I Lied / Goodbyes.

well, i said i would write about my 9-day backpacking trip. but then i was in norwood and had to work and load my stuff up and say goodbye to my friends and then i was driving and then i was in denver and then st. louis and now i’m home, and the pack trip just seems far away and hard to reflect upon. i wish i had written about it, but i didn’t. so, i’ll do my best to share a few highlights.

i spent nine days more than twenty miles from civilization (and forty miles from any town) in the uncompahgre wilderness area, and i can only think of one word to really describe it: intense. half of those days were spent above treeline, where nights were well below freezing. we took three horses, who carried our tents and packs, but also liked to run away at night. i chased them some two miles on more than one occasion. the stars were amazing, though. we surveyed over 50 miles in really neat terrain of all kinds – old-growth spruce fir, inundated fens, saturated willow brush, alpine tundra. i climbed my first fourteener (uncompahgre peak – 14,309 feet), and it was amazing, although i was a little dizzy and oxygen-deprived at the top. we recorded two historic sheepherding sites and twenty prehistoric lithic sites – a precedent for the elevation we were surveying. i found another projectile point. we didn’t see any other human beings for the first five days, with the exception of patricio, the bolivian sheepherder we met on the first day and often saw driving his band of 2,000 sheep over the hillsides. we cooked quick meals on a campstove and filtered all of our water (which came out of a muddy hole for the first five days). overall, the trip was exhausting, but calming. i felt like a different person when i walked out the big blue trail from off of our now-familiar ridge. i’m glad i had such a great opportunity to spend time outside and with myself, and won’t soon forget it.

here are some of my favorite photos:

pack train

me ‘n’ jesse james

sheep

patricio

projectile point

group photo on uncompahgre

a photo of the peak

and now i’m home. and i’m still reeling. i miss norwood a lot, and didn’t realize quite how different colorado was until i came back to kentucky. i miss my friends and i miss being outside and i miss riding my bike to clark’s supermarket and i miss cooking dinner and i miss everyday stuff.

but now i’m closing this chapter and heading to centre, where i’m sure i will soon be too busy to think about it. this will be the last entry for rocky mountain high, but i’ve gotten used to blogging and i think i’d like to continue. so, if you’d like to keep up with me during the school year, please see my new general blog – as the crow flies.

adios, and thanks for reading!

Nine Showerless Days Later…

i have returned! for those of you who did not know, i took a nine-day backpacking trip in the san juan mountains. we hiked over fifty miles and recorded twenty prehistoric archaeological sites. i am still really tired and trying to process it all, so i probably won’t post for a few days. but i promise i will write all about it later. until then, see my flickr page for lots of photo documentation!

Fishing.

walmart rod and reel: $16.99
rainbow powerbait: $3.25
one-day fishing permit: $9.00
2 gallons of gas: $6.58
parking pass: $3.00

waking up at 4:30 a.m. and driving 38 miles and fishing for 8 hours to catch this (and only this):

priceless.

My First Real Find

i had an exciting day! i joined archaeologists from alpine archaeological consultants and university of south carolina as they worked on a prehistoric research project near naturita and uravan. we visited several previously-undocumented rock structure sites that are presumably over 1,000 years old. the researchers are trying to provide evidence for a “gateway” culture that occupied southwestern colorado between the fremont and pueblo peoples.

we were surveying around the first site of the morning (which was amazing in and of itself) when i found a beautiful projectile point – my first ever! because it was whole, it was considered a diagnostic tool, and can be used to prove that the lithic material and rock structure were contemporaneous. as if that wasn’t enough, i soon found two more tools – another whole point and one broken point. i was really excited, because we’ve found very little prehistoric material so far this summer. i was even more excited that i had the first (and only!) finds of the day. maybe it was beginner’s luck, but i was proud either way. seeing one of these things lying in the dust and realizing that it may not have been touched for over 1,000 years is pretty powerful.

my first point!

standing in front of a rock structure site dated to circa 1,000 A.D.

wall detail of another structure, and sunlight

i continue to have amazing opportunities and experiences. i can’t believe it’s already august, and that i’ll be leaving in less than three weeks. it will certainly be bittersweet…

What We Do On Weekends

ladies and gentlemen,

i give you…

FRIDAY NIGHT PIGEON FIGHTS!

featuring the norwood ranger district seasonals.

footage shot and edited by luke holguin.

no pigeons were harmed in the filming of this video.

Ask and Ye Shall Receive / I’m Lucky

since i last wrote, i’ve procured a mountain bike, free of charge.

how did i get a free mountain bike, you say?

i asked.

there is a great webgroup based out of telluride, called telluridefreecycle, where users can post items they want to give away, or items they’d like to have. i posted, very simply, that i’d like a used bike if anyone had one they needed to rid themselves of. and a few days later, i got an email from a very nice lady who not only had a used mountain bike, but was going to be in norwood and would drop it off at the bunkhouse. so she did. and it turned out to a be a specialized ‘hard rock,’ which is about 15 years old, but top of the line. bought at a bike shop and really taken care of. all it needed was a new innertube on the back tire, which i found at the hardware store for $5.99.

my $5.99 bicycle:

yeah. so that was pretty exciting. all i had to do was ask.

anyway, that was last weekend. after that was another week of hard fieldwork. on monday bob and i traveled to gunnison once again. we started a new project near blue mesa reservoir, which is the largest body of water in colorado, and really beautiful. we were surveying for another prescribed burn along little soap creek. we didn’t have a cabin on this one, and ended up tent-camping each night. which was alright, until it rained. a lot.

sitting out a hailstorm under a ponderosa pine

there was some beautiful scenery though, when the weather was more agreeable.

i can’t complain.

we got to scale some really neat stuff.

the geology here was amazing – rock formations made of volcanic conglomerates, sheer faces created by uplift. pinnacles and spires everywhere.

there was a lot of hard hiking, a lot of sweat, a lot of deer flies, and a lot of rain. we also didn’t really find anything interesting. but what neat country! another place that i never would have been able to explore were it not for this job. i’m pretty lucky.

Marginally Famous

i’ve been featured in a news story on centre’s website about what students are doing for the summer.

see it HERE!

Another Poem

A fire in the canyon:
They strain for something, for gravel sounds,
the thrum-stroke of coming diesel,
crunching brush, men’s noises
in the night.

The fire sleeps here.
They hope for something, for a slow sun,
but it’s sinking now with heavy ash,
quick flames, trucks choked against
the light.

The women listen.
They wait for something, for a sign that
drawn wings, held cringed behind
their heads, must be thrown
into flight.

Now nothing follows night,
except the sound of dust.

A Rough Week, To Say the Least

i don’t really have much to report.

i spent the past week at taylor reservoir doing the last bit of fieldwork on our bighorn sheep habitat project. on tuesday, i was headed back to the jeep by myself to shuttle it to the bunkhouse while bob and ryan recorded a few more sites in the other direction, and i managed to fall 50-75 feet down the side of a mountain (right after i’d climbed up it, naturally). it hurt. like, really hurt. i was pretty banged up, but got back to the rig alright and headed home. i had a lot of cuts, scrapes, and bruises. luckily, my backpack kept me from hitting my head. so i was basically fine, except for feeling like i’d been run over by an 18-wheeler. also, every surface of my body (shins. knees. thighs. stomach. elbows. shoulders.) had some sort of open wound. but that was alright.

what wasn’t alright was getting sick wednesday, running a fever, throwing up all wednesday night, and having to stay in the cabin by myself for two days. i felt terrible and was bored out of my mind. i didn’t eat anything besides a half-bowl of jello and some instant mashed potatoes for three days.

then we came home.

i’m not in a very good mood, but i’m sure it will pass. staying in the wilderness definitely has its perks, but it can get lonely. the lack of communication and long days start to get to you after awhile.

anyway, here’s a pretty mountain picture to end this entry on a happy note:

The Life of a Chow Truck Driver

this photo pretty much sums up my past week:

there has been a 120-acre fire on our district at mailbox park since last saturday, and i’ve had the opportunity to run support for it. i’ve been transporting supplies (mostly food) from the norwood district office to the fire staging area in nucla.

this typically means leaving norwood around six p.m., driving to nucla to pick up fifty or so hot meals, then heading up to mailbox to set up dinner before the firemen come off the line for the evening. then i feed everyone, clean up, and hopefully make it home before midnight, or camp with the crew.

it’s really not a bad deal, especially considering this employment is with the forest service and separate from my SCA position, and, thus, paid. i’m making more money as a chow truck driver than as an archaeology intern! but it’s fun to be part of the logistics for the fire, and nice to be able to help out – these crews have been on the line for six days straight, and they definitely appreciate the food. i’m a pretty popular person right now.

this past week, i’ve begun to see what the firefighting life is like. i eat dinner at 9:30, because that’s when the fire crew eats. i get up at 5:45, because that’s when the fire crew gets up. it’s tough, and i haven’t even been doing the work – 14 or 15 hours a day digging fire line, cutting trees, etc. if i decide to do this next year, i will definitely have to prepare myself for hard work, long hours, and weeks without a shower. actually, i think i’ve already got a handle on that last one.