Expansion of North Cascades National Park

Lowell, I respectfully disagree with you.  While I appreciate your point re sanitation, I don't see how that is different than any other overnight outing.  Many , if not most, fire lookouts are/were USFS, and while they may not currently be 'budgetly' set up for winter use, I can't help but think that such a public resource should be put to fair use.  I think the greater issue would be accessibility ~ they don't tend to be within just a couple of hours of available winter parking.  Still, I think fire lookouts should be explored/incorporated into the network of refuges for the winter traveler.

prestonf got it right in his follow-up. I've got nothing against skiers using fire lookouts. I've done it and so have many friends. But we have not promoted it in national magazines. As far as I know, the days of USFS involvement with these Cascade lookouts are long gone. The lookouts survive only through the efforts of volunteers. There is no Forest Service budget for them at all.

(By the way, I mis-remembered the lookouts that the Powder writer visited. They were Three Fingers, Hidden Lake, and Winchester.)

After I declined to help the writer, I wrote to a friend of mine who is an expert on the history of the Three Fingers lookout. I wanted to know if I was off-base. He said he agreed with me and added, "there is no funding and there will never be any funding." He acknowledged that these lookouts are very fragile and, during a normal winter, nearly inaccessible. I think promoting them for skiing is a dumb idea.

Good decision Lowell. And when reading Scotsmans post above, I wonder if people know there is an epic toilet just down from the lookout on the ridge. I think it is exposed most of the year due to location. I can't remember seeing a note for it in the lookout, just happened across it when skiing.

Just to be clear, the blogger was describing a trip to the Winchester Mountain lookout, not Hidden Lake Peak.

Lowell, I would accept that promoting and expecting fire lookouts to become available to winter travelers, at least here in the west (it is done to a limited extent in the east), would be at least a waste of time.  Still, it is a bit irksome that a perfectly good shelter goes unused.

Besides the difficult accessibility mentioned, many (most?) are not associated with good ski lines - the pic I posted above is a clear exception and is one of the approach to Sturgill lookout.  It sits in west Idaho on the east bank of Hells Canyon just outside the ranching community of Cambridge.  For the history buffs out there, the local boosters, mostly ranchers, operated a ski area there for about 8 years centered on the mid 1970's.  They installed an 800 vf platter lift and built a rudimentary lodge of lumber, some remnants of which are still visible today.  Its' demise, according to locals, was the result of the narrow approach road ~ one way traffic - up in the morning, down in afternoon - and don't get caught trying to beat that rule!  Still, the open bowl and glades beneath offer up 3000 ft of great skiing on NW through NE aspects.  Word is a California investor is hopefull to ramp up a cat ski operation there.  Currently a Cambridge local, Cyrus Wert, occaionally runs his lovingly restored snocat up there.  As winter comes, he parks his cat straddling the NF boundary - which they are fine with as he makes it available for SAR, etc., and he erects a yurt not far from the summit. When his buddies want to ski, he goes.  The way it works is you look him up at his fabricating shop - in the alley behind the farmers co-op, knock on the door, come in and take a seat by the homemade wood stove.  You talk for a while.  If he likes you, you compensate him for fuel and you go skiing.

You gotta love it..

Cy used to make the killer metal dry boxes for oar frames...

RE: Fire towers: I carry bolt cutters in case of emergency

Back to the explansion plan, here's a column on The Unrealized Potential of North Cascades national Park from the Methow Valley News:

By Patrick Hannigan
If you haven’t heard yet about the proposal to expand and develop North Cascades National Park, you will soon.

Presently, just 20,000 visitors step foot in the 684,000-acre NCNP each year, making it one of the larger – but least visited – parks in the lower 48 states. The expansion proposal promises to add 304,300 acres to the park and expand visitation to 940,000 people in the next 20 years.

The American Alpine Development Project, which is leading the effort to expand NCNP, contends the best way to protect the lands surrounding the existing park from logging, mining and dam construction is to include them in the expanded park – and develop them.

“Presently, NCNP is primarily a wilderness park that is somewhat inaccessible to motorized visitation,” said a study commissioned by the AADP titled The Unrealized Potential of North Cascades National Park. “Further, the park lacks roadside amenities and crowds that can provide visitors with a more traditional national park experience.”

In order to provide visitors to NCNP a more traditional park experience, the AADP proposes developing seven short new “family-friendly” trails, four new or expanded campgrounds, 11 new interpretive sites, 10 new educational sites and 10 new cultural sites.

Each site would feature informational kiosks and mandatory guided tours available for a reasonable price. Of course, all 42 proposed improvements along the North Cascades Highway would also require new parking lots sized to handle one million visitors per year.

“The best way to protect the lands adjacent to the park is to expand the park and dramatically increase visitation,” said the AADP report. “Sometimes you have to develop wilderness in order to save wilderness.”

Winthrop and Twisp would see spectacular economic benefits as a result of the sprawling growth associated with national park gateways, said American Alpine Development Project spokesperson Wally Martin.

“An aggressive public-private marketing campaign of the ‘new’ park will allow the Methow tourism industry to capture nearly one million more visitors per year by 2030,” said Martin. “That’s way more cars, Harleys, motels, mini-golf courses, T-shirt shops, RV parks, gas stations, olde time photo studios, port-a-potties, trinket shops, fast food restaurants, go-kart tracks and ice cream parlors.”

According to the proposal, the main visitor center and tollbooths ($25 per car for a 7-day pass, plus $12 per occupant) for the park entrance would be built just outside Winthrop. All private lands west of Winthrop – including the town of Mazama – would become part of the newly expanded national park.

“We understand moving is a hassle, but everyone in the upper Methow will receive fair market value for their land and homes,” said current NCNP superintendent Skip Rock. “We’d like to respectfully demand your support in protecting one of America’s most scenic national treasures.”

To ease the transition, Rock said displaced Mazama residents will receive vouchers for two months free rent in one of the FEMA trailers at a new refugee camp that would be built in the gravel pit outside Twisp.

Early opposition to expanding the park comes from the few backcountry skiers, climbers, mountain bikers, snowmobilers, horseback riders and hunters who currently use the lands surrounding the park the most.

Superintendent Rock said outdoor enthusiasts have nothing to worry about because there are plenty of other places in North Central Washington to pursue the recreational activities that will be prohibited in the national park.

“Hiking will still be allowed, provided people have all the proper passes and permits and as long as they stay on the paved trails,” said Rock.

To learn more about the case for expanding NCNP, visit americanalps.org. To read the case against park expansion, see noparkexpansion.blogspot.com.

“Hiking will still be allowed, provided people have all the proper passes and permits and as long as they stay on the paved trails,” said Rock.

Nothing more to be said!
The Disneyfication of the park cleverly promoted to spin how it will enhance jobs for the community while at the same time keep the conservationists happy in keeping the tourists and end-users in the parking lots and on the paved trails and out of the backcountry.