♪ …With a million flowers. ♪
Because
of a cancellation, I was called last minute to be a student coordinator for the
College Outdoors ethnobotany hike this Saturday. Since I am interested in
edible plants and one of my good friends here was going on the hike I promptly agreed
and signed up for the trip.
I
arrived at Sequoia, the gear warehouse, at 7am Saturday and the leaders and I started
packing the van for the trip. The
participants arrived at about 7:30 and we all ate breakfast before heading
off. Our first stop was Starvation Creek
State Park. (What could be a better place to start an edible plants hike?) After a waterfall, miner’s lettuce, and a
story (see below) we headed onward to Memaloose State Park.
Starvation
Creek got its name from a train accident in 1884. On December 18, the Pacific Express ran into a 25-foot-tall snowdrift. No one was injured, but the train was
stuck. The passengers were paid $3 a day
to help shovel snow and everyone was fed with food that was being shipped on
the train. On January 7th,
1885 the train finally arrived in Portland. While newspapers had reported
otherwise, no one actually died during their adventure at starvation creek.
Memaloose was amazing.
We followed a trail through fields, spotting many different types of
wildflowers, until we arrived at a hill completely coated in balsamroot flowers
(a relative of the sunflower). We hiked up to the lookout at the top of the
hill and had lunch there while admiring the field of flowers and the snow
covered peaks or Mt. Adams and Mt. Hood.
It was a fantastic way to spend a day.
Please feel free to send me an email at ameliaberle@lclark.edu if you have any
questions.