In North Cascades NP as the girls were working toward their Junior Park Ranger badges, we attended a ranger program on the topic of local plant life. Ranger Katie taught all of us some pretty cool stuff in my favorite way: she gave the kids each the information about one plant then had them teach everyone else. We learned to recognize Oregon grape and how to count the age of stairstep moss. We heard the legend of why the Western Hemlock has the smallest cones. He was goofing off on the day God assigned cones and had to go to the back of the line and all the other trees got the bigger cones. This is also why his top flops over. In short, he bears the cone of shame.
So after our morning's educational event we feel confident in our abilities to hunt down our food in the wilderness should we ever find ourselves hopelessly lost. Unless none of these berries are in season. Then we are going to have to track down a burger joint.
-Jenni