PORT TOWNSEND — It starts with Sunrise Ridge. As we round the final curve of the 17-mile Hurricane Ridge Road, “the full, dazzling expanse of the snow-capped Olympic Mountains sweeps into view. Tier upon tier … to the far horizon like the stilled waves of a tumultuous sea.”
That’s Tim McNulty, author of “Salmon, Cedar, Rock & Rain,” the new book reveling in the Olympic Peninsula. Lush with photography, brimming with essays by McNulty and Native American writers, the work is the subject of McNulty’s free reading today.
He’ll step up at 7 p.m. at the Port Townsend Library, 1220 Lawrence St., along with a few of the book’s contributors.
John Gussman of Sequim provided scores of pictures – of mountains, clouds, rivers and wild creatures, from the forest floor to the High Divide. He’s marking his 50th year as a professional photographer. At 73, Gussman says going out into the wilderness makes him feel younger.
He cares a great deal about this place.
“It’s still wild,” Gussman said, adding, “We also have another rare commodity, which is solitude.”
Years in the making, “Salmon, Cedar, Rock & Rain” was an assignment McNulty embraced with his poet’s ear and researcher’s mind.
“There was a lot of joy to be had writing about my favorite topic,” he said.
“I was able to fold a few little personal stories in, and that’s always fun … Researching the extent of the restoration projects going on around the Peninsula, with the tribes, the land trusts, with volunteers and conservationists … all of that is really satisfying,” McNulty said.
These projects, he adds, range from Chimacum Creek in Jefferson County to the giant Elwha River Restoration.
“Salmon, Cedar, Rock & Rain” is pictures, prose, facts and love – from McNulty and from a group of Native writers plus novelist and poet David Guterson and journalist Lynda Mapes.
Representing the region’s tribes are Fawn Sharp (Quinault), Wendy Sampson and Jamie R. Valadez (both Lower Elwha Klallam), Loni Grinnell-Greninger (Jamestown S’Klallam), Gary Morishima, a natural resources and environment technical advisor to the Quinault tribe, Francine Swift (Port Gamble S’Klallam) and Maria Parker Pascua (Makah). Along with Gussman, more than 30 other photographers contributed images.
Page 57 bears a photo of Gussman atop the High Divide in summer 2022, where fog is spread across the mountains like a lavish scarf. Cath Hickey, his wife of 21 years, took the picture. A turn of the page finds Gussman’s photo of Hickey in her blue parka, snowshoeing in a white-blanketed Hurricane Ridge.
Near the close of the book are 10 tips from the Olympic Climate Action group (olyclimate.org/actions) Seeking a “safe, prosperous, sustainable future” for all Peninsula residents, the tips include: drive less; eat local; use your voice to contact community leaders; cut your air travel in half.
“I wanted this to be the essential book on what the Peninsula is about,” Gussman said.
“It’s just a feeling you have when you’re here.”
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Diane Urbani de la Paz is a freelance writer and photographer living in Port Townsend.
