Day 5 - Elma, WA

It was all going so well. Perhaps too good to be true. Derek, while riding to Elma, WA for our 4th night of camping, had a wee accident on the bike. It happened suddenly; Bryan and Laura witnessed it first-hand. The damage? One deep gash and big time road rash, torn cycling shorts, torn t-shirt, a bent rear derrailer, and one sad cyclist drooling at the prospect of others enjoying beautiful Western Washington.

The others enjoyed the riding that day and had the good luck that our route took us into Oakville, WA home to Wild Thyme Farm. Bryan had visited the farm last year for one of the free monthly workshops they give on subjects like sustainable forestry, riparian restoration, food forests, and berry orcharding, and suggested we all check it out.

We took a short detour from our route, dodged five or six farm dogs and rode into the farm. One of the several brothers who own the farm, John Henrikson, stepped away from work at a portable saw mill to greet us, and ended up explaining his sustainable forestry (Forest Steward Council-certified) practice and giving us a tour of the farm. Wild Thyme is 150 acres of mixed conifer and deciduous forest, household gardens and riparian zone, managed for the long term by John and his brothers.

We watched his crew mill parts of a huge old alder that would normally be thrown away or chipped. Some of the boards drying in the old barn had beautiful and distinct patterning--where other timber operations see problem wood, John has seen resources and high-value specialty timber. Business is ramping up at Wild Thyme.

Given the beauty we saw (food everywhere, and a healthy managed forest), John's enthusiasm for his work, and the profitability of their operation, it's not hard to imagine that the other local timber managers and foresters who attend his workshops would see a new way forward for sustainable forestry...and our route certainly took us by enough clear cuts to demonstrate the prevailing "alternative".