Stories from someone just fumbling through
Spring has only just sprung around here but Tuna and I have already managed to get in a few nice hikes. The photos above are from the O.D. von Engeln Preserve at Malloryville in Dryden, NY. This little known swath of land located between Cortland and Ithaca is owned by the Nature Conservancy. I've lived… Continue reading Central New York Hikes: Malloryville & Chicago Bog
Deb, Andrew and I got an early start since we had no idea what this catchment had in store for us. All we knew of Gibbon Meadows is that Andy and his crew had to stop surveying when they hit a large, confusing wet meadow filled with beaver dams. Needless to say, we were concerned--me… Continue reading Yellowstone: July 18th, 2013
Oh Craig Pass…why? WHY!? Once again, we had another doozie of a catchment. Previous teams had set up seven navigation points to get us, the easiest way possible, to the wetlands. Well, Andrew and I both want to tell those people off. The navigation points led us through the worst forest known to man. Painful… Continue reading Yellowstone: July 11th, 2013
Day two of the Shoshone catchment. This is the day we surveyed the rest of the sites in this wetland complex. Site 13 was way too remote from the rest of the wetlands to survey all in one fell swoop so it was broken up into two days and two vastly different experiences. It’s been… Continue reading Yellowstone: July 9th, 2013
Today we tackled the Rock Point catchment. We assumed it would be a piece of cake since most of the wetlands were just off the side of the road and didn’t seem to take previous crews a long time to survey. Some said it was a half day of work, some said it was a… Continue reading Yellowstone: July 1st, 2013
The morning was spent reviewing our data quality with Deb. Nez Perce was a disaster in more ways than one. The GRYN whippersnapper data was a mess, but luckily that wasn't our doing. Otherwise, we hadn‘t screwed up anything too bad. We said a final goodbye to zee Germans, exchanged contact info and I, of… Continue reading Yellowstone: June 27th, 2013
The second day of the Tanager Lake catchment was not quite from hell but it sure wasn’t a good time either. It was filled with several nightmare worthy wet meadows, which are my absolute least favorite wetland to survey. I have perfected a technique to deal with wet meadows as swiftly as possible so… Continue reading Yellowstone: June 25th, 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
I'm in a dreadful mood today so to spare you from the dark place I'm in, I'll share with you some photos that I took a few weeks ago of our romp around the property. We were looking for migrating amphibians but at that moment we were a little premature. That would not be the… Continue reading I’m grump-diddly-dumpcious
The Unmaker 