Hey all! I’ve been busy working on the next couple of releases. In the meantime, I thought I’d offer a little something for y’all to listen to.

I feel fortunate to have been able to record over an hour of unbroken natural sound in the Olympic National Forest at the Snider-Jackson trail head. Starting during Civil Twilight, sun rises in this recording around the 30 minute mark, although the Thrushes were awake and active long before then. Robins, Varied Thrushes, Flycatchers, woodpeckers, squirrels, Pacific Wrens, and more fill these moss-covered woods to the background wash of the Calawah River.

Sunrise was at 5:42 on this morning, with the first almost-audible human-related sounds of very distant vehicles starting nearly an hour after that. It’s difficult to comprehend the sound of the wilderness we are losing. Even here, deep in the mountainous, moss-covered trees of the Olympic National Forest on the border of the Olympic National Park, it’s only by creeping out in the early hours of the morning that we can hear long stretches of natural sound unbroken by human-created noises. With the ever-encroaching settlements of humankind, how much longer will it be before even that is lost?

I had driven out to the Snider-Jackson Trailhead with a friend during the wee-hours of the night. Our original destination was the Quinalt Rainforest, but when we got to the trailheads there were dozens of vehicles already lined up with even more sleeping hikers ready to set out by dawn. We ducked around to the Hoh Rainforest, but with the same result. A little stressed and a little tired we made our way out in the direction of the Bogachiel Valley. Along the way we realized that trail lined up neatly with one of the loudest rivers on the peninsula. While that would make for a neat recording opportunity, we also wanted to sleep and maybe hear birds during the day. We finally ended up driving up to the Snider-Jackson trail, a trail that starts out in the National Forest, but crosses into the National Park about one mile in. It’s a stark contrast… from the “young” (less than one hundred-years-old) trees of the Forest into the giant, ancient woods of the Park. But! Before wee could hike up the trail we to make sure we caught the dawn recording.

I’ll be heading up into the Quinalt in October for a 10 day trip and a long hike. It’ll be the high-time for the Elk rut, and I want to be sure to catch their bugles with as little human noise intrusion as possible.

Happy listening!

-andy

A NWS Sidetrip: Talkeetna, AK, May 31-2, 2017

This didn’t set out as a Northwest Soundscapes Project trip. I joined my wife in Anchorage for a few days at the start of a summer camp she was helping with and was offered the chance by the camp director to borrow a yurt in Talkeetna for a few days, most likely that I wouldn’t be underfoot for the rest of the camp. Actually just outside of Talkeetna, and a couple miles into the boreal taiga, the yurt was a short hike from Long Lake, a beautiful clear lake that I spent two happy days canoeing on, bringing along my recorder & microphones. Continue reading Talkeetna, AK, May 31-2, 2017 →