Ravenna Creek 2020

Journal 2 Time: Tuesday, October 20th, 2020, from 3:15 to 4:30 pm Location: The far eastern portion of Ravenna Park in Seattle, WA.  Temperature: ~57℉ Weather: Clear skies with intermittent cover and a light breeze. Upon returning to my observation site near Ravenna Creek I immediately noticed a few things that had changed about the site. My close up observation spot, located on a patch of ground and a log on the cut bank, was missing the large characteristic mushrooms that I observed and described in the last journal post. The patch of bark the mushrooms had stood upon appeared to have been broken off, with the fresh wood underneath the bark having the appearance of being stamped upon or crushed. I also noticed that some newer, smaller mushrooms had appeared. These newer and smaller mushrooms had a dull grey brown color and a half spherical cap. The stalks were slender and the apex of the cap was noticeably darker than the rest of the cap. The caps were no more than a centimeter ...

Journal 1  10/12/2020 I have had experience with nature since a relatively young age. Back in elementary school I would often spend most of my time in the woods reading the works of authors such as Gary Paulsen, author of Hatchet , as well as the works of Mark Twain; The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was one of my favorites. In conjunction with this reading I participated in both the Cub Scouts and the Boy Scouts, though I had significantly less enthusiasm and spent less time in the Boy Scouts due to a variety of reasons, ranging from the overtly religious nature of the organization to the excessive amount of bureaucracy for what I largely viewed as a camping club. I was also a major fan of the Survivorman television show by Les Stroud, where Les would venture into the wilderness alone with his camera gear and minimal equipment to demonstrate the difficulty of survival under less than ideal circumstances. One of my favorite parts of these shows and books were their descriptions of pla...