Date:         Thu, 14 Mar 2002 09:53:54 -0800
Reply-To:     Matthew Pollard <poll7356@UIDAHO.EDU>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Matthew Pollard <poll7356@UIDAHO.EDU>
Subject:      Camping Trip: march 22-24. Potholes State Park, WA (fwd)
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 09:48:30 -0800 (PST)
From: Matthew Pollard <poll7356@uidaho.edu>
To: wet westys <wetwesties@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [WetWesties] Camping Trip: march 22-24. Potholes State Park, WA

Just a reminder-
A few of us WetWestians will be heading to lovely central washington to
observe the migration of Sandhill Cranes. These delicate birds, numbering
about 10,000 during the migration and having a wingspan up to 2meters,
stop over in central washington to feed on the stubble in the corn and
wheat fields in early march to mid april.

Potholes State Park is located in a prime location to observe this
spectale. The state park is adjacent to a wildlife refuge and wheat and
corn fields that the birds will be foraging in.  Also near the park is the
town of Othello. The weekend of 3/23-24 the Othello Crane festival starts
too.

Camping at potholes is plentiful at this time of the year; reservation are
not accepted until may.  Full hook-up and no hook sites are available on
level ground.

Recreation in the area includes Rock Climbing (what i will be doing for
part of the day) at Vantage WA, Boating at the park,bird watchign (the
#1 hobby in America BTW) wildlife viewing, relaxing, reading, sleeping,
biking,.... it is endless!

Potholes is located 175 miles from Seattle, 285 from Portland, and about
115 miles from spokane washington.  Below is the link for the state park.

http://www.parks.wa.gov/parkpage.asp?selectedpark=Potholes&pageno=1

Below is the email that Mike Finkbiner sent out last week regarding this
trip.

Please respond to the list and or me if you have the intention of going. I
will be there for friday night and saturday night.

-Matthew (and family)
86 syncro westy tiico


Matthew Pollard          "Racing with the wind and flirting with death
Dept. Of Chemistry        So have a cup of coffee and catch your breath"
University of Idaho
www.uidaho.edu/~poll7356



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 05 Mar 2002 03:45:18 +0000
From: Mike Finkbiner <MIKE_L_F@HOTMAIL.COM>
To: wetwesties@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [WetWesties] Sandhill Crane Festival

23-24 March is the fifth annual Sandhill Crane Festival in Othello, Wa.  I
found out about it because a friend of mine went over there last year to
watch the migrating Sandhill Cranes, and found that Othello puts on
lectures, field trips and other events.

http://www.othello-wa.com/sandhillcrane.htm

Matthew Pollard and I have been talking about heading over there to see the
birds, and look around in the Columbia Wildlife Refuge.  There is some
camping in the Refuge, just north of Othello, and a large campground on the
southern shore of Potholes Reservoir, about 15 miles north.

It's rather short notice, but if anyone else is interested, it could be a
fun weekend.

Sandhill Cranes gather in large flocks in that area to feed in the fields,
and gather strength for the flight north.  According to the web site, they
have as many as 25000 go through the area from the end of February to early
April.

The birds are quite large, about a six ft wingspan, and my friend said it's
really impressive to watch a flock of several hundred flying overhead.

The web site has a lot more information.

If any of you are interested, please let us know, and we'll go from there.


- Mike Finkbiner
'87 Westy
Moscow, ID

mike_l_f@hotmail.com



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