State funds support trails, campgrounds, preservation Okanogan County projects will receive more than $3 million in grants through the state Recreation and Conservation Funding Board, the board announced last week. The grants include several major projects in the Methow Valley and adjacent areas. Altogether, the state allotted $126 million for 333 projects throughout the state […]
Back Country Horsemen
Work parties spend five days maintaining Pasayten trails
A Washington state Back Country Horsemen trail work party finished five days of trail and bridge maintenance in the Pasayten Wilderness on July 4. The work party included members of the Washington Trails Association, Pacific Northwest Trails Association, Pacific Crest Trail Association and U.S. Forest Service. Joining from the Methow Valley chapter of Backcountry Horsemen […]
A lifetime in the saddle
Betty Wagoner was raised on a dairy farm up the Twisp River. She still remembers her first horse, Nell, “an old mare who didn’t want to leave the barnyard but I made her,” the 81-year-old smiles.
Every day when Wagoner got off the school bus, it was her job to get on Nell and round up the cows so her parents …
Trygve Howard Culp
1947-2017
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.” – Robert Frost Trygve Howard Culp, 71, from Twisp and Okanogan and some great number of points through the fore- and backcountry, died peacefully Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2017, surrounded by three generations […]
Local group backs improved trail maintenance in Methow Valley district
More than 1,000 miles of trails on national forest lands around the Methow Valley lead to spectacular landscapes. Unfortunately, many of those trails are no longer passable because there is no money to maintain them.
A newly formed local organization hopes to help open trails and maintain them for the enjoyment of hikers, bikers, horseback riders, …
Clearing the way
Back country horsemen from around the state volunteered almost 1,800 hours clearing and improving trails on U.S. Forest Service land in the Methow Valley during a five-day work party over the Fourth of July weekend.
About 75 members of the Back Country Horsemen of Washington (BCHW) sawed out hundreds of downed trees, cleared overgrown vegetation,
Sports briefs: May 27, 2015
Trail work party for climbing area A trail-building party to improve access to the Matrix Climbing Wall near Mazama will take place Saturday (May 30) at the Goat Creek Sno-Park beginning at 9 a.m. Workers will help construct a half-mile trail to the increasingly popular climbing site. Visit www.nff.wildapricot.org/event-1944164 to register or call 996-4057. Twisp River […]
Sports Briefs: March 25, 2015
Loup Loup team finishes season The Loup Loup Alpine Ski Team battled tough competition and severe weather at the recent Buddy Werner Championships held at Schweitzer Mountain in Idaho. In the Super G race, Ali Palm finished 31st while Cailin Chandler had a ski come off about halfway down the course. In the GS, held in […]
State awards grants to fix backcountry trails
Five projects in Okanogan County have been awarded grants to fix backcountry trails — all of them affecting the Methow Valley in some way — by the state Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO). The grants are intended to help pay for repair of backcountry trails, grooming mountain trails for snowmobilers and restoring trails for off-road vehicles. RCO awarded more […]
Spring avalanches block popular hiking, biking trails
By Ann McCreary
Spring avalanches have dumped debris across sections of two popular hiking and mountain biking trails in the North Cascades — the Cutthroat and West Fork …
