The Animals You Meet, the People You See

I’ve only been in the field for 13 days and I’ve already met 3 very interesting people and seen some animals that I’ll never forget.

Brady told me off the bat that I’d meet some really neat people while on the river. He wasn’t lying. The first guy I met is named Les. He’s in his 60’s and comes from both a ranching and Native American background. He actually worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) on the Gray wolf and Black-footed ferret reintroductions, and he’s currently trying to get back into the FWS. We met him on the first day out sampling. He has a truck with a camper on it and just sort of sauntered over to where we were unloading the raft from Brady’s truck and started talking to us. I was really excited because he asked us what we were doing and then told us he had to go up to Nebraska the next day to do a necropsy on a young wolf, which led to many questions on my part on what he did with wolves. He mainly lobbied during the wolf reintroduction, but he has written a couple papers on wolf diseases and still does necropsies to figure out what happened to the wolves. He’s REALLY knowledgeable…and chatty. “It’s not that I like to talk, I just like conversation with people who know what I’m talking about,” is his explanation, which is totally understandable. Whenever we start sampling on our first half of river, we always see Les’s truck and he always comes over to chat. Les is SUCH a cool guy. He has 2 dogs (a Labrador Retriever and a German Shorthaired Pointer), he hasn’t eaten processed meat in 20 years (only wild game that either he’s shot or he’s gotten from friends), and his dream is to see the plains in the West just opened up to all the native species so everything can roam the way it once did, from the buffalo to the wolves. He gave us some buffalo chunks one time that were DELICIOUS. He should be camping around for another month or so, so we’ll see him a good bit more. I can’t wait to hear and learn more from him. Heck, Brady may learn to fly fish from him!

            The second person we met was a man named Fred. He was loading his sea kayak onto the Green River as we were pulling up to do the same with our raft. This is on the second half of the river that we sample. Anyways, we all exchanged pleasantries (weather talk, what’re you doing here, etc.) and talked about different animals we had seen on the river. He may not know which species are on the river because he described a hawk that we can’t find Brady’s bird field guide and talked about a family of ferrets swam across the river and how one attacked his paddle along the way (it was probably a family of minks, ferrets aren’t in our area). Then we discovered that he made his own kayaks! The one he was using that day was beautiful. It was honey colored wood with all the necessary bits and pieces (rudder, covered compartments, and seat) and it all fit together perfectly, and evidently that was his BEAT UP one. I’d love to see his good kayak. Anyways, he offered to let us use his kayaks one day since he’s on the Green River all the time during the warmer months. He and Brady exchanged phone numbers and we may go kayaking down the river over the summer!

The third person actually is one of Brady’s friends/classmates. Her name is Riley and she’s AWESOME. She’s in her 30’s, working on her PhD, and does triathlons and ultra-marathons! On top of that, she lived in Ireland for 4 years working on frogs and HAS MY OLD CAR (not literally, but she still has a green Subaru Outback Legacy from the late 90’s). SO COOL. I already thought she was cool when I found out she was doing her PhD work on Horned lizards (Phrynosoma cornutum) and ant mounds, but then I found out she does triathlons and that was that. She stayed with us for 2 days and I ran with her at 6:30am both days (I think that’s going to be my game plan from now on because I’m just too tired to do anything when we get back from the field, plus the weather is generally nicer in the mornings). I seriously cannot get over how awesome this chick is. I want to kind of be like that in the future. She left earlier today (the 28^th, when I wrote this), but before she left, I gave her a couple easy recipes (vegetarian chili, cheese muffins, and lasagna) and she gave me a bunch of really good bluegrass/folk music (Mumford and Sons, Broken Bells, Trampled by Turtles, and Hot Buttered Rum).

Now on to the animals. I didn’t believe it at first, but EAGLES ARE ALL OVER THE PLACE HERE. I see adults and juveniles flying all over (which makes Brady nervous because he doesn’t want Blue to get snatched) and have seen 3 or 4 nests on the river.  I can’t wait to see baby eagles grow up! It’s really neat to see a Bald eagle soaring overhead, especially considering the fact that they were endangered not so long ago because of DDT. I also saw a mother moose (Alces alces) and her calf! They were crossing the river ahead of us, so we had to back-paddle to give the baby enough time to get across (you don’t exactly want an angry mother moose charging you). The moose here are evidently a smaller subspecies of moose than the ones up in Alaska. The best comparison of size I can think of is that the moose here are about the size of normal horses (Thoroughbreds, Quarter horses, etc.) and the moose up in Alaska and Canada are the size of draft horses (Clydesdales, Shires, etc.). The only difference is that moose are leggier. Seriously, it’s like they’re on stilts, which really contrasts with their huge heads (specifically the noses) and bodies. I love it! Sadly, we have seen some dead things. There have been plenty of dead Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana), which isn’t surprising since they’re like the super fast Whitetail Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) of the West. Evidently they’re really dumb and will stand in the road while cars come at them. See why I made that comparison? We also found some dead raven chicks (or what we think are ravens). We have a “barn” near the house and I went to check it out and found the nest on the ground (it WAS in the rafters because there are still sticks and bird poop there, but it was a SUPER windy day so it must’ve fallen) and the dead chicks. They must have died recently because there was no sign of decay or bloating and later that evening when the parent came back, it made a HUGE ruckus. The chicks are currently in plastic bags in our freezer (“Now it’s REALLY a field freezer!” –Brady) so I have to watch what I grab to cook. We both felt bad for the parents (and regretted that we didn’t find them sooner so we both could raise a pet raven), but today we saw the ravens flying back to the barn with sticks. They must be rebuilding, which is pretty awesome. Go nature and GO RAVENS! They’re such cool birds…I really hope they can successfully raise another brood. I’ll try to take some pics and let you guys know how they’re doing. In the meantime, I’m going to bed because I have to wake up early and run, if it’s not still raining and miserable (which it is right now at 9:22pm Mountain time).

Running from the Storms

So we finally got out into the field after 4 days of being stuck in the house at the ranger station. We were trapped in the house due to a winter storm warning from the 18^th to the 20^th (which never happened) and a severe thunderstorm warning on the 21^st (which also never happened). By the way, we survived the end of the world by watching Star Wars IV, V, and VI. Good movies, although they are kind of cheesy, but what can you expect from one of the first Sci-Fi movies made in the 70’s? We had to play it safe for the storm warnings because the weather out here moves fast, so we couldn’t really risk going out into the field. Don’t get me wrong, the weather wasn’t beautiful by any means, but it was sample-able for the most part. I did get to run though! From the ranger station to the highway is 2.5 miles, so I’ve got a nice, flat, windy, exposed 5 mile run with telephone/electric poles every tenth of a mile. Once the weather stays consistently nice, I’ll be running that route and trying to do distance and speedwork there every chance I get. Running in higher altitudes (I’m at 6100 ft right now) is REALLY different. I was MUCH slower and felt like I had a holes in my lungs, so despite the fact that I was breathing regularly, I was still winded and tired. It’s good training and I’m going to stick with it (I’m not giving myself any options).

My running view

On Sunday the 22^nd, we were able to go into the field at last. It was BEAUTIFUL. Sunny, clear, warm, and just plain awesome. Until we saw some really bad storm clouds over a ridge. Like I said, the weather here moves FAST (I blame the lack of trees), so we ended up paddling like mad to get to a place we could camp. When we got to a good spot, Brady hopped out and searched for an acceptable campsite and I started frantically throwing everything out of the raft so we could beach it. We can’t exactly raft the river looking for scat if the raft is swept away by the ever-rising water…I’ll explain that later, I’m on a roll here. So we beached the raft, grabbed our drybags containing our backpacks and tents, and put them up as fast as we could as the wind started whipping around us and menacing storm clouds began moving in. There is nothing quite like getting your tent set up and zipping it up JUST as the storm starts. The best way I can describe it is like you’re saying “NYEH NYEH! Take that! You couldn’t get me!” Man, that storm raged. It rained really hard and there was thunder and lightning for 15-25 minutes…and then it was gone. Just like that.

A "walking" storm, like the one that snuck up on us

We emerged victorious from our tents and explored around the new campsite. Blue, Brady’s terrier mutt, found a baby porcupine in some willows. We had no idea what it was until Brady poked it with a stick while I held Blue away. I honestly thought it was a young skunk at first because its quills weren’t hard or visible yet and it was all black. Thankfully, the mother wasn’t there to nail anyone with her quills, so we wandered off in another direction. We saw ANOTHER bald eagle nest (one of the eagles was flying around screeching at us) and some cows. Nothing else super impressive. We did get to build a fire that night though! Ok, I gathered the wood and the tinder and Brady made the fire. For future reference, tumbleweeds are AWESOME tinder. They go up really fast when they’re dry, as do cottonwood and willow branches. I can really understand why wildfires are such a big problem out West. Everything is dry as a BONE and super flammable! We sat by the fire as the sun went down, let it die out, then went to our tents and talked through the walls for a while until we both finally went to sleep.

Monday the 23^rd (the day I wrote this) started out kind of icky (cloudy, cold, kind of sketchy), but ended up being a nice day for the most part. I woke up first, as I usually do, and got the breakfast stuff out of our cooler. I learned how to use a propane stove this morning and successfully got our “squirrely stove” to produce green fire on the first try (the green flames are the hottest and most stable), from which I boiled water for my oatmeal/hot chocolate and Brady’s coffee. I think that MAY be the routine when we camp from now on. First one up boils the water. Brady thinks I’m a morning person, but I’m totally NOT. I just wake up 45 minutes to an hour earlier than I need to so I can stumble and grumble along in peace and be civil and coherent by the time anyone else is awake. It sounds stupid, but I like my time in the morning when I don’t have to talk to anyone and can “gather” myself without having to deal with anyone or anything. I developed that habit in high school thanks to my parents.

Anyways, we got on the river pretty early and I rowed for most of the day because Brady rowed most of yesterday…plus I need practice. I’m not exactly fast or accurate and I suck at beaching the raft. I really hope Brady is patient. I also hope that I’m doing a good job as a tech. He hasn’t given any indication that I’m not, but it’s only been a week. We’ll see. Today though, we met a nice guy at one of our sites who builds his own sea kayaks and goes down the Green River a lot. He offered to take us out on some kayaks on one of our days off, so we’ll probably take him up on that. I know I’ll be on the river all the time, but COME ON, it’ll be different in a kayak without having to sample! Towards the end of the day, the weather started to turn somewhat nasty looking AGAIN, so Brady (it was his turn) rowed to our last 2 sites and then to the take out pretty quickly, especially since we heard thunder and saw lightning in the distance. We beached the raft, Brady backed the truck down while I chucked everything out of it, we put the raft onto the trailer and the stuff in the back of the truck, and got into the truck as the wind started whipping around and the clouds rolled over us. MAD STORM-EVADING SKILLS, PEOPLE. 

This is how the river looks on a good day....BEAUTIFUL

So since then, I’ve been watching Hot Tub Time Machine, cooking dinner, and typing this. Brady thought about it and since we have takeout areas halfway down the river, he asked if I’d be okay with taking out the raft halfway, coming back to the station to take showers/eat food/be dry/sleep in our beds and then driving back to the site in the morning to go the other half. NO DUH I’M OK WITH IT. So that’s going to be the drill for the first 2 river sections we do (which should be the first 2 months). I’m SO excited that I don’t have to sleep outside during the craziest months weather-wise in Wyoming (it should become stable in mid- to late-June). I’ve also been thinking of dinner ideas that are relatively quick, easy, large so the extra can be frozen for later, and can be done with basic kitchen equipment. I think I’ll make ziti after we go grocery shopping. If anyone has recipe suggestions, please send them my way (especially if they’re heavy on the veggies).

Sagebrush Fields Forever

Ok, so I have to frantically type this since I'm in McDonalds (first time I've eaten the stuff in YEARS) and my battery is dying and my boss, Brady, has his dog in the car in the parking lot. It's ok, the weather is cold, so the dog won't die from the heat.

So, the drive out to the wildlife refuge was fast. I don't know if it was the fact that we were going 80 mph the whole time or that the landscape is so flat it made it seem faster. There was sagebrush as far as the eye can see (which is pretty dang far) and some pretty interesting geographic features, like cliffs and mountains. It was really pretty except for one thing. NO TREES. I've grown up around trees and it's very disturbing to not have ANY around. None, zip, zilch, zero. Ok, there are some willows around the rivers, but come on, they don't even have leaves yet.

The ranger station where we're staying is pretty out of the way, but very nice. Our house is rather large, with a full kitchen, 3 bedrooms (one has a bed, so I'm sleeping on a folded out futon...no complaints here), a patio, a backyard, 2 bathrooms, and in a week or so, a washer and dryer. It's actually nicer than my apartment back in Georgia. However, there is no TV or Internet, so that kind of stinks. Thank goodness Brady brought his TV with him and a TON of DVDs, so we can watch movies etc on the days or nights where we're back at the house.


We've already sampled for 2 days. We were SUPPOSED to sample today, but it's raining and there's a winter weather alert. Rain ruins the scat and washes away the DNA, which is no bueno. Essentially, what's happened is we went along the first half of the Green River the first day marking and looking for sites. If we found lots of recent scat, we marked it and set up a hair snare. If we found new scat, we collected it. Oh yeah, when we set up hair snares, we have to bait them with "The Stink". "The Stink" is ground up otter anal glands in Vaseline, and it reeks to high heaven, hence the name. Fortunately, Brady created that before I got here, so I didn't have to grind up any otter parts in a meat grinder. YAY ME! Anyways, back on the frantic track, we set up a bunch of sites on Monday and got to our campsite around 4pm, which was good time. It looked like rain, so we set up camp, cooked our chili (I'm not going to be eating many veggies this summer, which is going to stink), and went to our tents. Well, it didn't rain. It snowed. Not a lot, but it still did. That was 'fun', and ruined a lot of good scat for the next day. But we still managed to set up the rest of the sites, collect some samples, and set up some snares.


I've already seen a bunch of wildlife. Just driving to the site, I saw Pronghorn (America's antelope, essentially, hence the scientific name Antilocapra americana), Mule Deer (Odocoileus hemionus), Sandhill Cranes (they sound like dinosaurs), tons of ducks and songbirds, and signs for coyotes (Canis latrans) and moose (Alces alces). I haven't actually seen a moose yet, but I've seen tracks and scats, and man, they are BIG. I can't wait to see one. Oh, and I've seen a Golden eagle and a Bald eagle. The Bald eagle is on the river and she's sitting on a nest, which means I'll hopefully get to see some eagles grow up this summer! 


Ok, so I have some rants on manual cars, the windy weather, and other things that I guess I'll have to save for later, as well as some pictures. Like I said, I had to rush when I typed this. Hopefully the next day off I get, which will be 6 days from now because we had to take today off and that threw off the schedule, I'll be able to type more and add pictures here and on Facebook.


I miss everyone and it's going to take a while to get used to being out here, but I feel like I'll eventually get into a groove. Hopefully I'll be able to start running and exercising regularly, too. Eh, that's for another not rainy day. 


MISS YOU GUYS!

 

Home, Home on the Range

Well, I made it. I'm in Wyoming. Here's how my day has gone:

3AM - Wake up, move my 30 and 50 pound bags to the car, eat breakfast
5AM - Airport.....surprisingly there weren't that many people (SARCASM). I said bye to my family (not going to lie, I teared up) and made it though security. I really want to make a smart aleck remark here, but I fear the TSA may find out and not let me fly back home.
6AM - Flying to Denver. Let me tell you, I HATE FLYING. I get such a terrible headache from the pressure. I essentially tried to sleep with my iPod but failed miserably. UGH.
7AM - After a 3 hour flight (yeah, I'm a time traveler), I got to sit at the Denver airport for 3 hours. 
10 AM - Board onto a little pondhopper with 2 propellers and 10 or so other people to a little local airport in Laramie, Wyoming. That was terrifying, but I didn't get a headache on that flight, even though we were bouncing up and down like crazy.
11AM - Arrive in Laramie with (wait for it) NO BAGS! Yep, they were left in Denver even though I had A 3 HOUR LAYOVER. Seriously? 3 hours isn't enough time to transfer 2 bags onto a small plane? Sigh, that is my luck, especially since it's Friday the 13th. GO FIGURE.

The rest of the day, I've been helping my boss Brady prepare for our field work. He's a cool guy. He's really knowledgeable and has a neat terrier mutt named Blue. His house is a bit of a mess, but what do you expect of a grad student who's out in the field most of the time? Anywho, we got our food today, which was a $600 bill at Wal-Mart. I'm not going to be eating my usual amount of fruits and vegetables this summer, so keep your fingers crossed that I don't get scurvy. We also went to his advisor/supervisor's house and set up our raft and put it on the trailer. As I've been ferried around Wyoming, I have this to say. IT. IS. FLAT. Dude, no trees, whatsoever. It's brisk right now, hanging around 40 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, which I LOVE. It's dry, too, and high in elevation. I got breathless pumping up the raft....that's sad. We'll find out how I do running tomorrow.

Ok, now I have some good news. They have my bags and they're bringing them to Brady's house! YAY! I just hope they can find the house....SCRATCH THAT, THEY JUST DID! I've got my stuff! HUZZAH!

The bad news is that I'm learning about natural gas mining and HOW TERRIBLE IT IS. I know natural gas is a cleaner fuel than coal or oil, but to obtain the gas they have to drill into the ground and pump thousands of gallons of highly toxic chemicals into the ground, which then seeps into the ground water. We drink ground water from wells and other sources. These chemicals cause problems in pregnant women, problems with male anatomy, bone marrow loss/disease, hair loss, cancer, and problems with red blood cells, and that's to name a few. And the thing is that these big companies are saying that the water is safe to drink, but when locals who's wells have been ruined off them a cup of the water, the officials refuse. The kicker is that this whole thing could've been regulated by the Clean Water Act, but politicians (aka Bush and Cheney), signed a law that exempted natural gas mining from the regulations. Natural gas mining is spreading from the West coast to the East coast. If you get the chance, Google some of this, specifically an amateur documentary called GasLand by Josh Fox. A couple homeowners in the documentary light their TAP WATER on fire. That's insane.

Ok, enough being a buzzkill. I'm here now, and I'm going to make the most of it. I am kind of homesick though. Definitely calling the family tonight, especially since I found out that the internet at the ranger house where I'll be staying may be spotty at best. Hopefully that's false and we'll have decent internet.

Helter Skelter

Approximately 31 hours to go until I am flying out of Georgia and on my way to Wyoming. It's hitting me hard now, especially since I'm trying to shove everything I may possibly need for 3 months of various weather and camping into 2 bags that have to be under 50 pounds....Not an easy task. Thank goodness for vacuum bags and my awesome packing skills. It's like a puzzle. You've got to see what can go where and how you can consolidate space (and in my case, reduce weight). I'm not consolidating right now, though. My room looks like a tornado hit it.

 

I like to think of it as organized chaos. I have all of my clothes in certain piles that have to go, can't go, etc. I actually have most of my luggage filled. I'm just waiting on some clothes that I had to wash. Saving it until the last minute? Not me, never.....

I went to REI today and got some super awesome pants that zip off to make shorts, some waterproof pants, and some other gear that I needed, like a rain cover for my backpack and a hydration bladder. THANK YOU SO MUCH MOM AND DAD FOR PAYING FOR THAT! I promise you, I'll pay you back. Otherwise, DO NOT buy me birthday or Christmas presents! I mean it! And thanks to my uncle who helped me out with his sagely outdoorsy wisdom and advice. Gotta love those relatives who know everything.

So tomorrow I'll waterproof my rain fly for my tent and my boots, hopefully go for a run with one of my favorite running buddies and our favorite park (it's all dirt trails and awesomeness), and finish packing. Hopefully there will be an awesome going away dinner for me, because I may be eating a ton of freeze dried food over the summer, which doesn't sound too appealing. On the bright side, I'll hopefully come back lean and mean and ready to start training for triathlons like a maniac. Oh, and come back with experience and an idea of what I want to do for the rest of my life....Can't forget that little bit.

T-10 days and Counting

Not to be cliche, but it's the FINAL COUNTDOWN (in more ways than one).

First off, FINALS. Every year, I know they're coming, and yet every year they take me by surprise and never fail to put a damper on everything. SERIOUSLY. You'd think I would've learned after 7 years of this nonsense, but no. Right now I should be making my Reptiles flashcards for Herpetology, rewriting my notes for Spatial Analysis, and looking over bird and mammal information for Vertebrate Natural History, but I'm blogging because I'm desperately hoping that the finals fairies will finally bestow the gift of infinite knowledge upon me and I won't have to study. But that's pretty doubtful. I really should get cracking on studying....now.......ok now.

Nope, going to keep writing. I'm riding this stream of consciousness until the end. I'm realizing that I'm not going to be in Georgia in 11 days, which is exciting and freaky. I've actually been realizing a lot of stuff about my internship, both good and bad. Here's a few off the top of my head:
Good: awesome experience, becoming more independent, getting paid to camp, getting back to nature and away from technology
Bad: can't bike at all, not being able to see any of my family or friends, not going to see certain movies (HARRY POTTER, Captain America, and the Green Lantern to name a few)
 
I don't even have all of my stuff yet, which isn't good. However, I should have it all by the end of May 11th. I'm particularly excited about my sleeping bag and sleeping pad that should be in hopefully by Friday. They're designed for cold weather and should be super cozy. I've been watching the weather in Wyoming and it's been interesting to say the least. The highs are typically in the 40's or 50's and the lows are in the 20's and 30's. I'm going from heat and humidity back to wintery conditions, which I'm a little happy about. I prefer cold to hot, which is weird, I know. The only bad thing is that I'm pretty sure I'll get my typical season/temperature change cold, and that stinks. Hopefully it won't be added to my current illness aka the cold that I ALWAYS suffer before finals. Stress will be the death of me.

Yup, so 10 days left....and I can't even relish in that fact because my finals start in 2 days. Lovely. Keep your fingers crossed for my survival.