PORT ANGELES — Skiers, snowboarders, snow tubers and snowshoers who visit Hurricane Ridge in the winter are invited to join a car cruise around downtown Port Angeles today.
Those who are interested in participating in the cruise are asked to meet in their vehicles in the parking lot behind Country Air, 200 W. First St., at noon today.
Organized by 13 year-old Remmi Lamarche, the event is intended to highlight the importance of access to the popular Olympic National Park wintertime recreation area.
A May 7 fire that burned the Hurricane Ridge Day Lodge to the ground and temporarily closed the road destroyed the electrical and sewer systems. The park reopened the road June 27 and installed portable toilets, which limited the total number of vehicles that can enter the road on a single day.
Lamarche said that she and other “Ridge Rats” were concerned the park would close the road when summer ended and not reopen until spring — thereby missing out on an entire ski season.
Lamarche said she wanted to stress that the event was intended to be fun and “a flash mob kind of thing,” not a protest.
“We’re calling it an awareness cruise,” Lamarche said. “I’m concerned that the park won’t open the road and I want to have access to the ski area and be able to go up there.”
Olympic National Park spokesperson Amos Almy said the park was aware of the cruise and of community interest in winter access and that internal discussions among its leadership were already underway on how this might be achieved.
Lamarche’s father, Julian Lamarche, said they understood the park’s challenges.
“They’re not facing a simple winter solution, and we want the public to know that,” Julian Lamarche said. “We want to offer help and find something that can work for them and then still maintain access and we think the public knowing about that will help.”
Danielle Lawrence of the Hurricane Ridge Winter Sports Club said it was not involved in the event, but that it wanted to help the park in any way it could in keeping the area open.
Paula Hunt can be reached at 360-425-2345, ext. 50583, or by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.
