Hikers organize to improve mountain trails

When Bill Hayton and Laurence McCulloch moved to Pleasant Ridge, they wanted to explore hiking trails in the region.

Joan Melcher made that happen.

Melcher, 85, is the point person of the Skagit Audubon hiking group. For almost 30 years, she has planned 52 hikes a year and accompanied hikers of all skill levels to the trailhead and beyond. Whether it's a walk around Mt. Erie or a 2,000-foot climb to Maple Pass, Melcher makes sure everyone returns safe and sound.

Almost every week, Melcher can be found in a grocery store parking lot with a clipboard, helping Hayton, McCulloch, this reporter and other hikers from greater La Conner, Mount Vernon, Anacortes and Camano Island sign in and carpool to the week's destination.

"No matter what, she is in the parking lot every Wednesday, handing out maps and directions," said McCulloch. "She makes it happen. I'm really grateful for all her devotion to us."

Melcher began hiking with Skagit Audubon in the early 1990s and was organizing hikes by 1993. Looking for new itineraries, she went to a meeting of the Pacific Northwest Trail Association, which seeks to improve the experience for hikers of the 1,200-mile trail that starts in the Chuckanut Mountains and ends on the Continental Divide in Montana.

The PNT is not as well known as the Pacific Crest Trail. It initially used existing trails and roads in the U.S. Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, on lands administered by state departments of natural resources and on private land where permission is given.

Melcher and her husband Duane threw themselves into the work of the PNTA, which co-manages the trail with the Forest Service. Volunteers maintain trails and work with the USFS and federal agencies to secure permits for new sections of trail.

Joan and Duane each served a six-year term as PNTA president. They also helped found the Skagit Whatcom Island Trail Maintenance Organization, which invests hundreds of hours each year maintaining trails on Blanchard and Anderson Mountains and along the PNT.

SWITMO volunteers repair puncheons and turnpikes, smooth trail "toe stubbers," clear away brush and repair water damage. SWITMO volunteers have been preparing a more scenic PNT route around Mount Baker for six years. Once environmental reviews and permits are in place, they hope to link two abandoned Forest Service fire roads and construct a mile or two of new trail.

"Many trails people in this area love wouldn't exist without SWITMO," said Eric Wollberg of the PNTA.

Adds Duane Melcher, 91, "it takes serious-minded people to volunteer for something like this."

Over the years, the Melchers' home in Avon has become SWITMO's base of operation. That's where SWITMO stores its equipment and vehicles and holds meetings and the annual fundraiser plant sale.

Both Melchers were honored for their decades of service at a SWITMO meeting on Friday, Sept. 9. Two dozen SWITMO and PNTA members and Skagit Audubon hikers applauded as the Melchers unveiled a commemorative bench. This fall it will be packed up the North Butte of Blanchard Mountain and installed about halfway between Lily Lake and Lizard Lake.

The Melchers were pleased by the recognition but acknowledged the many others involved in SWITMO and the PNTA. "We wouldn't have been able to do anything without the help of other people," said Joan Melcher.

SWITMO hosts trail work days on the first and third Saturday from April to October. The Skagit Audubon hiking group is wrapping up its high-elevation mountain pass hikes and segueing into lower-elevation hikes that are closer to home. One e-address can link you to information on volunteering for SWITMO or hiking with Skagit Audubon. It's Joan Melcher's, of course: [email protected].