Rooster Rescue and More

I can't believe it's almost the end of February! We've had beautiful weather all "winter," and now, finally, we have cold weather and winter storms on the way! My supervisor and I have been busy keeping up with the park visitors--mid-February we had almost all the campsites full, boats on the lake, hikers, and a busy equestrian area! I was out emptying garbage every day, re-stocking fee envelopes, cleaning restrooms, and checking fee tubes multiple times each day, especially on the weekends--but weekdays were busy too. Twice this winter, I've emptied fire rings and cleaned campsites. Usually once is enough, but with the weather, lots of people were getting out while they had the chance!

We had one instance where we were cleaning graffiti off the shower and restroom doors and walls, and the person was caught and arrested. Other than that, we've had very few problems all winter!

My supervisor and I were driving through the park, trying to catch up with some campers we needed to talk to, when visitors flagged us down and told us there was a rooster hanging out in the Day Use Area! We went with them to see it, and finally caught it--it took two rangers and three park visitors to catch this thing! The rooster had been dumped in the park--at least it was close to water and had the grassy area to itself. (We weren't expecting it to live as long as it did down there, with as many coyotes and owls as we have around the park)

My supervisor knows a woman in the Valley who has chickens and goats. She wanted the rooster, so we loaded it up and took it to her house. This is its new home!

 

Last winter, I had bought a Kindle Fire and a camera for the park. It's been suggested that we try to keep up with new technology and finally yesterday I got the Kindle out, charged it, and downloaded the Facebook App and Instagram App. I finally joined Twitter and Instagram for myself, and I really ended up liking Instagram, even better than Facebook. I thought it would be fun to use it for a more "behind the scenes" look at the park and our staff. We'll see how that actually goes, but it will be fun. Our Instagram handle is @washoelakestatepark and I'm going to try to post daily, kind of like I had planned to do with my blog......ha ha.



Posting Again

It's almost the end of December and it's finally slowing down! We are down to a few campers, but the weather is still nice--cold, but nice.

This past summer was busier than I expected! We had 8 park aids, including two Park Aids II, a Park Tech, and a seasonal mower. I looked, and I had only posted 10 times this whole year and that's why. I should have tried harder to post daily because it would be fun to look back on the summer, but there's always 2018!

Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day brought us full campgrounds, plus overflow camping, full day use areas, and surprisingly, very few conflicts!

We had one Paid Aid II who did our visitor center re-model. I'll have to look for before and after pictures, but he took out all the nasty blue carpet, replaced all the windows, my supervisor's office door, built a wall and a door in front of our hallway, gave everything a fresh coat of paint and stain, installed new lights, and put down tile on the floor--all while doing park rounds and supervising other park aids!

Our seasonal budget got cut this year--during our busiest year to date--so this coming spring is going to be interesting. I have to meet with our region secretary to figure out how much money we are actually starting with, but right now it doesn't look good.

We still have a lot of water in the lake!

 

Today I'm planning to try to get some more pictures around the park and spend some time in the campground. Our camp host is off today and tomorrow so I'm cleaning the restrooms and cleaning out the fire rings. It's been so nice out, I think it'll be good to spend more time outside!

Interesting Day

Today wasn't quite..."normal..." I did the weekly deposit and it seemed to take all day because in between I was selling passes, helping park aids do more timesheet stuff, answering the phone, and trying to make sure the one park aid who had never received his checks, actually got paid for the work he's been doing!

One fee envelope I opened had $0.00 written on it, but inside was a cracker. Like a Chicken in a Biscuit kind of cracker. I threw it away, then texted my previous supervisor from Fort Churchill because I thought he would appreciate that story.

I also had a hard time balancing credit cards....again....we are getting a new fee system soon, with training next week so maybe it'll get easier to do credit cards! At least it will keep track of passes and other inventory so it'll automatically let us know when it's time to re-order anything.

The Park Aids have been working on spraying weeds, clearing the beaches (downed limbs, branches, debris), cleaning, and doing a really good job of bundling firewood, splitting firewood, and doing fee compliance. They also keep an eye on things that are going on in the park, and letting us know if there is anything out of the ordinary (like the people camping on a dead-end road at the entrance to the campground and not paying....or the Harp Twins yesterday).

Channel 8 news was at Little Washoe this morning flying a drone around. We don't allow drones anywhere in the park except for one area on the other side of the lake just off the freeway, so I texted my supervisor and she said as long as they weren't harassing wildlife, including feral horses, and as long as it was quiet, she was ok with it. I forgot to watch the news tonight to see if they had anything to say about the park!

Tomorrow night I have a guided sunset/moonrise hike and I haven't gotten to walk the trail ahead of time yet. I am hoping to do that tomorrow morning before I go to work...no matter what I have to walk it at least once sometime tomorrow because it's a trail I haven't used yet!

Cub Scout Clean-up and The Harp Twins Visit

The last three days have been really busy at the park! The weather on Sunday wasn't good, so the campground didn't fill--we only had 7 sites left though! Our guided hike to Virginia City got cancelled because of the weather report and general lack of participation (6 people signed up). It's 12.5 miles long with an elevation gain of 2,500 feet. Last year it was around 90 degrees when we did it so we went through a ton of water...but it was really fun. I hadn't done a long hike like that in years and I had missed it.

We have a big event next Saturday in the Group Use Area where local organizations and businesses set up booths in the park and everyone is invited to come out and meet the people of Washoe Valley. It's usually busy and we have our table there too. I decided this year to make a hand-held picture frame for people to borrow and take pictures with, and hopefully tag us on Facebook! I also want to highlight aquatic insects or birds or something like that because we have a lake this year. During last year's event, the lake was almost dry! I don't have a picture yet because the frame isn't quite finished.

We also had Cub Scout Pack 150 come in and clean off our North Boat Ramp. It was not functional for a while because the wind blew plant debris and sand up against the boat ramp and dock so boats couldn't launch. These guys put in almost two hours of work (plus parents and park staff) and got it functional again! They also dug out a buried picnic table and raked out the beach. We parked our trucks and a trailer there and everyone loaded us up. We relocated the sand to an area beside the dock and hauled the plant debris to our slash pile.

Before (boat ramp covered in sand and plant debris)

Before (dock covered in plant debris)

Beetle larvae found during the clean-up...cottonwood borer? 

When you want to help, but you don't want to get your shoes wet....this is TEAMWORK!!

Today was Monday after payday so timesheet were due. We got the couple people who hadn't already done theirs to submit theirs online, but there were a couple problems. One guy, Mike, wasn't in the system yet so he didn't even have an employee number to sign into the website. Matt is in the system, but hadn't received a check since he started, two pay periods ago...we get paper checks at first, until direct deposit kicks in. We also have a seasonal mower who had just started with us from the Department of Corrections. His last day there was a week ago Friday, so he had done his timesheet with that one week on it and submitted it, but he still needed to submit a timesheet for us for the week he had worked with us. A call to Human Resources, our Region Secretaries, and our Personnel Analyst later, he can probably sign in tomorrow and get his timesheet sent in!

It was one of those days where we're always busy, answering the phone, sending e-mails, printing stuff out, and running around, but it feels like nothing really got done. I did hear from two of our park aids that I needed to go to the Deadman's Creek Trailhead to see what was going on. Two beautiful young women were playing full sized harps, with another woman filming them....I walked up and asked if I could take a picture. They said yes, but they had told a "creepy guy" no, and he said "too bad" and photographed them anyway because they were in a "public place." Yikes...Anyway they were the Harp Twins. They have a Youtube channel and travel around doing concerts and filming videos for their channel in different parks. They found our park on the internet and decided to stop here on their way to California from Chicago!

They attracted a lot of attention this afternoon!

Collecting Data in Quill Canyon

Yesterday I went up to Quill Canyon again (just outside of Carson City) to help with another field trip. The Carson High School Honors Biology classes have been monitoring the site for the past four years and I think I've been a part of the project for that long too! They set up transects every 10 feet for 100 yards in designated areas and each year they photograph those transects and estimate the amount of coverage each plant or bare ground covers. They had to look up or guess at the types of plants (forbs, grasses, etc.) so they could watch change occur over time. The area was sprayed for invasive weeds and the students would plant native seeds in the fall.

The weather didn't look all that promising but it was mostly wind and a little rain.

Looking for signs of wildlife.

My portion involved walking the area looking for wildlife or signs of wildlife. Yesterday we saw a Prairie Falcon, Magpie, Scrub Jay, Mallard, Quail, Mule Deer, and Desert Cottontail. We also saw lots of deer and rabbit scat, tracks, an antler, a lizard, maybe leeches, and some insects.

Nevada Bugs and Butterflies, a non-profit group, was there too and they showed the students how they look for insects. They also identified what they found, including butterflies, leaf beetles, caterpillars, beetle nymphs, flies, and bees. I also asked them to talk about the pinecone galls that we were seeing on the willows.

Showing the students caterpillars and butterflies.

Today I'm going to an Education Working Group Meeting in the Carson River Coalition building. It's my day off but I wanted to go. I also could have gone to another field trip in Quill Canyon, since this is the last year it's happening, but I thought going to the meeting might be more beneficial since the agenda has a lot to cover!

And finally:

You might be a state park ranger if....

...you need to make a sign with sticky letters and can find all but one of what you need!

We're Getting Busy!

I haven't written for a long time, but we've started getting busy! We had our biggest equestrian event of the year at the end of March--the Nevada All State Trail Riders. It's an endurance ride where they start at the park and ride into the Virginia Range surrounding the park, then down to the north side of the park and back. Normally they would use our obstacle course, but it's under water right now! All but two obstacles, both bridges, are flooded!

Washoe Lake is full!

Our local PBS show, Wild Nevada came to the park for a day and filmed us! I've been watching re-runs on Channel 5 and it's been fun to watch my co-workers show off their parks. I watched Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park, Spooner Backcountry, Lahontan, and other episodes I can't think of right now.  My supervisor, Jenny, did the section on boating (they brought me with them so I got to go out on Washoe Lake for the first time!) and I did a guided hike to the gazebo overlook on the Deadman's Creek Trail. After that, we met a local park user, Beth, for a segment about our equestrian area and trails. Chris, one of the hosts, loves horses and they had her put on a helmet and ride with Beth. It was really fun seeing all the behind the scenes work they do while filming. One of the cameramen was from Estonia and he was great to talk to. He kept having us re-do shots, mostly of us walking on the trail so they could get different angles of us walking over rocks and over bridges. They also wanted more shots of us entering and leaving the gazebo. Our episode won't film until sometime in October probably.

We had over 200 people at our Easter Egg Hunt, which is hosted by the South Valley Volunteer Fire Department. Their Facebook page said they colored and hid something like 3,000 hard-boiled eggs and we had over 200 cars in the park, maybe around 500 people. It got crazy in the fee booth, waving people through (the egg hunt was free), selling campsites, and selling permits with the line building up. We got through it and had a great day and nice weather for a change!

We've got a great crew this year and so far they seem to work really well together. We've got a guy who was the administrator of the Department of Ag's weed control program, a retired National Park Service interpreter, a UNR (University of Nevada Reno) engineering student, a man who is from Tahoe but has been working for Xanterra at Crater Lake for the last few years and wanted to get back to Nevada, and three returning seasonals, two of which are Park Aids II and will help us supervise the Park Aid I staff and assign projects and daily activities.

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.

 

 

Fire Extinguishers and a Busy Day

My supervisor had asked me if I would gather all the fire extinguishers for the park and have the volunteer at Dayton bring his so they could be re-charged and inspected. Dave, our maintenance specialist, offered to gather most of them since he had to go around the park anyway. I grabbed mine from the residence this morning, and texted him at 7:45 to see if he had gone to Little Washoe yesterday to get that one, because I didn't remember him mentioning it. He had forgotten that one, so I got ready and went out there to get it. The fire extinguisher company was set to arrive at 8 a.m., so I asked Dave if he would keep an eye out for him, and a woman who was going to come in early to buy a pass. I got there shortly after 8 a.m. and dropped off the fire extinguishers, then went in the office to wait.

While I was waiting at the office, a woman came in and asked about a funny noise she had heard a few nights ago. Her daughter thought it was a fox and definitely not a coyote. I thought it could be a Western Screech Owl, but when I played the sound for her, that wasn't it. I said I would have to hear it, and that I was sorry I couldn't help her out. She took some brochures and went on her way. 

I got a phone call from some duck hunters out around Belleview, on the west side of the lake. They reported they had seen a hurt swan, and it later died. They said they contacted NDOW (Nevada Department of Wildlife) and they had said to call a ranger to come pick it up. Normally, we don't handle wildlife (dead or alive), so I got their name and phone number, called the NDOW dispatch number and passed the information along. Swan hunting is not allowed in that area, so we thought the game warden might want to check it out.

The woman I was waiting for never came in, so by noon I was thinking I better go eat lunch and get out into the park to finish rounds. I usually try to do the whole park in a day--normally in the winter it doesn't take more than half a day to check and clean all restrooms, empty garbage, and pick up litter. There is sometimes fee compliance and I check the fee tubes. Yesterday I did the main part of the park and the southernmost areas, and today all I had was the north side, Belleview, and the campground. It rained and then got really cold, so I had to move some garbage cans into the sun so I would be able to empty them later!

Our water level is rising...but we need a lot more snow if we're going to have a lake this summer!

This is our bulletin board at the Scripps parking lot. It's part of Washoe Lake, but the rest of Scripps is a Wildlife Management Area, managed by NDOW. It looks like I need to get the locks back up on the bulletin board so people stop stealing the fliers and maps!

Scripps bathroom. Not long after I started this job, I rescued a Northern Flicker from the vault of this toilet. I couldn't figure out how to get it out, so I called my supervisor. There is a hatch to open on the back side, which I opened, and the poor bird flew right out.

Sunset tonight behind Slide Mountain.

I'm at the office after dark, so I try to go through and add to my "to-do" list. I forgot I found out we were out of gas today so I need to call tomorrow morning to get the tank filled.

Our Winter Solstice night hike is tomorrow at 6 p.m. so I need to get ready for that. I also have a Christmas-themed slide show coming up at Sand Harbor (Lake Tahoe) on Saturday so I should go over it a few times to make sure I remember it. I usually take candy canes and gingerbread cookies and talk about the history of our Christmas traditions, and show Christmas scenes from around Northern Nevada (Reno, Washoe Valley, Tonopah, Virginia City).

I got home after work, heated up leftovers, put dishes away, fed the cat, and went through some pictures. I'm going in later tomorrow because of the hike, so I'm going into town in the morning for the library and post office (that will be "fun")...

Dead Skunk (Not in the Middle of the Road)

In my last post I said there hasn't been much going on. I can't say that anymore, and I won't complain about nothing going on anymore (I don't really think I was complaining, but still...).

I went home for lunch last Monday, heated up some soup, and went back to work. I didn't notice anything strange. When I got home Monday night, I could smell something outside the mud room, but it wasn't until I went in the house that the smell almost knocked me over! I couldn't identify it at first, it was so strong. My eyes were watering, and my first thought was that I had left the burner on the stove when I heated up my soup! I realized that wasn't the problem, walked through the whole house, and narrowed it down to the front bedroom and living room that were the worst.

I started to get a sinking feeling...I bent down to smell a couple of the heater vents (more on those later) and gagged. I immediately closed the offending vents--three, all on one side of the house. I lit a candle, opened a few windows and turned on a couple fans (kitchen, bathrooms).

My cat kind of liked having the window open.

I texted my supervisor, "I'm 99.9% sure that a skunk died under my house!" That night I slept with the window open.

The next morning, I texted our maintenance specialist (Dave). He said, "uh oh!" and came right over. He walked in the one room I had sealed off (it was horrible) and confirmed that my house did indeed smell really, really bad. We walked around the rest of the house, out to the street, around the house. He thought maybe the skunk had sprayed under the house and then left. Nope. We opened up some of the siding on each side of the house to air it out and made a plan for Wednesday. He was going to crawl under the house and start cutting through the insulation blanket to see if the skunk was on top of the insulation or possibly in the heater duct.

The heater vents: the person who had lived in this house before me told me that when the two sides of this mobile home were put together, "married," the heater ducts on the west side of the house were never connected, so they were just dead. I knew this when I moved in, but I didn't fully understand what that could mean, until the skunk died! It died, it's muscles tensed into rigor mortis, and a few days later, those muscles relaxed. Its scent gland also relaxed, releasing all of that skunk scent under the house and into the heater vents, which brought it right up into the house. (The heater vents are now connected!) All of my clothes, including my work uniform, smelled like skunk, so I went to the store and work smelling. I bought a lot of Febreze candles and a can of spray. I got back in my car, and my car smelled because I had been in it.

I had to do some paperwork and go into town on Wednesday, so I did the paperwork as fast as I could then went to the house to help Dave. I had to go into the bedroom to get my coveralls so I could go under the house and help him find this skunk.

Opening up the skirting. We could see where the skunk had dug under the mudroom and accessed the rest of the underside of the house. The mudroom was added on later, and whoever built it did not add a concrete pad; they built it over dirt. When Dave put the skirting back up, he put it under the mudroom, up against the concrete pad so nothing else can dig under to access the house!

No one truly believed me that there was an actual dead skunk under my house, but Dave was willing to look, and he had a good idea of where to look. Pretty soon I hear, "I see a tail!" I told him he was awesome and ran for some garbage bags. I helped him bag up the skunk (I was probably just in the way), and then took out two more bags of contaminated insulation from under the house. After we stopped at the park dumpster, I took him out to Starbucks for coffee as a thank you.

Thursday I was off, but I spent a couple hours driving around Carson City looking for skunk neutralizing soap while Dave attached the heater ducts. Both of us forgot that we stuffed garbage inside the duct to stop more smell from coming up into the house, so we didn't remember until the next day why there was still no hot air coming up....by the time my husband came home from work Thursday night the smell was so much better! We still spent the weekend washing clothes and renting a carpet shampooer from Home Depot to try to get rid of the remaining smell. There are stiff whiffs here and there but the house is live-able again!

I'm thankful for co-workers willing to help out with such a crazy and not fun situation! He was so impressed that I was there under the house willing to help him out, but he was really doing me a huge favor by finding that skunk!

Winter Has Begun...

I haven't posted anything in almost a month! Except for the past couple weeks, we've managed to stay pretty busy with campers and day-users. I haven't really been inspired much to post anything because there hasn't been anything different going on. There have been a couple bad messes in the restrooms...my supervisor and I have both cleaned up equally bad "accidents" in the campground restrooms (I did NOT take pictures....) but lately people have been behaving themselves!

This was sunset last Tuesday night. Saying "night" is weird though, because right now sunset happens just after 4 p.m.!

 

It rained most of the day on Saturday and I was off work, so my husband and I drove around the valley looking at the creeks that flow into the lake. There is a lot more water in the lake than there was even a few days ago! Unfortunately that means the rain melted some snow, but hopefully that is a good sign that there will be more snow and precipitation coming this winter.

 

This is Ophir Creek, one of the major water sources coming into Washoe Lake. It was flowing pretty good after all that rain! Parts of Carson City and Reno were flooding and people could go various places to fill their own sandbags to take home.

Davis Creek, on the west side of the valley.

 

This morning I'm heading out to do rounds throughout the park, then I have some filing to do to make our year-end paperwork easier (I try to avoid filing, but this time I can't). I sent an e-mail about scheduling an interpretive meeting with other park interpreters around the state, and took care of our "office cats." Yesterday we had a program at the office--I did a slide presentation about Washoe Lake with a brief history of Washoe Valley and a "tour" of the park. There were three visitors.

 

Jack loves the pellet stove.

 

I've also been writing down new program ideas for the coming year. I'm trying to not schedule so many because we will have several new park aids coming on this year and they will need training and probably closer supervision than I've had to do in the past.

 

I do want to keep the full moon hikes going, and do some bird watching, sunrise and sunset hikes, wildflower hikes, campfire programs, Junior Ranger programs, and a couple slide shows. That doesn't sound like I'm trying to do less, does it? haha--we are also planning to have the astronomers back twice this summer, a Dutch oven cooking class, carp fishing derby, hike to Virginia City (12+ miles), and the normal outreach activities we do every year. We also have field trips that come to the park and both group use areas are reserved most weekends and sometimes during the week.

 

I've got a full moon hike scheduled for tomorrow night. The weather is supposed to be bad (snow and/or rain) so we'll see if it really happens. I only have a few people signed up but I have done a full moon hike with one person before, on Christmas Eve last year!

 

The Winter Solstice Hike is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 21 at 6 p.m. The low is supposed to be around 15 that night so we really will have to bundle up! I do have 14 people signed up for that one though. I was thinking it would be a true night hike, with red flashlights so we can keep our night vision to look at the stars and maybe come across some wildlife--here that means we *might* see deer or a coyote and maybe an owl.



Around the Park

Yesterday I took some sick time--my husband's cooking?--but not the whole day. I went in a little late because I had someone planning to come to the office to buy her annual pass. I also wanted to check restrooms in the campground, go out to Bellview for garbage, and check on the two areas on the south side of the lake--the Wetlands and South Beach. I always pick up a lot of cigarette butts at South Beach for some reason. I tell myself that each one I pick up is one less the park visitor has to see. I'm thinking of planning a Facebook post about cigarette butts--how bad they are for wildlife, how they pollute, and how long they take to biodegrade.

I like checking our equestrian areas. Most of the horses are friendly and so are the dogs. The other day when I was out there checking fee compliance, etc, I saw a couple of people riding their horses back to the parking lot. I overheard the woman talking to her dad (she addressed him as her dad later), saying that I (as a ranger) had my role here too. I'm assuming he had said something that wasn't very nice because I was checking for fees, but I was also there to empty the garbage and clean the restrooms. I know a lot of people expect parks and other areas to be free, but cleaning supplies, gas, and garbage bags all cost money and the facilities aren't cheap to maintain. One of the hardest parts of our jobs is helping people to see that, and to understand why they do have to pay for these park areas.

On Sunday, I cleaned up the equestrian group use area after our last group of the year. There is an informal group using the area, including the arena, next weekend but they didn't make a reservation. They just called to make sure there were no groups scheduled when they were planning to come out, because they would plan around those groups.

As I was cleaning campground restrooms yesterday, a magpie was watching me and chirping at me as I worked. I think they like to supervise!

Jack is our solar-powered office cat. He is in charge of catching mice and keeping them out of the park office. He was actually abandoned at the park around 5 years ago and is now very spoiled. He soaks up the sun, has a cat door so he can come and go as he pleases, regular cat food, a litter box, and treats. Our volunteer buys his food and I buy his treats and cat litter. I keep telling him it's a good thing all of that is cheap!

Programs and Other Excitement

Yesterday I had an animal program at Dayton State Park and I had six people! For Dayton, that's pretty good... I talked a little about the Great Basin and the Carson River Watershed, read an excerpt from Adventures of a Nature Guide by Enos Mills about woodpeckers building their nest, showed my Northern Flicker nest, and some pictures of wildlife from Dayton, Washoe Lake, and Fort Churchill. We also took a short walk down to the Carson River to look for wildlife and signs of wildlife.

The Fremont cottonwoods along the river are at the peak of their fall colors right now!

We talked about bat boxes and cottonwood galleries.

Today I had a guided hike scheduled for 10 a.m. The route I chose was to the gazebo above Deadman's Creek, and then into the hills above, in the Virginia Range. The hike is 2.6 miles long, with an elevation gain of approximately 620 feet. 

I was in the office getting ready for the hike, about to leave, when a visitor came to the office at 9:30 saying the dump station was clogged and he wanted to use it...I'm thinking Of course the dump station is clogged right now. I followed him down, unclogged it, and made it to the parking lot (meeting location) with 15 minutes to spare! Is it weird that I'm proud of myself when I get it unclogged and ready for people to use? (hahaha)

There was a person already waiting to use the dump station when I showed up and he asked me questions about the park the whole time I was trying to get it open. It was a little distracting, but today the clog wasn't that bad so it wasn't hard to answer questions while working on it. Sometimes that's not the case....the first time I had to work on it this year, my allergies were killing me, hornets were swarming around the water, and both my supervisor and a park visitor were watching me, waiting for it to be open. After 20 minutes or so I had to give up and we ended up calling our maintenance specialist on his day off to come work on it. The visitor had to go somewhere else for her RV. 

Our maintenance specialist, Dave, told me I probably did not have enough upper body strength to use the hand snake to unclog the dump station...and that's all it took! I was determined to not have to call him on his day off (or anyone else) to do it for me. It worked...the next few times it was clogged, I was able to get it back open! I even had our volunteer tell me it's not my job and that I should call him, but it really is my job--especially when I work alone on Sundays and that's the busiest day for it. People are heading home from camping and come into the park to use the dump station before they make the drive. I figure it uses less gas because their vehicle is lighter afterwards!

This time of year it clogs more than normal because there is a cottonwood tree in the island beside it. The leaves get washed down and build up. We think...know...there is something blocking the pipe between the main hole and the leach field. There is at least one power snake "head" down there and maybe a cap or something from the RV hoses. We have baskets installed now to prevent more from going down there--the dump station at Dayton State Park had to be dug up and cleared out because someone put a plastic "red cup" down there full of rocks, which succeeded in blocking and clogging the whole thing! The plan is to dig ours up this spring and see why it has been clogging so much and fix the problem. I'm definitely in favor of that plan!!

The guided hike went well. There were three people willing to do a "strenuous" hike in November. The weather has been perfect lately. Today I think we had a high of 60 or so. (Yesterday my husband and I drove to Reno after work and there was a convertible with the top down--it was 75 degrees!) My supervisor and I debated whether to call the hike "moderate" or "strenuous" because it's not really a strenuous hike, but I know that people have very different definitions of strenuous. I had a guided hike to the gazebo this spring, a wildflower walk, and had people who were unable to finish the hike (turned around early), and some who did do the whole thing complained that they thought it was going to be an easy walk instead of a hard hike. I decided that the more description I could give, the better, so I used my Strava app on my phone to measure the distance and elevation gain this time, so I could be exact in the hike description. I think it worked this time. I only worried about one person, a man who showed up with a large energy drink can instead of water, but he didn't seem to have any problems on the hike at all.

We saw a lot of deer from a distance, and this guy showed up as we were heading back to the parking lot. It's a Jerusalem cricket but I have also heard them called "potato bugs." I got to point out a couple of long-eared owl nests along the way. The visitors were interested in seeing the wild horses, but they didn't show up today.

Carson River Snapshot Day

This morning I went to Dayton to help with the Carson River Snapshot Day. The Carson River is a terminal watershed, meaning that its water will never reach the ocean. It starts in Alpine County, California, and ends east of Fallon, NV in the Carson Sink. Each year, volunteers meet on one day, from 9 a.m. to noon, and sample the water. We take several samples that get sent to the state lab for testing. This happens throughout the watershed, beginning to end. We also write out observations, like water color, odor, drainages, inputs, pollution sources, and more. I think this is the fourth year I have been involved and this year I got to work with a representative from the Dayton Valley Conservation District. We had nine high school chemistry students plus their teacher.

Sometimes the river is low enough to walk out to the middle for the sample. This year there is a lot more water so we needed a pole dipper and waders.

The sample comes from the middle of the river, collected upstream from the volunteers so its not polluted with sediment or material washing off waders, etc.

Estimating the width of the stream.

Another shot of measuring the width of the stream. I loved being there surrounded by the fall colors!

Group of volunteers with the site locator--MCR-DAYT (Middle Carson River, Dayton Bridge)

Rob from the Dayton Valley Conservation District talking about water quality and why it's important.