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Go take a hike in Cascadia
This week in Cascadia Magazine, you’ll find another hike suggestion from outdoor expert Craig Romano, who we’re grateful to have writing the Get Outside! column twice a month. The latest trail featured is Latourell Falls, a fantastic hike to a 249-foot waterfall. It’s a short drive from Portland, and it’s also one of the few trails on the Oregon side of the Columbia Gorge not closed by last year’s devastating Eagle Creek fire.
A KNKX reports, those closures are already putting pressure on trails on the Washington side of the Gorge, with the US Forest Service even starting a quota system for the popular Dog Mountain hike on the weekends.
As summer approaches, you’ll want to plan ahead for your outdoor adventures. Washington Trail Association has a great database of info on hikes throughout the state (plus they do great work organizing volunteers to maintain the state’s trails). If you’re looking for hikes in Oregon, check out Oregon Hikers. And in southwest BC, have a look at Vancouver Trails.
And don’t forget, if you live in Seattle, this weekend an expanded Metro shuttle bus service to foothills trailheads at Tiger Mountain and the Issaquah Alps debuts. Additional service to Mount Si will begin on May 19.
Seattle mayor seeks big boost for preschool, college funding
Seattle mayor Jenny Durkan announced support for an ambitious education levy on the November ballot that would raise $636 million over 7 years for increased access to preschool and community college. Meanwhile, the Seattle city council is debating a $75 million employer tax to reduce homelessness and fund affordable housing
How will Starbucks confront racial bias?
Facing continuing controversy after an incident at a Philadelphia store where two black customers were arrested while waiting to meet someone, Seattle-based Starbucks issued an apology and said it would close more than 8,000 stores in the US for a day in May to train employees about inherent bias. Meanwhile, Seattle writer Ijeoma Oluo, author of So You Want to Talk About Race, notes on Medium that addressing racial bias in North America will require much more than a one-day effort.
Transgender activist considering run for Vancouver mayor
With current Vancouver mayor Gregor Roberston stepping down, there’s been a lot of speculation about who will run. Add to that mix Morgane Oger, a transgender activist who narrowly lost a race last year to represent Vancouver/False Creek in the provincial legislature. According to the Vancouver Sun, Oger is considering a run, but says she’ll only enter the race if a coalition of progressive parties agrees to unite behind her.
Rediscovering a Cascadia Indigenous food: camas
Writing for Hakai magazine, Madeline Ostrander travels to Washington’s Lopez Island to meet with a woman who’s reviving interest in a native plant that for centuries served as a food source for the Coast Salish people: camas. In a well-crafted feature, you’ll meet Madrona Murphy, who’s obsessed with the plant and works with members of the Samish tribe to recover old ways of cooking the sticky bulbs and discovering new uses.
How to write in the age of Trump?
At Tin House, poet and memoirist Patricia Lockwood writes an impassioned guide to staying sane as a writer in the insanity of the Trump years. The essay was originally given as a talk at a writers retreat at the Sylvia Beach Hotel in Newport, Oregon. “The first necessity is to claim the morning, which is mine. . . . If I open up Twitter and the first thing I see is the president’s weird bunched ass above a sand dune as he swings a golf club I am doomed…”
A poem on parenting and gun violence by Michael Schmeltzer
At the online journal Wildness, you can read Seattle poet Michael Schmeltzer’s “The Body Full of Riddles,” a tender and poignant exploration of parenting in the era of mass shootings:
“My children are here
and not there and the one letter
between the two words
has made a world of difference.”
I highly recommend you go to the site and read the full poem. And if you haven’t already, check out Michael Schmeltzer and Meghan McClure’s essay on memory and addiction at Cascadia Magazine.
That’s today’s sampling of news, arts and other stuff from across Cascadia. Enjoy the rest of your day! –Andrew Engelson
Photo credit: CDSA classroom by Seattle City Council