Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center- The Epic Winter of '08 Continues...

Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center -
The Epic Winter of '08 Continues...

In February, George Atiyeh and our Lead Instructor Kaola Swanson performed an emergency air drop of food and supplies in George's Cessna 172 Taildragger. By dipping low over the meadow in Jawbone Flats (and still moving very quickly I might add), they were able to drop a sundry collection of butter, bacon, tire chains, and a copy of "The Donner Party" book. The goods were arranged in three packages and dropped separately. They all landed safely, although the final drop ended up across the river, and close enough to Cabin 1 to make us all breath a big sigh of relief that everyone's favorite cabin wasn't damaged!


Pilot and plane		Kaola in the passenger's seat		The view from above		Adam unpacking the supplies

The winter of 2008 will forever go down in Opal Creek history. Thanks to the hard work of Jawbone staff, who spent the majority of their time shoveling roofs and unclogging the hydro line, our facilities sustained minimal damage and will be ready to hold participants by our season opening in May.


Peter surfing the "wave" that's slid off the Bunkhouse roof	Minuteman on the roof	The Hemlocks looking particularly humble...

The road through camp from above	Look closely... that's snow blocking the windows in Cabin 4!	Snowy Battle Ax Bridge

The falls upstream from Battle Ax Bridge	Murphy's first winter	Joe standing on top of the Lodge

A beautiful winter day	Adam shoveling the roof	The view from the Commissary porch

In preparation for the eventual opening of our season, we have begun the arduous work of clearing the road and making it suitable for vehicle access. Some very encouraging progress has been made, and we are happily getting closer to the day where we can *finally* welcome people back up to our programs at Jawbone Flats.


Leslie Atiyeh skis into camp, carefully navigating the snowy terrain		Tom and Aziz Atiyeh clear the road with a D6		The road is cleared up to the Gold Creek Bridge!