4/17-19/18 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at noon and saw that the loggers weren't there. I parked deep into the hairpin turn and got out and checked the rhubarb. There were half a dozen stalks 6 or 8 inches high. It looks like it is thriving. There had been quite a bit of rain and even some snow in the past week so everything was wet. There was just a very light drizzle when I arrived, just right for burning brush.

I brought my gear up to the cabin, hoisted the flag, lit a fire in the wood stove, had my lunch and then took a short nap. When I got up, I went out and started a fire in the burn pile on the bluff. I burned brush until I went in for the night at 4:30.

On Wednesday I overslept a little but I was out burning brush by 9:00. I gassed up the chainsaw and took it with me up to the brush pile. The pile was a real tangle with logs, big and small branches, and even a layer of snow. It helped to untangle it by cutting the big branches and bucking up the logs.

I went in for lunch and a nap at noon and was back out burning brush at 3:00. At about 4:00 I looked over the bluff to the road below and I saw a white pickup stop where mushroom hunters typically stop. When the guy got out of the truck I thought it was Ron, so I called down to him. It wasn't Ron, but I got into a conversation with the guy anyway. I invited him to come up to see the cabin, so he drove his truck in and came up for a visit.

His name is Clark Wilson and he has a cabin up at Tall Timber. I learned that there are cabins up there that are not part of the church camp. He is currently building an addition onto his. He lives in Snohomish and has been retired from Boeing for about 4 years. He comes up to his cabin mid-week most every week just like I do. When he left, I went back out and burned some more brush.

On Thursday morning, I went to the sequoia grove and measured and judged all the trees. The results will be entered in the progress chart. There is an obvious pattern: the trees in the bottom of the valley are doing the best and the ones higher up on the hillsides are the ones that are struggling. Andrew is doing the worst with Brian and Paul doing just a little better. Next week I will try to get one of those tree-watering bags and set one up above Andrew. I left for home shortly after noon worn out from the brush burning.