SUUUPERRRR SUMMER

I am back in San Diego now, writing from my swanky ocean view apartment in UCSD's International House. It's a strange and quick transition from life in the mountains, but I really have no complaints. It was a truly amazing summer and an experience that I will always remember. I could not have asked for a better summer job.

I've really liked putting up these blog posts to share at least some of my summer adventures, and thanks to everyone for reading it.

It's great being back with my San Diego amigos, making new amigos, and gettin down to Blacks beach for some surfin. It's gonna be a great year, with tons of challenges and a whole bunch more fun.

Lots o' love to all,

-Teo

A few shots of an awesome, summer-ending trip

Last trip of an amazing summer

Tomorrow morning Tom and I will be heading out for 7 days to wrap up the work we've done this field season. We'll be going to our sites in LeConte Canyon and the Barrett Lakes basin, taking many, many algae samples and removing the experiment's exclosures from the lake bottom. It's gonna be an intense way to finish the summer, not only because of the number of miles we'll be covering, but because we checked the NOAA report this morning and thunderstorms are likely for everyday we'll be out there!!! For elevations around 12,000 feet, where we'll be most of the time, snow is also a pretty sure thing. I'm just grateful I've got a 0 degree sleeping bag.....

A belated update on life in the eastern sierra

It's been a little while since I put something up on here. So sorry. Since my last post, I've been doing a fair amount. About two weeks ago I offered to help out Andrea, one of the other grad students here at SNARL, because she was removing water from several lakes that would then be used in an experiment with frogs back at the lab at UCSB. There were five us in all on the trip, and that was very necessary because hauling about 160 pounds of water out of the backcountry is borderline insane with any less people to help out. But we made it, with no casualties, and no hernias.

Then I got a visit from Mom and Pops, and we had a great time. We camped out at a lake above the town of Mammoth Lakes, and I took them to the thursday night get-together at the lee Vining Mobil Mart gas station which has surprisingly good food and live music once a week. We also checked out the Devil's Postpile Monument, and ended both nights they were here at the natural hot tubs that are scattered in the Owens Valley, just a 5 minute drive from SNARL.

Last Saturday I went with two girls who are living here, one a grad student and the other her assistant, to the Bishop Rodeo. It was a pretty sweet slice of America, with typical bull riding, lots of calf lassoing, barrel races, and intermission entertainment from a midget. The parking lot could have been mistaken for a Ford Truck and trailer dealership. And now I can actually say, "This ain't my first rodeo".

And finally, Tom and I just returned from a two night trip into Center Basin where we spent a full day taking algae samples at the lake and then removing the exclosures. It was a great trip. Going over Kearsarge Pass and up into Center Basin is definitely one of my favorite spots we have trekked through this summer. The picture of the peaks with the dark foreground I believe is Mount Gardner, named after my great, great grandfather who was on a USGS expedition in the 1860s surveying much of the Sierra Nevada area.

Floatin' around Marmot Lake

"I've gotta ask"...... This is the question Tom and I got way too many times on our way up to Marmot Lake which is in Humphreys Basin, just north of the Sequoia/Kings NP border. Tom had six sections of PVC pipe strapped to his pack, over 8 meters of piping in all, that were part of an elaborate gadget to take sediment core samples from the lake bottom. As you can see in the picture, it's not exactly typical backcountry gear. We joked that it was for a teepee. We had gotten a late start so we got into camp in the basin after sun down. We were up early the next morning taking algae samples from Marmot Lake for a couple of hours, and then we began setting up the contraption. We blew up a float tube, which is meant for sitting in to fish from, put on some stylin' waders, and kicked out to the center of the lake (we went one at a time :). The enormous sections of pipe were pretty tricky to maneuver, especially because it was windy and all we had were dinky flippers to control the tube. Once it was upright and sunk to the lake bottom, we would push the end down into the sediment, pull up on a cord that created a vacuum in the tube, and then haul the whole thing up to the surface, cap it, and struggle back to the shore. Falling off of the float tube definitely crossed my mind. Many times.

The whole operation was actually really fun, and totally worth dragging 8 miles up into the basin. The fat and furry namesake of the lake also made an appearance.

After sleeping off my Gado Gado backcountry pasta (an intense peanut sauce pasta dish), doing some more algae survey work this morning, and capturing and euthanizing some tadpoles to be taken back to the lab, we packed up and headed out under a quickly darkening sky. The rain began to hit us harder and harder, then came the hail, and then the thunder and lightning, some even splashing off of the peaks overhead. I actually love hiking in the rain, and most importantly, we made it back to the car safe and sound.

A minor setback...

On sunday we started the BIG hike again, intending to do 17 miles by going over Bishop Pass, then heading down Dusey Basin and then north into LeConte Canyon to our basecamp. But, I mistook pain in my left leg simply as soreness from the trip that we had just returned from on friday. I pulled my quad muscle, not terribly at all, but enough to make it hurt so that Tom and I decided I shouldn't continue down the 100 switchback section of trail and make the injury way worse than it already was. So, I gave my portion of the research gear to Tom and hobbled my way back up the basin, over Bishop Pass, and back to the car. It sucked hiking on, but I made it, and it sucked even more to have to leave Tom like that. So, for the past couple of days I've been doing some work that Tom laid out for me in the lab at SNARL and taking care of my leg by going out to the natural hot springs a couple of nights with some other grad students. The muscle is feeling better and better everyday, which is great, and I have no doubt that I will be fine for the rest of the trips we have planned. I'm going to pick Tom up at the trailhead on Thursday afternoon....

It's a long time to be up here all summer, and I miss all my friends and family terribly. These last four weeks will go by quickly though, and I will be able to see at least some of you then!!

(the picture is of the house I'm living in here at SNARL)

Sample, Sample, Sample

For the past four nights, Tom and I were basecamped in the Barrett Lakes Basin taking three days worth of nutrient samples from two separate lakes. We've been having great luck with the weather, without a single cloud in the sky, but part of me also wishes for some intense, alpine thunderstorms with lightning crashing on the surrounding peaks. As we get later into the summer, my wish may actually come true. In all honesty, taking this enormous amount of nutrient samples is tedious work, but this is just a part of research that comes with the job. In one of these pictures you can see a brown lake bottom with little side by side circles that make a large V. These are the exclosures that prevent the tadpoles (which are the little black things scattered everywhere) from grazing on the algae, and it's from each of the exclosures such as these that we sample.

Working amongst amazing (although freezing) lakes and great climbing rocks is something I have no complaints about at all, and in my free time I can take full advantage. The lake that is next to where we set up camp has a decent cliffside that we could jump off of after work.

Our food situation is pretty decent, and although I'm sick of trailmix being my staple, our dinners, such as the one in the picture, are scrumptious.

Nutrient sampling, headstands, napping, Huck Finn, and adventures

Tom and I just spent four nights in Center Basin, taking three days worth of nutrient samples (morning and evening). On our way in, we were just about a mile from where we planned to camp and just finishing up a snack break, and we started up the hill but immediately stopped because there was a big furry animal, which some might know as a bear, loping across our path. He was a skinny guy, and clearly looking for something to grub on, but he minded his own business, and so did we, and we continued on our way. There was a Park Service fish removal crew set up in Center Basin, and Tom had worked with one of the supervisors, so we got to stay for the whole trip in their camp, which, being supplied by helicopter, has pretty much everything you could ever need in the backcountry. We would take water samples from different points at all four sites where we've placed the exclosures in the lake, and then we had a huge chunk of day to hang by the lakeside. We did some bouldering on some rocks in the area, read a lot, napped, worked on my headstands, did pushups, and perfected our Chaco sandal tans. We took the nutrient samples again in the afternoon and then did the short hike back to the camp. It's a really sweet deal, I must admit.

After reading a Sierra guidebook about another pass (University Pass) in the Center Basin area and after looking at the topo map for a bit, we decided we should try this new pass to get back to the car, because it could potentially shave off 7 miles from the route we had taken to get in. One of the girls working on the fish removal crew, who had planned to hike out the same morning, decided she would come along with us on our new route. We headed up the talus slope to the pass, which wasn't too difficult, ate our lunch at the top, and then checked out what we were about to have to descend. It was a fairly narrow chute, with a snow field running down its entire length, and if you're familiar with ski slope ratings, it was probably a double black diamond slope. We didn't have ice axes, making the snow slope a no go, so our only option was to hug the sides of the chute where it was a mixture of slushy snow and the loosest talus ever been on. One out of every ten steps was relatively solid, and the rest of the time we were sliding everywhere. We had to break it up into sections to go one at a time so that the person below could get around a bend or behind a big boulder to not get hit by the rocks the person above was sending flying down with every step. It was definitely one of the scarier things I've ever done in my life, but once we all finally made it down safely to more level ground, it felt like a real adventure. I did my best to keep the mood light during this sketchy scramble, hence the smile in the picture of me with my pack taking shelter behind a big boulder, but in this picture you can also sorta see how steep and scary the slope really was.

All in all, it was another great trip. A bunch of us just got back from a trip to the hot springs that are just a few miles away from where I'm staying here at SNARL. It's a perfect way to relax and help my tired legs. I've got the whole weekend plus a couple more days off until our next trip, so I'm planning on doing some fly fishing, day hikes, climbing, slacklining and getting some quality reading time in. Life is great up here in the mountains!

An amazing six days in the mountains

Tom and I got back last night from 6 days of trekking, working and having fun in Sequyoah/Kings Canyon NP. We hiked over Bishop Pass, (which is just under 12,00o ft), and then descended west through Dusey Basin all the way down about 100 brutal switchbacks until we reached the Middle Fork of the Kings River and checked in with the Rangers living there. Then we took the John Muir/Pacific Crest Trail up river about 4 miles to Leconte Lake and after a long total of 17 miles, set up camp. Next day we found over 200 mountain yellow-legged frogs hopping around Leconte Lake, which was a great sign. We set up the exclosures for our experiment in several tadpole congregation sites, toughing out the numbing 4 degree water. Next day we hiked out and back up the switchbacks into Dusey Basin, where there was still some daylight left for some fly fishing, and I caught three little rainbow trout to add a little bit of protein to our pretty pitiful backcountry diet. Next day we then headed south a couple of miles of Knapsack Pass and into the Barrett Lakes Basin. For the next day and a half we set up the experiment in two separate lakes. Sometimes we'll get to a lake in the morning and will have to wait for some of the ice to melt because to get good nutrient variability readings we need to know exactly where the tadpoles are going to aggregate. The mohawk snowman smoking a cigar is a product of this waiting period. We also found some good boulders to climb on, and then there are always pushups and crunches haha. After our fifth night, Tom and I stashed our bags near Bishop Pass, which is at the base of Mt. Agassiz, towering at 13,893 ft. We made our way up the steep slope, and summitted it around 1 pm. The views were INCREDIBLE, and I couldn't have picked a better spot to devour my precious, last ration of salame, cheese and crackers.

Overall, the trip was great, and we were able to get all of the parts of the research we needed to get done, done. We'll be going back to the spots we've worked at so far again several times to do a bunch of algae and nutrient sampling (and hanging with the froggers).

gettin ready for a BIG trip

Bright and early tomorrow morning, Tom and I are heading out for a six night trip into Sequoyah/Kings Canyon NP. We've packed a bunch of research equipment, some of which we'll install in several lakes in the Barrett Lakes and Lecont Lakes area. We have to cover a lot of ground to get into our first site, so tomorrow we'll be trekking a mere 17 miles!! My boots are working great so far, but Tom recommended I get some sort of insoles, so I'll be gellin' with some Dr. Scholl's inserts, and hopefully that'll make the miles a little easier. I'm also bringing my fly rod, because I've heard that there a couple of good fishing lakes near where we'll be working, so hopefully i'll be able to add some wriggling, alpine trout to our dinner menus.

Into frozen, northern Yosemite

On Sunday I went into Yosemite NP with the grad student I originally interviewed with, Andrea, and her field assistant. We left from Tuolumne Meadows and headed north about 10 miles, the second half of which was off trail. There is a ridiculous amount of snow up there, and hiking through it can be really slow goin. We arrived at a small lake called Conness Lake (the A on the map) in the late afternoon, and immediately began catching frogs. When the sun goes down, it gets colder than it already is, and the frogs go down into the bottom of the lake for the night where we can't get at them. We caught 14 adult frogs and swabbed em' all so that through DNA analysis we can determine the bacterial communities that live on their skin, and through that try and figure out what bacterium help the froggies overcome the deadly Chytrid fungus that is killing so many of them off. It was really fun catching the little guys, even if they weren't having very much fun. We camped in the only snow free spot within at least a mile, and from which we could make out the north face of Half Dome in the far distance. This morning we hiked out by a slightly different route and once we were out of the snow, wound our way through the amazing Tuolumne Meadows. (By that time, we were at mile 12, and I was more thinking about how sore my feet were than the scenery haha)

Waiting for the ice to melt.....

It was a record winter for snowfall up here in the Eastern Sierra, so it's taking longer than expected for the ice on some of the lakes to melt. If there's ice in the lakes we wanna study, it means that the frogs and tadpoles are still hibernating at the bottom of the lake, and we can only do the experiments and surveys if the little guys are active and up at the shore. We've had to postpone going into the backcountry for several days, so in the meantime I've been getting to know the Mammoth Lakes area as well as some of the other people who are working here at SNARL. I've found a couple local bouldering spots that are fun, I've done a little bit of day hiking, and most of all I've been fishing a bunch!! Many of the lakes and streams in the area are stocked with rainbow trout, so even a newbie like myself can have some luck. I went fishing yesterday afternoon with one of the other field assistants staying here, and we caught ourselves some delicious dinner.

First Trip!

On friday, Tom (the grad student) and I drove south from SNARL about 70 miles to get to the trailhead at Onion Valley. From there we hiked over the Kearsarge Pass (11,760 ft), which marked the transition from John Muir Wilderness into the Sequoyah/Kings Canyon National Park. We went about 11 miles total the first day, camped for the night, then went a couple of miles to a small lake in Center Basin that so far has not been infected by the Chytrid fungus which is rapidly killing the Mountain Yellow-legged frogs to near extinction. The top right picture shows Tom placing one of the small, cage exclosures we are putting in the lakes that prevent the tadpoles from eating the algae, but still allow the nutrients in their poop to get to the algae. There's a ton of snow up there still, and many of the lakes we intend to work on are still frozen. This one was only 6 degrees Celcius haha, and anchoring the exclosures to the lake bottom is just a little bit brutal. As the lake got warmer later in the day, more tadpoles and frogs appeared (bottom left).

At these relatively high elevations the UVs are intense, so we try and stay covered up by wearing nerdy hats, but my hands still got roasted. All in all the trip went really well. Tom has spent over 500 nights in this area so I'm doing my best to keep pace, and I'm learning a bunch from him....this summer is going to be a lot of hard work, but after getting this first trip out of the way, I am super excited for what's to come...

Lab life...

This picture to the left is just 100 meters from the lab (in the trees), where I'm living quite well in one of the several houses.

Feedin' an army!

Planning for 70 days of eating in the backcountry is far from easy. This is just the start, and I'll definitely be re-stocking along the way. Ridiculous amounts of trailmix, dried fruit, granola + dry milk, PASTA + red sauce mix, quinoa, Clif protein bars, oatmeal, peanut butter, jelly, quinoa, mashed taters, salame, textured vegetable protein, couscous, tortillas, instant brown rice, tea + cocoa, vitamins, jerky, pretzels......i got it all.