Mountains to Meadow

Lolo Pass, 6/27/09

The Camas is in bloom again. The Beargrass too. It was a setting we dared not hope for twice in a row. Last year's Camas bloom coincided with the Fun Run perfectly - the season was late with a late snow melt. This year heavy rains fell on the Bitterroot Mountains again stalling the Camas for this year's run. The racers would again be able to end their run with a lope through a field of blue. How lucky. And that is after they ran 14 miles along Forest Service roads through the best Beargrass bloom in years. Beargrass is cyclical and this seems to be the year for it. The creamy flower clusters coated the hillsides along the race course.

I heard several racers as they walked off the race comment that this course kicked butt, but they couldn't wait to see what nature had in store for next year.

National Public Lands Day

Mt Pilchuck Work Party, 9/27/08

As Discover Your Northwest, the organization I work for, expands and tries on new hats we come across opportunities too good to pass up. One such opportunity is partnering with the Mt Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest to develop a series of volunteer events in needful areas. Not necessarily trail maintenance and repair (as this past weekend's was) but eradicating invasive plant species, building picnic tables and birdhouses, or anything else the forest finds a need to do. We affectionately call the series of events Earth Day Every Day.

This weekend, we sponsored an event at Mt Pilchuck to repair some trail damage. A portion of the trail has been the drainage of melting snows and hikers trying to avoid getting their made-for-the-mud expensive boots dirty have walked around making new trails. This can get me onto a soapbox, but I'll spare you from that at the moment.

Our workday, was a blast! We lopped brush from the trails around the picnic area. Did you know Mt Pilchuck has a picnic area - just off to the right at the start of the trail - check it out. We moved rocks along the muddiest parts of the trail for stepping stones. We applied erosion control matting and posted signs to warn hikers that this was a habitat rehabilitation area. Two of us gathered seeds to germinate in the greenhouse for transplanting later. It was a good day and we all left the trail feeling good about all the work we had accomplished.

For more information on volunteer events visit the Discover Your Northwest website at http://www.discovernw.org/get_involved.htm