A romp in the woods with my lover at the time & two of our kids goes, well, upside down! Our winter ramble in Snoqualmie Pass, Washington, near where the old Mountaineers Cabin used to be one Sunday on the 22nd of January 2006.

Four of us rode up together in our blended family minivan. We all wanted to go play in the snow! Except for my oldest girl, Morgan, now called Dylan, and I cannot recall why she stayed behind. Probably because the future Dylan Blair preferred to pal around with her tween friends. Especially as she was 12 years old back then and soon to turn 13 in less than 3 months. Hmn. Never mind my pet baby name for her was my Li’l Twinkle Star. Katie Kate Kate could barely wait, tho, and she was already 8 years along. No longer was she just my Li’l Kitty Kat. Our youngest, Talia, or, ahem, TaTa the Tater Tot, as we called my Li’l Butterfly back then was still an adorable 3 years old. I drove thru the village of Snoqualmie Pass, known for its concentration of ski resorts, hiking, climbing, and even a small, rare cave system, and parked in a cleared-off lot near a snowy lane leading to where the old Mountaineers’ old cabin is.

Or was back then in January of 2006. Cabin is a misnomer. Aye, it was a palace in the forest! The Mountaineers Club, however, called it a lodge. Snoqualmie Lodge. Hey, this place was historic! Snoqualmie Lodge was a major hub for backcountry action for over half-a-century. A quasi-medieval frontier fort of a sort, the lodge looked ramshackle and all teeter-tottery after the snows melted, but altho rustic, it was built solid by engineers and carpenters. By men & women who knew what tools they held in hand, knew what they were doing, and if they didn’t, they knew how to work together to figure things out and make it so. The snow seemed to help hold it up, but truth is the snow exerted walls of pressure on the famous old building. This was before the Fires of Spring.

Snoqualmie Lodge was built after the first one, constructed in 1915, burned down in 1944. Well, the Mountaineers rebuilt it down the hill a bit, and the lodge served many generations of people until it, too, caught on fire and burned down in 2006. The Club finally sold the property in 2016. Times have changed dramatically since the 1940s, and people don’t congregate the same way in the 21st Century.

My second wife Gwen & I were active in the Seattle Mountaineers back in the 1990s. We spent a few nights there on group outings, meetings, and for overnight climbing courses. So I felt quite proud of this mighty clubhouse, and wanted to show it off to my family. Indeed, I had renewed my membership for the first time in many years. Signed up my whole family, kids and all. We went inside, especially so my daughters could get out of their layers of snow clothes & go potty. Well, me, too! I guided my family on a tour of its many levels, from the clothes & boots drying rooms downstairs all the way up a maze of narrow stairs and dark rooms stacked with bunk beds and old books and pictures. Met the volunteer hosts & cook, and they invited us to get further involved. The club needed new families, more members, more income, and the lodge was also a center for holiday parties, reunions of friends and families for both summer and winter, and even dancehall-style dancing.

And then walked around, saw the remnants of the old tow rope ski area, played in the snow, and dreamed of returning to stay overnight in the cabin. Alas, twas not to be. This was our last visit at Snoqualmie Lodge. The wonderful old place caught on fire and burned to the ground in the wee morning hours on Friday the 12th day of May 2006, two days after Talia turned 4 years old. I felt incredibly sad. Whoa. We didn’t know it back then either, but the home we lived in up in Edmonds in March 2010 also caught on fire and burned down. Faulty wiring apparently arced and sparked and ignited a volcano of flames and toxic smoke. So, yes, I do not like fire.

Today, however, this one winter January Sunday, we played in the snow. Got silly. Had fun. Got wet. And oh, so cold. We laughed, and we hollered, and we ran plop, plop, ploppity-plop thru the snowy forests and fell down over and over again. We all got wet and cold. Thank goodness, we had an automated horseless motor carriage parked nearby to get into, crank up, and warm up on the way down the mountains to our city on the sound. Didn’t have to snowshoe or ski all the way down into the Emerald City, or barge onto a crowded train soaking wet, or ride shivering horses down thru snow and wind. So we even played outside in the woods and snow a little bit more.

Wish I had more fotos to show all of you here, including fotos I shot of Snoqualmie Lodge buried in deep snow only about four months before it burned down. But I don’t. Most were lost when my own house burned up. Unless I somehow find them in boxes of pictures I’m slowly going thru every once in a long while. So for now these fotos are all the treasures I’ve got to share. All the Best to y’all anyway, folks. Enjoy!

 

William Dudley Bass
Monday 19 August 2019
Seattle, Washington
USA
Cascadia
Sol

 

Copyright © 2019 by William Dudley Bass. All Rights Reserved by the Author & his Descendants until we Humans establish Wise Stewardship over and for our Earth and Solarian Commons. Thank you.