Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Lemah Mt. (Sept. 2005)
Ahhh...the Central Cascades. I was fortunate enough to take two great companions into a part of my backyard I had yet to visit...the Lemahs. Seeing this area only on snow, I was excited to visit this piece of wilderness in the dry season. The perfect weather and seeing no other people didn't hurt the experience.
We definitely made the most of the bushwacking by following Smoot's guide and staying climber's left of Lemah
Creek (bass ackwards). The meadow was beautiful and had AV hollowing bear calls. From there, we advanced the bushwacking skills and found our bivy site under the Lemahs.Keeping to the mission of at least getting up the main summit, we bailed on any summit climb that first day, and instead waited until morning. Watching the big dipper rotate north over the fingers, we also experienced an incredible warming of over 10 degrees between 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. Yes, Sunday was brilliant.
Sunday went great, but even with 3 outgoing, in-shape explorers, the descent via Gold Creek was intelligently left for another day.
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Moran Outdoor School
My season at Moran Environmental Learning Center on Orcas Island was a short but fantastic experience. After a couple of weeks of training, we hosted 4 school groups, including 3 overnight trips with the kids.
We taught classes in watersheds, kayaking, forest succession, oldgrowth, creatures, groupbuilding, and more to groups of 6th and 8th graders.
I consider myself extremely lucky to have met so many fantastic young people, worked with amazing co-naturalists, and learned many new things. Thanks, everyone!
Alpental Bridge
The bridge is finally up!Trevor's last big project at the Summit has made major steps forward in the last few days.
The largest mobile crane in the US was brought in to lift the pieces into place - not a bad show!
Ron and Pat drove up for the day, and it was quite festive.
