2Heeldrive - Walk it off Wimp!

I found this article in the New York Times, and thought it was a good one.. Enjoy!

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: August 1, 2009
MOUNT HOOD, Ore.
While backpacking here with my 11-year-old daughter, I kept thinking of something tragic: so few kids these days know what happens when you lick a big yellow banana slug.
My daughter and I were recuperating in a (banana slug-infested) wilderness from a surfeit of civilization. On our second day on the Pacific Crest Trail, we were exhausted after nearly 20 miles of hiking, our feet ached, and ravenous mosquitoes were persecuting us. Dusk was falling, but no formal campsite was within miles.
So we set out a groundsheet and our sleeping bags on the soft grass of a ridge, so that the winds would blow the mosquitoes away. Our dog looked aghast (“Ugh, where’s my bed?!”), but sulkily curled up beside us. As far as we could tell, there was no other hiker within a half-day’s journey in any direction.
We debated whether to put up our light tarp to protect us from rain. “No need,” I advised my daughter patronizingly. “There’s zero chance it’ll rain. And it’ll be more fun to be able to look up at shooting stars.”
It was, until we awoke at 4 a.m. to a freezing drizzle.
The rain not only punctured the doctrine of Paternal Infallibility but also offered one of nature’s dazzlingly important lessons in perspective, reminding us that we’re just tenants — and ones without much sway.
Such time in the wilderness is part of our family’s summer ritual, a time to hit the “reset” switch and escape deadlines and BlackBerrys. We spend the time fretting instead about blisters, river crossings and rain, and the experiences offer us lessons on inner peace and life’s meaning — cheap and effective therapy, without the couch.
All this comes to mind because for most of us in the industrialized world, nature is a rarer and rarer part of our lives. Children for 1,000 generations grew up exploring fields, itching with poison oak and discovering the hard way what a wasp nest looks like. That’s no longer true.
Paul, a fourth grader in San Diego, put it this way: “I like to play indoors better, ’cause that’s where all the electrical outlets are.” Paul was quoted in a thoughtful book by Richard Louv, “Last Child in the Woods,” that argued that baby boomers “may constitute the last generation of Americans to share an intimate, familial attachment to the land and water.”
Only 2 percent of American households now live on farms, compared with 40 percent in 1900. Suburban childhood that once meant catching snakes in fields now means sanitized video play dates scheduled a week in advance. One study of three generations of 9-year-olds found that by 1990 the radius from the house in which they were allowed to roam freely was only one-ninth as great as it had been in 1970.
A British study found that children could more easily identify Japanese cartoon characters like Pikachu, Metapod and Wigglytuff than they could native animals and plants, like otter, oak and beetle.
Mr. Louv calls this “nature deficit disorder,” and he links it to increases in depression, obesity and attention deficit disorder. I don’t know about all that, although his book does cite a study indicating that watching fish lowers blood pressure significantly. (That’s how to cut health costs: hand out goldfish instead of heart medicine!)
One problem may be that the American environmental movement has focused so much on preserving nature that it has neglected to do enough to preserve a constituency for nature. It’s important not only to save forests, but also to promote camping, hiking, bouldering and white-water rafting so that people care about saving those forests.
One sign of trouble: the number of visits to America’s national parks has been slipping for more than a decade. Likewise, Europe and Canada have both done an excellent job of building networks of long-distance hiking trails, while the U.S. has trouble maintaining the trails it has.
One of our family’s annual backpacks is the 40-mile Timberline Trail circuit around Mount Hood, crossing snowfields and dazzling alpine fields of flowers. In years when we’re particularly addled, we hike it as many as three times. But a washout almost three years ago left part of this gorgeous trail — completed in the 1930s — officially closed, and unofficially rather difficult to get by. Here’s a spectacular trail that was built in the last depression, and we can’t even sustain it.
So let’s protect nature, yes, but let’s also maintain trails, restore the Forest Service and support programs that get young people rained on in the woods. Let’s acknowledge that getting kids awed by nature is as important as getting them reading.
Oh, and the slug? Time was, most kids knew that if you licked the underside of a banana slug, your tongue went numb. Better that than have them numb their senses staying cooped up inside.

Original Article can be found Here

An explanation on Deet

By HENRY FOUNTAIN
Published: August 18, 2008

Earlier this year, researchers announced they had solved a mystery: how DEET works. DEET, the most popular mosquito repellent, jams odorant receptors in insect nervous systems, masking other odors that attract the bugs.

Not so fast, say Walter S. Leal and Zainulabeuddin Syed of the University of California, Davis. In a paper in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they have a simpler explanation. Mosquitoes, they say, smell DEET directly and avoid it.

Dr. Leal said that in the earlier research, both DEET and an attractant compound were combined in a cartridge that was used to deliver them to mosquitoes. That had the effect of “trapping” the attractant so that far less of it reached the insects, he said. The mosquitoes showed a reduced response to the attractant, but that was only because there was less of it available. “This decreasing response is a result of the chemicals being in the same cartridge,” Dr. Leal said.

In their work, the Davis researchers used the mosquito that carries West Nile virus. First they identified a single olfactory neuron on one of the bug’s antennas that responded to DEET. Then, using a different way to deliver the chemicals to the mosquitoes, they tested the neuronal response first with the attractant alone and then in combination with DEET. There was no difference in response, suggesting that the DEET had not affected the receptor. “This clearly shows that there was no jamming,” Dr. Leal said.

Instead, he said, DEET appears to set off some avoidance behavior. “They smell it and they go away because they don’t like it for some reason,” he said.

Leslie B. Vosshall, a researcher at Rockefeller University who was involved in the earlier study, said that her team stood by its work, and that its findings were based on a variety of experiments. So for now, at least, there still appear to be some mysteries surrounding DEET.

From the New York Times

Story by;
Susan Schell
of the Gateway
Published: 12:01PM May 13th, 2009

Washington’s National Park Fund welcomed Gig Harbor resident Linda Glein to its board of directors last month.

Glein was elected to the board due to her long and diverse leadership background with non-profit organizations like BetterInvesting-Puget Sound Chapter, the Gig Harbor Branch of American Association of University Women, the Minerva Scholarship Foundation, Tacoma Women’s Sailing Association, Toastmasters and the Peninsula Writer’s Association.

Glein describes the National Park Fund as the state’s official fund-raising arm for the national parks.

“They have a wish list of things they can’t afford to do unless people fundraise,” she said. “The fund raises money to do things in all three parks. Though the board tends to meet in Seattle, they try to get people from all around the state. They wanted more South Sound representation.”

When her husband retired, Glein said they both became involved with many things.

“I thought, ‘We really should think about what our passion is,’ and the national parks just sort of popped up as No. 1 on my list,” she said.

Glein heard about the National Parks Fund several years earlier, but she was deterred because its office was in Seattle. At Christmas time last year, she discovered it was rebuilding its board, and that it had an office in Fircrest.

Glein offered to volunteer when Executive Director Eleanor Kittelson asked if she wanted to be on the board.

“They want to get geographical representation on the board that appeals to different populations,” Glein said. “They were looking for people that have an emotional attachment to the parks. All of the board members are passionate about this.”

Glein moved to Washington from Nebraska when she was 8. While her parents immediately embraced the Pacific Northwest, the homesick child did not.

But that soon changed.

“I hated it,” Glein said. “My grandma and grandpa were still back there, and all my friends. My parents never looked back — they loved it. They just loaded up the car when my dad got a job with Boeing.

“I’ve never seen it written in history, but I know there must have been a Boeing migration. Everyone’s dads worked for Boeing.”

Glein warmed up to the area when her parents took her camping and hiking in the national parks. That’s when she fell in love with Mount Rainier.

“It’s the first place we went, and there was so much incredible beauty,” she said. “The alpine meadows are so accessible. That’s the place I go most often. I go on day hikes there all the time.”

Glein, who said her favorite is the Skyline at Panorama Point, laughed when she recalled calling Mount Rainier “my mountain.”

“I think everyone calls it ‘my mountain,’ ” she said.

She has hiked and camped in all three national parks in the region, and she said each has its own charm.

“Olympic National Park has such incredible diversity,” Glein said. “We went to various places, and there you’ve got the oceans and the rainforest. It’s an incredibly large wilderness area.

“The Cascades have a lot of unexplored wilderness area,” she added. “I went camping with my mom there as an adult.”

The national parks are a treasure the Gleins pride themselves in when visitors are in the state. One particularly tough customer was a young man from Munich who shunned the parks during his visit because he wanted to do other things.

“He thought he knew everything about mountains because he lived near Bavaria,” Glein said. “Finally, the day before he left, we put him in the car and drove him to Mount Rainier. He just kept saying, ‘I am so sorry.’ He was so apologetic. He said, ‘I thought I knew mountains. I had no idea what I almost missed.’ ”

National Park Fund

For more information on Washington’s National Park Fund, visit www.wnpf.org.

From the WTA website

Today, May 12, at noon, the north-south highway through Mount Rainier National Park (including Cayuse Pass) will open for the season. Chinook Pass, the east-west route to Yakima, remains closed by snow but will likely open by Memorial Day. Here’s the latest from the park on seasonal road and facilities status. Check the park’s road status web site for current info.

Evening at Mt. Rainier

Mount Rainier National Park Acting Superintendent Randy King advises that State Route 123 and State Route 410 over Cayuse Pass (north-south) will open to the public on Tuesday, May 12 at noon. This road has been closed since December 18. Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) crews are finishing up spring snow removal operations and Mount Rainier staff is placing signs in preparation for the opening and the beginning of the 2009 visitor season. State Route 410 east over Chinook Pass remains closed. WSDOT crews continue to remove snow from this section of the road and anticipate it will open by Memorial Day weekend.
* Repair of storm damage on the Nisqually-Paradise Road at Glacier Hill (MP 12.3) is scheduled to begin mid to late June with anticipated completion by mid-August. The road will remain open to traffic, but 20 minute delays should be expected.
* Storm damage repairs to the Stevens Canyon Road (MP 14.1) will also begin mid to late June with expected completion by mid-August. Due to the more extensive damage at this site, the Stevens Canyon Road will remain closed to through traffic until repair is completed. Park visitors coming from the west on Stevens Canyon Road will be able to access areas as far as Backbone Ridge Overlook (MP 13.1) and from the east to the Grove of the Patriarchs located approximately 0.2 miles from State Route 123 (MP 18). These sections of Stevens Canyon Road are scheduled to open by noon on Friday, May 22.Visitors will not be able to travel between the east and west sides of the park through Stevens Canyon until this repair work is completed in mid-August.
* The park is working in partnership with the Federal Highway Administration who will administer the contract to repair storm damage at Glacier Hill and Stevens Canyon. The damage occurred in early January 2009.
* The Sunrise Road will open to the public by noon on Friday, June 26.
* Mowich Lake Road is scheduled to open by noon on July 3.
* The White River Road to the campground parking lot is tentatively scheduled to open May 20, however a great deal of snow remains in the area and opening may be delayed.
* Effective May 2, the new Henry M. Jackson Memorial Visitor Center at Paradise is open daily (10 a.m. – 5 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.weekends). The visitor center offers information, exhibits, movies, book sales, food service and gifts.
* Paradise Inn is scheduled to reopen for the season at noon on May 15, providing lodging, dining and gifts. The National Park Inn at Longmire is open year-round, also offering lodging, dining and gifts. For reservations call Mount Rainier Guest Services at 360-569-2275.
* Cougar Rock Campground is tentatively scheduled to open on Friday, May 22.
* Currently 3-4 feet of snow remains on the ground in the area and campsites are still snow covered. Access will be limited.
* At Ohanapecosh Campground Loops A, B and C only will open at noon on Friday, May 22 in time for the Memorial Day Weekend. Available sites will be limited.
* White River Campground is scheduled to open at noon on Friday, June 26.
* Sunrise Visitor Center and Sunrise Lodge will open for the season on July 3.

Some of these opening dates are estimates and could change depending on weather and conditions. For additional information and conditions, visit the park’s web page

or call 360-569-2211 for recorded information.