"Oh," I said. I was thinking I preferred the ticket or arrest thing, considering family tradition and all.
Now you must understand that in Seattle in 1960, among steelhead and salmon fisherman, the Tacoma Water Department was the equivalent of the Exxon Oil Company in southeast Alaska today. The debate and controversy over the building of the Mossyrock Dam on the Cowlitz by the Tacoma Water Department, with the sacrifice of the best run of winter steelhead in Washington, almost
singlehandedly created the Northwest Steelheaders, but too late.
But it was a watershed battle in that by mobilizing the recreational fishermen, it would be that last time in Washington a private (public) interest would clearly and brazenly sacrifice fish for kilowatts. That it was the Tacoma Water Department's land in question made the trespassing thing almost a requirement.
Now the reality of the situation was mind boggling, and remains just so today. In some ancient legal era, with what one could only hope were good intentions, the Seattle City Light and Tacoma Water
Department public utilities were either deeded or allowed to buy up the entire watersheds of the Cedar River, and the Green River respectively, where they entered the older national forest boundaries running north-south parallel to the crest of the cascades. THE ENTIRE WATERSHED! The Cedar is really only a second rate stream in size, but the Upper Green, as it was called by the very few who even realized it existed, was and is a major river. And, each utility placed restrictions on public access in the name
of protecting water quality. In the case of the Upper Green the rules were simple. It was closed to any and all public use or access. Period.
Imagine if you would the McKenzie Hiway running up to approximately Finn Rock, ending with a gate, a caretakers house, and a fine gravel two lane logging (LOGGING?) road running upriver parallel to the river out of site, and the entire McKenzie watershed closed by EWEB, in the name of water quality, to all
travel, fishing, hunting, picnicking, etc.. Now imagine all of this sitting within one hour travel of a metropolis of 1 million people in 1960! Now imagine the whole of the upper McKenzie unfished since
forever, yours for the trespassing. It was a tough decision to make, but I really didn't stand a chance. Maybe it was second generation cultural time warp.
I puttered around on the legal side of the gate area a day or two scoping the thing out, a 16 year old with the ink still wet on his drivers license, a wet license from waders with rubber soles, fear and guilt in
