Spring Quarter pre-begining....

Ok campers, this week starts with Spring quarter for our program officially beginning on March 31/April 1. My team meets with our primary faculty on Friday BUT.... we meet with our project customer Sheila W. from the Nisqually River Education Project on Thursday around 1pm...both of my teammates are enjoying a well deserved break and I am hopeful that we can connect before this meeting. ;-)

I will post more about the details after both meetings.

To date I have the brainstorming drafts done, purchased my own camcorder (because I want to be able to film other projects), sent out emails to my team on meeting updates and updated my Americorps timesheet for the month.

oh yes... my grant proposal for re-imbursement funding was mostly approved...lol I was granted about 90% of my request...not bad...this will cover mileage, any overnight stays on the mountain, and materials to produce the film on DVD.

Needless to say I am very excited!

Until then DO NOT put away your rain gear or your snowshoes...it may be Spring...but it is the Northwest!

Toward the end of another quarter...

Ok, enough of really bad jokes and onto the report of the field trip to Pack Forest and snowshoeing on the trails of Mt. Rainier National Park. Let me just get off my chest that the "old wives tale" about staying out in the cold will give you one.... http://coldflu.about.com/od/cold/f/coldandweather.htm  

So the flu/cold I erupted with after snowshoeing was from my classmates, who didn't have any more choice on this than I, and not from being outside. ok...I'm done with that one...and I am getting better...

The trip was work and fun...we were able to help the Ohop Valley Project with their riparian area restoration by putting "sleaves" on newly planted vegetation, pulling scotch-broom out with giant metal pullers, and replanting sweet little noble fir trees. My winter coat still has a bit of dried mud on it...and yes it snowed on us while we were working, and freezing rain, and it was cooollllddddd......the cold/flu has subsided a bit and now I have a  sinus infection...never dull here....

At Pack Forest we had guest lecturers Tuesday evening - Mt. Rainier's Outreach Planner, Bryan Bowden and Nick Bond, Planner from Eatonville. Both work with the Nisqually River Council.  Bryan was most generous and loaned me the Carbon River Corridor Charette that his group put together as a tool to know the Carbon River Water shed better. 

They can use this data to better plan for contingencies and future restoration for the area. (I need to return it to him next week!)

On Thursday we listened to Mt. Rainier Natioanl Park Education Dept.'s Fawn Bauer, and Greenhouse Supervisor Greg Berchard (hope I spelled that right Greg). Tacoma Power (that would be a whole other blog-or a documetary) PR song and dance guy Randy Stern were earlier in the am. 

Ok to the cool stuff: 

Wednesday SNOWSHOEING! My first time and I chose the trail my instructor Lucia Harrison was leading because 1) I'm older and slower and 2) I've never snowshoed before. I used to ski when I was younger but then buggered up my knees in TaeKwonDo...another story.

We did the Cougar Rock Campground trail out of Longmire just about 4 miles round trip...I had a blast...could not keep up with the 20' somethings but I kept a steady pace, saw a golden mountain ground squirrel, multiple mini waterfalls coming out from under snow covered ravines, the Nisqually banked by wonderful scenery of snow-covered trees, fallen tree obstacles that you either went under/around/over, snow falling, sun streaming through the forest, and such quiet (the road to Paradise was closed so no car traffic!).

We ate lunch here and headed back to Longmire....

golden mountain ground squirrel track....

After I got back to Longmire I headed over to the Trail of Shaddows... I did that one in the fall and wanted to see what it looked like in the winter.

Then there were snowball fights

Friday... WOOT!!! Paradise is open...cool...actually sunny then snowy then cloudy....

Along the way we had to stop 3 times to adjust our chains on the van...the third time, I did not assist and went back to Jeff's car (he was sweeping-a hiking term) and asked if he had any history to share about this part of the mountain... we were almost to Longmire and about 150 feet back behind the speed signs on the north side of the road...Jeff told a story about Hudson.  See above.  That hoop marks the spot that Hudson is burried. Back before Mt. Rainier was a NP, the Longmires were the experts so to speak of the area. One night Hudson was tending his campfire (in the fall or winter months, ok maybe spring-snow lasts along time up here) his derringer fell out of his pocket and either landed on the ground or in the fire and went off, shooting him in a bad way, like bleeding out kinda bad way... by the time someone got to the Mrs. Longmire and they made their way back, Hudson was gone. I'm thinking it had to be winter time or Hudson had no kin,  after storing him in the shed (because it was way colder outside than in) they buried him along the road back a bit. After ward the Veterans Assoc. established the hoop as a marker. Now you may say why a marker? Well if it snows on average of 10 to 20 feet a year...it would be nice to see the marker from time to time eh?  That day there was 13 feet of recent snow....Paradise had a total of 40' as of that day...prolly more by now....Here's to you Hudson!

Back on the road to Paradise....

Well MORA had her skirt down.... this is the bottom of the Nisqually Galcier....

The trip was maybe 2 miles round trip...not bad you say until you realize its kinda vertical and making trail through 2 feet of fresh powder with short legs is not wat I called leisurely... lol

It was invigorating and I would have taken more pictures, but I had enough to do hanging onto my poles and picking my self up after sinking into the powder up to my hips and twice falling on branches or tops of trees...Yes you may say TOPS of trees we were walking on top of and besides the tops of young Mountain Hemlock, Doug. Fir and Alpine Fir....

We left between 3 and 4 not sure when, very tired...still had the drive back to campus then drive back home, dropping Chris off in Tacoma...got home at 8 pm... 

That brings us to the top of todays blog campers!  

Ok remember to check your straps on your snowshoes! And when using a water bladder in your back pack keep the hoses inside a zipped pocket...otherwize up on the glacier your tubes will freeze and you will get dehydrated...

Peace out...more to tell stay tuned...