let New York Times sciencewriter Natalie Angier make you actu-ally care about—maybe even under-stand—physics, chemistry, biology,
geology and astronomy. [PAUL] Roman Holiday. Gregory Peck is thenewsman who finds his princess in thissad and funny film about yearning,duty, love and heartbreak. Has any-one else ever been as sweetly beauti-ful as Audrey Hepburn? [DON]
BEST IN THE UNIVERSE
Index town: indexwa.orgN. Fork Skykomish: skyko.orgIndex artists: indexartsgroup.orgWave Trek:
outdooradventurecenter.com
Washington Climbers Coalition:washingtonclimbers.org
OUR WORLD ON THE WEB
”This place is peaceful,cozy, green, and agreat place for kids!”
SARAH SEZ
● More dismal rainfall statistics
● Bob Hubbard’s beetlemania
● The Serpentine revealed
● Italian stew recipe
● The latest natural disaster
● Secrets of the Swirl
● Relativity explained (if space permits)
IN THE NEXT ISSUE (if any)
This week’s special:
Help create the Serpentine, a monu-mental piece of land art in Emily’sPark, using the mounds of flooddebris collected over the past 12years. Saturday, July 4, 9 a.m.–6p.m. No experience necessary.
Ongoing opportunities:Garden the climbing crag with wirebrushes, from ground or on rappel.
Bushwhackers special: Help discovera new route from the hut to theDark Tower. For the very hardy.
uncovered several years ago when Doncleaned the muck out of the upper part of the
wetland and built a pond.
In taking on the challenge of gardening in
a wetland, I’ve learned a number of things:
■ Flowing water plus heavy, frequent rains
equal a need to replenish soil. Otherwise, all
that remains in the wetland is granular gran-
ite and algae.
■ If you have a favorite alpine wildflower,
don’t expect it to appear the same if you
transplant it or buy one from a nursery and
plant it down at an elevation of 600 feet.
■ It’s beneficial to your health if you wear
high rubber boots and learn to balance with
your feet and one elbow on three rocks, each
at a different height.
It’s been a pleasure to find both native and
non-native plants that like the wet habitat.
While the areas surrounding the wetland
abound with bleeding heart, spring beauties,
forget-me-nots and Indian plum, the only
original flowering plants in it were the piggy-
backs and dandelions. We gradually added
more color than was provided by those and by
the native grasses and rushes.Now when our late spring finally arrives,
and on into the fall, we gaze on patches of
bright blue ajuga, marsh marigolds, skunk
cabbage (yes, we love both the leaves and the
aroma), deep pink candelabra primrose, yel-
low water iris, deep blue Siberian iris, crim-
son flag, turtlehead, spiderwort, hostas and
ligularia. Deer fern, sword fern and other
ferns add foliage interest.
Some plants thrive under adverse condi-
tions: snow, flood, drought, rocky soil. In fact,
it may not be a good idea to transplant them
into a gentler habitat. My experience with
transplanting marsh marigolds (my second-
favorite wildflower) from an alpine home into
our low-elevation wetland was an eye opener.
They flourished the rest of the season. The
next spring: nada. No sign of them.
Next I resorted to a nursery-purchased
marsh marigold. For three years it has been
rewarding me with a mass of lovely blooms.
But the big blowsy bush bears only a little re-
semblance to the pristine, ground-hugging
plant we see in the sparkling early-spring
runoff in the wild. Thus during a recent nurs-
ery visit, I resisted the urge to buy a pot of
my favorite — the mountain pasqueflower, or
western anemone. I’ll await the thrill of see-
ing it poking up out of the snow on a high
mountain hike.
Our only unwelcome residents are the
buttercups that keep trying to take over and
the slugs that chew up the ligularia, hosta
and marsh marigold. Although I gave up on
showy scarlet lobelia cardinalis after two
roaming deer chomped the plants to the
ground, I admit it’s fun to take photos of thelovely creatures before I shoo them away to
Penny Lane.
You may be familiar with a rose named
Sheer Bliss. When little blue butterflies use
the ligularia flowers as mating grounds and
swallowtails flit through the garden to the
sound of the water flowing from the pond,
the wetland garden is a wonderland. Then I
think of that rose.
[JONELLE]
Secrets of a wetland garden
THE BEAUTIES of the wetlandgarden include Siberian iris(upper left) and (above) thequieter pleasures of purplishspires on the tall royalpickerell, deep-red lobeliacardinalis and pink turtle-head. Vying for attentionbelow are skunk cabbage,marsh marigold, and aswallowtail butterfly on the
blossoms of the ligularia.
Be patient, humor the deer and wear high rubber boots
years, haul Quikrete in your backpack forfoundation posts, drill holes in the rock for
more supports, hand-carry beams and lumber
and windows and tin roofing up a quarter-
mile of switchbacks, and build a tiny cedar
hut at the brink of a 40-foot granite cliff. Pop
open a brewski and take in the views of river
and mountains. Then head back down for
another load.
I picked option number 2.
It was more than worth it. Now the hut
welcomes visitors throughout the year who
How not to build
a hut
JIM GRAYDON NEVER walks when he can climb.Here he scrambles the south cliff below the hut,heading for the climber’s gate in the deck railing.
MOUNT INDEX presides overJonelle’s breakfast on the deck.
Teenagers!Beavers!MotherNature!
WHICH IS WORST?
A board on top of thenewly painted yellow picnictable was broken at the
end, clearly the work ofvandals. Nearby, a big up-right sitting log had beencast down, and one of theEmily’s Park swing seatshad been torn off the rope.Perhaps worst of all, some-one had cut down a smallIndian plum tree.
Then the next day, an-other tree cut down, thisone a young cherry.Jonelle discovered theculprits. Not teenagers.
Beavers. The family thatbuilt the dam just down theroad from us was roamingafield in search of food.
After consulting theexperts, we spent $45 onwire mesh fencing andwrapped it around thetrunks of favored trees: afew cherries, a couple ofapples, some vine maple,and a nice cedar. Now wewait and see.
Meanwhile up at the
hut, another vandal was atwork. From a scar in thecliffs less than 50 feet eastof the hut, Mother Natureloosed a granite boulderthat upended an old logand blocked the entranceto the Path Less Traveled.
An earthquake in 2001created the original scar.Beaver: fotosearch.com. Teenager:Christopher J. Menning, audiophysi-cal.squarespace.com. Mother Nature:Qczma, qczma.deviantart.com