Good day for ducks--

My first real rain of the year! Water is over running the sidewalks and flooding Bar Harbor's many frost heaves and potholes. Tomorrow I have plans to paddle one last time on the Union before heading back to Jersey, and today's rains are assuring my river will have water.
The last ten days have been full of happy reunions and tearful goodbyes, stories, rivers, sunshine and downpour, and a ton of planning for the start of my trip next month. As the date gets closer I will be starting a new blog that will document my experiences as a Watson fellow in some of the world's river deltas.


Two more days in Bar Harbor. Enjoy the rain!

Back in Maine

Back in the NE for a few days. I'll do a final tally of transects, tortoises, and other desert stats sometime in the next few days before graduation.

The final five

Today marks the beginning of the last week of field work out here. By Friday my last five transects will be completed and I will head back east. This week ended up being crazy hot with a string of days well over 100. It also was a great week for herps--between my partner and I we found 3 rattle snakes, a gila monster,3 tortoises, and tons of lizards. Though my good luck in the field was cut short by a flat tire in the middle of no where--even our trucks are wearing out after 9 weeks of hard work. Here are some more photos from the last two weeks.

105, truck bottoms, and gila monsters

Found a Gila monster near camp last night and nearly stepped on a sidewinder this morning. The hot weather is bringing everything out. Except for me, for much of the morning the sun reduced my world to a band of shade six inches from a truck muffler. Time to get some ice cream and head north for a few days. Stay cool.

At least it's a dry heat.

Today we are taking shelter in Overton, NV to escape the record heat. Between the library, museums, and grocery store we have at least found enough AC to keep our brains from melting. 106 today--then "cooling" to the upper 90's the rest of the week. But with only 10 more transects to the walk this season we are definitely in the home stretch. Last weekend I posted some photos from a few weeks of work and a hike up Mt. Griffith--notice the snow that would be more than welcome today.

96 km, no tortoises.

I have been neglecting this blog a little, but for good reason. The last few weeks I've been heading right for the trail or river after my 5 days out in the desert. For work we have been moving between parts of the northern Mojave—Coyote Springs, Mormon Mesa, and Gold Butte. We have not been finding many tortoises the last few weeks—perhaps, at least in Gold Butte, an effect of over grazing by cattle. Tortoises or not the terrain has been amazing, mostly rolling hills and washes rising into desert mountain ranges. Early this week while working several miles out into the desert near Gold Butte my team mates found a Teddybear Pomeranian—the little guy was hungry , thirsty, and sure glad to see us. Within a few hours he went from being a desert rat into the lap of luxury in Las Vegas. We could not locate its owner, but we had no trouble finding it a new home. It appears that it had been out in the desert for some time, a pretty amazing survival story for a 7-pound pooch—that or maybe its an alien/gremlin of some kind.
A few weekends ago I summitted Hayford Peak in the Sheep Mountains and hiked into Mary Jane Falls in the Spring mountains. Both hikes took me up to elevations where there was still quite a bit of snow left over from the winter, as well as trees. Each mountain had towering forests of Ponderosa and Jeffery pines that transitioned into alpine juniper forests near 10,000 feet on Hayford.
Last weekend I got away form the snow and camped with some friends on the far northern tip of the Mohave Reservoir on the Colorado. We spend two days paddling along hundred foot cliffs and exploring side canyons. It was great to be back on the water after so long in the desert, though sad that it was at the expense of the free flowing Colorado.
I've posted a bunch of photos from the last few weeks on my picasa page.
4 more weeks of field work to go.

42 km and 3 tortoises.
Plus desert thunderstorms, snowy peaks, and the start of long hot days.
More pictures up on picasa