CITO the Mountain 2012 Cache In Trash Out® Event

This cache has been archived.

K2D2: Hmm, thought I'd already archived this a month ago! Oh well, here it goes again. Thank you to everyone who made this event such a great success! See you next year!

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Hidden : Saturday, June 9, 2012
Difficulty:
4 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size: not chosen (not chosen)

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Geocache Description:

For five years now, Mount Rainier National Park has hosted a yearly volunteer event for geocachers, their family and friends. Welcome to the 6th annual CITO at Mount Rainier!

CITOYour hosts for the occasion will be Jean and Harry Millan (campground hosts) and Volunteer Coordinators Kevin Bacher (K2D2) and Carrie Anders, assisted by Kevin's faithful sidekick Crow. We will welcome you to the campground and will lead two projects, both of which will be familiar to those of you returning this year. These will be:

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 requires many hands! This year, we have three brand new wall tents purchased from Montana that should be more durable than the previous models, and we're looking forward to seeing them set up and in use!

Campground Cleanup: A fair amount of debris falls during our Pacific Northwest winter storms, and branches need to be picked up and removed 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. There may also be some limited removal of fallen trees.

　
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 if necessary. You are welcome to bring your own personal safety equipment if you have it.

Weather Alternatives: The CITO will proceed rain or shine, though poor weather may abbreviate our efforts. The campground is currently snow-free. No shoveling required! Here's a link to a current weather forecast for the Mountain. We expect to have our projects done before lunch, with plenty of time for caching afterward.

Time and place: Meet at the posted coordinates (the campground hosts' site #1 at the north end of the Longmire Campground) at 9:30 AM on Saturday, June 9. To find the site, turn at the Longmire Museum and drive across the historic wooden suspension bridge.

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 (ideally 23 feet max) 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.

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!

mora
　
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. CITO the Mountain 2011 included similar projects.

Organizing the event is K2D2, a local geocacher who also happens to be the Volunteer and Outreach Program Manager at Mount Rainier National Park. As in years past, we'll be staging 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 volunteers and other working park partners 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!

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