The Mountaineer 65 
LOCAL WALKS 
HAZEL BURROUGHS 
HAT cities are more delightfully situated for out-door excur- 
aX /}| sions than are ours of Puget Sound? In order to more fully 
“Bs enjoy our natural surroundings, “The Mountaineers” were 
SVE organized in 1906 with headquarters in Seattle. Since then 
two branch clubs have been added, one in Everett and the other in 
Tacoma. All three have local committees which plan the walks. 
Twice each month they sally forth for a day in the open and 
wonderful days they are, when from fifty to two hundred people follow 
the leader over his chosen trail. 
Only a small number of the Mountaineers are able to take advan- 
tage of the summer outings as compared with those who participate in 
the local walks. 
During the past year twenty-eight walks were successfully con- 
ducted by the Seattle division and about the same number by the 
branch clubs. 
A splendid New Year’s outing was capably managed by our Ta- 
coma members. Of course they took us to “Mt. Tacoma,’ where we 
spent five blissfully happy days. Word was sent ahead that we were 
to be there, so the snow and ice sprites had been busily at work. They 
artistically arranged and decorated everything in sight. Icicles hung 
resplendent from the eaves of the Inn, the trees with gracefully bowed 
branches were dazzling with snow-erystals, and the ground was covered 
with the whitest of carpets. Within the Inn were warmth and com- 
fort, and much time was spent before the large, crackling logs in the 
clubhouse, where good fellowship and mirth were to be found in 
abundance. 
Footwear was especially interesting. Some walked clumsily along 
on “bear-paws,” while others “mushed” on snowshoes brought from 
Alaska. For each variety of snowshoe there was a snowshoe trouble. 
Many of the party reached Narada Falls, a wonderful sight in its 
fleecy robes veiled by falling snow. Six energetic members braved the 
elements and reached not a golden but a pure white Paradise Valley. 
At nightfall we sat around the fire and listened with bated breath to 
their feats of daring, battling with a blizzard, warring with winds, and 
amid falling firs hunting for the homeward trail. 
As a fitting close Rainier came forth from the mists into the clear 
early morning light, a greeting and farewell in one. 
Others equally anxious to enjoy the winter beauty and wonderful 
radiance of the snow joined in the February outing at Scenie Hot 
