This morning, I was surprised by another service day activity, I was told that we would be visiting another fishery and maybe getting in the water to collect some samples. Instead, we met Tom Walker a fish biologist at Soda Creek. He took us to a work site that was next to a creek named Gus Creek that entered Lake Sparks that was next to a highway. One side of the stream was vegetated and natural looking, the other side was dried and dead from the construction that occurred there. In 2017 a bridge for the creek to pass through was replaced by a better-constructed path. But as a result of that construction, the land in the construction site died. So that being said our job was to get the land ready for reseeding of vegetation. Before we started he offered us protective equipment to work such as a hard hat, glasses, gloves, and a variety of tools. The tool that I choose was a macloud special rake that is used to dig and rake dirt. My group was assigned to loosen the dry dirt a couple of inches in order for the seeds to root themselves to the land easier. If that is not done to the soil the seeds would not root to the ground because of the hard structure of the soil there. But the soil there was as wildland firefighters call it, Hard Money. The soil was extremely dried and had tons of rocks underneath it, so digging there for me was not pleasant at all.
Our next activity took us to a visit to the Lava Lands tours were we meet forest rangers that worked there. Jim Eliot was our first ranger to greet us there at the visitor center and provided us with an informative paper of the areas on The Lava Lands. We then took a bus to Lava Buid to visit a fire finder lookout station. There we met Tony Savino another ranger who gave us a brief tour of the locations around the tower. He explained that the tower is set on up of a volcanic crater and all the dirt and rocks there were red due to iron in the soil. This occurred due to a volcanic eruption from the Newberry volcano that occurred 7,000 years and so that is why it is called Lava Lands. To me that location was really neat because it looked like another land or something, it was just really neat. Tony also showed us were Mt. Adams was located at, seeing that view gave me a good feeling, knowing that I could still manage to see a little piece of home from such a far place just felt good. We then headed up the fire tower and meat Joey a fire detector specialist. His job was to use a tool known as a fire detector that consists of a big telescope and a compass. What was most amazing was how all around his office, he had a map drawing of all the mountains and places around the tower with locations and coordinates. Overall this activity was brief but really informative. I really enjoyed this activity because I had never seen a sight like that in person, to be able to witness the power of the volcanos was just amazing. The next activity of the day was brief but really enjoyable, we visited the site known as Paulina Falls. This was a two-mile hike trail next to a gorgeous river that let us to the waterfalls. For me, this was really enjoyable because the trail itself was pretty easy and I could take in the sights in peace. The breeze from the river was also very welcoming since it was really hot.
For our final place that we visited was a magma tunnel that passed right under highway 97. This was a really interesting experience because to be able to say that you have been in a lava flow tunnel is not something that anybody gets to see. The tunnel itself is originally thirteen miles but we only had permission to hike one mile. The hike itself was really cool because it was really fresh inside, it is supposed to be forty degrees cold but it just felt really fresh after a long and hot day. Inside the tunnel, it was pitch black. So that made it even more amusing because I was talking about creepy and scary things with Pablo. We talked about how that looks like the home where La Yorona lives in, and we talked about what if it appeared there. But what left me disappointed with in this location was the fact that they do not allow anybody but government officials beyond one mile. So that left me wanting for more and just wanting to discover what they keep down there. Overall today was a really busy day but I still think that visiting the hot shots was the icing for this trip for me.
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