
…trees grown from 500 seeds taken into orbit around the Moon by Stuart Roosa during the Apollo 14 mission in 1971. As the Command Module Pilot on the Apollo 14 mission, and because he was a former smoke jumper, Roosa was contacted by Ed Cliff, who was the Chief of the Forest Service at the time, and who proposed the idea of taking the seeds along.
The annual Moon Tree Run tradition has been around since 1979 by Dale O’Keefe as remembrance to the commemorates Mr. Roosa’s Moon landing.. During his mission, he carried Douglas Fir tree seeds with him and planted them on earth upon his return. Read more here.
This year, the race will take place on Saturday, July 4th at 9 a.m. at the Siskiyou Smokejumper Base. It runs in conjunction with a day of festivities, complete with breakfast, a POW ceremony, tours, and historical presentations. The course is not posted, but has historically been described as heading through some roads at Rough and Ready Creek State Park , before hitting some dense valley trails.
This looks like a great event!
Moon Tree Run (Cave Junction)
When: June 4, 2016 at 9am
Where: Smoke Jumper Museum
Register: Online here; $20 for 5k, $25 for 10k