PAGE 31
FALL 2018 ISSUE 02 / VOL . 03
They look like peaceful tourists , but they ’ re just itching for a snowball battle !
Not when the rest of the West is charbroiling in the August heat and an army of tourists is just itching for a snowball battle . Gotcha ! Back down the mountain . State Route 542 is a twisty bugger . State Route 9 south is fast and swoopy . The guy on the Honda CBR954RR seems surprised he can ’ t shake the 700-pound ST1300 . But that ’ s another story . Gotta get to Tahoma .
North Cascades National Park isn ’ t the most efficient way to get there , but lord , it ’ s a pretty ride along the swiftly flowing Skagit River . It ’ s late afternoon now . Through the arrow-straight conifers pass slender shafts of sunlight , like frames of a silentmovie reel . It ’ s a soothing syncopation — until the light crashes through where loggers have fractured the forest . But instead of crying out , the forest whispers back with new saplings and precious wildflowers . I ’ m reminded of Jonas Stamper , the failed homesteader in “ Sometimes a Great Notion ,” Ken Kesey ’ s epic tale of logging in the Pacific Northwest :