Ripplebrook is off the HOOK!

So0o this past week has been yet another week of training, but far more boring... We had an introduction to the US forest service and safety protocols, on Tuesday we did a CPR/first aid certification (my 3rd time through), and Wednesday we had a defensive driving class. Not too much to talk about during these sessions except that the only way my group got through was lots of snacks, about 10 cups of coffee each, 2 eggs of silly putty, and a collection of markers I found in my backpack. 

Aside from classroom work, my free time has been occupied by exploring the Clackamas river area (the river which Ripplebrook is based off of). We found this really cool camping spot next to the river on this exposed bedrock which we plan to camp on this weekend. 

But I do have a few pictures of us checking out the area. (Mom - please skip next part ) There was a giant log spanning the length of river, something which I could not resist climbing across.

 

Everything in the area was covered in moss, but luckily I was wearing my trusty toe shoes which are basically spiderman feet.

 Awesome! I also found the perfect place for a little meditation. :) 

Aside from daily exploring, my crew and I spend many of our evenings grilling out, listening to music, watching movies, stargazing on our roof, and just plain talking. So this is a picture of my group, from left to right - Eric, Miles, Hunter, Janelle, and Shannon. They're great! 

 

Our first night of stargazing yielded some amazing results. You would not believe how brilliant and crisp the night sky is out here. 

Shannon and I started flipping out when we walked outside late on a clear night on which we could see dozens of constellations and satellites. We even saw some shooting stars which was just so cool! 

SO -- today was the last class today - field trip - and was so much fun! We took a trip headed up by the station's main fisheries biologist to the various restoration projects in the area. Almost everything in the woods was covered in thick layers of moss, and everything was HUGE! It felt like a scene from a Jurassic Park movie. 

We found a huge hollowed out tree, obviously, we had to do a cheezy picture inside of it. 

We did a lot of walking in the woods, wading in rivers, tripping on rocks, and picking of flowers. It was by far my favorite day so far!  

!!!0_o!!!

This weekend we will be going camping, possibly be driving to the coast to see the sunset and checkout the record low tide levels! I'll update again after this craziness goes down :) 

Cheers!

***Photos provided by Shannon S. THANKS! ***

Coffee Shop Randoms

Just hanging out in the coffee shop being strange. I got some weird looks posing for my computer. 

who actually uses this one? I feel like that creepy Teletubbies sun. 

Last few days of training..woohoo!

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

Today was our final day of doing field training! For our final test, our group divided into two groups of three and we each had to survey about 2 miles of stream which included recording a variety of things. These included stream wetted width, bankfull (the highest level the stream reaches every 1.5 years), length, pebble count, temperature, discharge, debris, log jams, waterfalls, restoration projects, etc. 

     After we got back I spent a long time laying in the grass and just enjoying the sunset. Pendelton has very much of a desert environment. Everything is very dry, there is sparse vegetation, but the mountains are still huge! I could see for miles and the sunset was absolutely beautiful. I spent a long time outside reading my book, "Into the Wild", which I felt was very appropriate. 

That night, everyone was so exhausted, which meant we would spend all night in the hot tub and playing cards. It was a good way to end the week. :) 

Friday, June 19th, 2009

Today was the last day of classroom instruction, which only lasted until about noon, which was nice! After saying out good-byes, team Hood peaced out and started on a long (but scenic) drive home. 

The drive went by so fast because the scenery was basically like a movie playing outside the window. We again passed all of the wind generators, hydro power plants, and we actually got to stop at Multnomah Falls which was a tributary to the Columbia River. It was SO high!

 Only me and one other kid wanted to stop and walk up to it (everyone else pretty much saw it all the time), but I got some cool pictures of it! (thanks to Mile's camera!) 

The rest of the ride went very smoothly thanks to saved Youtube videos, an N64 rom of Rush II, and my trusty dusty little yellow ipod. I also got my first glimpse at Mt. Hood before the clouds took over! 

 As we speak, I am sitting in Estacada amidst the rainy cascade mountains sipping on a chai tea in a little coffee house called The Grind. 

Tomorrow's agenda will probably include going to the grocery store, Target, and doing some exploration! I brought up the idea of starting a vegetable garden to everyone, so we all might get started on that tomorrow as well. Hopefully it won't be raining so we can go on some hikes or go fishing tomorrow. Next week's agenda included a week long training session starting at 7AM every day. This will include radio training, GPS training, a defensive driving course, and some other things. I am so excited! After this last week of training we will all be on our own in the wilderness, but I feel very confident already! This week was very trying, but I am glad that we will have 3 day weekends to catch up on sleep. Shannon and I made up a list of all the stuff we want to do while we are here. This includes: 

• Fishing
  
• White water rafting/Canoeing 
  
• Skiing on Mt. Hood
  
• Going to the coast and wake boarding with a parachute thing
• Horseback riding
• Rock climbing
  
• 3 Day camping trip
  
• More to be added to this list later!
  
• Go to Washington 
  
• Music festivals!
  

I'll try to come into town later this week and update my progress. 

Cheers! 

**  Thanks to Miles for the photos he let me borrow because my camera died! ** 

Imma serve this stream!

Monday, June 15, 2009

Today was the first of many intense stream inventory training sessions. Every day of stream training starts at 8 AM so I try to get to bed by at least 10PM. Sometimes this does not always happen (note time of post) . I have not been able to update my blog as often as possible because I lack a USB cord for my camera (which my mom should be sending in the mail). But, thankfully, my fellow intern has supplied me hers, so we are back on track. 

Anyways, we arrived at our first stream survey sight at the confluence of the North and South Forks of the Umatilla River in Pendelton, Oregon. 

 In comparison to streams in Ohio, this

stream was extraordinarily healthy and had so many aspects of a thriving mountain brook. The water was crystal clear and I kept wanting to drink it but I kept being informed that stream bacteria can cause a whole assortment of uncomfortable bodily functions of which I hope to avoid.

After gearing up in about 20 lb. dry suit, snow suit, gloves, booties, wading s

hoes, diving hood,  and snorkel gear, we hit the water. The water was ICE cold because it was flowing from a far away ice melt, but I kept pretty warm throughout the whole excapade. We saw lots of juvenile rainbow trout, a giant slug,  and two HUGE bull trout, one that had to be at least 2 feet long. It was cool! 

Following our first snorkel adventure, we did a bunch of safety exercises that included throw bag rescues and deep water spinal injury rescues which were informative and interesting. My instructors are especially enthusiastic and have made the entire learning experience quite engaging. 

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

This day again, started at 8 AM, a timeframe I am still 

adjusting to, when we travelled to the same stream segment and practiced an assortment of field exercises. 

Right when we got there I realized that there were butterflies everywhere! 

All over the ground, in the air, it was crazy! 

They were gathering on the ground in clustered, and could be disturbed with little reaction. It was strange. From reasons ranging from extracting moisture in the ground or extracting minerals from clustered deposits, I do not know. But I did get some cool pictures. These are square spotted blue butterflies; they are indigenous to the west pacific and often vary in physiology from region to region. Also saw there were northern checkerspot butterflies. 

 This included pebble count, analysis of bankfull measures, and a practice stream reach. There were

 a few man made restoration projects we encountered along the stream, most of which were constructed in the late 70's and consisted of large fallen logs pinned down with boulders. I even got to sit on a waterfall! Wee! 

After successfuly completing my second day o

f training, we returned to the hotel for a fun filled night. I taught everyone how to play euchre (which is apparently a strictly east coast game I learned) and ended the night with the Hood group in the hot tub. Yes! 

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

Today was strictly a classroom day in which we learned all about the technicalities of the stream, how to fill out stream data forms, and so on for about 8 hours.

 Although it was tenuous, my crazy instructors made it fun by performing a variation of "Pretty Woman", conducting a game of jeopardy and memory with stream terms and descriptions. For being and 8 hour class, it was not too bad actually.

 The only thing that got me through it was the candy that was constantly being handed out and my little egg of silly putty I played with constantly. :) 

This evening we had our first social! It was great. We played a long game of impromptu BYOB frisbee golf, with the next target being determined by whatever was in sight. This often included fountains, parking spaces, poles, trees, etc. I tried to play off my terrible frisbee throwing skills by explaining to everyone that this was an "East coast style" of throwing... it sort of worked ;)

For the remaining two days in Pendelton I believe we are going to be doing more field work, so I will write more about this later. So tired from a long days work! 

It's all about PORTLAND!

SO--- I flew into Portland on Friday the 12th where Josh picked me up and we proceeded to explore the city. (a place to which neither of us have visited)

Portland is unlike any city I have ever been to. Running through the middle of the city is the Willamette River, which is currently undergoing a clean river project, so the water is very clear 

and blue. On the west side of the river is a big park which is the home to many different 

festivals throughout the year. During this particular weekend the Portland Pride festival was going on and it was really fun! There was a nudist bicycle brigade consisting of about 50 individuals that paraded through the center of the action and I found it very amusing to say the least. 

Another cool thing that Portland has to offer is the weekly Saturday Market at which tons of different art vendors set up tents and sell all differ

ent sorts of clothes, sculptures, paintings, instrument

s, jewelry, you name it. It reminded me of Comfest in Columbus. I got a green hat and 

a really cool brown tyedye shirt. 

Even though I only spent

 a few days in the city, there were SO many things that I loved about it. 

To name a few... 

- It's clean! (in many aspects) The first thing I noticed about the city was the smell. Everything smelled really clean and pure. The city is covered in all sorts of trees and vegetation and parks are ubiquitous. There is also literally no trash on the ground... anywhere. It seems that everyone here is very environmentally conscious (how fitting?) and takes pride in a clean city. I think this is especially interesting because Portland is th

e runaway capital of the world and

 is home to a lot of homeless people. 

- Almost everyone uses public transit. The city's main form of transportation is the Max -- a light rail which runs all over the city and is cheap (or free in some places) to ride. Even during rush hour the roads were scarce of cars - this probably has a lot to do with the cleanliness of the city. If people chose not to ride the Max, pretty much everyone else was walking, riding a bike, or skateboarding. Awesome! 

- Everyone is really friendly. It's the norm

 to say hello to strangers in passing, and everywhere we went we talked to people and people talked to us. It's a very warm and welcoming environment. 

- Even though its a big city, almost 600,000, it in no way feels like a big city. Everything is really spaced out and nothing is really ever crowded. 

After departing Portland, we took the 1.5 hour drive up to Estacada, OR where my internship is based. Even though Portland is surrounded by mountains, driving up into the Cascade mountains took my breath away! The mountains are SO tall and covered in really tall pine trees. The farther we got up the more it felt like we were driving in a cloud. There is a big river, the Clackamas, running through the middle a

nd is occupied by the occasional fisherman or rafter. 

I haven't been able to see Mt. Hood yet because its been pretty hazy the last couple days, but I hear that its a spectacle and will be posting a pictur

e of it as soon as I spot it! 

There are some little quirks about Oregon that I noticed are very different than Columbus. It is illegal in Oregon to pump your own gas, so at ever gas station stop we would just wait for the attendant to come out and fill 'er up. Oregon also has tons of CLEAN ENERGY! For a large portion of our drive to Pendelton (where we are doing a week of training and is 3 hours away) 

wind generators peppered the mountains. For the duration of our drive n

ext to the Columbia river, we also passed two large hydro power plants which were really cool! and big! 

Well tomorrow is our first official day of training and I have been informed that the first thing we do is a 5-mile snorkel down the river to spot fish. SO EXCITED! I'll post more after that goes down. 

woohoo!

9 days until departure!

To those of you that are not familiar with my summer plans but have somehow stumbled upon this blog, I will briefly explain to you what I will be doing. Or what I think I will be doing since I have not yet started. 

After submitting an application for a "stream ecology internship" to the National Park Service, I was selected for the position along with four other students. The position will include 10 hour days of gathering data from streams in the Mt. Hood National Forest in Oregon, lots of hiking to get to said streams, and living in a small cabin in a remote area of the forest. For many of you, this probably sounds like a nightmare, but to me this is ideal. 

Here are some facts about Mt. Hood: 

- Elevation of 11,245 feet

- It is the tallest mountain in Oregon

- 4th highest in the Cascade Mountain range

- Indian name: Wy'East; Dormant volcano

- The US Olympic ski team practices here

- Average snowfall is 500-600" per year (at the peak, I will be working in relatively warm weather.) 

- Oregon is the top state in Christmas tree sales

Well, things have been pretty busy in my life lately trying to get fully prepared for my trip. Daniel and I have already been on several excursions to get the gear I will need so I'm not completely miserable while I am there. This includes every fiber of clothing consisting of some type of quick-drying fabric, and cotton is the devil.

 I have about 4-5 outfits for the entire summer, and I think living simply will be rejuvenating. I am scheduled to leave on the 12th, although training for the interns doesn't start until the 15th, so I will get to spend my entire 3 free days of summer in Portland with Josh. Wee! 

Some of my goals for my last week here include: 

- breaking in my hiking boots as to prevent blisters

- get my cameras in working condition (I want to bring the AE-1, a 30-year old film camera)

- move all of my stuff out of my campus house to my parent's basement

- survive exams

- see all of my family and friends at least once more before I leave (I return September 21st)

- more to be added to this list later. 

Feel free to comment and/or email me your thoughts and/or questions, I'd love to here from you!

f31i2n@gmail.com