It was dirty business for few valley residents this past weekend who traveled over to the muddy side of the state and participated in the Tough Mudder in Black Diamond. The Tough Mudder is an international event and racecourse that ranges from 5-12 kilometers with up to 25 obstacles of dirty challenges. Less of a […]
VALLEY LIFE
Winthrop: September 25, 2019
I was recently at a memorial service for a longtime family friend — an occasion that is happening with altogether too much regularity in recent years. I’m at an age where my parents’ generation is failing, and these past few years have brought a steady stream of passings and, consequently, memorials, celebrations of life, and other opportunities […]
Twisp: September 18, 2019
Be it the smell of pines, the grit of the soil or the jagged sunsets, those who are lucky enough to be imprinted with the Methow as their childhood landscape will carry it with them. Place is powerful force. When people leave their childhood world to embark upon new territory, their frame of reference is […]
Winthrop: September 18, 2019
If you are a student or a parent of a student in the Methow Valley School District, you were probably aware of the rash of traffic stops last spring right near the entrance to the schools, where, presumably, drivers were receiving either tickets or warnings for speed limit violations. Reportedly, some of those tickets were […]
Mazama: September 18, 2019
It’s been said that horses have the mentality of a 4-year-old. They can be the biggest 1,000-pound babies in the world. So, what do you do when you meet them on one of the world-class Methow trails? When my husband and I first started riding our horses on the trails in Mazama, we were a […]
Winthrop: September 11, 2019
I was planning to write about something else this week, but as I typed in the date the newspaper would be published, I realized that it was 9/11, which deserves acknowledgement. I suspect that all of us who were old enough to be aware of the events of Sept. 11, 2001 have our own 9/11 […]
Mazama: September 11, 2019
Where did you go, Erika Kar? I hear you are on a beach somewhere in Mexico watching the sun set over the Pacific Ocean with a margarita in your hand and the warm sea breezes blowing through your hair. Ahh, the life. The icing on the cake: teaching Advanced English Lit to 13 very lucky […]
Twisp: September 11, 2019
The first week of school is always punctuated by a number of games and exercises for students and teachers to get to know one another. Teachers try to instill classroom routines and expectations while students began to navigate new social bonds. Each teacher has their own special way of introducing their students to each other […]
Lower Valley: September 11, 2019
That was a lovely little storm, wasn’t it? I have not enjoyed a raucous storm in years. Five years, to be precise. But this time was different. I thoroughly reveled in the cacophony of light and sound. Perhaps because there was an accompaniment of rain, or maybe because it is September, and the leaves are […]
Lower Valley: September 4, 2019
The holiday weekend crowds were delightfully sparse along the Pacific Crest Trail between Harts Pass and Grasshopper Pass. A parking spot was available, there were no lines at the outhouse, and the hikers were stretched few and far between. All the elevation was gained via Harts Pass Road 5400. The road climbs above 6,000 feet […]
