OPI I: The Sound of Silence(+)

"I, a universe of atoms, an atom in the universe"

-Richard Feynman

From left to right: me, Jared, Jesse, Emily, Spencer, Kai, Jasmine, Ms. LeBoy, Margaret, Ms. Sorenson.

I sit here, on the bus, writing. We're heading out of OPI (Olympic National Park). I've changed because of this trip, and I feel like I've changed in more ways than one. I suppose I am slightly nervous. It is difficult to bottle up the emotions and experiences I've had here into a blog post. However, I have a few things to say. I'll say them as best as I can.

OPI has mainly heightened three different senses: my sense of place, my sense of self/purpose, and my sense of others. Miramonte students always stay with Nature Bridge, an educational outreach program sponsored by the National Park Service. Nature Bridge's OPI Campus is situated a small distance away from the northern edge of Olympic National Park, on the shores of Lake Crescent, which is shaped like a (you guessed it) crescent.

The Nature Bridge Campus.

We made history this week by being Nature Bridge's only group ever to receive the amount of snow that we did, which was a continuous downfall for the first two days. This had several important consequences, setting off a chain reaction that derailed many planned activities, but that ultimately made OPI all the more incredible. I am thankful to have been among the truly amazing student population present there. I mean it. My fellow students were amazing in their universal kindness and in their many talents and stories. After we arrived, students quickly became embroiled in a massive snowball fight. Though I am not a good marksman, I managed to lob a few snowballs successfully at the enemy, who were very clearly delineated from my allies in no way whatsoever. It eventually became a free for all. I personally engaged in a winning close quarters strategy where instead of throwing snowballs, I simply picked up snow and carried it to the faces of my opponents. It was amazingly fun.

Looking out onto Lake Crescent.

Nature Bridge's OPI location is incredible in that the geographic features surrounding it are extremely diverse. Immediately away from the lake shore, the ground begins to slope away into a series of ridges and mountains blanketed in alpine forest. Further to the west, the forests turn to rainforests. One of the peaks in the micro-range immediately surrounding Nature Bridge is nicknamed Storm King, and it features a sharp elevation gain of about 1500 feet, which is punctuated by brief plateaus along the way. These plateaus are nicknamed "tables". Due to high winds on Lake Crescent, our morning canoe journey was postponed, and we opted to follow a path leading to both Mt. Storm King and Marymere Falls. We first hiked to Marymere falls, and took in the roar of the waterfall and the visible flow of the air currents all around us. The snowflakes acted almost as tracers for the air currents, visibly marking the flows of the air. The falls themselves were rapid, emboldened by large amounts of snow drift turned into ice water. After returning from the falls, we then hiked up Mt. Storm King amidst a flurry of a snow. While some spots were icy, we made it up the mountain with no great difficulty.

While hiking, I learned a great deal about my hiking mates, whom I largely did not previously know. There's Kai, who sails a ton, is outgoing, and loves to get to know everyone. Then there's Jared, offering words of encouragement at the right times, and generally being a very sensible and down to earth person. There's Margaret, who always seems to be happy, tremendously kind, and yet very goal oriented. Emily is into disability awareness and is selfless. Spencer and Jasmine offer almost continuous encouragement and make everyone feel welcome. Finally, there's Jesse. Jesse is crazy....crazy fun. He'll continually lighten up the mood. I find him incredibly entertaining because you never really know what will happen with him in the room. We had Kelsey, a cheerful blonde-haired young woman as our guide. I don't think I ever saw Kelsey without a smile on her face. Despite what other groups might tell you, our group was the best. I'm 100% certain about it. On the second day, we hiked up the Elwha River. Due to the fact that the land surrounding the Elwha was originally at the bottom of the lake, it was normally a moonscape. However, with the recent snowfall, it was a pristine blank white slate with forest on all sides, and mountains in the distance. While at the Elwha, I measured pH and other students took other quantitative measurements assessing the health of the Elwha. The river used to be controlled by an upper and lower dam that generated a few megawatts of power for the local community. Those same dams also decimated native salmon populations. Surrounded by the quiet rush of the river and snow dusted trees for miles, I truly gained my sense of nature at the Elwha River.

The Elwha River.

As we collected measurements, a distant snowy peak glowing with sunbeam emerged from the clouds. I was at the center of a massive lake, a tiny speck in a vast and mysterious nature whose structure I'll never be able to understand. Yet there is structure to it all. The mystery, silence, and the scale of nature is impossible to fully appreciate enough, and now, more than ever, I feel so very small.

The implications of OPI on my immediate technological work are next to nil. The implications of OPI for me as a person and for my scientific methodology are profound. Exploring nature and exploring science is essentially the same activity. Science is nature, and nature is science, and no matter whether you're hiking a trail or you're probing an electrical circuit you're discovering the unknown. There is stability in certainty, but there seems to be beauty in the mystery of the vast unknown, and certainty does not always equate to happiness.

#Highlights #OPI