Chesaw

Ed and Linda Bush took another several hours of their time Saturday to escort Juliette and I around to veterans in the woods of Ferry and Okanogan counties. We met two: Mike Rounds and Bob Davis.

Mike, who spent four years in the Army during the Vietnam War, has steely eyes, a cool, steady voice, and 20 gorgeous acres far above a wooded valley. For 25 years, he designed traffic patterns for major events in Seattle, a job that gave him a thorough distaste for city life. “I see living out here as definitely an escape,” he said.

One of the big draws that brought the Syracuse News21 team to northeastern Washington was the promise of rugged mountain veterans living miles from the nearest patch of pavement, their hand-hewn property surrounded by forbidding signage. After three weeks in the area, though, we were hardly closer to verifying the existence of any quasi-mythological recluses, much less meeting them.

Now we know. They exist.