Looking at my handwritten calendar, our sample site schedule has changed so much! Just looking at August 14th, I have written down four different creek names due to the fact that we have had to reject sites and replace them with different one or move some back to sample later because flows were still too high.
August 14th, we were out east of Rock Springs on Bitter Creek. It was our over sample for Sugarloaf Marsh Creek. It was a cooler day with threats of rain all day. We were out in an area where if it were to rain a lot we were not going to be able to get out of there. I think this is one of the slowest flowing creeks that we have worked on and it looked pretty disgusting. There was also the train tracks about 300 yards away so we got to listen to that off and on. Kee and I ended up going back to the truck in the afternoon for a little bit because it looked like we were going to get hammered with rain. We were lucky enough that it missed us and we were able to finish the site.
On the 15th, Kee and I went to Lost Creek northwest of Kemmerer. Were we parked the truck was about .5 miles from the site and on of the ranchers came over to us on his 4-wheeler. I could tell that Kee was nervous talking to him and I'm pretty sure assumed that the guy was going to be pissed at us for being close to his property. But he was really nice and just told him what we were doing. Our F transect was on his property a little above the fence line. While we were walking down, it looked like we were going to be working in a wetland and right before we got close Kee said we should make sure there is no moose. Well there was a cow and a calf that popped up right after he said that and we were able to scare them away. Once we got down to were the creek was suppose to be, we could not find it...right away. This creek was a foot wide!! The smallest one yet and its' name holds up to it: Lost Creek.
Since we did not have anything planned for the 16th of August, Kee and I went out with the remote sensing crew. Their job consists of locating and measuring Juniper Trees in a plot. Their plots are a 60 meter wide circles and are focused on sampling the land northeast of Evanston, WY. After the plot is set up, all Juniper trees are flagged and measured (height and width).
The one difficult part about what they do is making sure they find all the trees within that plot because, let me tell you from experience, the baby Junipers are really hard to find. I would look over the plot after everyone else put their flags for what they found and I would end up finding even more all hiding under sage brush. It was interesting to see what they do every day but I would get bored of it from looking at the ground all day. I am so happy that I am doing aquatic AIM.
That Thursday after I finished my maps, Alex sent be out to scout out a site up the Ham's Fork. There was 4 areas that I had to cross where I could have gotten stuck if I did not know how to drive off road. Once I made it as close as I could get, I hiked the .75 miles up to the GPS location and as I was going I ran across a porcupine just eating grass on top of a log. There was no water at the location and it had stopped close to the valley floor. I think that it is coming out of a spring down below but was so happy to get out and move. Just a little crappy hiking by myself but I loved it.
The next week, Kee and I were working out of the Pinedale office. We sampled Cottonwood Creek that Monday which was the day of the Eclipse! We had planned for this because we know that this site was only going to be a partial site so we set up the flags and then headed northwest out of Pinedale to be on the outer edge of the path of totality. We were not able to purchase glasses in time so we asked a guy if we could just look through his for a second. He was really nice about it and hung out with us the whole time. So I thought that it was not going to be cool but it turned out to be sweet! When the moon started to go in front of the Sun, the lighting was really weird. Like you could not take off your sunglasses weird and the temperature started to drop. When it all happened it had dropped 15 degrees!!
Once the Moon was covering the Sun completely, the halo around the Moon had beautiful blues, purples, and some greens. You could see some of the stars and crickets started to make noise. And when the Sun came out again, it felt normal. I tried getting pictures but they were not turning out at all compared to what I was seeing with my own eyes. Kee and I went back to sample out site and the traffic all day was continues from people leaving Wyoming. I think I heard that Wyoming's population doubled that day. LOL
The rest of our days that week in the Pinedale office consisted of us scouting out sites. I got to climb up really steep rocks that I would have never done before so I feel accomplished in my trust for moving my body. Once we found the creek that we were after, Scab Creek, we had to hike through a lot of dead fall and boulders just to get to the GPS location and it was dry the entire way up. We were able to find a hiking trail back out so we hiked a total of 3 miles.
One of the nights, I went to the Wind River Brewery by myself to have a drink at the bar and ended up talking to a lady from Maine who was there for a women's hiking trip. I guess it was suppose to be an 8 day trip but she only lasted 4 days because their guide was crazy. The guide did not let them eat or drink and she was even getting altitude sickness herself. So I helped the lady pick out food from the menu and taught her some things about Wyoming. Then Kee and I went out another night and had drinks at Stockman's and ended up talking to two older ladies. They both were from Colorado and traveling to Yellowstone for their annual women's getaway. They were very entertaining and fun to talk too.
August 28th and 29th, we were south of Kemmerer around interstate 80 sampling the Smith's Fork and Black's Fork. The Smith's Fork had really deep pools that came up to my chest and almost submerged my waders with water. The Black's Fork was suppose to be sampled by the river crew but it is wadeable so we ended up doing it. I believe that it was one of my favorite ones to sample because our reach was over 600 meters long meaning that it was leg day all day! Finally got a workout. While I was collecting my macro in
vertebrate samples, I found some fossils pressed into some rocks like some spiraled seashells. Kee and I were happy that Alex came out to help us because it was going to take us along time since our widths were about 20 meters wide.
The 30th and 31st, Kee and I just scouted out a site below Mountain View west of Lonetree and then created my sample site maps for the next week.
The 30th and 31st, Kee and I just scouted out a site below Mountain View west of Lonetree and then created my sample site maps for the next week.
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