Expedition I Kicks Off the Year in Style

Thirteen students from Turlock and Pittman High Schools joined WildLink this September for our first expedition of the 2006/2007 season. They arrived in Yosemite with big smiles and contagious enthusiasm, and maintained those qualities throughout the week. Before leaving for our expedition, we were honored to attend a special panel discussion with some very special people in the park. Ranger Shelton Johnson, Ranger Sam Vasquez, Ranger Tori Seher, and Jose Lopez each told us their stories of what they do for Yosemite and how their path in life led them to this place. It was an inspiring talk, and we are incredibly thankful to them for taking the time to share their stories with us and support our expedition!
Our trip began at the Sunrise trailhead in Yosemite’s high country. This first day we faced some challenging elevation gain but were rewarded with spectacular views of Mt. Hoffman and Tenaya Peak along the way. That night we found a spacious campsite on a knoll where we watched a magenta sunset and slept under the stars. On our second day we started out with just daypacks and a mission: Cloud’s Rest. At 9,926 feet, this high summit called to us on this blue sky day. Despite scary exposure along the summit block, the entire group was successful in reaching the top! Hand in hand, we arrived to views of Half Dome, the meadows and rock walls of Yosemite Valley, and even past the Sierra foothills to the central valley. We sung our way back to camp, and that night enjoyed delicious burritos and a fun (and funny) game of “Animal Signs”. Roar!

The third morning we packed up camp and started the seven mile hike down to Little Yosemite Valley campground. Along the way, we spent some relaxing time soaking our tired feet in an ice cold creek. Bryce even had the courage to get completely soaked! That night we participated in the Yosemite Facelift, a park-wide effort to clean up the trash left behind from the busy summer season. We collected seven and a half pounds of trash for the Facelift, and hiked it all out of the backcountry with us the next morning. The last morning we finished our expedition hiking down into Yosemite Valley via Nevada Falls and the John Muir trail. We were surprised and delighted to run into Ms. Bloom and Mr. Boggeri at the Vernal Falls bridge!

To view the journal entries and photos from this expedition, click here.

Meet Cynthia, New WildLink Program Coordinator

It is a pleasure and a privilege to join you all as the new WildLink Program Coordinator. I have been co-leading WildLink expeditions for the last three and a half years, and they have always been the highlight of my teaching year! I have just returned from our first expedition of this year with thirteen strong and fun-loving students from Turlock High School. We had the opportunity to reach the summit of Clouds Rest and get a spectacular 360 degree view of all of Yosemite National Park—a fantastic way to start the expedition season!

Let me tell you a little about my background: I am originally from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a large tropical city of six million people where wide beaches share the landscape with granite domes and tropical jungles. My family and I then moved to the United States to a town called Bethesda, just outside of Washington, D.C. I quickly had to learn to speak English and continued the rest of my education there. I went to college in Philadelphia before moving to California in 2000 to work as an Environmental Educator. I have also worked Migrant Education programs and as an English as a Learning Language (ELL) teacher in Oregon. I have been in Yosemite since 2003 working year-round as a Field Instructor with the Yosemite Institute, and that’s how I’ve gotten to co-lead WildLink trips! I love to rock climb and go backpacking, as well as gardening, dancing to live music, and having potluck dinners with friends. I look forward to meeting each of you and sharing an adventure in this spectacular place!

NPS/WildLink Bridge: A Dream Becomes a Reality

After a WildLink expedition last month that included summiting Cloud's Rest and an all-star NPS career panel presentation, WildLink alumnus Natalie Banuelos said, “Maybe I will come back as a park ranger with my own cool hat, and I’ll be able to share my story with future WildLink students.” Thanks to the generous support of the Yosemite Fund and the National Park Service, she’ll have the opportunity to do just that.

This June, Yosemite Bridge 2007 will give five WildLink alumni a two-week, hands-on learning experience that will allow them to explore firsthand the myriad of career opportunities available in Yosemite National Park. This program will include:

---time spent side-by-side with park employees working in the participants’ areas of interest
a resume building session
---a session with NPS human resources designed to walk Bridge students through the complex process for federal job applications
---time getting to know the social opportunities that come with living and working in a National Park
---a $500 scholarship for the college of their choice

The Bridge program will begin to span the divide between diversity oriented education programs and NPS and environmental education careers. The key piece to this program is making participants feel more comfortable applying for and committing to internships and paid positions in the park. It will provide participants another step on the journey that can carry them all the way up to lifetime careers in National Parks.

Jesse Chakrin, Yosemite Wilderness division employee and the initiator and co-creator of the Bridge project, says “perhaps the most important aspect of this program is that we, the National Park Service, will learn from and be enriched by (the Bridge project’s) participants. It is often forgotten that diversity, one of the Park Service’s top priorities, works both ways. We as a Park Service need to be exposed to and to learn about different communities of people for whom we are preserving and protecting our natural places.”

Stay tuned for more information on how to apply for this amazing opportunity!