Taming the iron horses, locked out, (geo)thermals, and still no bears...

5 August

We left Casey's heading east toward Yellowstone National Park. The drive was long and hot through the high desert. We made several stops - one of which included a visit to Wild Horse Monument on the upper Columbia River.



We arrived at our camp in Gallatin National Forest around 11:30pm. With just enough time to throw up the tent and sleep for a few hours before dawn. In the morning, I thought I had been dreaming about coyotes - but they were real - yipping and howling across the scrubland to one another.

6 August

I set off for the car to start packing up camp and realized I had no keys. Yes, that's right, I locked them up safe and sound - in the car. Luckily, Daniel had left his window open a half inch - just enough space to maneuver a sturdy stick to pop open the door lock. Whew!

We packed up and headed for Yellowstone. We explored the western and southern ends of the park. We saw Painted Pots, Grand Prismatic Spring, Old Faithful (of course) and several other smaller geysers and hot springs/pools.

Old Faithful was scheduled to erupt around 10:32 give or take 10 minutes. We arrived around 9:30 - I made myself some Thundermuck coffee in the parking lot while Dan ate his cereal. Just a few minutes before go-time I saw an Osprey off in the distance. It soared closer and closer to the geyser - then two more showed up. They must have known Old Faithful was due - they were screaming at one another and just as the geyser blew, they rode the thermal draft as high as they could go and left the top of it...looking for the next thermal. It was impressive and wondrous. They must have known the geyser would erupt then, but how? I was more impressed with the Ospreys than the geyser - but I am an ornithologist...




I had had enough of all the humans present in Yellowstone. It wasn't my thing. So we went south to Grand Teton National Park. Sure, there are people here, too, but not as many. We hiked a 2-mile loop this afternoon after securing a campsite for the evening. I thoroughly enjoyed a shower - I was dirrrrrty!




Tomorrow, more Grand Teton! YEAH!

Oh, and one last thing...

Mom, stop reading now...I have heard several reports of bears around camp and common areas! B E A R S! What does a biologist have to do around here to see a bear?!

Olympic National Park and Bridal Veil Falls, Washington

More pictures from Olympic National Park:

From Ellwha Campground, we drove to the Olympic Hot Springs trailhead. The trail was 5 miles round trip with a gentle climb up 300ft or so. We passed several small cascades on the way to the hot springs.


I went off the trail below the bridge upriver a short distance. Casey on the bridge.

One of several hot springs. The largest was the size of a large hot tub; the temperature varied from the mid-90s to 105 degrees F. These pools are known to have high levels of fecal coliform so we only soaked our feet in one of them.

The view from the Bainbridge-Seattle ferry across the sound. Mt. Rainier looms in the background as a sailboat sails by.

Today, we left Casey's and headed east to Bridal Veil Falls on Hwy 2. The sun was in the wrong place in the sky for decent pictures. I still captured a decent representation of the falls.

We left the falls mid-afternoon and continued east on Hwy 2 toward I-97 South to back to I-90 east. Finally, after a ton of traffic on two-lane highways and a bike race, we hit up I-90 and made it to the high desert. We drove past a beautiful lake that I wanted to fish in, then realized my beloved fishing rod that Grandpa gave me was at Casey's house in Seattle. I pondered my options for getting the rod home to Missouri in a timely fashion (so that I can show the bass what's up) and came up with nothing - so we turned around. Now, again, I write from Casey's. This is the view of dusk from her apartment.


Tomorrow, this time for real, we are leaving for Yellowstone National Park, where I had better see bears. Must. See. Bears.

Signing off for the night...

TIHA

Has it really been since June?!

It has been that long. Work kept me really busy and I became friends with several people my age around town.

This will be a photo-essay update picking up where I left off in June working toward present. I'll try to fill in the written stories later.

In mid-June the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Eagle came to Port Astoria for a day or so. She has over 5 miles of rigging and 21,350 square feet of sail. For major ship maneuvers, cadets handle over 200 lines. I would *love* to sail on this ship. Amazing...





A few days later, I visited Dungeness Spit in Sequim, WA to monitor the tern colony there. This time we camped overnight at Ft. Flagler State Park. The camp was on a cliff overlooking Puget Sound - pigeon guillemots (seabirds) nested in the cliff below and harbor seals lazily swam through the glassy water.
20 June

A couple of NOAA Fisheries scientists visited the island. I had the pleasure of giving them a tour of the cormorant colony - which means I got to take pictures. =)




22 June

I went to the Scandinavian Festival at the Clatsop County Fairgrounds. I ate Swedish meatballs, listened to Scandinavian music, bought my favorite Swedish cookies, lingonberry jam, wool yarn for knitting myself a hat before winter, and an Ole and Lena book of jokes. It's all about the blue and yellow...


27 June

Abby and I went to the Shrine Circus at the Clatsop County Fairgrounds. We saw a real live dog and pony show (insert oohs and aahs here), elephants!, tightrope walkers - one man in particular nearly fell twice - it was real exciting, and last but certainly not least, 5 (FIVE!) motorcyclists (one of whom was just 10 or so years old) whirring around an impossibly tiny "globe of death" as it was advertised on the circus flyer. Our favorite part, of course, was the elephants. After the show, we talked our way into petting them. Yeehaw!

The same week as the circus, the gulls nesting by the diet stairs finally had chicks hatch. The cutest thing EVER!

The end of June was a free-for-all. Everyone was super busy, then suddenly, it was Independence Day. We had a party at the house. I hung out down on the viewing platform on the Columbia River and drank beer with a friend I met in town. Back at the house we watched fireworks from the neighbors house.

The next weekend, I drove out to Mt. St. Helens. It's a strange place in a very awesome way. It's difficult to imagine the mountain a thousand feet taller with forests around it. The destruction was vast - 870 million board feet were harvested from the fallen forests. A board foot is 12"x12"x1" - if you stacked them all up, it would be 17,000 miles high! That's a lot of wood...



13-14 July

We rounded up 450 Caspian tern chicks on the colony and banded their legs. This was a huge event and the grad students came up from Corvallis as well as the crew from upriver. We had a ton of fun! Currently, I have no pictures of this - but they do exist! I'll post them later.

The following week, Abby and I had a day off which we spent down on the riverfront. I was on bike, she on foot. We found a propeller at this abandoned brick warehouse. I really have no idea why I was so excited about the Astoria sign.

We also found a rusty, old steam turbine. I *love* photographing rust.


I spent a lot of my time reading and drinking coffee at the Astoria Coffee House. I think their logo is great mostly because it has a swallow.


I also spent a lot of my time drinking beer and an occasional martini at the Voodooroom. I made friends with all of the bartenders here. It's a great bar and they have the best pizza in town. If you're ever in Astoria, don't pass up this place.


24 July

I drove out to Youngs Falls on Youngs River just 20 minutes from Astoria. I didn't spend much time here because it was late in the day. I waded through the river and took some photos then went home. Pretty...



26 July (My Birthday)

The end of season party was in Sun River on the Deschutes River in a HUMONGOUS house - it slept 26 people comfortably. There were bikes and rafts enough for all. We bought 30 pounds of albacore tuna at the fish market and prepared dinner for the rest of the field crew that night. Everyone sang Happy Birthday to me as I downed my first (and second) Irish car bombs (Guinness beer with a shot of Jameson whiskey and Bailey's Irish cream dropped in it). I had already had several vodka tonics. I had a great night...I think.

The next day I put the hair on the dog with a couple of vodka tonics. After lunch we all floated the Deschutes and spent the rest of the day relaxing (and drinking). I soaked in the hot tub and practiced playing billiards. I went to bed early and drove back to Astoria on Monday. On the way home, my housemate and I stopped to hike the Lava Lakes lava tube (tunnel formed by lava flow during an eruption). We also stopped at the High Desert Museum which was pretty fantastic.

I spent the rest of the week preparing to leave for Missouri. I organized all of my data and samples and turned in my gear. My job was officially finished in Astoria on 31 July.

I left Astoria on Saturday, 2 August for Seattle to pick up Casey and head to the Olympic Mountains. We took the Bainbridge Ferry to the Olympic Peninsula where we spent the night in Olympic National Park at the Ellwha Campground. Today we hiked 5 miles up to Olympic Hot Springs where we played in cascading rivers and hot spring pools.

Tomorrow I leave Seattle and head east toward Yellowstone National Park. We'll see how far I get on the first day. I'm so sad to leave the west coast, specifically the Pacific Northwest. I wish there was a way I could stay. I now have a strong desire to devote lots of time to figuring out a way to make it back to Astoria. If I'm not in grad school by spring, I hope to be coming back to work on East Sand Island and seeing all of the friends I left in Astoria.

In closing, here's a self-portrait of me from today in Olympic National Park on the Hot Springs trail. It isn't the only photo of the day - I'll upload the others when I find a faster connection.


Cheers!