The adventure comes to a close!

You can read Mark Schaller’s first post and second post about his experiences with HRWC’s Creekwalking Program.

Are you interested in being a creekwalker? You can recruit your family and friends to join you on your team or ask HRWC to assign you to a team. The training is on June 10, 6:30- 8 pm.  email Jason at jfrenzel@hrwc.org to volunteer.

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Guest Author: Mark Schaller

It all comes down to this, the final visit.  This time, I arrived early so I could set some crayfish and minnow traps.  I had seen fish on earlier visits but could never get a good look at any of them.  The deepest part of the stream was where I placed the thermometer so I figured that would be a good site for a trap.  I also placed a crayfish trap further upstream in a rocky area hoping to catch some more crayfish and get a good positive ID.  Everything was set!

Creekwalkers look pick up trash, take water measurements, and record and photograph erosion and infrastructure problems.
Creekwalkers pick up trash, take water measurements, and record and photograph erosion and infrastructure problems.

As I walked back to my Jeep, Erin was heading down the trail.  After our “Hello’s” we headed back to the parking lot to get the rest of the gear.  We picked up the paperwork, meter, measuring stick and my camera and headed back to the stream.  Our starting point was where I placed my crayfish trap and we had 6 crayfish already in the trap.  As I started to pull them out for pictures I found that 3 of them were the invasive Rusty.  The other 3 were northern crayfish.  They were a lot bigger than the Rusty’s so I’m hoping they are holding their own against them.  Too bad; after our last trip I thought that there weren’t any Rusty’s in here.

In midsummer, Woods Creek is a great place to sit down and soak in the cool water... if the mosquitos aren't too bad.
In midsummer, Woods Creek is a great place to sit down and soak in the cool water… if the mosquitoes aren’t too bad.

We then started by taking the water temperature and conductivity readings. When we reached the halfway point I handed the GPS and water conductivity meter over to Erin.  She wanted to see how the meter worked and I needed to get some pictures of her as well.  She took about 4 more readings and then next thing we knew we were at the end of our sample area.  All that was left now was for Erin to compile all the data and for me to turn it in with all the equipment. Mission Accomplished!

I have to say the creekwalking experience was a lot of fun.  Walking up and down Wood Creek brought back a lot of fond memories of myself as a kid exploring all the creeks and streams of my youth.

Good times.

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Our big thanks go to Mark and Erin, and all our other creekwalking volunteers, from this past summer!