Thank you Cascade Designs, Boy Scouts, Mount Rainier National Park Associates, and Spring Opening volunteers!

MRNPA hard at work at Narada Falls

At least four major volunteer projects have gone on in the park over the past several days, so I think we can safely say that the summer volunteer season has begun!

On Saturday, the Mount Rainier National Park Associates were here working on the trail at Narada Falls. The weather was cool and cloudy, but that's perfect weather for the kind of hard work they do, and the trail looks fantastic. Mark your calendars now--the next MRNPA project will be June 13. The location is yet to be determined, but you can learn more and contact the group to sign on through their website, MRNPA.org.

A few volunteers also showed up to help us with spring trail opening at Paradise. This is a critical job, as already there is bare ground melting out around the Jackson Visitor Center! Volunteers help mark trails and make them safe. We have two people on the calendar for next weekend already, with room for several more, so if you're interested in joining us, send a note to MORA_Meadow_Rovers (at) nps.gov.

A group of about a dozen Boy Scouts from the Lakewood area joined us on Saturday and spent seven hours working with Trails Supervisor James Montgomery to rebuild foot bridge abutments on the Wonderland Trail near Cougar Rock. Troop leader Bret Buck reports that "the project was challenging physically and mentally for our young leaders... All in all it was an inspiring weekend!"

Cascade Designs in the Longmire Volunteer Campground

Yesterday, a group of employees from Cascade Designs (the parent company of MSR and Thermarest, among others) showed up to camp in the drizzle at the Longmire Volunteer Campground. Forty-one people from all over the country and all over the world (I talked with people from New Hampshire, Maine, Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, and Thailand) put in a couple of hours work cleaning up storm debris from the winter, including trees that had fallen through campsites; filling in potholes with gravel; and restoring areas disturbed during the removal of old concrete picnic table frames. The campground is now in ship-shape form for summer!

We're grateful for all of our volunteers, and look forward to more success stories like these as the summer progresses!