Chattermarks

It is nearing the end of February, and yet, while spring is shouting out with buds blossoming and fair weather, I find myself craving the cold of snow, yearning for the sting of winter.

With a snow-free Environmental Learning Center on the western slopes of the Cascades, the eastern flanks seemed the most likely venture in search of more local wintry conditions. The Icicle River Valley in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness of the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest called me. This valley, located near the Bavarian-themed town of Leavenworth, is one I am all too familiar with visiting in other seasons for rock climbing and backpacking. This trip, instead, was different, a hopeful plea to winter to let me experience a season that is all too quickly melting away.

Even to the east the snow was minimal, but just enough was present so that, for the first time this year, I could slip on my cross country skis and head up the Icicle Creek Road in search of other signs of winter.

» Continue reading Crossing a bobcat’s path

A flit of gold. A flicker of green. Soft song notes from within a tangle of blackberry vines. A surprising whoosh of hovering wing-sweeps, mere inches above ground.

Birds. They are some of the Skagit Valley’s most compelling and charismatic creatures. In winter, the Skagit farmlands teem with all kinds – song birds, raptors, shorebirds, local and migratory waterfowl. You need not have fancy equipment nor years of experience to be a birder here. What it takes is the curiosity to know more and the patience to practice deep observation.

(Title) Graduate students of Cohort 9 extend their birding eye on the Skagit flats (Above) The Hayton Reserve is one Skagit Valley location to go bird watching

» Continue reading Becoming bird observers

My dreams within Environmental Education are like that of the Skagit River’s watercourse.

From its headwaters, my dream begins in the tiniest of raindrops, collecting in glaciers perhaps and trickling down to alpine streams. The dream builds to a river, solidifying as do the sturdier banks supporting the way of the water. Weaving out and around, the dream’s course is composed, at times, of rapids raging, then pooling in softer shallows. It exits the mountain peak domain to enter a gentler, more gradual flow—that of farmland and forest—though still bringing with it reminders of the lessons learned in higher places. The channel widens, as does my dream’s scope, the hint of salt in freshwaters. As river converges with ocean, a chorus commences. Ideas, like nutrients, swell. Life is rich, vibrant. Just as the Skagit River feeds the Salish Sea, so the sea replenishes the river.

» Continue reading From headwaters to sound

At the Environmental Learning Center, the weather this week hints almost of spring. It is tempting to get swept away from the season at hand into those of the future. But winter is not a season to be wished away, it is a season to be savored.

With snow’s presence lacking on the surrounding landscape, I find myself looking for other, less obvious signs of winter’s presence. I want to dig deeper into the often remarked “dreary” landscape of winter to bring out, instead, the vibrant shades and shapes that exist as my knowledge of this place’s natural history grows. Through twig tracking – the identification of deciduous shrubs and trees based on bud placement, plant shape, and twig color and texture – I am able to expand my engagement, understanding, and appreciation for the wintry North Cascades.

You need not travel far from your home to decipher the first of many twig mysteries that, for other seasons, hide beneath layers of leaves, flowers and fruits. On a late afternoon walk to Diablo Dam, I identified over 10 species of deciduous trees and shrubs that flourished alongside the roadway. Who knows what additional wonders await when venturing further into the woods!

» Continue reading Trying out twig tracking

When the crops of the Skagit farmlands are put to rest for winter, they come.

With the sky’s gray backdrop so common to a winter in western Washington, they glisten like diamonds. Birds. By the hundreds, thousands even, they flock from near and far to the fertile, tilled soils at the mouth of the Skagit River, one destination of many on their migratory journey.

Snow geese. Trumpeter swans. Bald eagles. These are but a few of the many species you will find on an adventure of bird watching across the flats. Other local residents, such as a variety of hawks and ducks, the barred owl, and the infamous great blue heron, paint an elaborate portrait in winter, making the Skagit Valley one of the most prized destinations for bird watching in the Pacific Northwest.

» Continue reading Watching winged friends

December 21st, the official start of winter, has just only recently passed. Though it may be only a calendar date to some, in Washington’s Cascades, winter’s arrival is obvious, its long stay welcomed.

The white flakes so indicative of this new season are enticing. In these coldest and darkest of months, I get outside, purposefully, to engage with this landscape in yet another new and enlightening way – through snowshoeing.

To see the natural world cloaked all in white takes some skill. In western Washington, snow has not quite reached the lowlands except for short, sporadic bursts. Most of this precipitation has collected up in the higher parts of the mountain valleys. When snow does not come to me, I come to it, and snowshoeing allows me to see places in winter that many only dream of.

» Continue reading Venturing south for a snowshoe

Along the Skagit River, the month of December marks the beginning of an incredible display of interaction among two of western Washington’s most prominent species – eagles and salmon.

The Skagit, whose headwaters begin near Hope, British Columbia, travel by the North Cascades Environmental Learning Center, and end in the estuarine confluence of Skagit Bay southwest of Mt. Vernon, is the Puget Sound’s largest river and second in size only to the Columbia in Washington. All 5 Pacific salmon runs, including sockeye, chum, chinook, pink and coho, reach up along various locations of the Skagit.

With an especially high pink salmon run, an estimated 1.2 million salmon by Washington state fish biologists, along with a current chum spawning run, this season could make for some surprising eagle sights.

» Continue reading In the presence of eagles

Tell me about a path less traveled and I will take it.

In the North Cascades National Park, there is such a plethora of paths to choose from when planning an adventure that it seems so many can become overlooked. On cold winter days, when light is little, I aim to try out these less-traveled paths.

Stetattle Creek trail is one of those paths. Perched on the edge of the Skagit River’s Seattle City Light town of Diablo, it is a short drive from the North Cascades Environmental Learning Center. More often than not, it is bypassed by adventurers in summer aiming to conquer the feat of Sourdough Mountain, the trailheads less than a mile apart from one another. But when snow is heavy on the summits of the tall peaks, Stetattle Creek is a great late fall and early winter jaunt.

» Continue reading A saunter up Stetattle Creek

What happens at Mountain School does not just stay at Mountain School.

With winter’s silence embracing the landscape up at the Learning Center, the laughter of Mountain School students seems all but a distant echo, fading as the Skagit flows down valley. The excitement, the energy, travels wherever the students fare. And where they fare is their respective home grounds.

The first few weeks of December mark post-trip visitation time to participating schools of the fall season’s Mountain School. Several of North Cascades Institute’s graduate students have traveled north to Bellingham to visit Carl Cozier Elementary, Geneva Elementary, Wade King Elementary, Larrabee Elementary, Happy Valley Elementary, Whatcom Hills Waldorf School, and Birchwood Elementary. Others have traveled south to Bellevue and Bothell to check-in with the Eton School and Evergreen Academy.

» Continue reading Bringing Mountain School back home

No longer are the flashes of headlights streaming across the darkened landscape. Sometimes there is moonlight. But when there is no moon, there is always the dark.

Highway 20’s closure in November marks the coming of winter. Temperatures have steadily dropped to near or below freezing both day and night. This past week, the Environmental Learning Center has seen several days of solely sun followed by crisp, star-filled nights. On nights as cold and dark as these, it is easy to stay tucked underneath the comfort of a warm wool blanket, wrapped up in a novel of another world, sipping hot tea.

On nights like these, I find myself desiring to embark into the dark.

» Continue reading To embark into the dark