Fire!

Nothing is more accomplishing than building a campfire. Back at our camp, I am the leading person in charge of this task. We like to sit by the campfire before work to warm up and get ready for the night trappings. I've been using flint and steel- no matches or lighter fluid here! There is lots of kindling around the camp site and dead juniper branches. Since the climate here is very dry it is not too hard to start a fire but we are also very careful about high winds and flying embers.

Maintaining the fire

Does a bear shit in the woods?

Yes. And you might find yourself in the same predicament too! Here are some tips that I have learned if nature ever strikes you when you’re in the wild. 

1.  Everyone poops. Don’t be embarrassed. Just find yourself a nice isolated place to do your business.

2. Bring a shovel, TP and maybe some baby wipes (a camper’s best friend).

3. Dig an appropriately sized hole, perhaps next to a tree if there are ones around. Pick a good one! I prefer a decent sized juniper

4.  If you are on a mountainside, face downhill. It’s better to fall forward away from your hole then backwards into it… Also, secure your toilet paper, you do not want it to roll down the slope and unravel (this has happened to me- it sucks to roll it back up)

5. Handle your business sequentially! Go number one before you do number two.

6. Enjoy the view! You’re going to be there for a while anyways.

7. Bury the evidence. I also like to mark the spot with a large stone or stick to prevent accidental rediscovery.

(By the way, it totally sucks going when its 20 degrees outside.)

An update from the field

Sunset at the Virginia Mountains field site

Hi Everybody! I am currently out in East Nevada near a small town called Ely trapping greater sage-grouse. The week previously I was at our Virginia Mountains field site north of Reno, NV doing orientation and training. There I learned how to spotlight and net sage-grouse at night, how to place radio collars on their necks and take measurements and blood samples. We used ring-necked pheasants to practice on (which we later ate- they were delicious). I also renewed my first aid and CPR training and some general safety protocols, learned how to change a flat tire, tow a stuck truck and got to learn more about the people and animals that I would be working with for the next couple of months. Everybody here is great. It was nice to get to know new people, learn about their past experiences and talk about birds! We got to our trapping field site on Monday and went out on a practice run that night. We successfully caught an adult male who was roosting around a lekking site at around 1am. I held him while Melanie, the crew lead collared and took his measurements. The grouse was huge! Much larger than the prairie chickens that I have previously worked with and the pheasants that we have practiced on. He was a feisty guy who fought to get loose but I was able to hold him tight throughout all of the measurements and blood letting. We eventually finished up and let him go around 2:30am. We will be going out again these other following nights from about 10pm to 4am. I will be on a nocturnal sleeping schedule.

For all of y’all trying to reach me, the phone and wireless service here at the SWIP field site is almost nonexistent. I will have time where I will be going into or near town to check my email, text messages and update this blog so if you need to reach me please do that there and realize that it will take me a while to get back to you. I hope everyone is well. I’ll post again soon!

road trippin' to NV (cont.)

Driving through the northern part of New Mexico and Arizona, I encountered snow flurries while driving. This was a first for me so I got a little excited and took pictures.

I had low expectations about Petrified Forest. I have seen of pieces petrified wood before and did not think much about a whole national park dedicated to it. I was pleasantly mistaken. First off, the park ranger gave me free entrance into the park even though my volunteer National Park pass was a couple months expired! That would be the first and only time I had used it. Secondly, the park offers much more than just petrified wood. There was also beautiful mesas, a painted desert, ancient petroglyphs and of course, large broken pieces of petrified wood from a prehistoric forest. 

The painted desert

Blue mesas

A wasteland of petrified wood

I got someone to take a pic of me. It was cold!

I stopped for the night in Flagstaff, AZ where they received 15 inches of snow the night before. I was thrilled! It was the most snow I have ever seen in my life- so I went a little crazy: throwing snowballs at myself, skating on the ice, snow angel, etc.

I kinda just leaned back on this one

oh Xmas tree!

On the last driving day I entered the state of Nevada and stopped by the Hoover dam to marvel at the achievement of human ingenuity. As opposed as I am with man-made dams in general, the sheer size and technical feat of building a structure that large was amazing. 

road trippin' up to NV

I left Austin, TX on March 8^th to drive to Reno, NV then to the Virginia Mountains field station near Doyle, CA for my sage-grouse orientation and training. The journey was slightly more than 2,100 miles and took about three days of constant driving. To break up the monotony of the open road I planned several stops along the way to visit several landmarks and parks.

On the first day I took a detour near Balmorhea to stop by the McDonalds Observatory. I had also wanted to visit the state park and see the Balmorhea spring but was constrained by time and opted to see the telescopes instead, perhaps I’ll have time on the return trip. The McDonalds observatory is located on the Davis Mountain ranges in West Texas. I enjoyed looking at the peaks and valleys of west Texas as I drove through, it’s much different from the flat plains of east Texas which I have been accustomed to. Sadly, I missed the last tour of the Observatory but I did the self-guided tour around the visitor’s center and checked out the 5^th largest telescope in the world. The beautiful landscape and the impressive telescope around the area made the two hour long detour entirely worth it. (Uncle Tee if you are reading this, I totally want to visit you at the Hawaii Observatory soon now!)

Mesas

Telescope lens

Fifth largest telescope in the world

After spending the night in Las Cruces, NM I took off early that morning to visit White Sands National Monument towards Alamogordo. Due to its location near the White Sands missile testing range I checked the park website early that morning to make sure that the park was open that weekend. I arrived at the park early and was unable to rent a sled to ride down the sand dunes instead I decided hike up and run down some of the larger white sand dunes which was probably just as fun. It was against park rules to collect any of the white gypsum sand but I consider the sands in my socks and shoes were negligible.

Grassland/ sand dunes

Beautiful dunes

Perhaps a knit fox path

Yucca

Afterwards I made an unplanned stop at Valley of Fires recreation area to check out some prehistoric lava flows. Because I was running behind on my driving schedule I had to run down the switchbacks to get to the lava rocks, took some quick pictures and chit chatted with a old lady about birds before leaving. I really wanted to stay longer and walk some of the trails. The park looked awesome! Who would’ve thought there would be lava flows in NM?! I definitely want to go back and check out this little treasure.

 

It was a very large park

  cont.