The Mountains to Sound March at Snoqualmie Pass – Then and Now

An enthusiastic band of hikers set out from Snoqualmie Pass on July 4, 1990, intending to march all the way to Seattle and Puget Sound.  That was the beginning of the first Mountains to Sound March, an event that inspired the creation of the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust.

The march was organized by Jack Hornung and the Issaquah Alps Trails Club – a legacy of which we are proud.  Club photographer Larry Hanson captured images of the event, the most famous being the intrepid band of marchers on the Pacific Crest Trail near the summit of Snoqualmie Pass, just setting out on the first day of the march.   Ralph Owen, a club stalwart and route finder for the march, is shown at the front of the band, with Debbie Anschell, another club stalwart, second in line. 

It’s a legacy worth celebrating, and I got a bee-in-my-bonnet to recreate that classic photo, enlisting some of the participants on the 1990 march (if I could find any willing to participate in such a silly little project).  Happily, Ralph and his wife Peggy were on board, and Debbie Anschell, with her husband Gregory, also said yes, so I had the first two in the original line-up covered, and all four were 1990 march participants!  I considered myself lucky.  Then, to fill out the ranks a little, David Kappler (a co-founder of the club, untiring advocate, hike leader, former president, vice president, etc.) and Doug McClelland (a founding member of the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust and past president of the board) signed on – both original marchers but not captured in the original photo.  And, of course, Ned the dog came along with Doug (but he was not an original marcher, or at least when I asked him, he just said “woof”). 

I was able to identify the spot from which the original photo was taken on a scouting hike last summer. It was on the Pacific Crest Trail, about 1 mile south on the trail starting from the Lodge Lake trailhead near the Summit West ski area. Happily, the trail was in the same place as in 1990, but the brush along the trail had grown up, necessitating the placement of the hikers a little differently from the original photo, in a spot where the brush would not hide them.  Weather, forest fire smoke, and people’s availability came into play, pushing the photo shoot into late October.  It snowed at the pass a few days before the planned shoot, introducing more uncertainty to the project, but thankfully, it cleared up, and we got the job done on a glorious autumn day in the mountains.  The recent snow remained on the upper levels of the peaks, adding highlights.

And so, here are the then-and-now photos for your viewing pleasure, followed by an annotated version for those curious about the mountains in the background.

 

The Mountains to Sound March at Snoqualmie Pass.  July 4, 1990.  Ralph Owen in the lead, followed by Debbie Anschell. Photo by Larry Hanson.

 
 

Reenacting the historic march on the same stretch of trail.  October 29, 2022.  Left to right: Ralph Owen, Debbie Anschell, Peggy Owen, Gregory Anschell, Doug McClelland and David Kappler. Photo by Tom Anderson.

 
 

Annotated photo identifying the peaks and trail features. Photo by Tom Anderson.

 
 

The march reenactors at the PCT trailhead.  Left to Right: Doug McClelland, Gregory Anschell, Debbie Anschell, Ralph Owen, Peggy Owen, David Kappler. All six were participants in the 1990 march. Photo by Tom Anderson.

 
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