Like last year, your hosts will be Jean and Harry Milan and
Volunteer Coordinators Kevin Bacher (K2D2) and Patti Poulin, who
will welcome you to the campground and lead four projects, two of
them brand new to the Mount Rainier CITO:
- Building Platform Tents: Over the wet, stormy winter,
the park's wall tents are taken down and stored, and the platforms
on which they are built are propped up against trees and covered
with tarps. Rebuilding the tents in the spring is not especially
difficult, but it definitely takes a group effort!
- Campground Cleanup: A fair amount of debris falls out of
the trees over the winter, and needs to be picked up and swept up
from campsites and trails. The winter's accumulation of pine
needles need to be swept off the roads and paths, in preparation
for their use by guests.
Crosscut Saw Work: In at least one location, a large
tree has come down through the middle of one of the platform tent
sites over the winter. We'll use a crosscut saw provided by our
trail crew to saw it into manageable pieces and move it to the
side.
Chainsaw Firewood Cutting: Mount Rainier's road and
trail crews clear numerous fallen trees over the course of the
winter. These trees are currently stacked in our Kautz Creek
Maintenance Yard (see waypoint) in lengths varying from 8 to 40
feet. They're available for volunteers to use in the Longmire
Campground, after they've been cut into smaller pieces and
transported. This project is only available to those proficient
with chainsaws and who are willing to bring and use their own
equipment at their own risk. Please indicate in your RSVP if you
plan to cut wood, so that we know how many people to plan for.
After meeting at the posted coordinates, we will carpool with the
sawyers to Kautz Creek and bring back the completed firewood in a
park truck.
Safety: As with all volunteer events, safety is our
highest priority. We will conduct a safety briefing at the
beginning of each project, and provide you with hard hats and
gloves. You are welcome to bring your own such equipment as well.
Those using chain saws should bring good boots and eye
protection.
Weather Alternatives: The CITO will proceed rain or
shine, though poor weather may abbreviate our efforts. Fortunately,
we shouldn't have as much snow to deal with as in 2009. As of May
24 there are still patches of snow in the campground, but it is
melting rapidly. Here's a
link to a current weather forecast for the Mountain.
Time and place: Meet at the Longmire Community Building
(the posted coordinates), at the entrance to the Longmire
Campground, at 9:30 am on Saturday, June 11. To find the Community
Building, turn at the Longmire Museum and drive across the historic
suspension bridge. Note that this time of year Longmire is only
accessible from the west, off State Route 706. We should get all of
our projects done before lunch, with plenty of time for caching
afterward.
Camping: The Longmire Campground is a perfect location
for spending the night (no charge for volunteers), and if we get
the platform tents built, you'll even be able to rest off the cold
ground! Tents and small RVs (26 feet maximum, smaller is
better) are also welcome. There are no hookups, but we'll have
access to hot showers in the bath house. Please RSVP if you plan to
camp, and let us know what kind of site you need.
Food and Clothing: Long pants, boots, and work gloves are
recommended (we'll provide gloves if you don't have your own).
Bring rain gear and layers depending on weather. We'll provide hard
hats and tools. Bring water, a sack lunch, and snacks. Temperatures
can drop into the 30s at night, so bring hats, gloves, and warm
clothes if you plan to camp.
Entrance Fee: The park entrance fee is $15 for a one-week
family pass, though this is always waived for working volunteers.
Identify yourself as a volunteer working on the Longmire Campground
project and the rangers at the gate will wave you through.
Socializing and goodies: We'll have a small geo-raffle
after lunch. Geo-goodies are being collected for the raffle, so
e-mail me if you have anything to donate. 
Update: Rather than the usual random distribution
of prizes, I'm putting together a little game that will involve a
combination of skill and chance. Bring your GPSrs!
To learn more about Mount Rainier, visit the park website or the Rainier Volunteers
Blog, where you'll find many other opportunities to volunteer
throughout the summer.
Many great geocaches are available locally, including several
virtuals and earth caches in the park and traditionals, multis, and
puzzle caches just outside the park boundary.
Thanks for helping out! Join us to get some good work
done, meet new geofriends, and CITO The Mountain!
History and Background: The genesis of this project began
in November 2006, when heavy rainfall caused damaging floods
throughout the park. In September 2007, Team Misguided organized
the first annual
Mount Rainier Recovery CITO Event, which received positive
feedback from park staff as well as local press coverage. The crew
built trails, removed debris, and did some replanting. In June
2008, hydnsek organized a great sequel, another
Mount Rainier CITO, this time helping to shovel out the Cougar
Rock Campground, which was buried by a record spring snowpack.
Their amazing work allowed the campground to open two weeks earlier
than it would have otherwise. In 2009, another heavy snow year,
geocachers at the "CITO
The Mountain" event dug out campsites at the Longmire Volunteer
Campground and set up platform tents for volunteers to use through
the summer. Participants in last year's
CITO 2010 cleaned up storm debris and, again, set up platform
tents for the summer.
This year's event is organized by K2D2, a local geocacher who
also happens to be the Volunteer and Outreach Program Manager at
Mount Rainier National Park; and this year we'll be staging again
in the historic Longmire Campground, tucked away in the forest on
the south side of the Nisqually River at Longmire. This site served
as a public campground for more than 30 years before closing in the
late 1960s when the more modern and more easily accessible Cougar
Rock Campground opened. In 2009, thanks to the help of geocachers
and other volunteers, the campground reopened for use by volunteers
and other special groups. Its 31 individual sites, two group sites,
and half-dozen platform tents are used throughout the summer by
community groups, educational field trips, and volunteers as a base
of operations while working in the park. It even has a bath house
with showers--the only public showers in the park, but only
available to volunteers. A second bath house will be built this
summer, and plans call for a picnic pavillion next year. We're also
on track to receive a shipment of milled lumber sometime this
summer, and so will finally begin building historic-style picnic
tables with the help of volunteer carpenters. Watch our volunteer
blog for the announcement of this project later this
summer!