Some traffic getting out of Portland, which is normal. I arrived at MAI at 4:50, just behind the ranger station in Trout Lake. Saw 2 groups under large stretched tarps. Inquired at the first. An employee led me to the 2nd, who was discussing wilderness' meaning and our roles, around a large but dead fire ring. I'm glad that I didn't arrive in time at 3pm. I found these discussion largely a waste of time, despite of good intentions. At 5:30, this discussion slowly drew to an end. I went with Erica to register, filled out a form with name, address, phone, emergency contact, which I have already supplied when I filled out the application 2 months ago. I also signed up a cleaning chore for tomorrow's breakfast. I was given a large plastic bag with a few swags: 2 cup cozies, a t-shirt, a large tent stake that can be used as a hand shovel, a NW Forest pass. Quite a few people I saw at the discussion were also late, and they checked in after me.
Lodging is free during the training. If staying Sunday, it's $15. I walked to the 2nd lady's dorm, passing a few tents. Only 1 men's dorm. (Yes, more women participants). There are 6 rooms, half empty. I settled into one empty room. 2 beds at an unreasonable height, with shelfings above. Mattress is cover with a dark green vinyl (plastic) wrap. A wardrobe with no hangers. 2 hanging rods, one of which is about to come out of the wall. A desk. No chairs. Quite big for a dorm room. No outlet in the room, but in the bathroom. Bathroom is also spacious. 4 sinks (one missing faucet handles), 3 toilets, 3 shower stalls, 2 washing machine, both labled not working. Other than 22 dead flies in the bathroom, 5 from my room, all is reasonablly clean. Ugly painting. Green clock, red cabinet, 2 white 1 blue shower curtains, beige wall, blue countertop.
Dinner at 6. When I arrived, 3/4 of people were already eating. But first I inquired about the "sheet provided" in the 4 page long "2018 participant registration information". Was told that the plastic wrap is replacing the sheet. Erica was kind enough to fetch me one. Tonight we were served brown rice (soggy, but I like it), chicken (dry), cauliflower stir fry (very good, I had a second serving), salad greens, cucumber. I skipped the chocolate cake. Coffee and tea. The meal of this event is included in my $50 registration fee. I happened to be sitting next to a lady from Eugene. She was here 2 years ago. We chatted about Linden Meadow, one of my favorite places in Oregon. Rained.
After dinner, I drove to Guler Ice Cave. The picnic area is large and looks like a campground, but day use only. I followed the trail, and immediately saw 3 cave openings. All looked filled. Continued on the trail and soon it bifurcates, but both got so overgrown that I backed out. Got down the 3rd opening, which you can see the other side, probably the 2nd opening. It has a lot of trilliums blooming at the entrance. Inside looks dry. Went down the first opening, saw 2 pieces of ice. Maybe I shall continue, but it is narrow, and I don't want to crawl at this late hour, when I'm the only sole here, apart from a deer.Back to the mess hall, and refilled my cup of tea. Retired to my dorm with a 600 page of hard cover. I'm not even 1/10 through, and it's due in 2 weeks.
6/9, Saturday. 7-8am breakfast. But from 6:30, noise of other occupants woke me up. Impossible to sleep more. Breakfast is hashed potatoes, scrambled eggs (with/wo cheese), sausage (which I didn't try). Pack lunch, decent sandwich bread, deli ham/turkey/cheese, Adams peanut butter and some jelly, which I didn't like any. I just took some leftover salad from last night, red pepper and carrots, a desert piece from dinner, which turned out to be very good. Browny with coconut cream top.
I signed up for the "primitive skills" module. Totally unlike what I thought, today is about putting up signs in Wilderness. Despite of my disappointment, I like the class for what it is. 6 students, 2 instructors (Richard + Maddie) who are volunteers in the Three Sisters Wilderness. Classroom session for the first hour or so. Then we drove to the site, carried tools in for less than a mile of flat trail. We learned to choose a down log, saw it to proper length for 2 sign posts. Cut the slots where the signs can go in, using saw and chisel and mallet. We used some fancy screws (needed special drill bits) for the wilderness boundary sign, because people steal them. Normal screws for trail signs. Dug two 2-feet holes with the post hole digger. Put some small rocks in the bottom for drainage. Installed the posts, piled rocks around, pack down, and repeat. Since there is no real need for a sign here (let alone Three Sisters'), all this is for training, and we had to take the signs off, pulled the posts out, refilled the holes.
All day long, we had sun, rain and hail. I was cold. Back at MAI at 3:30pm. Since I accidentally locked my room this morning, I stayed in the mess hall which is warmer. 4pm, briefing, filling the class survey. Once my door was opened, I walked to Trout Lake, about 1km north. Nice daisy on the way there in someone's fields. It's not really a lake, but a marsh with creek running through. Thick vegetation. 
The lake trail starts at the end of a gravel road (slightly better view of water on this road), but doesn't have much view of the marsh, as it's on a hill with trees between you and the marsh. 
I walked till the boundary of an RV park (just the sign, didn't see any RV). The short flat trail has several benches, 1 picnic table. Not worth coming, unless you are stuck in the town with limited time, like I was. On the way out, Mt Adams appeared behind the clouds.
6-7pm dinner. I got back around 6:20. Spaghetti with veggie or meat sauce. House baked bread. Green salad. All pretty good. Desert is chocolate banana bread, also very good. I sat next to a girl who did "introduction to wilderness" module, when they talked about how to throw bear bags - seems more relative to "primitive skills". I ate too much. Helped to sweep the mess hall to burn off a couple of calories.
7:15pm presentation. Same content as last night, by a invited guest. Even though she's a good speaker, this is not acceptable. They should have communicated what they would present ahead of time, so not to waste our time. Colder than yesterday, well, it was 2 hours later. At least today, we had a fire going. It sprinkled a bit. Luckily not much water was dumped when we were outside without a cover. I'm surprised that others participated the discussion of "wilderness" happily, throwing lofty words like serenity, legacy. It's great for people with zero knowledge of the Wilderness Act, but this crowd is specialized in working with wilderness areas. I find these talks well meaning but produces 0 actionable ideas. Most participants are forest service employees. Very few are like me who is a full time employed civilian, taking the weekend off from my busy schedule. Maybe I'm the only one. In my class today, only Rosemary and I are not USFS employees. She's a 75 year old grandma. Retired. Super fit. Both teachers are forest service volunteers, wearing USFS uniforms and driving government vehicles.I ate too much, need to walk off some calories. But at 8pm, there's not much to do. There isn't even a map of the area here in the mess hall. Maybe one in the office?
6/10, Sunday. Same schedule. I packed everything before breakfast. Only oatmeal and cereal today. A disappointment.Today's class is working with pack animals. This time with rescued wild mustangs. Rosemary asked to be transferred to a different class. An MAI employee drove the 5 of us to Mt Adams Horse camp. There, Kate and her 4 mustangs were waiting. The horse camp here is very spacious. Large meadows, strung high lines, mountain bluebirds.
Kate Beardsley, our instructor, is the founder of the non-profile MustangsToTheRescue. She's super passionate about the well being of these horses. She supplies her horse to help trail work, locate lost people in rescue missions, and educate the public. We learned a lot from her other than safety and packing, selecting a campsite, tie ropes for horse: using non-weed feed and how people cheat, BLM's ill managed roundup of wild horses, ranchers taking advantage of it. She should put some of her stories on her website. We got to lead the horses on a couple of short walks, feed them. They are well trained.The weather turned south, started raining and then pouring around lunch time. I put on another fleece, but still cold. ~4pm, back to MAI campus. Had a mug of hot tea, before heading out. Oops, couldn't start my car. Probably forgot to turn the headlight off Friday night after visiting the cave. Waited in the parking lot for rescue. A family was walking their toddler and dog here, and then a firefighter. They jumped my car, and off I went. The rest is uneventful. Overall, I learned something, and enjoyed the cooking. I really like my instructors. However, I don't think I'll come back for the other modules, despite of their good intention, and super nice staff. I like PCTA's trail skill college a lot better, because 1) all the work we did was needed, and didn't have to undo our work at the end of the class; 2) less mumbo-jumbo of high talks; 3) closer to my home; 4) didn't have to leave work so early on Friday.
Last note, I'm the only non-white all weekend long.
