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Turtleback Mountain
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I finally went up Turtleback Mountain. What a view. What an amazing story. I can't wait to start from the south entrance. The north entrance was great, if steep, but that's what you get when you hike on a mountain! I want to go back, spend the whole day, and just wander through the forest.
From Sunset Magazine, March 2008:
7. IT TAKES A VILLAGE ... TO SAVE A MOUNTAIN
Want to preserve your own beautiful bit of the West? Learn from the people who rescued Washington's Turtleback Mountain
The moment you see it, you know how it got its name: With its distinctive, tortoise-shaped hump, Turtleback Mountain looms over Washington's San Juan Islands as one of the archipelago's most visible places. For a while, the peak on Orcas Island was one of the San Juans' most vulnerable treasures too. But today, the 1,578-acre Turtleback Mountain Preserve, which opened to the public for the first time last year, is not only protected from development but also it's considered an almost unprecedented conservation success.
Generations of San Juan Islanders knew Turtleback as the privileged retreat of Weyerhaeuser timber baron Norton Clapp. When Clapp passed away in 1995, the undeveloped land was turned over to the Medina Foundation, a charity he founded. Although Turtleback was the foundation's most valuable asset, it was also expensive to maintain. The Medina Foundation decided to offer Turtleback to the highest bidder in order to raise money to further its philanthropic mission — giving millions of dollars each year to Puget Sound–area educational and social-service programs.
When the specter was raised that Turtleback could be sold and developed, local conservation organizations sprang to action, knowing they had to pull out all the stops. "I got a phone call on a Thursday night, and the property was advertised on Friday — we had 30 days to come back with an offer," says Tim Seifert, executive director of the San Juan Preservation Trust. "It took six months to reach an agreement." Six months of no sleep, he adds: "The entire community was freaked out."
During that time, a developer submitted an $18.5 million bid to buy the mountain and put in at least 40 home sites. Local conservation groups, scrambling madly, managed to meet the bid. "We had bake sales, we had Girl Scouts in front of the grocery store, we had the largest community gathering ever in the San Juans at the foot of Turtleback," Seifert says. "We even had Gary Larson do a cartoon for save turtleback mountain T-shirts. People who'd never given to causes in the past are now walking around in those shirts."
In the end, $18.5 million was raised to save Turtleback. More than 2,000 people pitched in, with gifts ranging from 75 cents to $1 million. Three conservation organizations — the San Juan Preservation Trust, the San Juan County Land Bank, and the Trust for Public Land — partnered to make it happen. "Islanders have always revered Turtleback," says Lincoln Bormann, director of the San Juan County Land Bank, which contributed $10 million. "Since many of the islands have been carved up into 5- and 10-acre parcels, to be able to preserve something of Turtleback's scale was a rare opportunity."
For decades, islanders had trespassed to reach the top of Turtleback by night and take in its expansive vistas. Now you can pull into a small dirt parking lot and, in broad daylight, follow Turtleback's old road as it curves up through a forest of fir and rare Garry oaks. Although the current trail system is rudimentary, the road soon clears the trees, emerges around a bend, and opens onto a high, west-facing meadow with expansive views of the Sound.
Continue up and you'll soon reach Ship Peak, a 931-foot overlook offering what everyone agrees is the quintessential Turtleback view: out over Orcas Island's Crow Valley, a lush expanse of farmland sewn together by stands of fir. From here you can proceed even higher, although with the trails still in their beginning stages, you may not always know where you're going.
"Yeah, we've had a few people phone us from the top of Turtleback," Bormann admits. "When they ask us which way to go, we just tell them: 'Down.' "
From Sunset Magazine, March 2008:
7. IT TAKES A VILLAGE ... TO SAVE A MOUNTAIN
Want to preserve your own beautiful bit of the West? Learn from the people who rescued Washington's Turtleback Mountain
The moment you see it, you know how it got its name: With its distinctive, tortoise-shaped hump, Turtleback Mountain looms over Washington's San Juan Islands as one of the archipelago's most visible places. For a while, the peak on Orcas Island was one of the San Juans' most vulnerable treasures too. But today, the 1,578-acre Turtleback Mountain Preserve, which opened to the public for the first time last year, is not only protected from development but also it's considered an almost unprecedented conservation success.
Generations of San Juan Islanders knew Turtleback as the privileged retreat of Weyerhaeuser timber baron Norton Clapp. When Clapp passed away in 1995, the undeveloped land was turned over to the Medina Foundation, a charity he founded. Although Turtleback was the foundation's most valuable asset, it was also expensive to maintain. The Medina Foundation decided to offer Turtleback to the highest bidder in order to raise money to further its philanthropic mission — giving millions of dollars each year to Puget Sound–area educational and social-service programs.
When the specter was raised that Turtleback could be sold and developed, local conservation organizations sprang to action, knowing they had to pull out all the stops. "I got a phone call on a Thursday night, and the property was advertised on Friday — we had 30 days to come back with an offer," says Tim Seifert, executive director of the San Juan Preservation Trust. "It took six months to reach an agreement." Six months of no sleep, he adds: "The entire community was freaked out."
During that time, a developer submitted an $18.5 million bid to buy the mountain and put in at least 40 home sites. Local conservation groups, scrambling madly, managed to meet the bid. "We had bake sales, we had Girl Scouts in front of the grocery store, we had the largest community gathering ever in the San Juans at the foot of Turtleback," Seifert says. "We even had Gary Larson do a cartoon for save turtleback mountain T-shirts. People who'd never given to causes in the past are now walking around in those shirts."
In the end, $18.5 million was raised to save Turtleback. More than 2,000 people pitched in, with gifts ranging from 75 cents to $1 million. Three conservation organizations — the San Juan Preservation Trust, the San Juan County Land Bank, and the Trust for Public Land — partnered to make it happen. "Islanders have always revered Turtleback," says Lincoln Bormann, director of the San Juan County Land Bank, which contributed $10 million. "Since many of the islands have been carved up into 5- and 10-acre parcels, to be able to preserve something of Turtleback's scale was a rare opportunity."
For decades, islanders had trespassed to reach the top of Turtleback by night and take in its expansive vistas. Now you can pull into a small dirt parking lot and, in broad daylight, follow Turtleback's old road as it curves up through a forest of fir and rare Garry oaks. Although the current trail system is rudimentary, the road soon clears the trees, emerges around a bend, and opens onto a high, west-facing meadow with expansive views of the Sound.
Continue up and you'll soon reach Ship Peak, a 931-foot overlook offering what everyone agrees is the quintessential Turtleback view: out over Orcas Island's Crow Valley, a lush expanse of farmland sewn together by stands of fir. From here you can proceed even higher, although with the trails still in their beginning stages, you may not always know where you're going.
"Yeah, we've had a few people phone us from the top of Turtleback," Bormann admits. "When they ask us which way to go, we just tell them: 'Down.' "
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