community12 l June 13, 2012 SAMMAMISH REVIEW

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By Brittany Cardoza

Interested in exploring Sammamish’s newest park? Sammamish Walks will feature a guided tour through Evans Creek Preserve at 10:00 a.m. June 16. Kellye Hilde, city of Sammamish project manager, will lead walkers along the preserve’s 2.6-miles of gentle terrain and boardwalks while educating them on its wildlife and history.

“There has been such great feedback about the park,” said Hilde, “walkers will enjoy the tranquility of the preserve.”

The newly developed 179-acre property opened Oct. 22 and is a product of the largest volunteer effort in Sammamish history.

Approximately 50 work par-ties consisting of hundreds of volunteers were coordinated to complete the project, building bridges and laying the gravel for walkways throughout the park.

A preserve, in contrast to a city park, only allows for 2 per-

cent development, making the park nearly identical to its natu-ral state.

“We are hoping for a great

turnout since it’s a very new park,” Hilde said.

Walk and learn in a city park By Lillian Tucker

With her nearly quarter-cen-tury of military service behind her, and recovery underway for a traumatic brain injury, Shanda Taylor-Boyd is not slowing down.

The Sammamish resident and mother of three has been busy the last couple of years, touring around the country as a disabled veteran. In 2008, Taylor-Boyd was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury.

The four-year-old injury was sustained in a car accident returning home from work at Joint Base Lewis McCord. Several years later, she has participated in veterans sports clinics, spo-ken at Veterans Health Research Week in Washington D.C. and told her story in a video that has been featured on various media outlets.

“Here’s little old me and I’m going all over the world. I am blessed,” she said. “Wherever I am, people know I’m from Sammamish, Washington.”

Her middle daughter, Danielle Boyd, a freshman at Western Washington University, said that at first she was shocked at all the national attention focused on her

mother.“She deserves it,” said the

19-year-old. “She is a woman who has been working hard her entire life. This is attention well earned.”

Taylor-Boyd joined the United States Army in 1982 and had a varied career. She spent time doing administrative work, as a member of the military police and as a nurse.

As a child, Taylor-Boyd said she was inspired to follow in the

Local vet receives national attention

Shanda Taylor-Boyd

See BOYD, Page 13

File photoA gravel path stretches through Evans Creek Preserve.

See WALK, Page 13

By Lillian Tucker

Walking along the trail through Duthie Hill Park June 9, the only sign that a mountain bike festival was taking place was the occasional rider that whizzed past. Nearing the center of the 130-acre park, the tops of tents began to peek out through the trees. Soon, music seeped into the air and a clearing of trees gave way to booths, bikes and people with mud-caked legs.

“We are celebrating mountain biking. This is just a great chance for everyone to get together,” said Stacy Karacostas, communica-tions and membership director for the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance. For the third year in a row, the nonprofit group hosted the Evergreen Mountain Bike Festival. “This is our biggest event of the year…we are defi-nitely hopping.”

Karacostas was busy that day renewing memberships, selling raffle tickets and handing out

information packs. Around her, local vendors sold bratwurst, bike companies held demonstrations, and a few festival goers paused for a break in the beer garden. Other riders took advantage of the park’s new practice features like progression jumps and two pump tracks that allow riders to practice navigating the bike over bumps. Those in the mood for some friendly competition could take part in the Duthie Dash, a cross country time trial race, the Dual Slalom Race or the Jump-Off Huck Contest where riders soared into the air to the cheer of the crowd.

“This is so exciting. Active rec-reation is such an important part of our parks,” said King County Councilwoman Kathy Lambert. The District 3 representative didn’t let the fact that she has to temporarily use crutches to get around keep her from hiking into the festival grounds. “It’s impor-tant we honor people who are biking and get more and more

people involved.”Lambert was there that day

to help celebrate the comple-tion of the second phase of King County’s and Evergreen’s project to build eight miles of mountain biking trails in Duthie Hill Park. While two miles of free ride trails offer large jumps and stunts, six miles of cross country bike trails offer something for everyone.

“The park accommodates all levels,” said Butch Lovelace, King County’s youth sports facility grant manager. “The demograph-ic of the 68-year-old mountain biking woman is not who I had in mind, but they’re out here.”

So far, said Lovelace, around $350,000 from the county, $150,000 from the state, thou-sands of private donations and nearly 20,000 volunteer hours have gone into creating the mountain bike park. The Evergreen Alliance estimates that the park already receives more than 75,000 visits a year.

“It’s been a really successful

partnership with a really modest amount of money,” he said. “The park was built for mountain bik-ers by mountain bikers.”

Samuel Baker, 9, and his fam-ily live just down the street and

estimate they have totaled about 40 hours volunteering in the park. With more than 60 hours logged building trails and fea-

Photo by Lillian TuckerThe Jump-Off Huck Contest at the Evergreen Mountain Bike Festival gave riders the chance to catch air on some of the largest jumps at Duthie Hill Park.

Festival celebrates mountain biking at Duthie Hill Park

See BIKE, Page 13

sports14 l June 13, 2012 SAMMAMISH REVIEW

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By Lillian Tucker

Listening to a group of local sophomore boys discuss pack-ing an Xbox into their carry-on you probably wouldn’t guess they were about to hop a plane for the Junior National Rowing Championships. But that is exact-ly where several local rowers were headed June 5.

“We are a big family and we like to joke around,” said Andrew Wisegarver. “But when crunch time comes, we pull it together.”

The sophomore at Eastlake High School belongs to the Sammamish Rowing Association and is a member of both the Boy’s Lightweight 8+ and Boys Lightweight Double teams. Those teams are among the associa-tion’s four junior crews that were set to compete June 8-10 at to the Junior National Championships in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

“Going to Nationals – I’ve had that goal for the last three years,” said Coxswain Gina Day, a senior

at Skyline High School. While she has participated in crew for more than three-and-a-half years, this was the first year that she has directed the Boys Lightweight 8 team. “I’m like a football coach on water – I yell, steer and fix all their little mistakes. Keeping them focused is the biggest challenge.”

Nationals didn’t come onto the team’s radar, said crew mem-ber Ben Yuse, a sophomore at Eastlake, until after a few local regattas earlier in the spring.

“We proved, just barely, that we are the fastest team in the Northwest,” said Yuse, refer-ring the April 27-29 Brentwood Regatta on Vancouver Island. That was a good weekend for the club, which had 14 first place finishes, including one by the lightweight boy’s team when they crossed the finish line nearly three seconds ahead of Bainbridge Island. “That put a huge target on our back for Regionals.”

May 18-20, with most of

the season behind them and plenty of confidence, the boys headed to Vancouver, Wash. for the Northwest Junior Regional Championships. To qualify for

Nationals, the team would have to finish in the top three. The boy’s Lightweight 8 team fin-ished the 2,000-meter course in 6 minutes, 17.94 seconds but

not before Everett pulled ahead and beat them by half a boat length. Wisegarver’s scull also

Photo by Lillian TuckerCoxwain Gina Day and crew members Sam Goertz, Andrew Wisegarver, Max Antono and Ben Yuse goof around for the camera, but are serious about rowing.

Local rowers stroke their way to Nationals

See ROWING, Page 15

Hydros roar across Lake Sammamish at Tastin’ ‘n Racin’By Matt Carstens

The 16th annual Tastin’ and Racin’ was filled with thunderous hydroplanes, high flying wake boarders and classic hot rods, but what was most important for young Cooper Leavitt was that he get his candy from the Sea Fair pirates.

“Gimmie some!” he shouted at the swashbuckler.

“Is that any way to ask?” the buccaneer said back.

Disappointed, Cooper lowered his head and mumbled, “Please?” as his father lathered him up with sunscreen.

“All right, but only if you let your dad finish putting your sun-screen on!”

Sunscreen was definitely needed on Sunday, but despite the sunny 66-degree day, atten-dance was lack luster at best.

“It went smooth from an operation standpoint,” said event director Craig Cooke. “But the attendance was down. Probably on Saturday because the weather was threatening, it never really kicked into blue sky, and today it got nicer as the day went on but I’m just thinking that people were thinking that it’s not all that nice, so it was not a stellar turn out.”

Even though they weren’t out

in droves, Cooke said the people that did make it out had a great time.

First timer Andrew Isaksen, who’s been a big hydroplane fan for a while, was out and about with his wife and child.

“The last time I was at a boat race was way back when, during the unlimited, before they put in

all the family policies at Seafair,” he said. “It’s a little different, but it looks like it’s organized well. We just came to wander, trying to see some of the hydroplane boats.”

Some other rookies to Tastin’ and Racin’ were the sponsors of the Miss Slabjack boat Dave and his father Bill Freeburd.

Steve Lamson, one of the agents that finds sponsors for the boat teams convinced Dave and Bill to come out to Tastin’ and Racin’ since their company Slabjack is based in Issaquah.

“He’s been working on us for a few years trying to get us out here,” Dave said. “This year just seemed to be the right fit

because our office is right here in Issaquah. It just seemed like a good idea to sponsor a local event and we got a pretty good boat out there.”

Miss Slabjack won both of the Grand Prix heats on Saturday and finished in first place overall for in the Grand Prix division.

“It runs really well,” Bill said.Both Freeburds were raised

on Hydroplane racing and make it out to Seafair every year, so it was exciting for both of them to sponsor a winner.

“It’s still floating right now, so it must be doing OK!” Bill said.

Local driver Kip Brown raced in both the 2.5 stock and the 5 liter divisions in a boat that had touched the water for the first time on Friday. Construction started in February, and after four months of boat building, Brown was thrilled.

“To have it come out of the box as competitive as it is, it

Photo by Greg FarrarBrent Harnack goes airborne in the National Modified class hydroplane, NM-88 Mr. Jiggs, on the way to his victory June 10 on Lake Sammamish during the 16th annual Tastin’ N Racin’ festival at Lake Sammamish State Park.

See TASTIN, Page 15

“I’m ecstatic, the whole team is ecstatic about how this thing ran.”

– Kip Brown, Hydro driver –