Elizabeth Lee, Outdoor Guide

If you love maps the way I do, this one is truly inspiring. Thank you to Ryan Mitchell (the cartographer), Harry Chaucer (the lead instructor), Harry’s grandkids who jumped on and started playing immediately, and to Shelburne Farms for generous use of the Coach Barn.

Calling all K-12 students, classes, and groups! Share your water stories or original works of art with the Champlain Basin Education Initiative (CBEI) and your ...work might be featured in the 2020 World Water Day Celebration Event on March 25, 2020! Lake Champlain Maritime Museum is proud to be a CBEI partner and excited to celebrate and honor the water resources all around us. This year to mark World Water Day, CBEI is holding a contest for original works that fit into one of four categories: Celebrate Water; Spread the Word; Citizens Science and Civic Action; and Act Locally Think Globally. Original works can be writing, art, photography, or videography and individuals or teams can have up to 3 entries maximum. The deadline for submissions has been extended to March 10. More information and complete contest rules are here: http://watershedmatters.lcbp.org/contest.html Check out our CBEI partners: Lake Champlain Basin Program, Lake Champlain Community Sailing Center, Shelburne Farms, Lake Champlain Sea Grant, Lake Champlain Committee, Our Curriculum Matters, and ECHO, Leahy Center for Lake Champlain.

Friends of Poke-O-Moonshine Backcountry Ski Traverse Saturday Feb 8 Intermediate-advanced level, 4 miles overall, including 1 mile off-trail. Meet at the Observ...ers’ trailhead at 9:30 to explore challenging terrain west of Poke-O. Arduous, 3-4 hours. In cooperation with CATS, champlainareatrails.com. Dress in non-cotton layers and bring extra clothing, food, hot and cold liquids. It is a must that you be proficient with your skis! Message or text me at 802-989-6134 to sign up. See more

Yesterday, for the final field trip of my Avian Ecology class, we went to the Four Brothers Islands. It may be the time of year for eggs and chicks, but it's too much of a good thing for the cormorants and ring-billed gulls. The cormorants have white-washed every tree with guano and snapped off every twig on every branch. The tall white pines, and even the invasive buckthorn, are nothing but eerie, bleached skeletons.

Hope to see you on Friday. Sharing Stories of the Saranac RIver http://www.lcbp.org//teachers-to-study-saranac-river-work/

Nice evening commuting home from work yesterday. Great tail wind!

The Boquet River in Willsboro just hours after the dam was removed.

Nice finds in the LaPlatte River, all released unharmed.

A beautiful day on the LaPlatte River last Friday. There are lush floodplain forests on both sides of the river. We explored almost all the way up to Shelburne. Lots of turtles, frogs and the first cardinal flowers of the summer.