Joshua Tree National Park

With grad school almost over, Emma and I made a spring break trip to Baltimore and California.  In California we spent almost a week in Joshua Tree and then traveled south to the Salton Sea and then northwest to the Santa Monica mountains.

The parks namesake – Joshua trees are actually in the lilly family and closely related to yuccas.

Looking out towards Mount San Gorgonio (off shot on the left). The sprawl of LA is just on the other side of the ridge.

Being my first time in the desert it was time to take cactus pictures – in this case barrel cactus.

Good shadows on the way back to camp from Willow Springs.

Joshua Tree is a mecca for rock  climbers – really good rock climbers – even though, I managed to do a little bouldering.

Twilight view from the Ryan campground.

J Tree is home to many palm oases – had to google that plural form – the California Fan Palm here is naive to the state.

Hanging near Jumbo Rocks.

Inner wood from a Cholla (choy-ya), another type of cactus.

Joshua trees live in the Mojave Desert, and above 3000′ in elevation.  Lower down in the separate Colorado Desert, plants like the Ocotillo take over.

Coming to Joshua Tree in the spring is a good time to spy flowers.

South of the park near the Salton Sea we searched out Salvation Mountain the project of outsider artist Leonard Knight.  The mountain is formed from a painted adobe covered hillside and is designated by Congress as a national treasure.

We got to meet Leonard while we were there and he showed us part of the mountain.  Leonard has lived at Salvation Mountain in the desert for over 30 years, he is now 78.

Out of the desert and off to the coast, we spent our last few days in California backpacking and camping in the sometimes foggy, sometimes sunny Santa Monica Mountains just an hour north of LA.

2009 in Review

Lots and lots and lots of things in 2009…

January – Instructor exchange with the North Cascades Institute

February – A Pacific Tree Frog in the Living Machine at IslandWood

March – Snowshoe trip to the Mount Tahoma High Hut

March – Teaching at IslandWood

April – Hurricane Ridge, Olympic National Park

April – Banana Slug in Redwoods National Park

April – On the beach in Big Sur

May – IslandWood guys on kayak trip to Blake Island

May – Last shot from Blake Island

June – IslandWood Graduation

July – Solo bike trip to Bellingham

July – Climbing Mt. St. Helens

July – Olympic National Park, Backpacking Naturalists group

August – Garlic from our garden

August – End of Summer Camp

August – Solo backpacking trip in the Pasayten Wilderness

August - Paddling on Ross Lake

September – Grand Teton National Park

September – Backpacking in Yellowstone National Park

September – Glacier National Park

October – Graduate Reading Room, Suzzallo Library, University of Washington

November – Mt. Rainier National Park

December – Apple tree, Garfield Park Conservatory, Chicago

2009 – Hundreds of students taught, 196 miles hiked, 120 miles bike toured, 30+ nights slept outside, 10 graduate courses taken, 7 National Parks visited, 2 Places Lived

Full Circle

Well, I suppose it is about time to wrap this thing up.  This past weekend I returned from a bike trip to Bellingham, WA.  I rode about 130 miles through islands and coast, camped and stayed with friends along the way, and then took the train back to Seattle before riding back to Bainbridge.  The trip allowed me some time for final reflection on the end of the program year at IslandWood, and a good amount of rest before returning to working summer camp at IslandWood.  So here it is: pictures from the end of the year.

On the road, Mt. Baker in the background.

Sunset at Deception Pass

Bridge over Deception Pass.

Juvenile Bald Eagle in flight, taken from the road side.

Em and I before graduation, Emma heading to Wyoming for a summer of leading backcounty trips

Me reading a Gary Snyder essay at graduation

Grads up front

Freind Erin and me after graduaiton

Greg and me before the family campfire

Singing about the “Rattlin’ Bog” at campfire with Blair

Two Trips

Pictures from snowshoeing trip to the Mount Tahoma Tails Association High Hut (March 14-17) as well as pictures from spring break (March 27-April 5).

Snow on Bainbridge, almost none.  Snow on Mt. Tahoma (near Mt. Rainier) 8 feet.

 

 

 

Jon and I, ready to go.

 

 

 

 

There were supposed to be groomed trails, but the groomer had a flat and was stuck at the trailhead.

 

 

 

Me, Jon, Lizzie, and Susan

 

 

 

 

Hut outside

 

 

 

Hut inside.

 

 

 

Tunneling through the snow just for fun.

 

 

 

Shortcut to the bathroom.

 

 

 

No views of Rainier, but the clouds did break for some good views of the valley.

 

 

 

The wind was blowing when we left on Tuesday morning.

 

 

 

Sweet views on the way down.

 

 

 

End of the trip.

 

 

SPRING BREAK

Erin, Emma, and I drove from Bainbridge Island south to California for spring break.  Erin stopped at San Francsisco but Emma and I made it further south to Big Sur and then east to Pinnacles National Monument.

 

 

 

Tree pose in front of a large Coast Redwood in Redwood National Park.

 

 

 

From the inside of a room sized hollow stump.

 

 

 

Climbing.

 

 

 

Our friend the Banana Slug.

 

 

 

At the beach at the aptly named Patrick’s Point State Park.

 

 

 

Sunrise at Patrick’s Point.

 

 

 

In San Francisco we met up with my friend Helen from AmeriCorps who just happened to be in the city.

 

 

 

 

View while hiking in Garrapata State Park near Big Sur. 

 

 

 

Wildflowers.

 

 

 

Climbing a large Sycamore tree in Andrew Molera State Park.  The branch I am sitting on stretched out so far that it nearly touched the ground.

 

 

 

Jumps at the beach in Big Sur.

 

 

Peaks on the High Peaks Trail at Pinnacles National Monument.

 

 

 

Last views before leaving for Portland, OR and then home.

Chilly Hilly

Images from the ride today. A little bit of rain in the morning cleared up for a sunny finish. A great day and lots of fun.  Check out this story from the Seattle PI, Mike is featured in the photo slide show.

The IslandWood crew pre-race including Waq Waq the IslandWood frog that Mike towed during the race.

Jon and the Frog

My steel (bomb proof) bike, complete with new steel Surly fork.

Taking pictures while riding, don’t worry my camera survived.

Over the shoulder

Headed up Baker Hill

At the top

Cursing down by the water, ferry in the background

Olympic Sculpture Park

Last week my cohort visited the the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle as part of our Integrating the Arts class.  We took in the sights, wrote some hakius, and then made some art in the style of Andy Goldsworthy on the beach.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Sunday I am riding in The Chilly Hilly, a bike ride on the island.  I’ve been looking forward to it the whole year.  Baker Hill pictured here is only about a block from IslandWood and comes 2/3 of the way through the 33 mile course.

Close Up

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back in the Swing of Things

Back on campus, new camera, winter training, team teaching, visit to North Cascades Institute, skiing at Mt. Baker.

We took our final for Natural History and Ecology the first week back on campus.  We all have come a long way in learning about the plants and animals of the area.  For those keeping score at home, this is Red Huckleberry.

This past week we team taught in the field.  A student in our field group dug this out of the sand at the harbor.  At first glance it sure looked like a fossil, but turned out to really be concrete.  Still though, I’m not sure how this impression ended up being made and buried under water.

There was no mistaking this find along the marsh loop last week.  A deer carcus picked clean by scavengers.  Our field group found the rib cage and backbone, with one leg attached in the middle of the marsh loop trail.  My co-instructor Gretchen and I had planned to collect macroinvertebrates in the marsh, but finding the carcus changed our plans.  The kids studied the kill, looked around for tracks and other clues to try to figure out who was responsible for eating the deer.  A little further down the trail we debreifed the find by having the students try to tell the story of the deer by peicing together the clues they found.

 

This weekend the IslandWood Grads took part in an Instructor Exchange with the North Cascades Institute and the Wilderness Awareness School.  NCI was the first stop in the exchange.  In a few weeks everyone will visit WAS and IslandWood.   The school is a part of North Cascades National Park, this was the view from the parking lot.

Grads, Instructors, and Staff from all three schools.

In the afternoon two of the grads from NCI led us on a snowshoeing trip, our trail took us past the avalanche in the background.

Looking uphill from inside the slide.

Mike, Erin, Me, Kendyl, Ian, and Lizzie, on Sourdough Mountain.

Pooling

Ok, one more post before the holiday break.  This week were the first pre-midnight low tides of the winter.  I made it out tide-pooling twice over the weekend, both times amazing.  I’d never seen animals like this up close, outside of in the aquarium.  Really, really cool.

“What kind of house do you live in?”  ”In an anm, anmi, anemone!” 

Ocher Stars, just hanging out.

Sun Star as big as your head, well bigger actually.

Another Ocher.

Finally, a picture of Cohort A on our last day of teacher for the quarter.  After break we will have new teaching groups.  As one of our professors put it, “It’s your first last.”

Spitting

Just finished last teaching week before winter break.  It has been a busy and fun first quarter, and I look forward to returning to this place after break is over.  Hopefully I’ll have the time to look for a new camera before then, and kick this thing back into gear.  In the meantime here are some pictures from a week or two ago; my classmate Emma and I went out to a place called the Dungeness Spit for some hiking recently.

A spit is formed in costal waters through deposits of sand and rock.  It has something to do with the waves hitting the shore at an odd angle and reflecting back out.  This spit is one of the worlds longest, it is a 5 mile hike to the lighthouse at the far end.

Kelp attach to rocks at the bottom of the ocean with something called a holdfast.  This Bull Kelp holdfast can anchor a plant that grows up to 200 feet  in length.

Cairns ususally mark trails or graves, but the inside of this driftwood log seemed like a cool place for one too.