Week 2: Summer onset, Idaho flashback

Sunrise: 4:42am
Sunset: 11:18pm

Bike Ride - 19 May

 Week 2 started with the Sushana hike posted previously and ends with a 4 day weekend.

Enjoying the view on a rest break while riding

The week was slow.  We set out the first station of the season for long-term monitoring and the rest of the week was mostly office work.  I played with camera traps to continue to try to find the right angle to capture the numbers on buses.  Hopefully the GPS system we plan on using in place of the cameras will work out.  Regardless, it's nice to be working with the reconyx system, something that at least makes me feel like I'm working with wildlife again.  And hey, we did catch some wildlife on the camera!

Almost summer...

I finally got around to downloading needed software on my computer too.  Davyd had me starting on SPLAT analysis, a tool I'll be using later in the season to analyze my own data.  To help me understand all of it, I started reading up on acoustics.  Never thought I'd be doing that in my wildlife career.

I had Friday off, which was productive, but didn't feel that way.  I woke up early and rode to the post office with the intention of riding some of the park road.  I stopped at the bookstore though and purchased some new post cards, which led to the rest of my morning writing letters.  Apart from walking Timber, I spend the rest of my evening relaxing inside.

Moose.  <3 :)

Today, Saturday, I finally went for a bike ride into the park.  I road from mile 3 to mile 15 and back, a total of roughly 24 miles.  Despite not riding in the last 6 months, I feel surprisingly good after it.  The ride was okay.  I did get to see caribou, moose (including a mamma and her calf), a snowshoe hare, and LOTS of son birds (mostly juncos and white crowned sparrows).  I also saw a surplus of tour buses, the annoying reminder of not only how close we are to summer (and tourist season), but also how much I dislike working in a National Park.  And then I remembered Idaho.


The ride made me think back to Idaho, a lot.  I love being in the mountains again, but it still somehow isn't the same.  The smell of dry ponderosa pine, the desolate dirt roads (that lacked buses, buildings, and tourists), the wide open skies.  Idaho is where my heart is.

Sunset over the Snake River Canyon, ID

 For sure.

Sagebrush in the Acro Desert, ID

Toxaway-Petit Loop, ID

TNC Land, ID

High Ridge Trail, ID

"Nobody said it was easy
Oh it's such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be so hard
I'm going back to the start"