Warm clothes - check, gloves - check, snow pants - check, hats - check, jacket - check, and most importantly snowshoes - check. We were all ready for an awesome hike through Guenella Pass. On March 8, six others and I were given this rare experience to study with the U.S. Forest Service. I had heard about this white bird called the Ptarmigan that lives above timberline, but didn't know why it was important to be studying it.

The day started at 5:30am, meeting up with other Environmental Learning for Kids (ELK) students and heading to Georgetown, CO. There we met up with U.S Forest Service Wildlife Biologist Denny Bohon and other people who were also studying the Ptarmigan. I asked some questions about why the bird only lives in the Alpine Tundra, and how does it survive in this harsh environment? After talking with Denny, I realized just how important this bird truly is, and why we were going to look for it.

When we met up with everyone we loaded in our vans and headed up Guenella Pass (12,000 ft) to start our exploration. Shortly after that we geared up for our hike of a lifetime. The trees were amazing, and all that snow, wow! All I have to say is that I am sure glad I had my snowshoes. But, little did I know what I was in for! The first part of the hike was good, great exercise, I was getting tired. When we got to our first destination, about 2 miles, it was so cool. Right away we saw about 10 Ptarmigan sitting underneath a tree, trying to avoid the wind.

We were then off to our next destination, where we would be using GPS units to map areas where we saw the Ptarmigan or evidence of. On our hike we then saw about 8 more birds, again under a tree. We proceeded on with our hike, this was no joke, I was getting really tired. But refused to stop! We found a good place to break for lunch, and drink plenty of water. This was my first time hiking at such a high elevation and drinking water was sure important.