Hike: Tiger Mountain North

Hike: Tiger Mountain North (WA)

Shared by Arlene

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In his book Final Forest William Dietrich refers to the Northwest’s great pillars still growing in the Olympic National Park. Unlike Europe, with its large Roman and Medieval structures, the pillars which link people of the Pacific NW to their past are the large, straight old growth trees. Instead of Corinthian and Ionic columns, we have Douglas Fir, Sitka Spruce, and Western Hemlock.

Today’s hike took us by some old pillars as we climbed near the High Point of Tiger Mountain North (4.5 miles 1100 ft elevation gain; the last bit of the trail was blocked due to storm damage). While foggy, we avoided rain and actually had some periods of bright sky (which illuminated the early morning fog).

This was the first hike since October with any significant elevation gain, and I was reminded of how important it is to keep training in the winter months. It felt good to stretch out the calves, but I was taking more water/rest breaks than usual. The breaks gave me some extra time to look closely at the tree trunks as we traveled through the old growth. The old straight trees are really something to admire. The bark is thick, grooved, and makes for a fierce armor against all the attacks of nature over the many decades it has protected the tree.

On our return trip we passed again through second growth (logged in the last century), and I was struck by one of the significant differences between our pillars and the ones crafted by the Romans and Egyptians; it is in the ruins. Once the ancient structures of stone start to crumble, they can still be beautiful, but they are finished; they have no purpose other than the reminder of their former glory. Whereas, even though the living pillars of the Northwest crumble (or are cut), they create and nourish new beauty.
These are truly impressive pillars.