First Week of Training at NWSA

Forest Service starting a burn pile next to campus

Using heavy equipment on the CSA farm

This guy is so not 21.

Monty Pearson at organic dairy farm

Approaching the old Cheese Cave

Planting potatoes in the NWSA garden

Paying a visit to the local cheesemaker

 

Second visit to the Pearson's organic dairy farm

Visiting our egg suppliers farm

Mt. Adams in May

After receiving near constant rain next to Mt. Hood, I made the decision to move North in search of dryer climes. I came upon the Mt. Adams Horse Camp, where I stayed for some 4 days. There I found perhaps a dozen different types of mushrooms, most notably Western Puffballs and Morels. Of the other mushrooms I found, some I identified to be edible and some not, though I was not certain about on any but the two aforementioned.

A view of Mt. Adams heading North on Hwy 35

Driving over the Hood River Bridge

Columbia River

Western Puffball and Morels

Mt. Adams

Morels

Blue-staining Cup

Snowbank False Morel?

Trillium

Pig Ears?

Mt. Hood in May

 This will be the first of many excursions around Mt. Hood. This particular stretch of 4 days consisted almost entirely of rain. Most of my time I spent in my car or under a tarp. I could not actually see Mt. Hood for the first 2 full days that I stood in its shadow (so to speak). The last 2 days had a few periods of sunshine.

Crater Lake and Rogue River May 5 - 6, 2011

Crater Lake was only a small divergence from my route to the Grants Pass area. It was a bit of a surprise. I had been thinking to myself that it might not be that snowy, as it is not that tall. Boy, was I wrong. The Crater Lake area receives an average of 44 ft. of snowfall per year. Ordinarily, most of the snow would be off the ground for about 3 months during the year. In the snow removal effort, which lasts about 4 months, the crew might move around 1.88 million cubic ft. of snow per day off roads. I found a very cozy spot to camp along the Rogue River, which runs off of Mt. Mazama (on which Crater Lake is located). There were no other people to speak of of, except for a well armed National Forest worker that questioned me about my activities there. That was odd.