Lost in the Woods

If I had to guess, one of C’s biggest fears for this summer is that I would get lost on an afternoon hike, be soaking wet in the snow, miles from civilization, at high-elevation, where I would be out of breathe and near a high edge just as the sun starts to decline into the horizon.

Note to C: if this is true, don’t read this blog…just skip it and read the next one.

In fact, the only thing that would make this story worse is if there were thousands of swarming mosquitoes following my every move just waiting for my insect repellant to wear off and if I were halfway through a book entitled “Over the Edge: Death at the Grand Canyon” that detailed all of the horrible ways people have perished while hiking one the seven wonders of the world’s (most seemed to either fall or become severely dehydrated).

Yup, that would be a terrible experience. For my neighbor S and buddy N & I, that was our Sunday (I’m worn out from this adventure).

The original plan was to hike the 4.5 mile trail that led to the peak of Mount Theilson (just north of Crater Lake National Park); yet, the last 200 feet of that hike required harnesses and climbing gear (and probably ice pick, b/c there’s still a lot of snow). But at the last minute, our sherpas (the two other seasonal park employees who had the requisite gear) bailed. So instead we decided to climb the easier Union Peak (located within the park). Union Peak on paper seemed much easier, it tops out at only 7,700 feet above sea level (not bad considering we would start at around 6,000 ft), the trail was 6 miles out and 6 back (an average of a 5.3% grade), the temperature was going to hit 75 degrees and nearly all of the snow in the park has melted.

What we failed realize until we started, was the first 4 miles was covered in up to 5 feet of snow, extremely poorly marked (we lost the trail so many times, we had to make up our own utilizing a compass and a map) and rose just a few hundred feet in elevation (average of a 2% grade), mile 5 rose only 200 feet but it was up a loose pumice hill (hard to get a footing & exhausting) and the last mile appeared to rise almost vertically, 1000+ feet of this monster crag. Oh and the last mile, like the rest of the hike was entirely covered in either loose rock and/or snow… add in the high elevation & you have one exhausted M. I almost forgot to mention the swarms of mosquitoes that followed us through the entire walk – at points on the trail behind us we thought we were being chased by smoggy clouds; nope those were hordes of hundreds of mosquitoes, just waiting for us to stop.

SO we finally made it up the snow fields and loose rock, and the views were awesome!

The view from the top to the SE (mount shasta in CA is just barely visible on the right of the photo)

Looking North to the peaks around Crater Lake (the lake is in the void)

Me, goofying around up top


Doing my Hulk-a-mania poses - Oh Yeah

If you look closely, you can even see Mount Shasta over 100 miles away.

Anyway, after a late lunch and plenty of picture posing right at the edge (a cause of many deaths in the “Death at Grand Canyon” book), we headed back.

We even had a little fun taking shortcuts down the snowy mountainside.

S, skiing on her feet - quite a time saver & a lot of fun (we had to snake up this snowbank to get to the top)

N, decending on loose rocks

Although the fun ended when we realized we were not returning the same way we came. In fact after about half an hour, nothing looked familiar. There we were, in the middle of the woods, miles from our car (certainly not about to retrace our steps back up the peak) and miles from the nearest person or cellular tower. You could say we were lost – although I preferred to think of it as simply taking another, unmarked, completely confusing way back (another cause of frequent deaths in Grand Canyon per the book).

Trying to navigate our way back on 5 feet of snow

However, thanks to our trusty compass and topographical map (and our understanding to keep going NE & downhill), we eventually found one of the trails. Our confused way back even ended up being a short-cut and saved us 15 minutes of hiking.

As you can tell from this blog, we made it back – although, I was terribly sore and my boots, socks, insoles and pants were drenched (there were even pools of water forming in my shoes from all of the snow).

All of the photos from the hike are listed here.

You can check out photos from the prior week’s camping trip to Big Hole, Hole-in-the-Ground, Fort Rock & Crack-in-the-Ground. Yes, those were really their names.

Here you can see photos from my hike to Godfrey Glen (where I'm going to C on a private picnic) w/ AA & G

Also, here are some great pictures from a purple sunset the other day.

FHF Modeling Meets Mysticism

My internship this summer requires a little bit of forecasting; financial forecasting, operational forecasting and facial hair forecasting.

Yup, facial hair forecasting (FHF for short). One of my most FAQs about this summer revolves around being in the woods for a few months and my known dislike for shaving. So yesterday (during our off-time & not on the government's dime), we decided to do a little FHF to determine what I might look like if I didn't shave for the entire summer. Attached is the model's results below.

We saw these results and could only think of one thing...finally, we've found Sasquatch! That's right, Bigfoot is nothing but an intern who likes do business plans for the NPS, but hates shaving! Take that crypto-zoologists!

Anyway, speaking of Sasquatch, check out what AA (my co-consultant) and I came across the other day... Follow this link, scroll down until you see the April 2009 Critter of the month. Hysterical.

Who Put the Blue Food Coloring in the Lake?

Crater Lake is one of the clearest lakes in the world. As a result of its clarity and its snow-melt-fill, the lake, especially up close, appears blue – really blue. When C & I were in Tahiti, the water was a lovely light blue/clear. At Crater Lake, the water is as blue as you could imagine. If you were to tough out the cold water and stand completely wet in the lake, the water’s so clear you could see your feet – but they’d look blue (and not because of the 40 degree water).

Anyway, so we hiked down the only path within the caldera to the water, Cleetwood trail, & here are some of my photos.

View from the top of the rim - looking at the blue water

Me, at the bottom of the Cleetwood trail, looking at the lake

Also, I took a hike at dusk with a G (my roommate), AA (the co-consultant) & S (AA's roommate). Here are those photos too.

S (AA's roomate), M & G (my roommate) standing on a 4-5 foot tall snow bank in the middle of the trail we were on. This part of the trail was at least passable, we had to turn around when we lost the trail under a snow field the size of DC.

Keep in mind, I didn't touch up any of the photos, the lake is really THAT blue.

Day 3 – Waterfall, Waterfall, Waterfall, Closed Waterfall, Waterfall & finally a Waterfall

Wait, why are there no pictures in this posting...hmm... sorry, but blogger does not like uploading them for this posting. Click here to see the pics.

With my last day of pure freedom before I start working Monday, G the roommate, AA the co-consultant, S AA’s roommate & N S’s friend ventured out of the park in search of waterfalls. And wow, was it a great day (both weather and fun-wise).

North and Northeast of Crater Lake in the heart of the Cascades is the Umpqua River, which, thanks to the guidance of a travel brochure, we found to host a bounty of great waterfalls. About 20 minutes north of the park boundary is Clearwater Falls:


--------------
The next falls, Whitehorse Falls, was definitely the loser of the trip. While still a nice set of falls, compared to the others it was like running a garden hose off the porch – a small drop and not a huge volume of water, hence there’s only one photo.



--------------
Stop three, unanimously the best of the bunch, featured a mile hike to the falls but on the way offered many great sights, flowers and smaller falls. As one of SW Oregon’s largest falls, Watson Falls drops 272 feet with such force on to a pile of rocks that it sent spray through the thick forest half way to the trailhead.

A small waterfall with the 272 ft drop in the background

The group, minus AA (she’s taking the photo), at the falls

The force of the water crashing down on the rocks; the falls were so fierce water couldn’t pool at the bottom like with most falls.


--------------
Waterfall 4, as you may tell from the title, was closed. Looked cool in the brochure though.


--------------
Waterfall 5, Fall Creek Falls, was your stereotypical waterfall scene: mild hike to arrive at a calming waterfall that fell gently into a nice wading pool. It also provided a great opportunity to each lunch by the creek.



---------------
Waterfall 6, Susan Creek Falls, was nice as well. At this point in the day we were getting a little tired of waterfalls, but felt the need to complete the circuit.




After waterfalling out ourselves, we drove back to Crater Lake and finally saw the lake not covered by clouds (it was the first day there it hadn’t rained, a lot). The water was calm enough to actually see the cliff’s reflections and the water appeared as blue as ever.

Day 2 – The Lake & The Rain

After a late start, AA, my apartment mate G (who’s working this summer on the Park’s first bear project to count the number in the Crater Lake) and I left our VIP housing to take our first gander at the Lake. Shortly after we pilled into the oversized SUV, the skies opened up and it proceeded to pour – it was so heavy it was like driving through a waterfall (no, I did not actually drive through a waterfall). As I drove the rest of my posse intelligently slipped on their extra layers and waterproof pants; unfortunately, I lacked the foresight to bring any of those items - my destiny was one met with wet pants. However, nothing was going to stop us from seeing the Lake; although the fog and clouds certainly tried by obscuring ½ of the Lake from view.

Despite being rained on in 40 degree temperatures, it was AWESOME and I can hardly wait to go back during a warm and clear day.





After getting thoroughly soaked standing at an overlook, we decided to hike the only open trail. With over 90 miles of trails in the park, only 89 miles were clear of snow and were hike-able. Dripping wet (well, I was because they had on rain gear) and in the cold rain we began our short hike. In only a mile, we managed to climb cliffs to about 7,000 feet, hike through a cloud so thick we nearly lost sight of one another and spot our first sightings of the Park’s famous wild flowers.



It was so steep – a 1,500 foot almost sheer drop & so cloudy that we couldn’t see the lake

After a thorough soaking from the waterfall of rain and coming across 3 feet of snow completely covering the trail for over a 100 yards (it was like a mini wall of white), we made turned around and hiked back down through the cloud.

As fate would have it, it stopped raining, became sunny and warmed into the 50’s the instant we returned to our VIP lodging – that didn’t really matter though, we hiked the only mile of trail not covered by a wall of snow.

Day 1 – The Arrival

On Friday evening we eventually made it to the bustling metropolis of Klamath Falls. After a 3 hours delay in San Francisco, we (AA, my co-consultant, & I) were thrilled to arrive in the one terminal KF terminal.

(in response to the previous blog regarding seating configuration, seat 11D did not have ridiculous amounts of legroom)

After a brief trip to Goodwill for cups & books and a 2+ hour / $250+ adventure at the Klamath Super Wal-Mart (I needed everything from a pillow and bedding to groceries), we finally headed to Crater Lake. However, after a truly scenic sunset drive past mountains, rolling hills, grazing cattle and Upper Klamath Lake, we arrived at Crater Lake well after sunset (like 10 pm).

While the stars shined like hundreds of little flashlights in the sky, it was cold (the temperature dropped from the upper 60’s to the low 40’s in no time) and we were exhausted. So after being up since 4 am eastern time (1 am western), we decided to postpone our first Lake viewing until the morning and retire to our respective apartments – although I still didn’t make it to bed until after midnight (evidentially reenacting a school all-nighter).

For those who are wondering about the accommodations, I’m staying in VIP housing (I even drive around the park in an oversized SUV, pimping). It’s a sprawling three bedroom (although I think I’ll only have one housemate), two bathroom duplex with vaulted ceilings, an extremely spacious kitchen and a lovely porch overlooking the mountains and the maintenance building. All and all, it’s ridiculously nice and a million times better then spending the whole summer in a tent. As an added plus, our water comes from a nearby underground spring fed by mountain snowmelt – it’s commonly referred to as the best water in the entire National Park system.

At the end of the road take the ferry

What did your new job's orientation entail? Whenever I started a new job, mine have always been about understanding the organization, your responsibilities and getting to know your co-workers. Well, my summer camp's orientation is no different. Only when you go to work for the National Park Service orientation begins with several brief lectures about the org followed by group hikes and visits to national park (sweetness).

Yesterday we began with a tour of historic Harpers Ferry, followed by a hike in the overlooking Maryland bluffs. Here are a couple looks from our visit.

The Harpers Ferry train bridge (under the mountain we hiked up)


View of the City from atop the overlook


Another view of the train bridges and the junction (under the rocks)


Most of the intern crew atop the overlook (there are 13 of total). My co-consultant for Crater Lake is in the red hat.

Don't worry everyone was very friendly and we're all getting along fabulously. Day 2, we're off to hike all day in the Shenandoahs.

Everyone Wants to Go to Kalamath Falls

Evidently, everyone wants to go to Kalamath Falls. I was just checking out my flight itinerary and came across the following diagram for my flight from San Francisco to K Falls:

The first thing I noticed about this flight, was how full the flight is - there's only one open seat (there's still room for C). After staring at this seating diagram, I realized how oddly set-up the flight is.

1. There's no row 1, passenger seats start with row 2 (I'm guessing this is because the plane is so small the pilots sit in the first row).
2. Row 11 has a bonus seat - what a weird seat set-up. However, if the diagram holds true to the plane's actual seat configuration, the sucker is seat 11D will have 10 rows of legroom - wowzers. Maybe he'll switch seats with me.

UPDATE: Subsequent searches yielded a more realistic diagram, where the four back seats are like the back seats of a bus - essentially a long row where 11B is in the aisle. I don't want to switch anymore, plus they'd find out real early into the flight I'm not really cool enough to sit in the back (hence my nerdy seat upfront and on the aisle).

Anyway...Off to West Virginia.