I survived field camp without any aches, pains, or injuries in spite of the fact that the majority of people there were almost half my age. The last week or so was pretty hectic, hence the lack of blogging. Back in Poky I had a busted sprinkler head, 6 inch tall grass, a 60 foot dying spruce needing removal, a leaky toilet, moldy basement carpet, and a dog desperately in need of a bath. If Jenny were feeling better, I think I’d drag her back up to the mountains with me again.

The weirdest thing is coming back to ‘reality’. I have been nut to butt with the same 27 people for the past 5 weeks and now that field camp is over, we have gone our separate ways. I was walking through Wal-Mart and other places hearing voices of other people that sounded vaguely familiar like people at camp and seeing people from a distance or from behind looking like people at camp but it wasn’t them. Maybe I’ll visit field camp next year and bring my mutt with me. My dog couldn’t come this time. He’s never been out camping with me and I was sharing a tent with Elliot and Lil’ Dan.

Next recommendations: take a orienteering class. In other words, learn how to figure out where the hell you are on a topo map using the terrain and your compass. ISU has a weekend class but I had forgotten everything I learned. Buy rain gear that packs small and light. The less space it takes in your pack and less weight it has, the better. As far as packs go, I am not sure what’s better, tall and narrow or short and wide. I bought a tall one and it was a pain in the ass under low hanging branches. Use a pack that will fit an adequate amount of stuff that you are comfortable with. I know that’s a bit vague but I bought another pack that held all my stuff, had room for water, but hooked on low hanging branches and generally put me off balance every time I carried it.

That’s it…field camp it over. Where this blog goes from ere is anyone’s guess.

I have apparently completely lost track of time here at LRFS. According to Cat, the TA, everyone does. The weeks don’t go from Monday to Friday with weekends off, there’s no TV, no newspapers, and no radio except for the sporadic radio stations between LRFS and wherever we may be headed to. “LRFS” is Lost River Field Station…Field Camp. With all this lost time, I managed to not only not write an entry here but worse…I hadn’t emailed my honey in 5 days. I’ll pay for that…my bad.

Boulder Creek was absolutely beautiful. It will be one of the places on my list to go back to on my own. This next place we are going to will be above the tree line above 10,000 feet. It will have igneous, metamorphic, sedimentary, and glacial deposits. The terrain is supposed to be more rugged than anything we’ve seen so far. Sounds cool to me :)

Next task…email my honey.

Here’s a couple more tips:

1. Bring bright clothes. It’s easier to see your partner if they are wearing bright clothes and easier for you to be seen. Almost all of my stuff is camouflage or sage colored. That was dumb.
2. Bring a radio, 2-way walkie-talkie multi channel type. LRFS provides them for teams but if you lose your partner and he has the radio you’re out of luck.
3. Rechargeable batteries, lots plus a charger. The tents have power so you can charge your stuff I your tents.

I don't know what's worse, sugar or alcohol. I should know better than to mix Scotch and brownies. Yesterday was a light day. All we did was a profile of a volcanic section in Jim Canyon and ID the volcanics there. Toda we actually have to get of our asses and map the area... no problemo.

Geological mapping is not hard as long as you manage to get the contacts on the right place on the map and have a clue what the contacts are before walking past them. The first mapping project we only managed to get a couple contacts on the map inferring the rest (wrongly). The second mapping project I was completely out if it with a cold. This time I'll get it right.

I just learned what NOT to do with my camera as far as settings go. I tried to adjust the date setting so that the photos would be dated with the real date and no all 1/1/00. All I managed to do is delete the few photos I had (damn). Time fr a new camera. I am using an Olympus Camedia C-2040ZOOM 2.1 Megapixel. It does everything, it's sturdy, takes pretty good pics... that's the good part...the bad part is that's it's huge, heavy, and 8 years old. I got my $400 worth out of it. Maybe I spent $700 on it, who knows...that was when I had an income.

Today's plan is to head back into the Lost River Range and check out a rock glacier. What's a rock glacier? Heck, I don't know. It may be an old glacier covered with talus or it may be a new glacier formed beneath talus. It's supposed to be really cool and (here's the best part) it's just for fun (YAY).

Yesterday we hiked our asses off. We started out mapping out a fault scarp along the base of the range (by drive along, get out, map, drive some more, map some more). This was pretty lazy and decadent, but we have a fabulous map of the scarp. THEN we hiked 1200 feet straight up the side of the mountain to see a cool limestone outcrop. It was gorgeous...too bad I don;t have any pics of it. The limestone forms one leg of an anticline with a 800+ foot drop straight down. With 24 of us and all sharing photos, someone will have a photo. When we got to the trail head I realized that I had forgotten my clipboard, maps, field book, and lunch (duh). Glenn lent me his clipboard, map and part of his lunch so I didn't starve or wanted around lost. I bought him a 6-pack of IPA.

Tomorrow Yellowstone...and no blog entries until we get back on Wednesday.

Well, I'm feeling better...the sickness has passed. OK so 'm still hacking a lung and snotty in the literal sense. BUT, teh plague has passed on to a bunch of other people here. The good news is that I was NOT the Typhoid Mary that brought the plague here (whew).

Today we ran all over Rock Creek and Birch Springs. This sounds nice right like a leisurely walk in the park. Wrong. This was walking up and down Pleistocene glacial moraines 1000 foot climbs up 60% grades. We were supposed to be mapping till about 6pm but by 4pm a bunch of us petered out. Mapping glacial and fluvial stuff isn't easy. Right now Google Earth is my friend.

Being sick at field camp sucks. Being sick in general sucks and the location doesn't make being sick worse. The crummy part is not being able to participate 100%. This last project was an environmental assessment of the Chilly Buttes. The first day I felt fine but day 2 and 3 went down hard. Luckily, my partner on the project, Tina, is sharp and has her stuff together and carried me along. After an hour nap, dinner, blistering hot shower and another 11 hours sleep, I am almost back to normal. The bad thing is that I suspect this bug will be making its way through camp.

Three days ago it was almost 90F here. Yesterday it snowed. That's Idaho for ya.. We are doing the Borah Peak mapping project today and for the next few days. It has to do with mapping glacial quaternary sections I suspect. This will be cool.

Next suggestion, bring drugs... cough drops (Halls are great), allergy/cold medicine, whatever may come up. I don't think I will ever buy generic Neosporin again. The stuff just doesn't do anything; the same goes for generic Tums. My wife was right...she's (almost) always right.

Day one...stuff I forgot

I tried desperately to remain organized but just had too much crap. The last 15 minutes before I had to leave I ended up throwing stuff into bags. Today, I realized what I forgot: all my mapping pens and tools, calculator, whiskey flasks and funnel, and colored pencils. The suckie part is I had all the stuff lined up on my desk. Hmmm...I wonder if I can get my daughter to send me the stuff. Luckily we can receive UPS and regular mail here.

Tip #1 Pack a week ahead of time and use a check list.

What did we do today? Lots of milling about waiting to get here. Once here we had an orientation and a small assignment: map the field camp area and wrte up an environmental assessment. Pretty cool stuff.

I am so damn tired...woke up at 4am this morning.

So much to do (AAK!)

On my list of priority crap to to is: 1) get packed 2) get grad school application crap sent out. On my other list is mow lawn, wash dog, attend Paul's BBQ (looking forward to that), do one last load of laundry, wash bedsheets, finish drip system, fix sprinkler head, show wifie the stuff I do with Quicken and the checking account and where her hard-earned dollars are going (she's putting me through school...she's a saint...I'm a guilt-ridden f/t student)...I think that may be it.

The question is do I take my Cherokee or drive with the ISU vehicles...do I take all the fixings for Manhattan's or just bring Scotch. Bringing my own vehical would be dumb...bringing the fixings for Manhattan's would be cool.

Manhattan: 2 shots Scotch, 1 shot sweet vermouth, 2 shakes bitters on the rocks (with a lemon twist). Seriously that is my favorite drink. I just had one and I am buzzed (weeee)

Setting up camp and checking stuff out

Today's a work day for Field Camp. We're headed up there noon today and should be back in Poky around dinner time tomorrow. Allegedly we're setting up our hard sided tents and getting stuff ready. This will be great, it gives us local ISU students a heads-up on what we are getting ourselves into before it's too late. The non-ISU students won;t see the place until Tuesday.

I think I'm totally over packed but this IS for 5-weeks and I still haven't quite figured how exactly to pack a backpack.

For today, toothbrush, clean underwear, work gloves, and most importantly a full flask of Scotch.

As far as Scotch goes, I enjoy the good stuff but I'm way too cheap to ever actually buy it. My budget brand of choice is Clan MacGregor. It's blended, aged 36 months and inexpensive. It burns a bit, doesn't taste like you're sucking charcoal, and it's fun to say Clan MacGregor in a thick Scottish brogue like Sean Connery. OK, I saw that last part on someone else's website and I thought it was funny (BUT TRUE!) http://www.pusateri.org/cruft/docs/clanmacgregor.html

Cheers