One Month on the West Coast

Part I - The Journey

As Mo mentioned in her post, I am already leaving my job in the great state of California to work in Colorado for the next two months. In fact, as I write this I'm looking out of an airplane window at the Sierra Nevadas. Since I haven't had a chance to post anything since I left home a month ago, I'm going to include a bit on my trip out to California as well as my first 3 weeks of work. Of course, I'll throw in a few of my favorite pictures along the way.

On August 4th, I set out from Silver Bay with a fully loaded car, a tent, and a vague plan to take Highway 2 as far as I could and get to Sacramento about a week later. The first day was filled with a lot of nothing…I mean North Dakota…until I finally stopped driving at 2am and set up my tent at a city park in Montana. The next day I packed up quickly and hit the road, destination Glacier National Park. Not only was the drive several hours shorter the second day, but the scenery also became much more interesting as I approached the Rockies.

After arriving in Glacier, I spent the next 46 hours driving the Going-to-the-Sun Road, hiking as many of the trails as I could, and taking over 1000 pictures. To say that Glacier is a photographer's paradise is a severe understatement. Rather than write an entire blog post on those two days, I'll just say that Glacier is one of the most amazing places I have ever been and I would go back in a heartbeat. Now for some pictures:

St. Mary's Lake

View from the Going-to-the-Sun Road in the early morning light.

Hidden Lake from the lookout near Logan's Pass.

Apgar Lake at dawn.

After leaving Glacier, I spent two more days on the road to Eugene, OR, where Kirsten Adam (former clarinet and bio major) is now going to grad school. We spent a day exploring the city and wine tasting in South Willamette, making great use of the wine-tasting techniques I learned from our very own Jon Miller. The final day of my trip took me down I-5 all the way to Sacramento and thus ended my 7 day, 2500 mile journey.

Part II - The Job

Several days after I arrived in Sacramento, the West regional fellowship training for Environment America began. The training included 3 second year fellows and 3 other first year fellows besides myself, along with a rotation of mentors including the regional director, the political director from DC, and the state director for Environment California. The first week of the training consisted of intensive classroom training encompassing every facet of the organization and the work that we'll all be doing for the next two years. Following that we did a week of door-to-door canvassing to sign up new members and gather public support for a statewide ban on plastic grocery bags, which was awaiting a vote in the state senate. After that, our official training ended and most of the fellows went back to their home states to start working on their own state campaigns. 

However, the Californians had a more interesting adventure in the works. Three of us set out with a 25 foot inflatable turtle and a goal of setting up four press conferences in four days at four famous California beaches in support of the bag ban. I don't think we could have been less prepared when we started out, but somehow we made it work and had a lot of success getting press at all of our events and finding great coalition partners to work with. There were certainly incredibly frustrating times during the week, but just as many times when it seemed like we were having way too much fun to possibly be getting paid. In the end, the bill we were supporting did not pass through the senate, but in every other way our press conference tour was a great success as well as a great learning experience! Plus, after the whirlwind of activity it took to get those press conferences set up, organizing one with the normal three weeks of prep time should be a walk in the park.

Myself and other Environment California supporters with the giant turtle!

Part III - The Weekend

After being back in Sacramento for only a day, I took advantage of my first break from work to visit Mo in the bay area. I stand by her synopsis of the weekend and so I'll end this post with a few pictures from our hike.

Water slide at Big Basin State Park.

Waterfall at Big Basin.

Waterfall pool at Big Basin.

Kitesurfers on the Pacific Ocean.