How alpine views helped me feel renewed
By Jaileen Merced
It is hard to believe that summer is over, and Allie and I have gone on 7 backpacking trips and 2 camping trips. Each of them very unique and special. From beautiful forest walks to steep crumbling slopes. We have covered so much ground and been to places I never thought I could reach. Working for Rare Care this year has been a privilege and a challenge.
We started our season on the Olympic Peninsula, and taking the ferry became part of our weekly commute. This was my first time in the Olympic National Park. We started with our first backpacking trip in Royal Basin. To get to this beautiful buggy place you need to start at the Upper Dungeness trailhead. I think of how my backpack felt a little heavy that morning. I packed everything I thought I would “need”. Halfway to the destination, I started to think of all the little things I kept adding to my pack the night before. I was telling myself “Why did I pack 4 socks? Am I going to use 3 shirts? Why did I pack two hats?” I was obviously over packed. And on top of that, I decided to follow my “instinct” of putting the heaviest things at the bottom of the pack. I learned my lesson the hard way. From now on, I will put the heaviest things closest to your torso. That hike felt so long and painful. But every drop of sweat was worth it. Royal Lake is an amazing subalpine lake surrounded with wildflowers and a nearby waterfall. We camped for three nights at the ranger’s platform where we made a deer friend that would come to visit us every morning and evening. Our main mission in Royal Basin was to find a Flett’s violet (Viola flettii) population (that interns from previous years have mapped) and set a permanent plot. We accomplished our mission with few incidents, my backpack fell off a cliff and the GPS suffered minor injuries. But because of this event, we had to hike down a different route and ended up finding a new Flett’s violet population. HOORAY!
After our first backpacking trip I was able to rest and recover. From all the Olympic sites, I have to say the northeast area will always have a little place in my heart. Especially because we were able to find some of our target species: Flett’s fleabane (Erigeron flettii), Olympic saxifrage (Micranthes tischii), pygmy saxifrage (Saxifraga hyperorea), and cutleaf synthyris (Synthyris pinnatifida var. lanuginose). From our site we had a pretty view of the lakes. The light blue glacier water reminded me of the clear blue water beaches from my home in Puerto Rico. There was a little bit of home in that alpine lake, nature is pretty amazing.
After spending some time in the Olympics it was the time to move to the North Cascades. Our first trip was a mountain top near Stehekin. There are 3 ways to get to Stehekin: 1) by foot, 2) airplane and 3) ferry. Stehekin is located on the northernmost part of Lake Chelan. It is a small community of ~75 permanent residents. We took a 2 hour ferry from Standing Point to Stehekin. Once in Stehekin I was surprised at how the town was mobbed by tourists and PCT hikers that usually stop to refuel. The next morning, we hiked 8 miles to find a small saxifrage. Our mission at this site was successful. We found a small population of pygmy saxifrage and set the permanent plot. To be honest, I feel like a little of me stayed with that population. The area we found it in was very dry, there seems to be a creek that used to run a few meters from it. But the plant now was growing in these moist rock crevices. It seemed like that was the last suitable habitat left for it. I wanted to be hopeful about the population. But as we hiked down that day back to camp we could see smoke from the Cedar Creek fire (north of highway 2). If a small fire were to happen in that area, that population is likely to disappear. Next morning we had to hike back to Stehekin, where a big burger and fries were waiting for me. This trip was eye opening to me. There are not many people that get to see the very last bit of a species. Although that is not the case for pygmy saxifrage (it is found in other parts of the state) it did awaken in me a sense of gratefulness for the job we do. We got to see species that haven’t been seen in years. Hopefully, our work could potentially provide some baseline data to better understand them and possibly sum up to the effort of protect their habitat. We visited other beautiful places in the North Cascades but Stehekin was definitely a special place for me.
To conclude the season we headed to Mount Rainier National Park. This was also my first time in the area. Since I moved to Washington, I have heard so many great comments about this park. Let me tell you, they are all true. We only visited one site. But Oh My, was it beautiful. For this mission we were in charge of finding curved woodrush (Luzula arcuata ssp. unalaschensis). This plant hasn’t been seen since 1919. The one herbarium specimen was collected by Flett, which happened to be the same guy they named the Flett Glaciers after. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful in finding the curved woodrush. Rain, wind, fog and low temperatures did not make our job any easier. The weather was not on our side the first day, but it was sunny and warm the next day. With the sun in the background Mount Rainier was doing its thing of looking giant and gorgeous. I promised myself that I am going to bring all my friends here. The view from Spray Park is amazing.
To conclude this blog I feel extremely grateful for this summer job position. I am glad I came to this position with a lot of experience. I was able to put to the test all my navigation, plant ID, wilderness safety, GIS and backpacking skills. I am also extremely happy I got to share all these adventures with Allie. We had some great laughs at camp after the long days. But we also managed to complete most of our tasks while practicing safe wilderness travel. After this field season I am a lot stronger (physically and mentally) and I kind of feel like a “backpacker expert” ;). After this great little taste of nature, you can find me travelling to all of the other beautiful parts of this state I still need to explore.