Disappointed that hunter was charged

I was very shocked and unhappy when I found out this morning that the 14-year-old hunter was going to be charged!

It’s a tragic thing to lose someone close to you, but what about the boy? With all this talk about how they may have done it on purpose and things of that nature being posted on the Internet, I hope his parents are protecting him and keeping him away from it.

I’m a hiker, and I’ve been up on Sauk Mountain when it’s foggy. You cannot see! It is true that you should not shoot unless you know what you’re shooting at, but it said in your article that the older brother confirmed his younger’s suspicion. They both thought the victim looked like a bear.

Many people may think, “How on Earth can a hiker look like a bear?” Well, here’s my answer: I went hiking once and not more than 120 yards ahead of me was a stream where there was what I thought was a bear. (I was in a group and we all thought it was a bear.) It turned out to be a lady bending over the water. It is true that our vision of her was a little obscured by a hill but she still looked like a bear on a perfectly clear day unlike the foggy morning that the boys had.

This incident does not scare me or even make me think of not hiking during hunting seasons, and it shouldn’t. Why should we go around in fear because of one terrible accident?

My opinion is that there should be no charge! Let the law worry about charging and convicting real criminals of the world instead of a poor kid who made an innocent mistake.

Samantha R. McNeil
Mount Vernon


Blaming the victim doesn’t work

I’ve hiked Sauk since 1958. I can state with surety that in good weather, I have seen 100-plus people on Sauk in a day. Even in rainy weather there are people trudging up the switchbacks.

I also want to state, before the “You are a hunter-hating elitist” letters start, that I own guns, that I have killed bears and grew up greasing my boots with bear grease and tagging along when my father trapped bear.

I was so stunned by the event that I hobbled up Sauk to see how such a tragedy could occur in such a heavily used place. I went three switchbacks beyond where the orange paint is until I ran into some badly tilted trail tread that I thought might give my leg injury problems.

So, I sat down and looked, listened and thought. Hikers came, parked, slammed car doors and talked. The entire slope is like a tilted table running across to the parking area and sound travels across it with remarkable clarity.

My thoughts:

• A s66-year-old man drops youngsters off to hunt in the fog and does not tell hikers parking beside him that hunters are on the slope?

• He did not arrange a horn signal to call the hunters in?

• The boys could not hear the ladies talking? (Yes, fog would reduce the clarity).

• Why didn’t he take them to nearby Indian Peak?

What we don’t need is “blame the victim” letters such as the drivel by Jerry Hansen on Aug. 18. Mr. Hansen has written letters by the bushel decrying government and now he wants a new law requiring “nature lovers” (apparently he excludes himself!) to wear fluorescent orange. He says it “was a typical hunting accident.” Wow! I wouldn’t hunt with him!

Lee Mann
Sedro-Woolley