I wrote a first draft of a personal statement for grad school application this morning. Now I am about to head out to find a place to camp near Granite Hot Springs. Weather is unseasonably warm (barely freezing at night) with a slight chance of rain or snow. Otherwise not much to report.
Kate was ill today. I spent the morning helping Chrissy collect water samples then went out in search of wells and water pipelines. I found about twice as many as I expected based on my map of the area, so I got back to the office at 6:40. Not a bad day though – with Kate gone I was free to turn up my iPod. Hard to be unhappy with 131 favorite songs playing.
Puzzle pieces are beginning to fall into place. I have a lead on a field assistant job in Florida from December to March, and I plan on working for Nate Senner in Alaska or northern Canada next May-July. Cornell visit should happen last week of November or first week of December.
I updated the photos of the day with pictures from our hike to Photographer’s Point last Monday. Ten-mile round trip was rather exhausting in slush and mud with wet feet, but the views were worth it (for me at least – some of the others are still sore and complaining).
Just added a new photo essay. Check it out here.
Bright sunny day has quickly melted all traces of snow. We are planning on taking a hike – perhaps to Photographer’s Point – to make good use of our holiday.
Ryan wanted to check out the indoor climbing gym in Jackson today, so the three guys left in late morning and spent about 3 hours climbing on fake rock. Most routes were too tough for us rookies, especially Nick and I, but we all had fun. Shopped around a bit, then drove up to Granite Hot Springs to show the guys the falls and soaking pool. Neither of them wanted to soak, so we just took pictures in the unpredicted snowfall and drove home. Pretty good day overall, but I must say I much prefer listening to my iPod in the car than to the dirty comedy they listen to.
I have a number of photos to post, but I left my transfer device at the BLM office on Friday, so I will try to update on Tuesday.
No work tomorrow – Columbus Day. We might try for a hike somewhere away from hunters – haven’t decided yet.
I had a dream last night in which I got married – a prearranged marriage to a pretty lady who became a lot less pretty a day later. Not sure what the point of that was, but I know that I only dream when I go to bed at or before 11 pm.
Test finished, what to do? Chrissy wants to go to Jackson. I don’t trust her driving in the snow, nor do I want to be dragged around Jackson on her various errands. Ryan wants a day without strenuous activity – he is still healing from surgery. Nick is indecisive. So I drive up to Elkhart Park (9000 ft) to see the mountains with fresh snow and take a few pictures. That lasts until 3 pm. I want an excuse to drive – mainly to listen to my new songs on a good sound system – so I decide to visit Granite Hot Springs – 62 miles from Pinedale and the closest good hot spring. Ten miles west of Pinedale I hit heavy snow – clogs my windshield wipers so I crank up the defrost. The snow shower passes. Over the pass and down, and the snow returns. I passed Chrissy on the road at 4:30, then follow the last nine miles on gravel to the spring. I wish I had pictures, but I didn’t dare take my camera out in the heavy snow or risk dunking it in the creek on the unstable log crossing. I sat in the 110-degree water for about an hour and was ready to leave when some other folks showed up – a young guy from Jackson and three young women from Ithaca, NY (same town as Cornell). We all sat naked in the spring for an hour, and I enjoyed having some more open-minded folk to chat with. Granite Hot Spring is beautiful – a 15-foot waterfall of hot water into a pool beneath a 30-foot waterfall on Granite Creek – and it is only improved by a heavy fall of snow. Can’t say I have ever been naked in heavy snow before, but with the hot water it was quite comfortable.
I hit heavy snow on the east side of the pass on the return and was briefly slowed, but aside from that the roads were in good shape – still warm enough to melt the falling snow. Went out to the brewpub for beer and dinner, then walked down to the Cowboy Bar to play some pool. All in all, a good day – even if it did start out with a three-hour test.
Iowa Basics, AHSME, PSAT, SAT, ACT, SAT II, GRE, GRE Subject Test….
All completed, and no more on the horizon. Biology test went well, though it seemed a bit harder than the practice test, and I had to rush through the final ten questions (out of 200) to finish on time. I was the only test-taker in the room, and I had plenty of time before to chat with the Pinedale high school principal who was administering the test.
For all the grief we give weathermen in Minnesota, they are usually right to some extent. If they predict a big snowstorm and we get two inches, we complain. Out here, it seems that the forecast is completely wrong (even for the next 12 hours) about 30 percent of the time. We were supposed to get 3-6 inches of snow today, and we haven’t seen a flake. Temp is 42, and sun is shining. Still a chance for an inch or two later, or so they say… In meteorological lingo, western Wyoming is currently in an unexpected “dry slot” in the storm system.
Not sure what is on tap for the weekend – perhaps a trip to Jackson or even some cold-weather camping.
Life has its ebbs and flows. This is an ebb. Not in a negative sense – simply in the sense that after solo hikes, ATV accidents, and 10-hour days, life has settled into a routine for the time being. Kate and I are about half done driving around the range finding stock tanks. About 150 tanks found so far out of ~300. We finally got the hardware to install ramps today, so we put in seven of the 12 we have on hand. Days go by quickly on this project – always new territory to see and new roads to find. Kate enjoys driving, and I enjoy navigating.
I have been finding new songs I like on the iTunes store, doing a bit of studying for the biology GRE on Saturday, and thinking about grad school.
Snow in the forecast for Friday night and Saturday – a foot in the mountains and a few inches here. Hopefully it will melt quickly – our project involves lots of off-road driving and requires dry weather.
Days have become somewhat routine with the birdramp survey – more fun than lynx work because the project takes us to all corners of our million-acre area, but still not requiring much intelligence. Weather has been beautiful until today, when a rain system moved in. Forecast calls for a half inch of snow tonight – we shall see.
Chris and Michele sent a new 320 GB hard drive that arrived today – essentially quadrupling my computer storage capacity. They loaded their entire music collection – about 10,000 songs – onto the drive, so my music has quadrupled also (though I expect I will find only about 10-15 songs I really like out of that 10,000).
When I opened my computer to install the new drive, I found a half inch of dust bunnies at the bottom and a solid coating of dust on all of the circuit boards and components. My cooling fins were completely packed with dust. Using a squeeze-blower and a vacuum, I managed to get most of the dust out before installing the new drive. Sure is nice to have plenty of space – should be able to do video editing if I have time when I get home.
Haven’t had any signs of N. fowleri yet, so am hoping I won’t get the over-sensationalized bug.
Today was pretty laid-back – cleaned, did laundry, watched Harry Potter 5, worked on computer. Tomorrow will try to find some scientific articles and perhaps send e-mails to potential advisors at Cornell.
Too wet to drive the little roads today, and the snow stopped the mower so I couldn’t do the ATV work – so spent the day reading background material on lynx and doing statistical analyses on the lynx data on my home computer.
It was a foggy, drippy morning with the melting snow, but it is all gone now with the exception of the now-white mountains. Should be able to get back to the birdramp project tomorrow.
Time to go take a look at the moon…
Too wet today to drive two-track roads in search of wells, so I worked on finalizing the lynx data in the morning. Josh gave me an assignment – take an ATV out to where Greg Reser is mowing sagebrush and mark GPS polygons around the mowed areas. We loaded up an ATV on a trailer just before noon, and I spent about 2 1/2 hours bouncing around the sagebrush (rather like driving through a rough field of small stumps). By the end, I was working in rain changing to snow, but I finished all of the areas that have been mowed so far. A rather fun job, and I suspect I will be back at it tomorrow.
Snow began around 4 pm and continued until 7, dropping just under 3 inches of wet white stuff. View out my bedroom window here.
Teton photo essays are up.
