North Cascades NP, Washington - October 6, 2006

Hi, everyone. There haven’t been any major news items here in the last few weeks. My bike got a flat tire again, and I replaced the tube, but I’ve decided not to risk it on any more long-distance bike rides until I can have the tire itself replaced. So, this morning I took the weekly shuttle bus into Concrete, which worked out pretty well: this way I can take my laptop to the library. (On my last bike ride, when the tire went out, I wasn’t able to hitch a ride, and after the sun went down I ended out calling my boss, Mike Brondi, to ask him to pick me up, rather than walk the next 8 miles back to Marblemount). My housemates and I saw a double feature at a friend’s house the other day, and her cat escaped, so we spent a half hour stumbling around in the brush looking for it (it was very cute though, so it was worth the effort). The last two of my housemates left this week, and they threw a big (homemade) pizza party before they left, which was a lot of fun. A new housemate, Clay, just moved in a few days ago. Other than that, though, there hasn’t been much going on.

I thought, though, that now might be a good time to talk about the different places I’ve been working, and what all I’ve been doing. Cascade Pass: There’s a beautiful 4-mile hike into the work site here. The trail crew is in the middle of a multi-year effort to reroute the Sahale Arm trail, extending the switchbacks to make a gentler hike. So, Plant Prop came in to collect plants from the area where the new trail is going, and bag them up to cover the old trail with next year. Mostly that involves hacking plants out of the hillside, but last weekend I went up with a volunteer from the Native Plant Society to collect what seed was left there. There were originally going to be more volunteers there, but they all cancelled, and Mike didn’t want to bother going up himself for one volunteer, so I went instead. A few weeks back, underneath one of the plants I was digging up, I found an old soda bottle. As a joke I told the archeologist working at the Pass that I’d found an ‘artifact’ – but as it turned out, he was actually interested in the bottle. I did some internet research at home, and was able to date the design to 1949, and based on the bottle’s depth in the hill, he could get an approximate picture of the rate of soil deposition there. Cool.

McAlester Lake: We had one 3-day camping trip here (including 7-mile hikes in and out of the campground) a couple of weeks ago. It was over the weekend to accommodate the expected volunteers – who, again, didn’t show up. One got a stomach flu, a few others backed out at the last minute, and one arrived on the day of the hike, announcing that he had his 10-gauge, his 20-gauge, and his deer, bear, and cougar licenses all ready. Since you’re not actually allowed to carry weapons through the park itself (though you are in the National Recreation Area, where the McAlester Lake campground is located), Mike had to tell him that if he wanted to come, he’d have to hike in from the other direction. He said he would – and that was the last we ever heard from him. I think a bear ate him. While at the lake, we helped to reveg some old campsites, and disappear the social trails (mainly by putting trees and piles of brush over the trail entrances). It was a very nice camping trip, and we’re going back again next week, which should be nice, provided we don’t get snowed on.

Ross Lake: This is a lot of fun. We get to take the boat out onto the lake, to various work sites. We’re doing reveg/trail disappearance on Cat Island, riparian habitat restoration at Dry Creek (i.e. tossing logs up to the shoreline, above where the water comes at full pool, to plant on later), plus we’ve done a bit of seed collection around the lake. On our last trip, I discovered a driver’s license (expiring in 1993), at the bottom of the lakebed.

There’s also the Environmental Learning Center (seed collecting, invasive species removal, planting, volunteer coordination), Diablo Overlook, Falls Afternoon Creek, and Gorge Overlook (all seed collection), The Berm (weed removal from supposedly weed-free soil), Colonial Creek (seed collection, planting, and campsite construction), the San Juan Islands (seed collection), plus the Marblemount nursery, where there’s always tons to do (planting, transplanting, weed removal, seed processing, pruning, plant moving, pot washing, raking, inventorying, computer work, research, Pilates, etc).

When not working, I’ve been applying for new SCA positions, practicing my Spanish and French, hiking, biking (until recently), reading, watching movies, playing computer games I haven’t had time to play in years, baking, playing cards and Boggle, plus the usual random stuff, like helping Mike copy his VHS Pilates tapes to DVD tomorrow. All in all, everything’s been going great.

I hope you’re all doing well.

Talk to you later,Nathan