How cool is that?

Henry and I headed south of Mount Rainier on a mission to find big leaf maples for Adventure Scientists. Our goal was to collect at least five samples. (And, to be honest, maybe to get to a super awesome view of the Mountain.)

We used satellite imagery to find areas that looked like they would have maples and laid them out along our route to the trailhead. Instead of zipping past relatively uninteresting areas in favor of epic views of the Mountain we detoured onto rough dirt roads and craned our necks to find trees that met our criteria.

To be eligible for sampling, a tree had to be mature (at least 75cm a meter up the trunk), be free of disease, have green leaves, and be on public land where we had a permit. When we were out, early in the season, these trees were pretty easy to find. Each time we found a tree we used special apps to collect data in accordance with the protocols we'd been trained on. At the end of the process, I'd slip a small piece of the leaf into a an envelope and the envelope into a plastic bag with desiccant.

And then? The sample travelled through the postal system to the Adventure Scientists in Montana. It got cataloged, screened, and then its DNA was sequenced. All that to build a tool so law enforcement can determine if a suspicious piece of big leaf maple wood is really where it claims it's from. (Or where the guy in the back of the truck claims it's from.)

After getting four samples we rolled into the trailhead for the High Rock Lookout. If you've ever seen a stunning photo of a lookout building perched on the edge of a cliff with Mount Rainier in the background, that's the High Rock Lookout. It's spectacular. Gorgeous. Totally worth the climb.

Good thing it's so great because the trail is pretty lousy. No views, TONS of bugs, and dusty. Bleh. But worth it.

When you finally do break out of the trees you're on a steep rock ramp that ends in a drop of hundreds of feet. The lookout looks like it should fall off the cliff. The Mountain is big and shiny. It's even possible to squint and not see all the other people. Or wait until they happen to all be out of the frame and take a couple of pics.

There were crazy swarms of bugs just above the lookout so we didn't stay there too long, but we did go into the lookout itself. Worse than the bugs and the crowds and the dusty trail was the trash left in the lookout. Someone had swept it into a corner, but there it sat. But only until we showed up with our Deuter Dirtbags. We crushed the empty water bottles and energy drink cans. I gingerly picked up the unmentionables and filled up the bag. All I'll say is, thank goodness it keeps the outside out and the inside in. (Mostly the latter.) Ick.

Our walk down was a quick one. We were even able to talk while we walked, which is a rare thing with a pre-teen boy nowadays. We tried to film a review of the Deuter Race EXP 14+3 pack Henry was wearing, but it turns out it's really hard to get a good recording. Oh well.

On the way back home we bought a big bag of cherries from a roadside stand, sampled another tree, and made it home for dinner. All in all, a pretty good day for us and for SCIENCE!