June 5-9

Sorry that the map is not good, I will remember to email myself the ones that I have been working on.

Pink = Coyote Creek; Blue = Canyon Creek; Green = Red Creek

North is towards Rock Springs; South is Utah and Colorado boarder

This week was our first full hitch plan of the season. We had four different sample sites planned out south of Rock Springs to be completed on Coyote Creek, Canyon Creek, and two on Red Creek. Monday morning, I meet Kee and Jim at the Rock Springs field office. Kee got a really late start leaving Kemmerer so we did not get out to our site until 12 and we also had to get a fire extinguisher for our truck per BLM rules. Jim and Dennis from the Rock Springs field office joined us on Coyote Creek that day. It was really narrow with a lot of wetland like areas making it difficult to find bankfull.

My macroinvertebrates samples had to be collect at all 11 transects because none of our reach had any riffles. So it was pretty interesting to be massaging the mud and whatever else that I don't really want to think about. Jim and Dennis left by 6 pm and Kee and I finished up by 6:30 pm. I did not think that we were going to be able to complete it that day from getting a really late start. We then drove to where we were going to be camping for the night up around Pine Mountain. The spot we ended up choose was really pretty with pine trees, hints the name, and a few ponds. It was also pretty crazy because it was one of the few areas that I ever have had full cell service.

Tuesday morning, I got up before Kee, which is going to happen all the time because I am a morning person, and was able to enjoy my breakfast while looking out over Wyoming soaking up the morning sun. Key note for anyone whoever camps with me is don't get in the way of my morning sun because it helps keep me warm (hints: I am a chameleon).

Anyways, we packed up and left camp by 8 am to head down to Canyon Creek. The two track that we took was right next to the canyon so we were able to look down. Kee was surprised the Wyoming had canyons. Haha! Once we dropped down a ways the road had a large washout so we were not able to get our truck around it so it was hiking we went. The hike was about .75 miles to our sample site and we were down in a large washed out creek from many years of water just cutting away at the valley. It was gorgeous in there and the water only came up to my calf where yesterday in spots it was up to my hips. Storms kept rolling by threatening to rain on us but it never did. I really liked this spot because I was able to get a workout in the morning and even a better one in the afternoon hiking back up. Kee and I did not make it to our next camp until 8 pm just because of the distance and he does not really know how to drive just a little faster when need be. But we camped a few miles off of Red Creek Access road for the evening.

Wednesday, I got out of my tent to see a cow Elk just across the way below highway 191 south. She heard me moving around so disappear into the juniper trees. Getting to our first sample site on Red Creek, we had to hike about 1.5 miles upstream because there was no road going up along it. It was flat the whole way and had to cross back and forth it a couple of times. This part of Red Creek is much wider then the higher end where a lot of the times the creek would divide to had large islands between. Since it was so much wider, our reach length was longer than 150 meters placing our transects 30 meters apart.

By 4 pm we had 4 main transects left and I could tell the Kee was losing speed causing him to decide that we were not going to have enough hours tomorrow to sample the other site and make it back to town without going into some serious over time. We did not get back to the truck until 6 pm and had to drive back out a little ways to set up camp from the threat of possible rain storms. We had to drive down two interesting washed out areas and I was almost not successful at directing Kee out of one of them. The truck almost got high centered and the wheels keep falling into the same spot causing it to spin out. I was finally able to have Kee find the sweet spot to make it up the hill. That evening the sky was beautiful showing us an almost full moon.

Thursday morning we drove out of there and Kee dropped me off at the Rock Springs field office. I was going to have to go to work tomorrow in Kemmerer to do some work before next week which I was not too thrilled about. That afternoon I went over to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department in Green River to collect some rhubarb. I was able to run into Zornes and ask him about his wedding and hear about what he has planned for their honeymoon coming up in September. Now if you all remember me talking about my Wildlife Supervisor, this is the guy and this is his second marriage. Does not mean anything but will help you all know he is a older gentlemen that could out work all of us on horseback. Anyways they are going to the shores of North Carolina to do some fly fishing along the beaches. He has even been watching Youtube videos on everything one would need to know. Also that afternoon, I decided to go get my Wyoming license plates....not excited. I figured I should get them since we will be here for another year. The lady made me so angry and only gave me plates until August and she only put my Dad's name on the registration! So since I was angry I decided to stop by Whisler and talk to my old coworkers to calm me down before heading home. It is always good to talk to them and catch up but I always wish that I had more time.

Drove to Kemmerer that Friday morning to plan out our next hitch, plan some more sites out for the season, and work on documents on our iPad. I drove back into Rock Springs by 4 pm and Mike and I went to Johnny Macs for a couple drinks before coming home to make dinner. We meet a gentlemen who had just won the shake-a-day and he bought us a couple drinks. Very nice man and he got Mike's phone number so that they can go duck hunting this winter. Max, a co-worker of Mike's and our friend, met us there and we all ended up at our house eating dinner that night.