Rainier Revisited

PARADISE:  Last week, the kids and Christian had the awesome opportunity to attend a camp with a bunch of friends. I'm still playing catch up (that whole house selling/house buying/moving thing). Following are some photos and memories about camp. 

Following is CJ's narration of some memories.

Pack Forest is a camp near Mount Rainier, a U.S. National Park in Washington State (located south of us). On Tuesday, my dad, sister, and I drove down to Pack Forest for a group camping trip.

On the first day of our trip, we went hiking in the woods by our campground. I spent multiple minutes doing the math to figure out how much money Pack Forest would earn if they sold a large portion of their forest's wood. By my math, Pack Forest would earn $250,000.

On the second day, we went all the way up to Paradise. As described on the National Park Service's website, Paradise is famous for its glorious views and wildflower meadows. When James Longmire's daughter-in-law, Martha, first saw this site, she exclaimed, "Oh, what a paradise!" 

The park's main visitor center, the new Paradise Jackson Visitor Center, is located in the upper parking area. Paradise is also the prime winter-use area in the park, receiving on average 643 inches (53.6 feet/16.3 meters) of snow a year. Winter activities include snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and tubing. The road between Longmire and Paradise is plowed throughout the winter.

My dad, sister, and I all went snowshoeing along with the other campers, walking for roughly half a mile across parts of Mount Rainier. I actually had to tie my coat around my waist (and wear sunglasses and a sun hat), due to the very large amount of sunlight up there. It was warmer than I expected, and I got to see some marmots (creatures that are common on Mount Rainier).

End of CJ's comments. 

Below is a marmot hole. I find it so darn interesting that there are snowy mountain "rats."

There are a number of scheduled activities during the group's stay. Following, Annabelle tells about an educational game they played.

How to Play: Predator-Prey

Setup: place six poles in your playing area. Tie a different color marker or crayon to each pole. Put a blue flag on two poles, and green on the four others. The blue flags will represent water sources and the green flags represent plant food. For extra fun, try hiding the food and water in unexpected places!

Each player will become one of three types of animal: an herbivore, an omnivore, or a carnivore.

Herbivores must collect 2 water sources and 4 plant food, and can be tagged by anyone.

Omnivores must collect 2 water sources, 4 plant food, and tag 2 herbivores to collect meat. Omnivores can also be tagged by carnivores.

Carnivores must collect 2 water sources and tag 8 herbivores or omnivores to collect meat. Carnivores can only be tagged by “Hunters”, players who use a ball and attempt to hit the “animals”.

Each player gets a slip of paper that lists their type of animal and slots to fill with water and food. This is where the different color markers or crayons come in- it prevents players from marking all of their water or food slots with only one source.
Each player also receives a number of “Life bands” on their left wrist. Herbivores receive 6, omnivores receive 4, and carnivores receive 2. Players lose these bands when they are tagged or “shot” by a hunter. When an omnivore or a carnivore tag another animal, they take the life band and place it on their right wrist as meat that they’ve collected to survive.
 During the game, players race to find the food and water poles before they lose all of their lives! This game works best with a large group in a wide and open area. To mimic real life, the majority of player should be herbivores, a medium-sized group can be omnivores, and very few should be carnivores. To win, players must fill in all of the slots on their cards and survive until the end of the game. If players lose all of their lives before time’s up, they can choose to become a hunter (who uses a ball to hit the animals and take life bands) or a veterinarian (who can return lost life bands to other players). 

All in all, it was a terrific time, and I'm so glad they got to go!