Snowshoeing at Snoqualmie Pass (in the rain!)

Picture taken of me, Auryana Ashoori, and Katie Rupp while snowshoeing.

I went snowshoeing in Gold Creek at Snoqualmie pass on February 2nd. It was pouring rain the
whole drive there and when we got there. Since it was raining, we decided to drive another hour
to another location that would possibly be rain-free. Alas, the place was not rain-free and we
traveled back and decided to snowshoe at Gold Creek despite the rain. Note that it was raining
less by then. I honestly had such a good time! It was so much fun, and although we rode in the
car for four hours straight, I had a good time chatting and laughing with the other students in the
van. Also, I genuinely would want to snowshoe again because it was so much fun and beautiful.

This is a very rough whiteboard sketch of one of the tracks we encountered towards the end of the trip.

We identified the tracks above to belong to a snowshoe hare. When looking at the tracks,
we looked at how big the tracks were and how far apart to identify which animal they belonged
to. We also looked at the placing of the feet, determined the animal had four feet, but also
determined the animal leaps when walking. The tracks also suggested that the animal
placed their back legs down in front of their front legs. These clues all led us to believe the
tracks belonged to a hare, as they leap landing with their front feet and then place their
back feet in front of their front feet.

Another things we saw that day were North American beaver dams and trees in which beavers
had bitten or chewed up. One tree was toppled over while another was bitten into with wood
shavings underneath the tree. I thought this was super cool because it showed how the beavers
use their surroundings to create their homes. In the skull lab in biology, we looked at beaver skulls
and looked at their big front teeth. We also saw that beavers have a sagittal crest, which indicates
they have very strong jaw muscles.The tree showed grooves that were consistent with the shape
of their teeth, which was super cool. Also, strong jaw muscles would definitely be needed for the
beaver to gnaw through trees. It was cool to see how the species of beavers had adapted to creating
homes out of wood and having teeth that could easily chew through wood. Also how the beavers
developed sagittal crests due to having to gnaw through wood.

A tree that had been chewed by a North American Beaver.

Tracking is really important because it can tell humans about the population of animals in
the area and possibly where they are going. The I-90 Wildlife Corridor is the location in which
I-90 crosses with important animal migration or movement routes. Since the freeway intersects
important routes for animals, people are building wildlife crossings, or bridges, for animals to
cross over I-90. There are also under crossings at this location as well. Tracking is useful for the
I-90 Wildlife Corridor because it can tell us about which animals are crossing I-90, where they
are going, and how many of them are crossing. This is important for understanding how the Wildlife
Corridor is helping the wildlife. The organization, I-90 Wildlife Watch, sends motorists through I-90
to report any dead or alive wildlife seen. This is useful because it provides more information about
what animals are crossing I-90  and when. Since the wildlife bridge is still underdeveloped, this
program focuses on the underpasses and which animals are crossing underneath I-90.

This experience overall was very beneficial for me and very interesting. It’s super cool to see
people use the knowledge of how animals move and migrate in order to help them with man-made
obstacles. Knowledge about animals and how they move helps with identifying tracks, which is
super cool! Also understanding their skeleton aids in knowing how they move. The people involved
with the organizations building the I-90 Wildlife Corridors use knowledge about animals in order to
build that crossing and to help their population. It’s super cool to see biology working with the real
world and with helping endangered or threatened wildlife. The most interesting thing I learned was
that beavers really do gnaw at wood in the same way as portrayed in cartoons! They really do topple
trees over, which was very funny to me. :)