$75,000 opens Hurricane Ridge 7 days a week!

Boycott MRNP and come to ONP.  Our new superintentent is awesome!  Seriously, great public speaker and listener, HR washout fix in 6 weeks, this deal, Boulder Creek and Spruce Railroad trail improvements, responsive to tribal concerns about Ozette expansion, etc.  If your guy gets fired, she'll move over there, and that would be a net loss for us even with your $75k.

Boycott MRNP and come to ONP.  Our new superintentent is awesome!  Seriously, great public speaker and listener, HR washout fix in 6 weeks, this deal, Boulder Creek and Spruce Railroad trail improvements, etc.  If your guy gets fired, she'll move over there, and that would be a net loss for us even with your $75k.

Exactly. She's showing what can be done when you're interested , motivated and in partnership with your end users rather than fixated on real estate prices and keeping guide concessionaires sweet. I'll be making a donation even if we can't get the MRNP idiot fired.

From the March 29 Kitsap Sun:
Let’s hear it for the Port Angeles City Council and Department of Interior officials who are considering a proposal to keep the Hurricane Ridge Road open year round. It’s a great idea, and it’s about time.

The subject was brought up at a meeting a couple of weeks ago between Port Angeles Mayor Dan Di Guilio and a Department of Interior staffer. Council members Cherie Kidd and Patrick Downie and City Manager Kent Myers were attending the National League of Cities conference in Washington D.C.

The Interior staffer showed interest in keeping the road open during a two- or three-year trial basis beginning next winter. For me, that’s the best news out of Olympic National Park since they waived the entrance fee the last two weekends.

As most winter enthusiasts around our neck of the woods know, the 17-mile road to Hurricane Ridge is closed on weekdays. That makes it difficult — if not impossible — for most people to enjoy an extended stay in the area’s only alpine winter wonderland.

If you want to take a snowshoe hike, or a cross-country ski, or slide down a hill in an inner tube on a weekday, you face a half-day drive, round-trip, to the snow. For most of us, Mount Rainier National Park is probably the closest public venue for winter outings.

So keeping the Hurricane Ridge road open daily in the winter is a big deal. One that should appeal to a growing number of retired folk and younger snowseekers on flexible schedules.

Under the proposal — still said to be in a very preliminary stage — the Department of Interior would provide the funds to clear the road of snow on a daily basis. Olympic park officials estimate that cost to be about $467,000, which could be provided for a trial period of two or three years.

I’ve always thought the park could actually save money by keeping the road open on weekdays. There’s really little advantage to waiting until the end of the week to plow, especially if a big dump of snow arrives midweek. Under those conditions, the road sometimes doesn’t get open at all.

And anyone who has visited Hurricane Ridge on a winter weekday (by hiking up the Whiskey Bend or Hurricane Hill trails, or, as I once foolishly did, skied across from Deer Park) will tell you that park staff drives the road often on a daily basis in the winter. There are midweek days every winter that require little or no road maintenance at all.

If the road is to be opened, it’s most important for anyone who wants to get outside in the winter to begin using the Hurricane Ridge Road. Kitsap and Olympic peninsula snowseekers will have to visit Hurricane more during the weekdays to provide the numbers Olympic park officials need to justify assuming the cost.

So: Way to go, Port Angeles. Good show, Department of Interior. If it works, that frozen snowman some winter weekday next year at Hurricane will be me.

Seabury Blair Jr. is the author of Backcountry Ski! Washington; Day Hike! Olympic Peninsula; Day Hike! Columbia Gorge; The Creaky Knees Guide to Washington; and The Creaky Knees Guide to Oregon, to be released this spring.

© 2010 Kitsap Sun. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.



Read more: www.kitsapsun.com/news/2010/mar/29/seabu...dge-a/#ixzz0tmAo6frY

Thank you so much Greg for all your efforts in your support and endless encouragement of our dream to keep our ridge road open seven days per week. The possibilities are endless as well as the the adventures our Olympic mountains have to offer if we make this dream a reality. I could go on and on about the many different options this opens up to all of us in numerous ways but I believe the beauty of the mountains tugs at our hearts in everyones own way. I choose to spend nearly every free moment of my time spent some where on some new adventure deep in our forests and the summer months offer wonderful adventures as well as Winter. Keeping the road access open 7 days per week in the winter will help to insure that the road will already be plowed during the weekdays which in turn will make the load that much lighter to plow for weekend use. This allows much better assurance for weekends to be open since as of yet its such a heavy load to tackle on a friday which too often is too heavy a burden leading to many road closures during our precious winter months. Like Greg I ask all you you who come out to enjoy the natural beauty of the Olympic mountains to find it in yourself to help us out with this task by August 15th. If you wish to make a tax deductable donation do so by going to wnpf.org click donate now button and select Olympic national Park with a note that the donation is to be used for Hurricane Ridge Road
Thanks again !
Split girl

Fund raising event Friday July 30, at the r bar 134 E Front Street, Port Angeles.  6-8 happy hour with buffet, 8-late bands, silent auction, etc.  $25 at 6, $10 after 6.

Here is a link to all the information:

northbynorthwestsurfco.sports.officelive.../YearRoundRidge.aspx

Obstruction Point road is open, Elk Mt. still has plenty of snow, ride the hurricane is Sunday am.  Come make a weekend of it!

Sorry for too many different threads. Now the party is over, will revert to this one again.
Tee shirts are available with Hurricane Ridge 7x365 Team and a spacecraft logo on the back. Contact Frank at www.nxnwsurf.com .