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William A. Long - Pasayten Primitive Area Trek

In April 1939, the author visited his friends the Gourlies at their log cabin in Windy Pass in the Pasayten Primitive Area. Florence and Leon Gourlie lived there with their son, Melvin. He vowed to return, and at daybreak on December 1, 1940, his mother dropped him off at the end of the Methow River road near Lost River, 18 miles from the cabin. He trudged on skis to Harts Pass, arriving near dusk, descended to the abandoned mining town of Barron and then climbed to the cabin, arriving exhausted at midnight.

He stayed a month with his friend Melvin, sometimes staying at the New Light Mine, 2000 feet below the cabin. They also skied over the Cascade crest to the Baltimore Mines on Barron Creek in the Skagit River drainage. Three people were there. One of them, the cook, got severe cabin fever by the end of the winter. "He could not stand the privation." Around Christmas, Melvin and the author skied out by moonlight and traveled to Wenatchee for a week. He writes, "This experience has had the greatest influence upon my life, other than being in combat in World War II." (See brower-1948.)

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