Mt Index Reporter March 2010 Free

From Gold Bar to Skykomish

and surrounding areas

Privately owned and published by

T.A. Boullioun since 2003

Photo courtesy of

Scott Highland

Mild Winter — Spring is here!

South Fork writer brings back his old

newspaper with several new features. By staff writer

The Mt Index Reporter

You all remember the Skykomish Sentinel, the Baring Buzzard and of course the Index Ea-

gle? And now we have the Index Times but do you remember The Mt Index Reporter? That

paper was last published by T A “Thom” Boullioun in 2003 and he says he could start it up again as soon as

March 1st. What‟s new? With the new version you will can read it online and there are active hyperlinks that

he calls Web Extras*: features that have embedded links to other sites. You print it out and give it away to

those that don‟t have computers! Sharing it with others is a good idea and its also neighborly — and besides its

fun! By handing it out or taking it to your favorite hang-out i.e., the water cooler, the nearest coffee shops,

general stores, gas stations, restaurants and pinning it to community kiosks. Distribution cost is nil. Striving

for quality not quantity Boullioun envisions a source of pro-active information for people that live here and its

informative for those new and not quite familiar with the area. There is also the new „smart look‟ that opens the

PDF files like it was an animated book, right on your screen. (broadband required) Here is a link* http://

issuu.com/taboullioun/MIR10MAR You can „turn‟ pages and „zoom‟ in and take a close-up looks and even

print from the „net‟. This will give the folks that live here an opportunity to show you what they know in their

own way. Those of us that do live here can see our friends efforts being displayed here. With all stories, arti-

cles, poems, artwork and all of the content and materials and ads to be taken directly from local talent living in

I would like you

to also visit my

website and tell

me what you

think. See your stories, articles,

poems, art displayed here.

Send me an email and tell me at: thom@mtindexreporter.com

Visit My BLOG

Not ready? Still plenty to do in the mountains

Index landmark The Whitewater folks in the old

Index Tavern building may soon be

serving food too!

Page 2

inside . . .

* These features will only work

when you have an „active‟ internet

connection. — Thom

How to reach us page 2

Tap the Hillside for Water page 3

Writings on the ’Wall’ page 4 Featuring local talent

Hubbitats—8 page 5 Guest writer reprinted with permission

Barter / Trade page 9

Our monthly trip back in time page 10 (From the U or W’s archives)

and around the Upper Sky Valley area.

Follow the goings on in the area by visiting our website and blog

http://Mtindexreporter.com/

http://mtindexreporter.com/blog1/

The Wild Sky Riverhouse

Café opens in Index -From the Index Times

January 4th, 2009. The Index City Council

unanimously approved the Business License

Application for the Outdoor Adventure Center/

WaveTrek/Corsons to operate a Cafe at the

Riverhouse with the only stipulation being that

the septic is conforming to use.

Exciting things are happening here

at the New Riverhouse Espresso bar. If

you are looking for something to do in the

area look no further. Plenty of things going

on here. Previously a tavern and now a

center for out door activities such as kayak-

ing rafting, bicycling and other outdoorsy

activities. There is a lot to do here! They

even have a little store in the back of this

historic building in the town of Index. The

Corson family wants your business. They

say come on in and have a cup of „Jo‟ and

check it all out! There are a couple of web-

sites telling you all about what they do.

Wavetrek is one and they have their web-

site here: wavetrek It might be quiet

right now but they are getting ready for the

summer. They are busy working on the

grounds around the building and cleaning

up from a mild winter. So if you are the

outdoorsy type visit them here and read

their bulletin board for specials. You can

sign up for some summer fun!

T he Mt Index Reporter has officially

returned online with this —— the

premiere issue! We hope you like it

Cherishing the fleeting past is a top priority

here at the Mt Index Reporter. So often,

the present slips into the past without our

noticing. Just where did all those rotary

telephones go? Where‟s a full service gas

station, you know the one with mechanics

on duty, when you really needed one? And

when was the last time you bought tickets

at the sidewalk box office of a storefront

movie theatre? The cellular payphones

came and left! Bet you don‟t remember

them? We rarely notice such common

place objects and practices until they are

gone. The Mt Index Reporter has gone

through many changes too these last few

years and we hope that we can entice you to

think more about our area, this publication

is not just about the town of Index and con-

tinue to read us each month. In the coming

year we hope to present many more great

stories about the Upper Sky Valley area. I

will be taking material that I have devel-

oped in the past few years and from my

website:

http://mtindexreporter.com/

However, you might notice with each issue

that in some stories we‟ll be “Painting with

a broader brush, trying to prevent the inevi-

table „overlap‟ that can occur when an area

has multiple websites like in the town of

Index, i.e. http://IndexWA.org/ and of

course the ‟dreaded‟, „South Fork’ or as

that colorful ’cub’ reporter, Ryan Coleman,

from the Index Times says „The legendary

potholes of the South fork‟ and some of

you might refer to it as „That place where

(Continued on page 8)

I had a chance to visit with Blair

and Kathy at the Espresso stand inside

this neat old building. The work they

have done to the old Tavern is great.

Beautifully refinished floors and remod-

eled it is definitely worth a look over.

Kathy and Blair say “Watch this place

this summer.”

http://ww.outdooradventurecenter.com/

Front Desk by T.A. “Thom” Boullioun

2

T HE OLD FARMER who hauled

water instead of drilling a well

supposedly said. “Water is closer

sideways than it is straight down.”

Washington farmers who live in areas

such as the Cascade foothills and along

the Coast know the statement is true.

Many people have taken a tip

from the old-timer‟s remark and are now

taking water out of a hillside through a

horizontal well. I heard the method was

developed after World War II. Folks

would get the water from what they call

“perched water levels” by drilling a hole

into a hillside, sloping it slightly upward

so the water will drain down.

I know of such a well on the

South Fork. Although these wells are

not gushers, in many places they produce

enough water to fill several six gallon

buckets in a couple of minutes!

These horizontal wells can

never be plugged. The pressure that

builds up blows out any plug yet de-

vised, so they flow all the time. Mostly

into a storage tank or onto the ground.

Some wells produce a trickle, others up

to 100 gallons per minute. Most flow at

the rater of 30 to 50 gallons per minute.

give water but has closed up over a period

of years, you usually have a good site for a

hillside well. If there is no spring on your

property,, a person can go up in an airplane

and fly over your place. From the air you

can spot where the vegetation is the green-

est. Such a green spot generally will pro-

duce a flow of water when drilled.

Horizontal rigs are used to drill the

wells. A gasoline engine powers a two-inch

drilling bit. The bit is mounted on the end

of a one-inch pipe, and as the drill digs into

the hillside more pipe is added.

The bit has a hole in the center so

that water can be forced through it by a

pump to flush out the borings. Water is

carried by the driller and brought to the

scene in a tank on the back of his truck.

Two hundred feet of drilling is

seldom more than a day‟s work, for in most

cases rock is not encountered because drill-

ing is above the granite layer.

Once the water is flowing freely a

length of two-inch pipe can be driven into

the hole to eliminate cave-ins.

This story originally appeared in

the February 2004 issue of the Mt

Index Reporter.

Tap the Hillside

for WATER

Story and Photo by Thom Boullioun © All Rights Reserved

One feature I like is that it takes

no power to keep the water flowing.

Another example I‟ve seen is a

guy drilled into the hillside and an upwards

angle and got enough flow to keep his little

cabin in water 11 months out of the year.

He has to use this hillside well because

water is not available from any other

source.

In many of these lower mountain

and foothill areas it is nearly impossible to

drill straight down and find water, for un-

der the soil there is hard granite which is

simply too difficult to drill through unless

you want to fork over big bucks. Bringing

in big and costly equipment can always be

done.

Such rock formation prevents us

from drilling straight down for water ex-

cept in a few instances where they do find

faults in the rock or find it is shallow in

depth. People have had to depend on

springs and rain-water caught in reservoirs

during the summer, or get along without

water. My current method of obtaining

water is from another persons well. I haul

about 15 gallons daily myself.

If you have a spring on your prop-

erty which gives water or which used to

© All logos and trademarks are property of their respective owner. The stories and artwork furnished

here are property of the providers and all the rest is „copyright reserved for the Mt Index Reporter

Tree

Professional Removal of dangerous trees

Tree

Trimming

Removal of trees

in close quarters

Call Eric Dudley

For free estimate

360-793-3975

Recycling by Kelley Rose © All Rights Reserved

I’m warning you, I wield metaphor like a sword… And I’ve got a brand new pen,

If you ever wondered what a poet was for, just watch how far I bend,

I’ll twist the words up into art… Like shiny copper wire,

Slake this thirst inside my heart, in the ravages of fire,

Shape the garbage of an active head… Into a pleasing form,

Pluck the worthy things I said, from my latest verbal storm,

Growing thoughts out of my brain… Planted in my chair,

Just little me, and a little pain, I illustrate it there.

http://kelleyrose.wordpress.com/

Wall Want to write on our wall?

Contact me: thom@mtindexreporter.com

4

Way up the North Fork is a nice

remnant of older forest that is close by

the road and yet relatively level, and

therefore potentially easy as far as hikes

go. The fly in the ketchup is that high

river levels can put most of this hike out

of reach unless one is willing to wade

across a (usually) shallow creek. During

low water times as I am writing this it is

October 7, this creek-bed (which is actu-

ally an overflow or flood channel of the

river ) is often dry. Even with a moder-

ate amount of water flowing through it

this channel can often be crossed by

boulder hopping, keeping one‟s feet dry.

When this is possible a nice stroll is

made available by following a crude trail

I made a few years ago (and got into

trouble for making) through the valley

upstream from the Jack‟s Pass road..

Collectively, a series of scraps

and remnants of old forest in this area,

somehow missed by the loggers all these

years, has occupied my attention for

nearly a decade. At first, I just explored

it in bushwhacking visits. Then, as fa-

vorite spots developed, my repeated vis-

its resulted in a vegetational response

known as the herds of cattle effect. To

minimize the trampling effect I then

standardized my routes into trails, and

located those where they would have the

fewest intrusions into sensitive soils or

uncommon plant communities. In time I

had a path stretching from Goblin Creek

to the Jack‟s Pass road, and it took a

whole afternoon just to walk.

Then the Wild Sky Wilderness

proposal came along, and I saw that the

old groves were left out of it, so I spoke

up and said that these should be included

in the Wilderness. I took many people

up and down the valley along my trails,

including mayors, city councilmen, bota-

But we can visit the various sub-

urbs of the Hubbard Grove ourselves, and

see what this valley offers us in the way of

forests, rivers, and mountain views, and

even Wilderness Values. We start by driv-

ing up the Index-Galena Road for 15 miles

or so beyond Index, past the place where

the pavement runs out and about a half

mile more, to just beyond the bridge over

the North Fork, where the road turns uphill

and left towards Jack‟s Pass. A wide cor-

ner here offers parking. Then, a few yards

back towards the river, a primitive dirt

track (“the driveway”) for a hundred feet

or so we come upon the “Wrestling Trees”

on the left. Here, a larger Red Alder has a

smaller Western Hemlock in a nasty “trunk

lock” and looks to be just about ready to

snap the little Hemlock in tow. (And you

thought competition between trees was

passive and polite). If the yonder, but

much longer-lived Hemlock can hold out

long enough, the shorter lived and already

middle-aged Alder will die of old age, rot,

get brittle, and fall apart, releasing the

Hemlock. But the Alder is already squeez-

ing the Hemlock‟s trunk into a flattened

oval, and one good wind gust could con-

ceivably shake the twin crowns of the Al-

der enough to snap the hemlock before

(Continued on page 6)

nists, foresters, representatives of the

various environmental groups and Wild

Sky proponents, and by golly the area

was included in the Wilderness Bill!

Ever since then, the series of

groves has been collectively referred to

as “The Hubbard Grove”, but in my lexi-

con each separate grove and river bar has

a different name. The lower East side

grove, A.K.A. the Quadrathuja Island

Grove, is the subject of this month‟s

stroll.

I‟d hoped that we could start it

out as an official Wilderness hike, but as

you all know, The Wild Sky Bills was

„dropped from consideration” in the

House of Representative. Like the rest

of the Hubbard Gove, Quadrathuja Is-

land has been called “ineligible” for Wil-

derness designation by California‟s Rep-

resentative Richard Pombo and

Washington's Representative George

Nethercutt.

Habitats — 8 by Bob Hubbard © 2003 - 2010, All Rights Reserved

Quadrathuja Island Grove

Photo by Meryl Schenker, P-I photographer

Chinookexpeditions.com 5

then. Place your bets now, and keep an

eye on these guys in the future.

Soon after the wrestling trees the

main fork of the driveway turns left, and a

small spur bends slightly to the right and

comes to a stop at a campsite in about 50

feet. Crossing through this campsite we go

straight past the fire ring and out along a

primitive path that continues in this direc-

tion then starts to bend left in another hun-

dred feet or so, entering a grove of old ce-

dars. The trail soon turns right and starts

to parallel the aforementioned creek bed

that is actually a high-water river channel.

For a couple hundred yards the

trail follows above the channel on the

right, or South bank or a few yards back

from the bank). Then the trail drops awk-

wardly to the channel at a small side

creek‟s mouth, and crosses to the opposite

bank (via boulder hopping) where it re-

sumes, about 30 feet back from the up-

stream end of a log along the North bank.

(The correct log is about 50 feet upstream,

has its‟ South end wedged under a leaning,

3-trunked cedar tree whose biggest trunk is

curved like a big, ascending elephant‟s

tusk. A word before proceeding: You

are now (assuming you crossed success-

fully) on an island that is quite flat and

low. It has two general types of terrain;

highlands and lowlands, and the difference

is only a few feet. At one time the whole

(Continued from page 5) island probably consisted of highland but

past floods have bored channels through the

old surface, and these now-dry channels,

“Coulees” are discernable as low spots and

are open, brushy, or forested by young trees.

Pre-historic, or “fossil” logjams are found in

several of the coulees, some so old their con-

stituent logs are nurse-log hosts to quite large

and old trees. The old-growth occurs mostly

if not entirely on highland area.

The soils of the Coulees are differ-

ent from the upland soils and thus support

different plant communities, so this is a good

flower walk in the Spring, especially when

some walking out on the river bars is in-

cluded in the hike. The island is roughly

lemon shaped, and about a half-mile long.

Since much of the center of the island has

been partially logged, the trail generally fol-

lows around the perimeter, typically 100 to

200 fleet in from the edge, going from mid-

dle right side down to the south tip, then up

along the left side to the North tip.

From the channel crossing, the trail

goes away from the channel a bit, curving

down a few yards into the next coulee, then

swerves left and climbs to an upland, where a

grove of medium large trees still

grows. The trail immediately de-

scends into a narrow coulee (With a

fossil logjam at its head) and turn

down valley, but in that brief pass, one

can see a most unusual sight: a tree

which was cut down 70 or more years

ago. But which still hasn‟t died!

Look to the side at the pass and see the

stump that has bark growing inward

over the top of the old saw cut, sealing

it off behind a living wall of tissue and

bark. Note also the Prickly Current

bush and the Fringe-cup herbs grow-

ing out of the rotten center of the

stump. That‟s right, this stump is still

alive 70 years after the tree was killed.

How is this possible, giving that the

living roots of the old tree need the

food prepared by the leaves of the now

-missing crown of the tree?” I‟m

told this miracle is possible because

sometimes a tree‟s neighbor has roots

which touch and form root grafts with

it, and when the first tree dies, the

neighboring tree can send its own nu-

trients across the graft to keep the

roots of the logged-off tree alive. The

still-living “Zombie” stump then starts

to seal off the old chainsaw cut, just

like any other wound.

This raises a question of

identity”: since the new growth of the

last 70 years has been the result of the

(Continued on top of page 7)

“That‟s right,

this stump is still alive 70 years

after the tree was killed.”

neighboring tree‟s photosynthesis, does that

mean the new growth is genetically or in any

other measurable way different from the old

pre-logging growth? Or is the new growth

still the result of the old tree‟s cambium,

which means the old tree never died? (It just

got shortened a bit). This gets potentially

even stickier: if a stump created by loggers

can be kept alive by its neighbors, why can‟t

(Continued from page 6) a tree which dies of other causes be like-

wise kept alive by its neighbors? Say a

fire completely torches the crown of tree

„A‟. Could tree „B‟ send nutrients to keep

tree „A‟ alive? If tree „A‟ is revived

thanks to root grafts and tree „B‟s nutri-

ents, and subsequently re-sprouts more

limbs as a result, is tree „A‟ still tree „A‟?

If we could genetically check all the

growth rings from some big old tree,

might we find that the tree has had

more than one identity during its

lifetime? Could a 2 X 4 in your

house have two distinct genetic

identities?

Continuing along, the trail

drops down the coulees, turns right,

and wanders across a low area with

a small stream. Crossing the stream,

it continues parallel to the stream for

a bit, then turns right and climbs

back up to some highlands, where it

follows along an old skid road from

the logging days. Where the trail

crosses over an old logging cable,

look back to your right at the nearest

big tree, a mossy barked Grand fir

about 15 to 20 feet away. This tree

is 19 feet in circumference at breast

height. The biggest Grand Fir in the

state is reportedly 19‟ 2”in circum-

ference. If any thing happens to the

old one, we may have a new state

record tree here. Sooner or later

though, this tree is toast: a basal scar

on the tree‟s north side (possibly

logging related) reveals that its heart

is infected by fungus, and Pacific

damp wood termites have moved in

and set up a nest in the rotted heart-

wood. Twenty feet past the cable

crossing is a (leaning) Pacific Yew

tree just to the left of the trail with a

bird‟s nest tucked away in a fold of

the trunk about 7 feet off the

ground. A bit further along, the trail

curves around the base of a huge

cedar tree with 4 main trunks, This

is “Quadrathuja”, the namesake tree

of Quadrathuja Island. It is at least

35 feet in circumference at the

abase, a big tree for sure, but not as

big as a few others further up the

valley. In another 150 feet or so the

trail drops into another coulee,

dodges right-wards around a log,

and passes by a cedar only slightly

smaller in diameter than Quad-

rathuja.

Now we are at the lower

end of the island, and the trail turns

(Continued on page 8)

Paid Advertisement

up valley. In another hundred feet the

trail turns right, but a left turn here puts

you easily and quickly out on the river

bars and beaches. The trail dodges

inland a bit and continues up valley,

wobbling around a lot and passing

through a series of cedar and fir groves

on its way to the upstream end of the

island. Sometimes the trail follows old

skid roads from the logging days, some-

times it drops down and crosses or fol-

lows along coulees, and other times it

winds around the highlands, among the

trunks of the remaining big trees. Most

of the big tees are cedars but a few big

Douglas-firs are seen, and the trail goes

right past the base of one. These Doug‟s

are bigger and older than the trees we

visited in silver Creek Valley last month.

The trail tries to circumvent as

many logs as possible, but is forced to

go up and over logs and log-piles in sev-

eral places. After perhaps. 1/2 mile of

wandering up valley, the tail drops down

to a coulee area near the island‟s upper

end, turns left around a big log end, re-

(Continued from page 7) gains the highland, and comes to a stop in

a mossy floored grove of Cedars, and one

big Doug-fir tree. The river is just visible

here curving around the upper end of the

island. If one follows the general direction

of the last 10 feet of trail, one can, with

minimal bushwhacking, emerge from the

forest out onto the sunny, open beaches

and river bar areas that line the whole

Western side of Quadrathuja Island.

One can also continue up valley

by leaving the trail end and bushwhacking

up to the top end of the island, and work-

ing upstream along a minimalist track just

back from the riverside logjams, usually 50

to 100 feet back from the water, but not

always. We‟ll continue on upstream an-

other month: there's lots to see, but for now

we‟ll be satisfied to explore the lush low-

lands of Quadrathuja Island, with their

ferns and wildflowers and groves of huge

old trees.

I find the walk across Quad-

rathuja Island to be a good wilderness ex-

perience. The sounds of the roads are left

behind, the natural features of the island

are aesthetically impressive and even

scientifically unusual. The whole upper

end of the island is lined with logjams,

which protect it from the erosive atten-

tions of the river. Nurse logs and nurse

stumps abound, in true rain forest style,

and hanging mosses and lichens are eve-

rywhere. Only the presence of stumps

and flat-ended log pieces mars the pris-

tine nature of the island. But these are

temporary things which will decay away

with time, and Wilderness is meant to be

permanent, so our children's children can

come along and see the forests which so

impressed our own grandparents and

their parents. The forest on Quadrathuja

Island, even though it has been partially

cut, is one of those forests, and it de-

serves the legal protection of Wilderness

designation no matter what Pombo or

Nethercutt think.

Editors note: I want to thank Bob Hubbard

for allowing me to recycle this hiking story.

It was originally written by him and printed

in the November 2004 issue of the Mt Index

Reporter.

Mt Index is located‟. Here is their web-

site: http://mountindexriversites.com/

It is chock full of information about

what is going on in their community.

There are also several „online‟ publica-

tions, The Index Times is at this link:

Index Times Why one more you say?

Well, we are all growing up and more

and more of us use our computers.

There is still much to be said about the

area and there is a lot of talent to be seen

and heard from.

For example, starting with this

month‟s „premiere‟ issue we have a

„guest‟ columnist providing us with his

great hiking stories about the area.

Many of you know and like Bob Hub-

bard‟s writings. The story included in

this publication was originally written by

Bob Hubbard for the Mt Index Reporter

back in 2004. Mr. Hubbard‟s stories can

also be found at the IndexWA.org site as

well as a „write-in‟ to the Index Times

and this month here! We also have a

poem from Kelley Rose Schmidt! Here

is her Blog. And you need to watch this

person her writing shows some real tal-

ent. She has a way with words! Also

(Continued from page 2) check out the „Barter & Trade section in

this issue.

I am getting many emails with

pictures of peoples businesses and places

that you will most certainly recognize.

Someone asked me to put recipes in the

monthly paper. I told her I was open to

posting recipes or a unique item like the

stove top espresso machine sent in by Jer

from the South fork, so if anybody

would like to send them to me here for

inclusion in the Mt Index Reporter, go

right ahead and send them on in.

In this issue we‟ve feature

some out-of-the-way places that may be

just the key to motivating you to start

planning your next afternoon. The many

stories allow some vicarious vacationing.

To send content: such as pic-

tures, story ideas or column ideas Like

tech advice , Ads, poems, etc. Call me at

360-793-7581 or send them to my atten-

tion at: thom@mtindexreporter.com/

8

Stove Top Espresso!

Be the coolest person at the campsite.

Sold By Fantes Contact: jerbrandt1@gmail.com

53 hp VW Engine from 1971, Runs good. Came out of a restored

1961 VW bug that was crushed by tree. My loss is your gain. If

you have an old VW and you need an engine. This one is for you.

$500.00 buys it and I will give you the entire vehicle or I can re-

move the engine and bring it to you. Lots of vintage parts from a

1961 Bug too. Engine and transmission are from a 1971 Bug.

Let‟s talk. So give me a call. Ask for Thom

Phone 360-793-7581 More pictures at http://mtindexreporter.com/

Snorkel tub A wood fired Hot Tub All Cedar

with ladder & seat and all metal trim pieces

included U-Haul

$250.00 obo Call Tony @ 1-360-913-0213

Last Page Our monthly trip back in time — From Lee Pickett @ UW

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