Stories from someone just fumbling through
I spent most of the day puttering around the dorm trying to get my joints to re-lubricate themselves and my blisters to pop. Surprisingly, Andrew looked far better than I. He was up, bright and early, to drive back home to Casper to see his wife. I don’t envy him, especially in his condition. That’s… Continue reading Yellowstone: June 20th, 2013
Welcome to my 16-hour day from both heaven and hell: Nez Perce starting from the west side of the Mary Mountain trail. Andrew and I woke up at 5 am to meet the GRYN crew at the trail head by 7 am. The dorm is almost in the center of Yellowstone, between Fishing Bridge and… Continue reading Yellowstone: June 19th, 2013
If you ever get the chance to visit Yellowstone, you have to take the winding ride from Dunraven Pass to Mount Washburn to Tower to the Lamar Valley. When I wasn’t white-knuckling it in the back of Deb’s car --praying her sight-seeing gaze didn’t stray too far, too long and send us toppling off… Continue reading Yellowstone: June 18th, 2013
Today is a combined field effort with the GRYN crew consisting of three young twenty year-old male whipper-snappers (a nursing student, a GIS student and a geology student) and Andy, who is the head-honcho of the entire amphibian monitoring project this year. It was a training day for them and a field data collection… Continue reading Yellowstone: June 17th, 2013
In previous blog posts I’ve mentioned having weird dreams but this morning takes the cake! Have you ever heard your name being called in the middle of the night or right when you are dozing off? I think it’s fairly common and experts say it’s a hallucination of a sleepy mind. I woke up at… Continue reading Yellowstone: June 16th, 2013
Today was an official day off of work. I spent most of the morning reading, writing and organizing my photos. Then I took a brief walk to the Elephant Back trail. This was the first hike we went on as a group back in 2006 and I felt like I was on death’s door the… Continue reading Yellowstone: June 15th, 2013
It’s been another glorious day here in Smellystone (don’t worry, it’s a good smelly). Strange dreams are still afoot but I‘m taking it in stride. Work uneventfully started at 8 am with a review of the field season schedule and then a trip to Indian Pond. Deb was disappointed with the water level and… Continue reading Yellowstone: June 14th, 2013
Training Day: 4 Today I woke up feeling very off due to the very vivid dream I had. Dreams here are so real, detailed, and colorful and they really stick with you. I’ve been trying to write them down, just for the heck of it. It seemed like a little fairy or greedy… Continue reading Yellowstone: June 13th, 2013
Training Day: Thrice Today feels like I’ve finally settled in, which is a lot quicker than most field jobs I’ve had. Perhaps it’s because I’ve done this before. Andrew, Deb, and I navigated to some wetlands nearby. I kept up just fine despite being rather out of shape and squishy and having… Continue reading Yellowstone: June 12th, 2013
Training Day: Deux Amphibian id training today in Gibbon Meadows. I remember doing the same exact thing in the same exact location in 2006. This entire experience is going to be like some wonderful kind of déjà vu for me. We saw every species on our very short list, including tiger salamander larvae. And I… Continue reading Yellowstone: June 11th, 2013
The Unmaker 