2012 Field Trips
CPCOA Field Trips are a wonderful way to meet your fellow cabin owners while learning more about the Chinook Pass area. Listed below are reports from the 2012 field trips.
If you have any questions please contact Carl Buchholz at buchcs@aol.com
Saturday, August 18: Bumping Lake History Walk
Leader: Suzy Cyr
Suzy Cyr lead a walking tour of the camp that was used during the construction of the Bumping Lake Dam by the Bureau of Reclamation. There still are remains of log structures, bee hive baking ovens, and food storage areas that were built into a hill that was deposited by a glacier, and historical debris lying around.
This area was later used for a CCC camp. Several concrete foundations remains from this time. Suzy also gave insight into some of the historical atmosphere of the time, like segregation of the work force. The immigrant workers were housed in a separate section of the camp.
Suzy had many of the old photographs from the camp and dam construction, which showed what it looked like back during construction. Then we drove to the dam and leaned about its construction with the help from many pictures. What is amazing is that much of the construction was done with horse and mule power and very little power equipment. The dam was built by the Bureau of Reclamation, because they could not get private contractors to work in so remote an area.
The third stop was Suzy's cabin, which was the lodge that Jack and Kitty Nelson operated. At one time there were also many rental cabins around this lodge. We toured the lodge both in and outside. Even got to see an old pelton wheel in operation which still supplies the electrical power to the cabin.
It was a special treat to have Betty Ford Gallant attend. She told about working for the Nelsons when they operated the lodge, and she and her husband operated the marina for several years.
Twenty eight people attended this field trip. Carl is hoping that Suzy can lead another field trip on places that we did not have time to visit
Saturday, August 25: Bull Trout Presentation and Viewing
LEADER: Ashton Burch and Cassandra Anderson of the WA Dept of Fish and
Wildlife
Ashton and Cassandra presented and answered questions about the biology, history and concerns for this threatened fish. The well being of bull trout is important to Chinook Pass cabin owners because they have been designated a threatened species. If bull trout are not doing well in the Naches River drainage there could be more restriction placed on cabin owners.
Currently bull trout are doing well in our area and we should strive to keep their population constant or increasing. After their presentation we went to the American River and watched five bull trout in in a clear deep pool below a cabin. Eight people attended this field trip.
Saturday June 2, 2012: Spring Mushrooms!
Time: 1:00 PM
LEADER: Yakima Valley Mushroom Society (YVMS) members
Meet-up Location: Intersection of 410 & Bumping
River Road
CONTACT: Carl Buchholz buchcs@aol.com or 509-966-4861
This will be an excellent opportunity to learn how to identify the
spring mushrooms that are in the woods around our cabins. You will
learn which mushroom are edible, which are questionable, and which
are poisonous. They will describe how to pick mushrooms, care for
them, and even prepare them for the best eating.
You might want to bring some mushrooms that you have found near your
cabin and they can identify them for you. If you have an area that
you know where there are some mushrooms that you would like to share
with the group let us know. We do not have exact locations where we
will be looking at this time, because that will depend on the weather
and when the snow melts. However, there are many good locations in our
cabin areas for mushrooms.
The YVMS has a web site (www.yvms.org) that lists many good mushroom
resources that you should check out.
UPDATE: We had over 20 people join us for this fun, informative and productive field trip!
Here's a few photos to share:
