BLOG TIME!! It’s stinky crew!! Except William because he is arguing that he’s not smelly. So that just leaves me (Maya) and Elizabeth to hold up our name.
We started today with a nice hike up Mount Grant this morning. It was very pretty but most of the time we were busy chatting. About half-way up we decided to start playing riddle games, which lasted till we got back to the van. It started with William’s “perfect line” riddle, which was basically nonsence and I’m still not quite sure what it was. He is very proud of it though. It took us a really long time to realize the rule was that we had to say “okay” before we made a line between any two objects.
Anyways, we also played black magic, snaps, and a couple other tricky games. Keelin had a game called trains, which took William a while to realize was alphabetical. We played snaps pretty much the entire way back.
I learned a new word!! Thigmomorphogenisis. Adam taught us it at the peak of Mount Grant. Basically, it describes when a plant changes its growth or development because of an abiotic factor, like wind or something. So not only is it a cool fact but it’s a funny word.
Hey guys, It’s Lizzy now! I’ll be taking you through the middle part of our day.
After hiking down, we got into the van and drove to Roche Harbor where we explored the town and got massive amounts of ice cream. We then sat in a small garden and talked for some time until we needed to get back into the van and drive to Lime Kiln Point State Park.
At Lime Kiln we met Erin Corra who works for a non profit organization in collaboration with the state park. She gave us a tour of some of the property. We began our tour by looking at some of the oldest trees along the trails and learning about them. Some of the trees included the Western Red Cedar, the Douglas Fir, the Madrona, and Big Leaf Maple. She explained the special characteristics each tree had and the history of the tree in the area. We also walked to the water and learned about the different types of rocks that exist along the water. We saw basalt pillow rock, which comes from volcanoes, bedrock, and granite.
We then made our way up the shoreline to the lighthouse. The lighthouse was built in 1919 and we were able to go inside and up to the tower where the light is. The lighthouse is also used for whale watching (specifically Orcas) and they had a big board with a list of all of the sightings of different pods that live throughout the islands. Below the lighthouse is also a hydrophone which can pick up noise that is detected around. This is a cool way of hearing what goes on below the surface of the water and sometimes you are even able to hear whales communicating!
Howdy folks, William here. After our delightful tour of Lime Kiln Park, we drove to Zylstra Lake, which is a gorgeous lake in the middle of the island. Zylstra lake has not always been a lake, it was originally a small river but has been damned for agricultural use. Sadly, we could not swim in the lake due to the prevalence of blue-green algae during the summer months. Regardless, we received a scintillating tour of the ongoing riparian conservation efforts from Shauna Barrows, who we will be lucky enough to eat dinner with tonight.
Our tour began with a bumble bee petting session, during which I was able to get over my fear of bees. Apparently, bumblebees love physical touch, and if scaled up to cat size, would be similarly affectionate. After saying goodbye to our fuzzy friends we hopped in the van and followed Shauna to a dried-up creek. The creek is normally full of water, but during the dry season remains dry(obviously). She explained her efforts to cull the local reed canary grass population, a task which has proven very difficult, as the grass grows to knee height in just 3 weeks. All of her efforts are focused on keeping the lake clean, currently, the lake has off-the-chart levels of Nitrogen and Phosphorous, but she intends to bring that back down.
After that delightful tour, we headed back to the dorm, and we all got some free time. Stella’s grandmother was having an art show in town, so some of us when to that, while others went for a dip in the frigid Salish Sea. Caleb will try to tell you it is not that cold, Caleb is wrong, Caleb is not to be listened to. The water is cold, manageable, but cold. Having dinner with Shauna was a pleasure, and the following presentation was enlightening. Today was a very fun day, but it will no doubt be overshadowed by tomorrow. Tomorrow we begin our 2-night 3-day kayak trip, which we are all super excited to begin. The camping will be pretty rough, so don’t be surprised if there are no blogs for the next few days.
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Here are some more random pictures from today!
