Hikers take part in 120-mile trek
Published 2:40 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008
NORTH BEND _ They came from all walks of life to take a walk of
a lifetime.
On Tuesday night, more than 80 hikers participating in the 10th
anniversary Mountains to Sound March made their way along the John
Wayne Pioneer Trail to Rattlesnake Lake. There, the hikers, weary after
walking 11 miles through the rising and falling countryside, stopped for
an evening of first-aid care, swimming, catered food and flute-and-harp
music.
They marched out the following morning on the sixth leg of a trek
that will take them to the waters of the Puget Sound.
The march was coordinated by Mountains to Sound Greenway
Trust, a non-profit coalition of individuals, businesses and agencies trying to
preserve the scenic beauty of the land along Interstate 90. According to
the organization, since 1991, more than 50,000 acres of forested land
along the corridor has been placed in public ownership.
The 120-mile march began in Thorp on July 13 in Kittitas
County and is scheduled to end Saturday at Pier 57 in Seattle, where hikers
will celebrate the end of their journey. The march is similar to a hike in 1990
from Snoqualmie Pass to Seattle that served as the seminal act for something
much bigger.
“It led to the creation of a movement, a broad coalition effort
called the Mountains to Sound Greenway,” said Ken Konigsmark, a loaned
executive from Boeing Co. and Greenway special projects coordinator.
He said it took a year and a half to organize this year’s march, and
he hopes the attention the march draws will make even more people want
to preserve the lands along I-90.
“We don’t want I-90 to become a giant strip city,” he said, adding
area residents need to “protect and preserve the best of what we’ve got.”
The logistics of putting on such a march are difficult. Mountains
to Sound Greenway Trust contracted with Happy Trails near Easton to
provide wagons for the first four days of the hike. Caterers are needed to
provide dinner each night as the hikers make their way to the next
campsite. Musicians and other talent are scheduled to provide entertainment for
the hikers.
“It’s all come together very well,” Konigsmark said as he waited for
the much-anticipated portable toilets to arrive Monday afternoon.
In addition to attracting attention to Mountains to Sound
Greenway Trust, the march serves another function for each hiker: to see if they
can do it.
“People will have accomplished a lot” by completing the
march, Konigsmark said. “That’s something big in your life to have done that.”
Among the hikers, a 75-year-old woman planned to complete the
march with her granddaughter, and two teen-agers were determined to complete
the 10-day odyssey on foot.
Fourteen-year-old Seattleite Eric Messerschmidt seemed
nonplussed about walking the entire route. As other hikers attended to blisters
or slept in their tents in a rocky clearing adjacent to Rattlesnake Lake, he
said what made the march fun was seeing whether he had the motivation to
finish another day.
“I like the intenseness of it _ testing myself,” he said.
But he also said listening to the other hikers was another exciting
aspect of the march.
“I like all the different people. They all have cool stories. And
also the scenery.”
Nick Klacsanzky of Edmonds said the recent 80-degree weather made
the march more difficult. Like Messerschmidt, he had walked
the entire route.
“It’s been really tougher than what I thought, but that’s good because
I came here for a lot of adventure,” the 15-year-old said.
Both boys won scholarships that defrayed the march’s entry fee
for community-service work they’d completed in King County.
As the marchers travel to Seattle, they are greeted by local, state
and national dignitaries, some of whom even donned hiking boots to
join them.
Washington Sen. Slade Gorton and his grandchildren hiked through
the Snoqualmie Tunnel and spoke to the marchers on Sunday. North
Bend Mayor Joan Simpson made an appearance Monday night at
Rattlesnake Lake and Snoqualmie Mayor Randy “Fuzzy” Fletcher welcomed
marchers at Snoqualmie Point on Tuesday. Other stops along the way
included Cle Elum, Preston, Issaquah and Bellevue.
Fletcher said he appreciates efforts to preserve the green space along
I-90.
“I like it. I think that future generations need a space like that,”
he said. “We don’t need to develop everything we see.”
In all, more than 100 people are likely to hike on all or parts of
the march. And while he doesn’t think the march will become an annual
event, Konigsmark said he hopes it will lead to “reigniting the energy and
commitment behind this effort, so we don’t lose what makes us so unique and
special.”
