The recent round of nominations for Spokane County Park’s Conservation Futures program additions received eight applicants. A public meeting to present the nominations and discuss the process for determining which of the properties was held via Zoom on September 9th. Find updates, see survey results, and the latest news about Conservation Futures at Spokanecounty.org.

National Public Lands Day

Get outside and play (for free!) on National Public Lands Day, September 25! Discover Passes will not be required for day-use at Washington State Parks, Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife lands, and Department of Natural Resources lands all day.

Sept. 25 is also a National Parks fee-free day and a good time to plan a road trip to Mount Rainier or Glacier National Park.

Public Comments Sought on Fees & Rec Site Changes

The Colville National Forest is considering some fee additions and increases at several recreation sites across the 1.1-million acre northeast Washington forest. The complete list of locations and public comment information is available through September 30 on the agency’s website.

Some notable highlights include a proposal to include the recently restored Salmo Mountain Fire Lookout on the cabin rental reservation system, as well as the Frater Lake warming cabin.

Run for the Woods

The Kaniksu Land Trust will be hosting a fall fundraiser trail run event at Pine Street Woods in Sandpoint on October 9. All of the event proceeds from this first Run for the Woods will benefit the trust, so come run for a good cause!  

Volunteer Trail Projects

Lend a hand on one of these upcoming trail projects. If you can’t make it, remember to check out these refurbished trails once they are finished:

• Idaho Trails Association will be hosting project days in North Idaho this fall, including at Parker Ridge and Chimney Rock (Idahotrailsassocation.org).
• Washington Trails Association will be continuing work on Mount Spokane projects through September, then transitioning to trail improvements within Spokane County Parks. Look for a fall grand opening to the new trailhead and trail at Etter Ranch at the south end of Antoine Peak. Other project sites include Hauser Conservation Area and Slavin Ranch (Wta.org).
• Friends of Scotchman Peak Wilderness will be hosting a National Public Lands Day project at Goat Mountain on September 25 (Scotchmanpeaks.org).
• Evergreen East Mountain Bike Alliance is continuing work on the new trail 290 at Mount Spokane with approximately 0.5 mile remaining. Once snow returns, the focus will turn to a reroute of one of the steepest sections of the Edith Hansen Trail at Liberty Lake Regional Park (Evergreeneast.org).
• Blue Mountains Land Trust will be hosting a weekend project at Camp Wooten State Park with camping and meals included for a nominal fee, September 24-26 (Bmlt.org).

Holly Weiler is a long-time contributor to Out There Venture who plans to spend her fall finding gold in the nearby hills (larch season!).

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By Mike Lithgow

Connection to the land is at the core of Kalispel culture. The Kalispel people historically occupied and utilized an area of 2.3 million acres located in Northeast Washington, North Idaho, and Northwest Montana. This land is an incredibly diverse place, and the Kalispel were able to thrive on the resources that this landscape produced.

In 1914, the Kalispel were forced from their larger aboriginal landscape and isolated onto their Reservation through an executive order signed by then-President Woodrow Wilson. This executive order created a roughly 4,700-acre reservation for the Kalispel along the Pend Oreille River near Cusick and Usk, Washington. Much of this acreage lies within an active floodplain or on the steep slopes of the Selkirk Range, not nearly enough land for the Tribe to continue to sustain itself.

Much of the aboriginal landscape of the Kalispel are public lands managed by state and federal agencies. The concept of active management of these lands is not new, as the Kalispel have been managing this terrain using fire since time immemorial. Fire is an important ecological tool, but today’s landscape necessitates the use of additional modern forestry techniques.

To increase the pace and scale of active management and restoration of this landscape, the Kalispel Tribe decided to take a seat at the table with the other land managers by proposing a Tribal Forest Protection Act project called the Sxwuytn-Kaniksu Connections or “Trail” Project.

Where exactly is the Sxwuytn (su-who-y-tin)-Kaniksu Connections or “Trail” Project? And why the name Sxwuytn?

First, the name is a Kalispel Salish word meaning “trail or connections.” The name perfectly fits the purpose and intent of this project, which is to connect all people within the surrounding communities to the management of their surrounding landscape. The project’s nickname is “Trail.”

Secondly, the Trail Project is located on the Colville National Forest’s (CNF) Newport-Sullivan Lake Ranger District in Northeast Washington’s Pend Oreille County north of Newport. The project area consists of five large watersheds covering approximately 90,700 acres and surrounds the Reservation and other lands owned and managed by the Kalispel.

The project area is bordered by the Pend Oreille River on the west, the Idaho Panhandle National Forest on the east, and stretches to the southern boundary of the Newport-Sullivan Lake Ranger District. The north border follows the Middle Creek watershed’s north boundary.

Why is the Kalispel Tribe involved?

Along with requesting action on U.S. Forest Service lands surrounding their Reservation and surrounding communities, the Kalispel Tribe has contributed extensively to the project in multiple ways. The Kalispel Tribe of Indians shares extensive natural resource knowledge of the area by providing key specialists to participate in the interdisciplinary NEPA planning team.

Through grants and significant tribal funding, the Tribe was able to fill gaps for the project in the form of outside specialists to help support the planning process.

Finally, the Tribe has provided a representative to the Project Leadership Team and used their invaluable community network to engage members of the public.

What specific types of actions will occur in this project area?

This project includes a diverse array of prescriptions to improve the overall health of the watersheds that fall within the project area. Prescribed fire, commercial and non-commercial thinning, wetland restoration, aquatic organism passage, road maintenance and improvements, and road decommissioning.

There is also a prioritized list of recreation projects to improve the overall recreation opportunities in the area. The project that ranked highest is the Bead Lake Loop non-motorized trail project. This trail will be built with assistance from the Washington Trails Association (WTA).

Holly Weiler from WTA has been integral in the development of the recreation portion of this planning document. Without public participation and the collaboration of the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, United States Forest Service, and the Northeast Washington Forestry Coalition, a project of this size and scope would not be feasible.

Without this project, the landscape will fail to provide the safety, resources, and overall resiliency upon which tribal members and non-tribal communities depend.

To learn more about the Kalispel Tribe’s conservation efforts visit Knrd.org.

Find more news and recreation stories about the Kalispel Tribe or the Colville National Forest in the OTO archives.

The post Kaniksu Connections Project Planned in NE Washington appeared first on Out There Venture.

Seattle, Wash.

As a nonprofit organization, everything we do at Washington Trails Association—including how we use technology—is in service of our mission to help hikers and the lands we love. Our website, social media channels, our mobile app, our newsletters—we’ve created and curated them to reduce barriers for all hikers who want to explore trails and to ethically share information in a way that better stewards those places.

Now we have a new tool to help hikers and trails. We recently released a feature on Wta.org that offers personalized suggestions of hikes you might want to add to your to-do list. The new tool is designed to educate, spark curiosity and shift focus from a small number of often-recommended trails to the many trails that Washington has to offer.

My Backpack – Online Tool

The feature, which was developed with the help of volunteers and draws on WTA’s decades of local trail knowledge and the latest data science, looks at the existing hikes you have saved in your WTA My Backpack account and any trip reports you’ve filed, and suggests other trails to try across the state.

Everyone experiences trails differently, and the new tool captures that nuance. It make suggestions that are the kind of information you might find if you chatted with a knowledgeable friend. 

We believe that technology can be good for trails. This new tool is just one of the ways we’re working to spread the word about the many trails across our state, so we can spread out use. That dispersal is better for trails, and it is better for hikers.

With our new tool, like all the technology we use, it’s the people who make the difference. Real hikers who spend their days on Washington’s trails are behind the technology, and that sets our trail information apart.

WTA has never had millions (or even hundreds of thousands) of dollars to work with when it comes to building technology. We’ve got smart staff and volunteers, hikers who know and care deeply about public lands.

We’re making the best choices we can to support our mission. We are so grateful for our incredible technology volunteers. And we appreciate our members who support this mission-driven approach to inspiring people and protecting trails. We try to make every dollar and every hour count. We’ll use all of that support to help us make trails for everyone, forever.

Made With Volunteers

Five years ago, Jade Tabony, a data scientist, was spending a lot of time trying to find different hikes that she could use as training hikes for mountaineering. She didn’t want to just hike Mount Si and Mailbox on repeat. As the capstone project for a data science workshop, she built a prototype hike recommender to do the work for her.

Just a few miles away, WTA staff and a small group of technology-minded volunteers and researchers were trying to create something similar. That group wanted a tool to educate hikers and encourage a deeper understanding of Washington’s full trail system and to help people while lessening the impacts of the growing demands on the trail system.

It took another hiker, data scientist, and trails advocate, Aaron Lichtner, to connect his friend Jade with WTA staff during a Hiker Rally Day in Olympia. Those early conversations launched the effort that resulted in the latest feature, which suggests hikes for people who have a My Backpack account on Wta.org.

The simplicity of the suggestion feature belies the work and thought that has gone into it, from Jade’s very first model all the way up to the careful considerations our staff has put into making suggestions that will be good for all kinds of hikers and trails.

“We worked with the developers to ensure our recommendations will be as responsible as possible, both in terms of meeting hikers’ needs and protecting trails,” says Anna Roth, WTA’s hiking content manager, whose deep knowledge of Washington’s trail system made her a critical member of the team. “Almost everyone on the team hikes and understood why we took so much time and care to get it right.”

Jade is excited that a project that helped her find new hikes is now able to do the same for hikers all across Washington. “When I first built it, it actually helped me find some trails that I’d never heard of before and got me out exploring new areas of Washington,” she says. “I’m really hoping that it helps people who don’t have a lot of time to search for hikes find hikes that they wouldn’t have otherwise, especially if it helps them get to some of the lesser-known gems of Washington.”

Originally published as “Let WTA Suggest Your Next Hike” in the Dispatch news section of the September-October 2021 issue.

Visit OTO’s Hike of the Month column archive for descriptions about trails and destinations throughout the Inland Northwest.

For more Hiking stories, visit the OTO archives.

The post Get Trail Suggestions For Your Next Hike From WTA appeared first on Out There Venture.

TREAD Map

TREAD stands for Trails, Recreation, Education, Advocacy and Development. The TREAD Map app, based out of Wenatchee, combines all of the different user groups together, including hikers, bikers, horseback riders, and trail runners, so that various areas can be enjoyed responsibly. By combining information from land managers and local enthusiasts, TREAD Map offers up-to-date recreation maps on your phone with custom layers so you can get trail conditions, safety information, or even volunteer opportunities. 

The app includes progressive ideas for adventure with outdoor community spirit. Mat Lyons, TREAD Executive Director, says the app is “one stop shopping for all trail users. [TREAD offers] real-time, hyper-focused trail updates from the people out there today.” 

WTA Trailblazer

After miles and miles of helpful input, the genius Washington Trails Association Trailblazer mobile app provides several features that separate this app from most local guidebooks. For starters, users can search for trails by name, location, or relative difficulty (measured by length of trail and elevation gain), and for family and dog friendly hikes. You can also link to NOAA’s website easily to get current weather conditions and forecasts at the trailhead. Last but not least, the app’s My Backpack feature allows users to add and remove hikes from My Backpack, and the hikes saved in My Backpack are available even when offline. This is definitely a gamechanger. 

Please note these mobile apps don’t replace guidebooks or paper maps. Not even close. Furthermore, some apps don’t work if you’re outside of cell service, and none of them work if your phone dies. However, these apps definitely provide easy, current, and convenient information necessary for finding new trailheads and new areas and discovering places that aren’t over emphasized by Instagram likes.  These apps can also reveal recent forest fire damage or trailhead changes due to logging or erosion. Ultimately, the guidebooks are important, but the new apps are the wave of the future, and they’re a useful tool for discovering a new favorite hike in your backyard. Both apps are free and available on Google Play or the Apple Store.  

GoSkyWatch

Saving the best for last, do yourself a favor and look into GoSkyWatch. After the tent is up, the mattresses inflated, and the flask is passed around, sit back and appreciate the night sky in a whole new way. Turn it on, point your phone at the sky, and start exploring. The app overlays the constellations with the images the Zodiac lines represent. Planets are color coded, showing their relative brightness to other stars for easy identification. It’s awe-inspiring and lots of fun with the right conditions.

Originally published as “Explore the Outdoors with Mobile Apps” in the September-October 2020 double issue.

Jon Jonckers has been a constant Out There contributor since 2006 and still enjoys sharing his love for the Northwest with anyone willing to listen. 

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Bill Way and the NEWTS 

It began with a simple outdoor adventure. In about 2013, Bill Way’s friend (who happens to be Out There’s own Derrick Knowles) asked if Way would hike with him to find an obscure trail he’d seen on a map of the Colville National Forest. The goal was to determine whether the trail might make for a good mountain biking route.  

“What Derrick found on an older map was the end of the Taylor Ridge Trail,” says Way—a feeder to the Pacific Northwest Trail on the Kettle Crest. Three miles of this trail, known as the “Tom Creek” section, had been washed out about 20 years ago “in a tremendous rainstorm.” Trail maintenance had ceased at that time. 

With some difficulty, they found the trail. To Way, a retired teacher who lives outside Colville, it was clearly full of potential for mountain biking, with the restored segment and potential future road access resulting in a 20+ mile, shuttleable ride with exciting shifts in elevation, big trees, and water access.  

First, though, would come a significant amount of work. Way formed The Northeast Washington Trailblazers (NEWTS), a nonprofit dedicated to promoting non-motorized outdoor recreation and establishing trails and routes in northeast Washington. It quickly grew to over 100 members. Way served as president for four years and is currently on the group’s board. Taylor Ridge was the instigator for the group’s formation. Once the members held meetings, though, other projects came to the fore and were also undertaken, notably including work on the Colville Mountain Trail and the Sherman Creek Wildlife Area.  

Much of the trail’s work is facilitated and coordinated through Kristin Ackerman, the Eastern Washington Regional Coordinator of the Pacific Northwest Trails Association. “Bill is great. He’s a champion. I wish we could clone him,” Ackerman says. “We’ve seen him handily outwork younger, less experienced volunteers. In and out of the field, Bill is an invaluable member of the trail community.” 

The work of volunteers and partnering organizations like the NEWTS, says Ackerman, is “super critical” when it comes to a functional and expanding trail system. “The recreation departments, especially in the Forest Service, they’re not getting as many resources as they need to take care of all of our trails.” 

Current NEWTS president Matt Monbouquette (owner of Colville bike shop Adventure Peddler) says he’s working to “fill Bill Way’s very large shoes…Bill’s leadership has been the cornerstone of the organization for a long time. His passion for the outdoors and creating new places for people to recreate is inspiring.” 

“The Taylor Ridge Trail is really the crown jewel of the NEWTS organization,” Monbouquette says. “Due to the persistence of Bill and the NEWTS group we did work on the trail with the blessing of the Forest Service, and now the Forest Service is sending work crew/trail parties to the trail to work on it annually. That is really our biggest achievement and the main focus of the organization the past few years.” 

Way cautions those interested in similar efforts to be prepared for physical work and to recognize that things probably won’t move quickly. “It just takes a long time sometimes,” he says, given that working on trails you’re likely partnering with trails organizations, the Forest Service, state or national parks, and/or the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, all with rules and regulations to follow. For those who’d like to tackle their own projects, Way recommends contacting an organization like the Washington Trails Association for advice—or, of course, a group like the NEWTS (Northeast Washington Trailblazers on Facebook, or email newasts [at] gmail [dot] com).  

For his part, Way finds that the effort and patience required for stewarding public lands are well worth it. “It has taken quite a bit of my time sometimes, but it’s been very rewarding to see things come together. It’s given me connections to people that have maybe similar interests but maybe I wouldn’t have known. I’ve learned a lot about how to get things done,” he says. “Plus, I love to go out and hike and bike and ski on the trails, too.” 

The post Trail & Public Lands Champions: Bill Way and the NEWTS appeared first on Out There Venture.

For experienced backpackers, sign up for a strenuous backpack-style maintenance trip to Jackson Creek/Shedroof Divide in the Salmo Priest Wilderness on a portion of the Pacific Northwest Trail at the end of August. 

For more information, check out WTA’s work party schedule. 

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Still looking for something to do over Labor Day weekend? Sign up for a work party with the Washington Trails Association. This weekend’s work party is at Slate Creek in Colville National Forest’s Salmo-Priest Wilderness. Sign up here.

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Give Back to our Wilderness Trails this Summer!

Join the Washington Trails Association (WTA) for these Work Parties on the Colville National Forest.

August 1-2: Salmo Priest Wilderness
Come for one day or stay overnight for a BBQ. Meat and drinks provided by WTA and Conservation Northwest, bring a potluck dish to share. Meet at Gypsy Meadows at 8:30 AM each day. Depending upon work priorities, on Saturday we will be fixing an unsafe section of trail on the Shedroof Divide Trail #512 where avalanches have filled in the existing trail and brush is forcing hikers toward the edge. Horses have not been able to get back there for several years. On Sunday we will remove downed trees from the Salmo Basin Trail #506 so that next week’s work party can progress closer to Snowy Top. Both days will require a round trip hike of approximately 8 miles.

August 8-10: Salmo Priest Wilderness
This trip is considered a 3-day backpack, known as a “BackCountry Response Team” trip. We will hike up the Salmo Basin Trail #506 as far as is practicable and set up a base camp from which we will log out approximately 20 trees farther up the trail and clear a heavily overgrown area that is making the trail nearly impassible. You will need to carry your own supplies and food, but some of the meals may be provided by a grant from Conservation Northwest. It is possible the Back Country Horsemen will transport our food, tools, and some of the group gear to a pre-designated site to allow for an easier hike in and out. Meet at the Salmo Loop Trailhead at 8:30 AM Saturday August 8th, return approximately 5 PM Monday the 10th.

August 22-23: (Salmo Priest Wilderness, Crowell Ridge…more details soon)
September 5-6: (Backpack Trip, Salmo Priest Wilderness, Slate Creek…more details soon)
September 12-13: (Salmo Priest Wilderness, Shedroof Divide…more details soon)

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