"I hope that I can be like Ruth when I grow up. Ruth is so inspirational. She is relentless and absolutely dependable. If Ruth says 'I'll do it,' it will get done - in no time flat. She is just so dynamic."
The speaker is John de Graaf, acclaimed documentary filmmaker and producer of PBS' "Affluenza" series, and he's talking about the woman who stands at the center of his latest production, "Back to Life: The Iron Goat Trail." The half-hour program, which premières next Wednesday, May 25, at the Mountaineers Club in Lower Queen Anne, chronicles three years of work constructing the 9-mile Iron Goat Trail along the west side of Stevens Pass. In capturing the history of the trail and the volunteer effort that helped make it happen, the film inevitably highlights the vision of Queen Anne resident Ruth Ittner.
"Without trails in Western Washington it is very difficult to go into the mountains," says Ittner, an outdoor enthusiast with wild hair and twinkling eyes. "Our climate grows lush vegetation; plants like elderberry and nettles can grow up to a foot during the summer. If you don't maintain a trail in Western Washington, you will have a job to find it."
Ittner, a Mountaineer and mountain climber for more than 50 of her 87 years, should know. She is a citizen activist who's hiked and restored trails for most of her life. The walls of her home are covered with certificates of excellence and appreciation from outdoor organizations and state departments.
Ittner is a force, a weather system that moves mountains - literally. "She is an amazing person," says Janet Wall, a volunteer on the Iron Goat Trail since 1992 when construction began. "She has so much drive to get the project done."
In 1987 Ittner had trails on her mind. Washington state was two years away from its centennial birthday, and Ittner was on the board of Volunteers for Outdoor Washington, an organization she helped found. She suggested opening a historical trail in honor of the centenary. After a bit of research, the Iron Goat Trail seemed like the perfect choice, rich with railroad history and offering access to nature.
Ittner had experience building and maintaining trails on Mount Si and Tiger Mountain and believed that two years was ample time to open 9 or 10 miles of the Iron Goat Trail. "We took the branches out from overhead and the logs from underfoot, and then we just hiked until we had a beaten trail," she says, remembering her previous experience opening wilderness trails.
Opening the Iron Goat Trail - an abandoned section of the Great Northern Railway, which came across Stevens Pass in 1893 - would be more difficult, and Ittner was quickly informed that it was almost an impossible job. There was private property at every trailhead. The railroad had been abandoned for almost 60 years. Avalanches had come down, and there was unruly debris overhead. It was a forbidding task - and a challenge she couldn't resist.
"It all fits together," says Ittner, who has paused from sifting through boxes of old Trail documents and railroad maps stacked in her Queen Anne home. "While doing this trail, I called upon all of the skills that I had developed throughout my life."
A determined redhead, Ittner was valedictorian of her high school class and graduated from college with a government service major. She worked as a research consultant for the Institute of Public Policy and Management at the University of Washington and earned a master's degree in public administration.
Add to Ittner's dossier that she's an organizer and a collaborator, and an outdoor enthusiast who has a gift for working with large bureaucratic organizations and making things happen. "I knew lots of state officials and what most of the state offices did," she explains, calling over her shoulder - she's searching for more documents to share. "I was familiar with the system and had been to the national trail symposium in Washington, D.C."
The more that she learned about the Iron Goat Trail, the more determined she was to have it open to the public. "I am very persistent, you see" - flourishing the document she was looking for. "Once I start something, I am going to get to the bottom of it."
Getting to the bottom of opening the Iron Goat Trail turned into an 18-year project that is still about a year away from completion. The trail, built in accordance with the standards of the Citizens with Disabilities Act, features 40 interpretive signs that help bring history back to life. Beginning at the town of Wellington, site of a 1910 avalanche that killed 96 people, it offers hikes to railway tunnels and a 100,000-gallon water tank, which supplied water for steam locomotives and fire protection along the line.
It has also turned out to be a very colorful place to visit in summer. Wall, a native-plant steward, enjoys the succession of wildflowers that bloom along the trail. "We let a little more sunlight in, and all of these flowers popped up," says Wall. "This carpet of flowers has sprouted up right along the edge of the trail."
Yellow violets, star-flowered Solo-mon's seal and Oregon fairy bells, all native wildflowers, color the trail's edge during the summer months. It is a fitting metaphor for the trail itself. Ittner uncovered a trail worthy of reopening, and thousands of volunteers appeared.
"Every time the project had a real need, I realized that a person would walk in," says Ittner, remembering how many committed volunteers filled the needs of the project.
"I am a member of the 'wooden shoe' club," states Herb Schneider, an 84-year-old Queen Anne resident and volunteer on the project from its outset. Wooden shoe?
"Wouldn't chew," he repeats. "Well, you can pronounce it however you like," he concedes with a chuckle. "But it means Ruth will call you back and say, 'Wouldn't you like to go and do this?' or 'Wouldn't you like to go and do that?' It is kind of the routine in our group."
Another group routine, which is showcased in de Graaf's documentary, is the utter joy and friendships volunteers experience while working on the trail. Two volunteers actually met on the trail and fell in love; they celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary this August.
"You have to honor the people who spent years working to make this happen so that the rest of us could enjoy it," notes de Graaf. "There are at least 50 corporations, nonprofit organizations and government agencies that have participated in supporting the Iron Goat Trail. Plus thousands of local volunteers."
Organizations that helped fund the trail include: Sierra Club, Washington Native Plant Society, Stevens Pass, Puget Sound Energy, Great Northern Railway Historical Society Washington State Department of Transportation and Pyramid Communications.
"There are people who work at their desks and never see the results of their paper shuffling," concludes Ittner. "When you go up to the trail and work for a day, you see things happen. Some people just love being outdoors. Some people are railroad buffs. Some people get excited about the plants. People come and volunteer for all sorts of reasons."
And thank goodness they do! To see things happen, visit the Mountaineers Building, 300 Third Ave. W., on May 25 for the première screening of "Back to Life: The Iron Goat Trail," at 8 p.m. following a 7 p.m. wine-and-cheese reception. To help make things happen, visit www.bcc.ctc.edu/cpsha/irongoat/default for more information about the trail and volunteer schedules for 2005.
The première screening is free, but donations are suggested to help make copies of the documentary available to schools and libraries. Reservations are requested; phone VOW at 517-3019 or e-mail "/src/compose.php?send_to=info%40trailvolunteers.org" info@trailvolunteers.org
KCTS public television has scheduled the first broadcast of the documentary for Thursday, June 2, at 10 p.m.
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