Wilderness Ranger Corps, Lake Wenatchee

For hitch 5, the whole team traveled down to Naches, to do some recreation site assessments in the William O Douglas wilderness. Teams 1 and 3 did several day hiking missions, while team 2 was to stay in the backcountry for the duration of the hitch.
Susan and Amy (team 3) completed a couple of hikes around bumping lake and up swap lake trail, to lake one and lake two (as boring and uncreative as they sound, they are real lake names). They spent much time of trail looking for campsites. After a few days Amy needed to return to Leavenworth for a separate assignment, so Susan joined Levi, Nate, and Caitlin.
Levi, Caitlin, and Nate (team 1) first headed to Richmond Lake where they spent the night. Throughout the summer, when Levi came upon a lake he would often declare it his new favorite lake. Upon arriving at Richmond lake, this occurred once again (has he finally decided?). The group followed a ridge to another lake, inventoried that and hiked out. They enjoyed the great luxury of ice chests, trucks and Bananagrams that comes with car camping. Erich was taken to the airport for his flight back to Florida, since he was no longer able to hike. For the next few days they continued on their itinerary the various day hikes to small areas on the edge of the wilderness, including walking the far bank of bumping river. They spent a lot of time driving down old forest roads, waving as they passed large groups of hunters (hunting season had just begun).
Team 2 inventoried the campsites on bumping Lake Trail, down to the Pacific Crest Trail. The William O Douglas Wilderness had tons of user trails making inventory a difficult and lengthy task. We came upon many heavily impacted hunter camps (some currently occupied). It seems that people who use horses to pack in their equipment, tend to bring a lot more stuff, and have a greater impact of the land. One site was particularly bad with litter scattered all around and empty propane tanks thrown in a nearby hole. This impact was quite upsetting to see. From bumping Lake Trail they hiked up the PCT to look around a few lakes in the area. They ended up getting some amazing views of Mount Rainer in that area. Then they hiked to the Twin Sisters Lakes, and found many more campsites. This trip was cut short when the battery in the GPS died. Team 2 then hiked out and drove back to the bunkhouse, awaiting instructions from Amy Verellen on what to do next. The next day they hiked in Stuart Lake trail to inventory the sites at Horseshoe Lake. Horseshoe Lake had been attempted twice before this season, but both times the lake was still covered in snow, making it impossible to see any human impact. This time it was snow free (finally) and they were able to find 3 sites at this amazingly beautiful lake. While we were walking around the lake, we were followed by two mountain goats, the baby and the mother. We spent the night at Stuart Lake and hiked out the next day.

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As a Wilderness Ranger intern, I’ve learned when Amy Verellen gives us our manifesto of trails and lakes to inventory for the hitch it’s more of a list of flexible guidelines than a strict itinerary. Both surveying crews had received their assignments and were fully prepared to tackle some serious surveying; my crew was ready to be briefed by Amy Verellen, our Forest Service liaison, while the other crew hiked up Chiwaukum Creek. Unfortunately, severe thunderstorms for the evening appeared on the Forest Service’s weather forecast and all Wilderness Rangers were being pulled from duty including the interns. So, with a day lost my crew hiked to Lake Caroline while the other crew hiked Chiwaukum Creek trail for the second time. While the other crew had troubles with a difficult creek crossing, we had difficulty with camping in close proximity to particularly loud and obnoxious campers. Although conditions were less than ideal, I had my first encounter with the wildlife when a mountain goat stomped through our campsite. The next day Nate and I decided to inventory the lake we were camped at and move everyone’s stuff to a different campsite if we encountered an empty one, which we did, while Erich and Levi hiked ahead to inventory Jack Ridge. When Nate and I continued down the trail to inventory the other lakes listed on the manifesto we discovered fields of flowers, ruthless marmosets, and a mysterious mandible. While we were enjoying a sunny day perfect for inventorying, Caitlin and Susin experienced large storm clouds blowing over Dead Horse Pass, a most awesome terrifying sight. Once we were done inventorying that area, we hiked out to resupply and then Nate, Erich and I hiked to Lake Stuart for the crew’s second attempt to inventory Horse Shoe Lake and while the other group were finding it impossible to access lakes surrounded by cliffs, Nate, Erich and I discovered that our hike to Horse Shoe, although incredibly beautiful, was for naught due to the surrounding area of the lake was covered in snow packs. With a resolve to return to Horse Shoe later in the season, we finished our hitch more aware of the unexpected obstacles which come with working in the rapid changing summer of Alpine Lakes.

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After spending a lovely 4th of July off on Lake Wenatchee, our team plus our Forest Service Coordinator Amy and Wilderness Ranger Adam, set off on our first hitch. The hitch was broken up into three parts: the first two night were to be spent along the Jack Creek Trail with goal of getting to Leyland Lake. We would then hike back out and split into two groups minus Amy and Adam: Brandon, Andy, Levi, and Nate would head to Trout Lake while Austin, Jess, Caitlin, and I would check out Lake Stuart. We would then rejoin groups to venture to Lake Ethel.

Loaded down with gear and more food than I could eat in a week, I could barely lift my pack. It felt as though gravity had been turned up 10x. I was wondering how or if I would ever get used to carrying something so heavy as we plodded up the Jack Creek Trail. We were told the hike in was “about 4 miles” a standard guessimate that become quite a joke over the next week, when actually it was closer to 8 miles. By the end of the day, my hips and spine were bruised and my arms were covered in mosquito bites. We discovered that our path to Lake Leyland was blocked by chest-high, fast moving water and so we adjusted our plan slightly: our second day, we hiked up the French Ridge Trail loop. Lacking maps of our own, we left on this excursion with little idea of how long the trail was. This was a mistake. The loop was quite long, 13 miles to be exact, and about midday when we were on the hot ridgetop, most folks started running out of water. Furthermore, a little way into our descent we hit quite a bit of snow and lost the trail. At this point, some of us started getting a nervous: it was cold, most of the day was gone, and turning around would mean hiking back at least 8 miles. Our wilderness rangers managed to find where the trail picked up again and we arrived back at base camp around 8pm. Long day! Lessons learned: always carry as much water as you can on ridge top hikes, know how long a hike is before you start it, and don’t panic when you lose trail.

The middle part of the hitch was equally rough. Jess, Caitlin, Austin, and I battled the mosquitos at Lake Stuart while Brandon, Andy, Levi, and Nate did the same at Trout Lake. On our hike up to Lake Stuart, I experienced a “Boot Failure”: the soles of my boots sloughed right off and our attempts to duct tape them back together were a poor fix. And so, I ended up hiking out in my river crossing shoes. Lesson learned: don’t scrimp on things that you use everyday, like boots.

Bad circumstances culminated and subsided in the final portion of the hitch. The hike to Lake Ethel was virtually all up hill, with some gnarly switch backs the first couple miles. It was early into these switchbacks that we lost our team member, Andy, for whom the physical strain of the hikes had been too much. We were sad to see Andy go, but still had a whole lake to inventory, so we continued our journey. Unfortunately, Lake Ethel was still covered in a great deal of snow, obscuring many potential campsites; we would have to come back later when the snow had melted. After inventorying as many sites as we could find, all we could do was hide from the clouds of mosquitoes inside our tents. We hiked out the next morning and upon reaching the trailhead, learned that Brandon too was leaving. The internship just was not a good fit. Down two members, those remaining were totally perplexed, but felt as though the right decisions had been made so to speak. What would the rest of the season be like without Andy and Brandon? Who would replace them? We had no idea, but were totally excited to do some more hiking!

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Hi, I'm Kenny Polte, and I'm from Boston, Massachusetts. I love long-distance hiking, and I've spent the last few months exploring the Appalachian trail. I'm excited for the chance to give back to the outdoor community, not to mention the fact that I get the chance to see some of the most amazing landscapes in the world! This is my first time in the Pacific Northwest, and there is nothing that makes me more excited than seeing new places and meeting new people.

My name is Caitlin McGuire and I was born and raised in Washington. I hail from a tiny, tiny town in the Southwestern corner of the state on the Columbia River, but I have attended a college in Massachusetts for the last several years. I double majored in International Relations and Cultural Anthropology at Boston University and also lived in a cooperative house for most of undergraduate career with 23 other female students. While living in the Northeast, I spent a great deal of time pining for the Northwest and I am thrilled to return to my "homeland" and explore an entirely new section of it through the Wilderness Ranger Corps and grow my appreciation of the beautiful corner of the world that is the Pacific Northwest. I enjoy hiking, camping, all types of exploration, learning slang in foreign languages to compensate for my general ineptitude of other languages, fixing/breaking things on my bicycle, baking, cooking, learning new things, reading, discovering new facts about obscure geographic regions, and perusing used book stores.

My name is Austin Werts, I grew up in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. For several years of my life my family went on camping trips around the states of Oklahoma and Arkansas. I have always thoroughly enjoyed camping, hiking and the outdoors. I attended Oklahoma State University and earned my Bachelors of Science in Botany in 2012, developing skills for plant identification. I joined the SCA to gain experience working outdoors and see beautiful places around the country. I found the program for wilderness ranger internships in the northwest and applied to gain experience backpacking and working in wilderness areas. I hope to get a job in the future doing something similar to this.

Jesse Sikora applied for the Wilderness Ranger Internship after graduating from William Paterson University with a Bachelors of Science in Environmental Science. She enjoys camping, studying flora and fauna, and reading science fiction novels. Some of her hobbies include fishing, yard saleing, night hiking, and collecting tea cups. Jesse hopes to continue her involvement in conservation efforts whether it be working with the SCA or continuing her education with a masters program in conservation and ecology.