Cascade Volcanoes • Entered by Laurie Kerr on October 3, 2021
Solitude Monitoring
September 28, 2021 – September 29, 2021
Participants and Hours
| Pre Planning hours | 11 |
| Post Admin hours | 0.5 |
| Activity Hours | 16 |
| Participants | 2 |
| Total Hours | 43.5 |
Key Issue: Wildlife Protection
Activity Type: Stewardship (monitoring, sampling, planting, etc.)
Key Partners: Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area FS/National Wilderness Stewardship Alliance
Landscape/area: Mark O. Hatfield Wilderness (65420 acres)
Measurable Outcomes
Outcome 1: Trail/land monitored (8 miles)
Short Description of Activity
Linda Folkstad and Laurie monitored Cedar Swamp zone for solitude.
Reflection/Evaluation
We camped at Wahtum Lake Campground and had a cold but enjoyable, dry evening. We monitored in the afternoon on the first day and noted 3 people and 3 low elevation flights. Because it was late and the monitoring zone is 90 minutes from the campground, we decided to go out and back along the monitoring zone. Beautiful old growth forest with very little burned areas. Lots of solitude, too!
We had a very very challenging day on Friday starting out with Laurie getting stung by a yellowjacket. Nurse Nancy, fellow hiker, recommended she put on her Big Girl Pants, suck it up, and keep hiking. Then the rain set in about noon and it never stopped. Laurie accidentally dropped her pack down a steep cliff while climbing over downed trees. Linda spotted her while she bushwhacked to her pack and eventually made it back on the trail. The hike up the three pinnacles was steep with no signage. Linda used her GPS navigational skills to locate the trails. Trails were not well maintained. We only recorded 2 hikers and one low flying aircraft. Then Linda cut her finger and we couldn’t get the bleeding to stop so she wrapped it and applied pressure while she hiked. We had enough food and water, but we got soaked and couldn’t stop because we would freeze to death. We are so glad to have had the SPOT in case we needed it. Luckily, we didn’t. Finally, we located the Anthill trail 1.4 miles from the Campground at 5:30pm on Friday. We were so relieved to get out of the rain and into our cars. Quite the Adventure! My phone recorded a total of 18 miles for Friday! This is the due to the monitoring zone being so far from the campground, and we had some backtracking due to poor signage. I am not recommending others do the loop hike, but instead do an out and back day hike on a dry day as we did on the first day.