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.
