Chattermarks

By Jack McLeod, guest blogger

I recently took the Spirit of Place writing workshop at the Learning Center with Nick O’Conell. Here’s my story from that workshop about a trip to Sahale Glacier. This is the third program I’ve participated in at the Institute and they’ve all been wonderful — so thank you!

My tent shook violently. Straining its granite-bound guy lines, I was afraid it would release and pirouette like a wayward balloon to the valley 3,000’ below. An arc of stones only partly protected me from the midnight river of air as the tempest commanded our miniature snowbound island.

We had hiked to the realm of skydivers and found our rocky outpost was directly in the channel of atmospheric winds traveling from one side of Washington to the other. I’d waited 6 months for this date, a dark moonless night in the mountains and perfect venue for the annual Perseid Meteor Shower. But atmospheric forces make the ultimate decision around here and they threatened to blow us off the mountain. In the spirit of a long-ago boss’s mantra “we don’t have problems, we have challenges”, the question became could we turn nature’s uncontrollable forces into our hoped-for glorious experience?

The three of us intended to camp just below flower-covered Cascade Pass, an easy four-mile hike. Bob had minor backpacking experience, Brandon had none so we chose that site for its beauty and easy access. The ranger made sure we had the required bear canister to protect our food – and us. “You don’t want anything smelling of food, including your skin, pack, tent or clothes.” Ah, we thought, just why we went camping in the woods – to have meticulous hygiene. She also told us the forested, creek-side camp we planned to stay at for two nights was full. But there were still sites available at Sahale Glacier. What’s a couple more miles and a couple more thousand feet of climbing with a full pack? And no trees or tumbling stream. Camped next to ice. In August. We had come to get away from it all so the ranger’s only campsite choice became a perverse type of trip insurance. Little did we know how this change in locale would change everything about our experience.

The hike to the pass was uneventful – no slabs of ice came crashing down from cliff-hanging glaciers 2,000 feet above on Mt. Johannesburg – all the guidebooks mention this as a possibility. The route to our newly designated camp led across Sahale Arm, high above an ancient trade route between western and eastern Washington and on this day deep in blue and white candles of lupine and bistort. Indigenous travelers and traders crossed this pass between the lush, green forests of the Skagit River valley and the dry plains of the Columbia Plateau. A nearby archaeological site was dated to 9,600 years ago. Stone tool fragments were found but no signs of plastic bear canisters or 4 ounce isobutane stoves.

» Continue reading Sahale Stars

North Cascades National Park geologist Jon Riedel teaches students on a misty moraine ridge on the flanks of Mt. Baker

Elisabeth Keating, a freelance writer covering the Parks Climate Challenge, accompanied the students on their hike to a glacier on Mount Baker the second week of July 2009 and filed this report from the North Cascades.

On July 8, I arrived at the Horseshoe Cove campground at Baker Lake where the Parks Climate Challenge students were setting up camp and preparing for their glacier exploration. There are 19 high school students in this new program, each a young leader drawn from five urban areas around the country: Denver, Washington D.C., Seattle, Chicago and the Bay Area.

There are three phases to the Parks Climate Challenge: Phase 1 consists of 30 days in the North Cascades meeting with scientists, camping, exploring and learning. Phase 2 is a trip to Washington DC where students will meet with legislators and work on a service project on the Mall. For phase 3, the students will returnhome to create and lead an environmental project in their local communities. Possible projects could include planting trees, hosting a climate change day at their school or starting a recycling project at their school.

“We weren’t necessarily looking for students who are interested in careers in the environment,” explained Megan. “What’s most important is that they demonstrate leadership potential and that they return to their urban communities as ‘climate change ambassadors’ that the community will respond to.”

For most of these urban students, it’s been a process of many of “firsts”: first camping experiences, first time bathing in a stream, first time eating hummus, first time at a rodeo (the July 4th celebration in Sedro-Woolley!) and even the first time some had “s’mores.

Home Sweet Home: Setting up camp at Horseshoe Cove on Baker Lake

Everyone had fun putting up tents and cooking dinner, along with testing out the mosquito hats. “It’s not cool-looking,” one student noted, “but we don’t care as long as it gets the job done!”

Two Parks Climate Challenge students demo their “campfire style”—mosquito netting hats and sweats!

» Continue reading Parks Climate Challenge meets Mt. Baker’s glaciers

It’s been an exciting two weeks with the Parks Climate Challenge crew. After gathering everybody in Seattle, we took off for the North Cascades Environmental Learning Center to pack for our first camping trip.

This was just one of the many firsts we’ve celebrated on the trip so far: first camping trip, first s’mores,

Refining our s’more technique

» Continue reading The PCC Team is on the loose!

Ladies and gentlemen, meet your 2009 Parks Climate Challenge instructional team, Megan, Nick, Ian and Aneka!

What is the Parks Climate Challenge you ask? From our point of view it’s: one month, four instructors, twenty students, 620 student-days, and 1.8 million calories (Yes, we did the math.) After days of packing food, calling students, counting gear, discussing strategy, rehearsing logistics, preparing lessons and caching equipment, we are finally starting to feel almost ready to receive 20 kids from Washington D.C., Denver, Seattle, San Francisco and Chicago. The whole lot of us will spend the month of July traveling all over the North Cascades National Park learning about the National Park Service, climate change and the power of youth leadership.

Gear for twenty-four, or most of it.

The students will be arriving on Monday, so the four of us will spend the next two days buying last-minute items and putting the finishing touches on our lessons before taking one last day of well-deserved rest. Stay tuned for further dispatches!

A fine video from KCTS Channel 9 in Seattle featuring our Executive Director Saul Weisberg and some of our friends in the National Park Service. It is part of PBS’ campaign to highlight America’s National Parks in anticipation of the forthcoming Ken Burns series, “National Parks: America’s Best Ideas.”

What do you think of their representation of the North Cascades? What draws you back to these mountains?