no summit

First time on Mt. Olympus. There was more space to climb higher, but it's hard not to have a giant smile on your face regardless.

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norwegian

You go to the beach and think about sunsets and tide pools. You assemble a crew, initiate a ring leader, and use a Xerox of a photo of handwritten directions. You look weird at the trail head after taking a pitstop to look cool in and out of the car. You bring your rubber boots and fire starter so you can look at nudibranchs and play on rope swings before you get trapped by the tide. You eat soup. You always pay your respects.

Liz and Cass.

Jamie, Gabe, Johnny, and the spirit of Mandy.

Entrepreneurs of smile enterprises.

Boogie board, omnichord, Josefina's.

Check your pitch and roll, go left!

Swampy.

9ft tide swing and a Sea Lemon.

backcountry

Spending more time working and camping in the backcountry this summer. Same valley, Sol Duc, different section of the trail leading up to the High Divide and views of Mt. Olympus. Lots of rock moving and dirt hauling. Evenings around the fire sharing stories and picking on each other. Some food we share, most of it we hoard to ourselves. Watching our pile of canned beans and tomatoes turn into a pile of cans burned clean by the fire. Drying wet clothes when the weather allows. It's a different kind of fun, the kind you feel damp, gritty, and worn out during, and romanticize weeks later. In reality it's just a half decent way to get paid to be outside.

Mt. Olympus, from the High Divide. Clouds blocked the view moments later.

Choaty and Horse fitting rocks into turnpike.

"Show me your rock-work face."

Camp, afternoon light filtered through the canopy.

My plastic house and dirty laundry. Discarded packaging of a good meal.

Sol Duc River. Bathtub and faucet.

9 July

The view looking south from Appleton Pass. Mt. Olympus, The High Divide, and Seven Lakes Basin.

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lake mills

Winter means we're back on the Elwha project. The goal is to get plant regeneration off on the right foot by putting thousands of native plants in the ground. Constructing access trails for hiking plants to revegetation sites is critical. With dam demolition nearing completion, and the park getting ready for the hordes of visitors that will come to view the newly drained reservoir, we're beginning to transform access trails into pathways ready for the public.

Hiking out to the planting site.

Clear, cold days. The worksite got two hours of sun.

Two sentinels, watching the old lake bed from their posts.

Only 30 feet left to demolish. These upper pieces will remain as a memorial.

Filling turnpike before covering with top dressing.

Taylor, posing with the tool of choice, demo site in the background.

One big chunk of cedar equals five cedar beams.

Shane, chief gravel coordinator.

Hot lunch.

Sam, scoring logs embedded in the fine sediment.

Brand new trail with a brand new feature. Three years ago this photo would be ten feet under water.

Elwha River, Lake Mills, Mt. Fitzhenry, and Mt. Carrie.

nursing the elwha

Throughout the year, 106,000 plants will be propagated, packed in bags, and hauled out to the former reservoirs of Lake Aldwell and Lake Mills to be planted. The Matt Albright Native Plant Center, the production facility for this effort located in Sequim, WA, was created to nurse the Elwha River back to health. Here's a day of cleaning roots and loading bags.

Potting shed.

Taylor, Chelsea, and Jenny, just getting going.

A devoted volunteer and revegetation crew leader Marisa Whisman sharing stories to pass the time.

Staging bags of plants in the greenhouse.

Thimble Berry and Salal, ready to go.

Rubus Leucodermis, Black Cap Raspberry.

Taylor, waiting for more plants to prep.

Aaron and Mike, still waiting.

Arbutus menzeisii and Sambucus cerulea, Madron and Blue Elderberry.

Populus balsamifera, Cottonwood.

Pseudotsuga menzeisii, Douglas Fir.

Symphoricarpos albus, Snowberry.

Pinus strobus, White Pine.