By Don Nelson
It’s the time of year when, on a trip over the North Cascades Scenic Highway, fall colors and snow are both part of the experience — even on the same stretch of road. That won’t last long. The leaves will be gone and, we hope, the snow will continue accumulating and finding its way to the valley floor.
Of course, that puts me in mind of winter — along with working on our annual Methow Valley Winter magazine, which will appear with the newspaper next week (Nov. 2). Which in turn puts me mind of the past year. If you’re superstitious and don’t want to jinx things, you might wince at what I have to say next.
Which is that the Methow Valley has had a pretty good late-2015 and 10 months of 2016. After two summers of wildfire angst and its lasting effects, last winter was like deliverance on our faith in this place. It snowed early and deep, and the snow stayed long enough to guarantee great seasons for every outdoor activity and plenty of work for the snow plow guys.
The only disappointment was the on-again, off-again, finally off-for-good hope that the Winthrop Ice & Sports Rink would finally have the refrigeration equipment to provide permanent ice, a huge enhancement for our winter experience.
The rink folks say the problems have been remedied and they’ll start making ice with the new equipment in a few days, aiming for a mid-November opening. The ice may arrive ahead of the snow, and then possibly outlast the snow.
And, we’ve made it through what I called our fingers-crossed summer of 2016 without major damage to property or, more importantly, life. Visitors flocked back, many of them likely after a couple of years of absence, and found everything they’ve come to love about the valley in good order.
But our wildfire memories are fresh and our guard is still up, and will be for a long time even as we make progress on long-term recovery, preparation and prevention. Complacency is not a prevalent Methow Valley characteristic.
None of us takes these past 12 months for granted. Like farmers, we are largely dependent on events beyond our control to make our livelihoods possible. We’ll always be putting the previous season behind us while speculating about the next one with tempered uncertainty. That’s part of the rhythm of living here, which may unsettle some who require a little more predictability.
I’m looking forward to enjoying (and occasionally grumbling about) another winter that feels like winter ought to — and another summer of calm after that. Now I’m getting ahead of myself, but I’ll take optimism over fatalism every time.
Your contributions needed
Here’s another periodic request for assistance with some publications we’re working on.
In the upcoming Valley Vows magazine, we plan to publish personal stories about Methow Valley wedding experiences, as told by the happy couples. We want to capture some of those high points and pass them along to anyone thinking about Methow Valley nuptials.
If you would to tell us your wedding story — it can be from last year or 40 years ago — contact me at editor@methowvalleynews.com. Photos are welcome also.
At the end of the year, we’ll publish a follow-up to 2014’s Trial by Fire publication, to be called Living With Fire. It will focus on how we have adjusted to a changing wildfire environment, what we’ve accomplished through recovery efforts, and how we’re better-preparing our communities for natural disasters. As with Trial by Fire, we are asking for your personal stories — in the form of articles, essays, poems, songs, videos — any creative means of telling the Methow Valley story from the perspectives of its residents and advocates.
If you’re interested, thoughts and contributions can also be emailed to me at editor@methowvalleynews.com. Your voices helped make Trial by Fire successful. We’re hoping for the same impact when we publish Living With Fire.
