Ross Lake Natural History Trip

On the morning of Sunday, August 28, my crew plus a couple NWSA staff members, an NWSA intern, and one tag along crew member left for Ross Lake in the North Cascades. Near Ross Lake, we met with Julie Stone, an NWSA intern working at the North Cascades Institute. She joined us on our trip, providing endless entertainment and relevant information on the geological and human history in the area. We spent 5 days on the Lake. One full day was spent hiking 7.5 miles up from Ross Lake at 1,500 ft to Desolation peak at 6,000 ft, then 7.5 miles back down again. It was an incredible adventure with beautiful views, pleasant weather, and the best of company.

Going Coastal

Sometime during a 3-day weekend in August, my crew leader, Liz, and I took a trip to the Oregon Coast. We met up with Dave and Olivia from the Gifford Pinchot crew at the Tillamook dairy factory for ice cream. This was Dave's last weekend with the program as he had injured his good hand and would no longer be able to do trailwork. They stayed with us for one night at Falcon Cove, then headed back to the MAC. After they left we hung out in Rockaway for a few hours. We then met up with several members of one of the PCT crews, Kyra, Nate, and Julie, at Lookout Beach. We returned to Falcon Cove with them for second night of camping before returning to Zigzag.

Zigzag Ranger District in August

In the month of August my crew and I removed a couple hundred logs from the Hunchback trail, worked a fair deal on MacIntyre Ridge Trail, Crosstown Trail, and the Crosstown to Timberline mountain bike trail that will be opening this year or next. I helped Bruce Thomson to refill soil that had been washed out from under a bridge sill due to trail users creating an wood dam in front of the creek that passes under it. Brittany and I helped Bruce to harvest about a dozen 6"x6" cedar boards from a felled hazard tree at Trillium Lake Campground. We also split up into two different groups, going to two separate spike locations for one work week, prior to setting off for Ross Lake.