Mr. Outdoors: A winter reading list
I've been reading a couple of books written by local authors that describe different areas of the great outdoors that neighbor our neck of the woods.
At least one of my three readers has probably met David Cossa of Bremerton and maybe even taken a hike or two with him. The other author, M. Perle, is a pen name for a South Kitsap resident who wishes to remain anonymous for reasons outlined below.
Cossa is the author of "Now That Was a Day to Remember!," and presented a slide show about the book to a crowd of about 80 people at last month's Peninsula Wilderness Club meeting. The book wasn't available at the meeting, but can be ordered online from Amazon for $19.95 or from other online sellers.
Perle's book is titled "Toxic Pearl: Pacific Northwest Shellfish Companies' Addiction to Pesticides?" You can special-order a copy from Eagle Harbor Book Co. on Bainbridge or Liberty Bay Books in Poulsbo for $17; or download a Kindle edition from Amazon for $5.99.
Some of the adventures Cossa describes are familiar to me. I was headed to Mount Rainier for some spring skiing while he was climbing The Brothers on May 18, 1980.
That was the day that Mount St. Helens blew her top. Cossa remembers hearing echoes of the explosion, while I recall driving into a cloud of ash I thought was a rainstorm.
I didn't get to ski at Paradise that day, which is a good thing because those who got there earlier said the ash covered the snow and made skiing like sliding on sandpaper. Cossa climbed one summit of The Brothers, but got caught in an avalanche on the way down and impaled himself on his ice axe.
I can personally attest that stabbing yourself with an ice axe is not a good thing. I managed to do just that while quivering from an irrational fear of heights on Mount Anderson in the Olympics.
I've never been caught in an avalanche, though. I hope I never do.
When Perle told me about "Toxic Pearl," I mentioned that the only thing I knew about Willapa Bay — the focus of the book — was that it hosts one of the best Washington Water Trails I've ever paddled. It was the place I decided a kayak was far better at navigating in the wind than a fat, flat-bottomed canoe.
Then last year I hiked 5 miles of the Willapa Hills State Park Trail from South Bend to Raymond, which follows part of the shoreline of the bay. It passes some of the oyster farms mentioned in Perle's book.
When I emailed Perle, I mentioned that after reading her book, I'd never be able to look an oyster in the shell again. Can't say I'd eat one, either.
That's because the book alleges vast and prolonged use of pesticides to enhance shellfish production in the region. It also accuses state officials of a cover-up.
Author Perle wrote me "given the level of retaliation, intimidation and bullying, along with alleged ties" to organized crime, "I am using a pen name to protect my safety."
If true, it seems like a good enough reason to me.
Seabury Blair Jr. wrote Day Hike! Olympic Peninsula and seven other guidebooks, including the Sasquatch Books' Creaky Knees and Day Hike! series. E-mail him at: Skiberry@hughes.net.
