Giving back is a big part of our lives. We donate stuff. We donate money. (Ok, some money.) Sometimes we give our time and sometimes our talents. The best giving is the giving that makes a difference and makes you feel good. That's what this post is about.
TLDR: We hiked an obscure trail in search of a waterfall that hid in the clouds the whole time to flesh out the local online hiking guide. A day later, we returned to the same trail to collect samples of Western Red Cedar to combat illegal timber harvesting.
The trail is Rock Creek Falls. I know, I know. I rarely post the names of our destinations because many of the places we go can't handle heavy visitation. This isn't one of those places. It's way out in the boonies and it's mostly a forested climb to a lake that has a much easier and much more scenic access trail. So GO! (If you do go somewhere more fragile, check out the new guidance from Leave No Trace regarding disclosing details on social media.)
The purpose of the hike was to get first-hand experience on the trail so I could write the online guidebook entry for Washington Trails Association. In other words, it's pretty much like writing a more detailed version of this post with fewer pictures of people and dogs and silliness. Plus, it gets edited to conform to the style of the rest of the guide. (I'm still working on matching the voice. Sorry, Anna!)
The day Scott and I took the dogs up the trail the weather was pretty lousy. Upside: We weren't missing killer views on any of the bigger peaks and nobody overheated. Downside: We totally missed the views on this hike. Double downside: We didn't even see the waterfall we were looking for. We did, however, see some of the biggest freaking Western Red Cedars I've ever seen and that brings us to...
... The second stage of volunteering. Surely, you remember we love doing the SCIENCE! when we're out adventuring, right? And surely, you remember we collected samples of Big Leaf Maples for the Adventure Scientists' Timber Project last year, right? Regardless of whether you remember or not, we dig the SCIENCE! so it should come as no surprise that we are participating in this season's Timber Project.
Like last year, it involves finding wild stands of specific species of trees and taking samples from trees that meet the protocol's criteria. Wha? We look for healthy Western Red Cedar in the mountains, at least 75cm in circumference, and collect leaves, cones, and core samples. Yeah, this year we got a coring tool! Now we're real scientists!
Tinkham and I took Henry back to the same trail and those same insanely large trees. Upside: WHOA. Those trees are even bigger up close and it wasn't raining. Downside: They were so big we couldn't reach the leaves and our measuring tape didn't reach all the way around the trunk. But don't fret, we did find five trees that met the criteria and did our sampling. We even finished before it was fully dark.
This is how I like to give back and teach the kids to give. When you find organizations and causes you believe in it's not a chore. It's fun. The only rule is to help in the way you are asked to help, not in the way that you feel like helping.. Luckily, the way we're asked to help is exactly how we like to help. Everyone wins.
