Dune Trek and Beach Stroll

Yesterday the sun shone most of the day! We haven't seen sun consistently for a long time this winter, which is rare...or it has been rare for the five years I've been in Nevada!

I had a guided hike yesterday and I always hike the trail ahead of time, to look for interesting things to point out, or for problems (like several downed trees at Fort Churchill that had to be removed--beaver activity). Also when I first started at Fort Churchill and later at Washoe, it was to familiarize myself with the trail before I had a group of people with me!

I took a 3 second video of gulls in the wind. I kept seeing wave after wave of gulls blowing by, so I finally decided to try to get them on video.

Yesterday it was a good thing I hiked the trail ahead of time, because I had planned a loop. Unfortunately, the section we needed to complete the loop was under a foot of water! I walked all around, trying to find a way around it, but there was no way, without hiking a lot longer than I had advertised. I finally decided we could walk the dune trail to the beach, then take the South Loop trail back to the parking lot. It worked pretty well, but it took me walking for a solid 2 hours before the hike to figure it out....

One of the lower areas, underwater. A hiker pointed out that with the water and sand dunes, we could almost be at the beach, except for the snow-covered mountains in the background!

I went home for lunch, did the guided hike, cleaned the campground restrooms and took out garbage, and I was TIRED! It was a good day though; I got to be outside most of the day and everyone I talked to was great.

The seven hikers I had with me were mostly Sierra Club members, so they were excited about hiking. One woman who leads some of those hikes offered to advertise Washoe's hikes on a meetup.com group and she gave me her card. That might get us some more people on our hikes.

Seeing the lake like this makes it hard to image the dry lakebed I used last year for my guided hikes, and even full moon hikes!

A Break From the Weather

The last couple days have been a nice break from all the precipitation we've been getting, but I guess Friday (my day off) was a mess! We got some help from the Northern Region maintenance crew working on the drainages around the office and the supervisor's house to prepare for the next storms, but one of the guys broke a water line and it was hard to fix and get it to stay fixed! My supervisor said they were outside all day soaking wet and freezing...

I did fee compliance yesterday through the day use areas and equestrian area and most people hadn't paid, but they were really nice about it! One woman was from Texas and just wanted to sit at a table for a few minutes to eat her donut and let her dog walk around. I let her know we have a 15 minute courtesy for that purpose, so she was happy. Another woman in the equestrian area was trying to pay me the $5 but she ended up locking her keys in her truck at the same time, so I gave her an envelope to fill out once her husband brought her a spare key! We were really busy yesterday--I think everyone wanted to get outside while the weather is nice!

I made some friends yesterday. I think they were hoping for treats!

 

I've got a guided hike this afternoon so I'm going to walk the trail ahead of time. I also need more pictures for the 

More Water

We are getting another "atmospheric river" event with more rain in the valleys and up to five more feet of snow up in the mountains. I went around the park this morning and got some pictures of the water! I also walked out from our Maze to the beach for another picture.

Lots of water flowing from the hills (Virginia Range) down our boat ramp and into the lake.

I think this is Deadman's Creek flowing into the lake right now. Normally there isn't much flow at all so this is pretty crazy!

Our day use area is still flooding. This mud flow used to be grass, but not there is a waterfall flowing over the rocks and into the lake.

From the beach looking south.

Campfire Program Planning

Yesterday while I was working on a grant for River Wranglers, I started reading through the organization's previously-funded grants for some inspiration. I came across a nature journaling class for at-risk youth and it got me thinking that I should learn more about nature journaling and maybe I could turn it into a program.

That escalated into planning campfire programs for May, June, July, August, and September. My supervisor had said she would like for us to have some more traditional campfire-type programs, so I decided to start with one a month. The last couple years I've tried a couple here and there and they seemed to work pretty well (except for the wind which stopped us from actually having a fire a couple times).

I like using cottonwood rounds for seats...

May's program is going to be about Nature Journaling. I've watched a couple YouTube videos on why and how, and found a simple, easy way to create a folded journal that we could even make during the program. I like the idea that all you really need is to start with a few minutes a day, sketching or recording your observations...date, weather, plants, or animals nearby, what you hear and experience.

One video pointed out that in the United States alone, people are spending less time in contact with nature and more time with electronic and digital devices. "Ecoliteracy is being lost in developed countries at an alarming rate." More time in front of our digital devices is causing higher rates of depression and obesity. Spending time in nature lowers stress and can increase productivity. Even starting with a few minutes a day can make a huge difference. One college student noticed that when finals started, she was feeling stressed and overwhelmed so she went outside for a few minutes a day, focusing on what was around her, and the stress decreased.

Journaling in the field forces us to look, really look at what is around us. Looking at details and recording them is so much different from what I normally do--snap a picture and move on--that I'm interested in giving this a try. Maybe by May I will have a couple different journals filled out to show people what they can do. You don't even need to be an artist--a few small sketches here and there, and eventually you won't think of it, and your artwork will get better on its own.

Other programs I thought of: Rattlesnakes in June, Wiley Coyotes in July (along with a couple scorpion hunts that month), an astronomy-based program in August, and an owl program in September.

Washoe Lake

I really want to get into the habit of writing again, so I'm going to try blogging every single day, working or on my days off. It's fun writing about the park and it might inspire me to learn something new for every post. We'll see!

Lately I have been really excited about the amount of water in the lake! It is almost full. We had to take the bollards away from the boat ramps because the water was rising so fast that we had to get them now or it would be really difficult later. Unfortunately I was off the day they took them out.

These two pictures were taken about a day apart. I was excited to see water touching the main boat ramp in the first place...the next day was even more exciting!

This is the picture I sent my supervisor when she decided the bollards had to come out very soon! I started this job in 2014 and have never seen the water this high. When I started, kite boarders were still able to launch from the north boat ramp area, but as the summer progressed, they had to walk further and further down the beach. It was March 2015 when the lake was finally completely dry. We found the last remaining mud puddle on the full moon hike that month.

 

I learned how to plow snow! Actually my one and only lesson was last year and I never really had to do it, until mid-January this year! We got a couple atmospheric rivers that came over the Sierra Nevada and loaded the valleys up with snow and rain. I was visiting family in Utah so I missed most of the flooding, but came home to this!

 

There has been a constant flow of water through our day use area for almost a month now. Other places in the park have water flowing that haven't had water in years, I think since the 2005 floods. (The 1997 flood was the worst in a long time, but the 2017 flood was closer in size to the 2005 flood) It's hard to tell from the picture, but this "river" is flowing through what used to be grass, and there is a small waterfall flowing down through the rocks and into the lake. It's a good lesson to see water flowing across the road, parking lot, and grass into the lake, carrying with it anything that crosses its path, whether it is litter or other contaminants like oil from leaking cars.