First day off

So today is our first of very few days off. My plan is to do absolutely nothing. For instance, I spent a half hour sitting by the river with my feet in the water, listening to the gurgling of the river and watching the water go by. This is the second part of nothing. Some of the people went to a trailhead somewhere and others went to Sun Valley. Personally I think that Sun Valley just sounds expensive and I already blew $50 in gas filling my tank (sorry Honey). I did get a ride from some people here back to Poky to pick up some stuff I had forgotten. Barkley (my monster poodle) was so happy to see me he nearly made a puddle. Too bad I had to leave him. I left my boat too. By the time I got back out here it was about 11am.

Hmmm...The last few days have been cool. We mapped out Leslie Butte. This is about a 4km field area with anticlines and sync lines, faults and 5 different limestones that look virtually identical except for a fews marker beds and differences in fossils. The first few days were hell just trying to get into the rhythm of things. By day 4 I was back to normal hiking self. Pat of the problem may have had to do with an over sized backpack. On day 4 I used a Camelback I usually use and was back in balance.

Allegedly, the climate this year is unusual. Last year everyone spent their first 2 weeks in their rain gear and battles raging rivers and snow. For us it has been relatively cloudless skies and hot. Recommendation: bring lots of water. When they say bring 4 quarts, do it. I empties my 3 liter Camelback by early afternoon.

Next recommendation, take invertebrate paleontology from Lief. Even though I stumbled over the Latin names in his class, the class was invaluable for this first week identifying the fossils in the limestone. In the Paleo class we went to the San Rafael swell and did the same sort of stuff staring at virtually identical limestone and identifying fossils. Other tips, a map and compass class or some sort if orienteering class would be useful and knowing how to use your GPS. Big one here, when you get the map for the field area in week one and probably the remaining weeks) scan in and blow up your field area. This week we were given a 8.5x11 map and our area was on 25% of the map. By the tpme you have a few dozen strikes and dips, the map is illegible. This doesn't include being smeared bu sweaty hands trying to hold the map in your clipboard.

SO ends this entry...I have some beer drinking and guitar picking to do. One more tip, bring spare guitar strings.

Cheers