2009: My Most Adventurous Year Yet

I was feeling a little lame yesterday, so I decided to review the adventures of this past year, and it totally made me feel better. I'm kind of awesome. Anyways, I put this little video together of the major adventures of the year. I realized that there are several minor, yet important adventures that didn't make it in. That's unfortunate, however, I still got most of the majorly awesome things that I made happen this year. 2009 has been great, and I have high hopes for 2010!

Lessons I've Learned in 2009

After much adventuring, much moving, and much living, I've decided to put together a list of the things I've learned in 2009. Having so much fun and so many misadventures would be pointless if I didn't learn anything from them. So here goes:

1. Don't drive thousands of miles in a shaky truck; also, trucks are not snowmobiles.
2. Avoid Cheyenne, Wyoming at all costs.
3. Sleeping at Rest Areas isn't so scary, but Best Western Hotel parking lots are the best places to rest if you need to sleep in your vehicle.
4. Whenever the opportunity presents itself, hug a tree.
5. Rock climbing is amazing.
6. Lightning is the most frightening thing in the world. No exaggeration.
7. The stegosaurus is the best dinosaur ever. Ever.
8. Singing, clapping and whooping are effective means of repelling mountain lions.
9. Ditching a day of aimless web browsing for a quick day trip to somewhere else will always be fantastic.
10. Always be friends with people who use the word 'epic.' They are always cool.

To accompany this, I used Google Earth, my new favorite program, to

compile a picture of all the places I've been. I have a strictly Intermountain West view, and a National View. I'm quite impressed. All in all, I put my feet down in 7 states this year. I didn't make it to another country, but I'm still satisfied with my wanderings.

Bluejohn Canyon!

Sorry it's been so long since I blogged last. It hasn't been for shortage of adventure so much as a shortage of time. My favorite adventure of them all was my trip with Quintin to Bluejohn Canyon. There were so many pictures, and so much to say, that I decided to make it a video. Again, sorry for the poor quality sound and the meandering nature of the narration. I hope it begins to convey just how awesome Bluejohn Canyon is, because I had a freaking great time there and I'm going back as soon as I can!

Most of these pictures are from my camera, but several of the really good ones were taken by Quintin (you can spot them by the the superior color and setup). I also stole some pics from the internet, they should be pretty obvious, and used Google Earth quite a bit. Enjoy!

Thermometer of Scary

I've recently become very displeased with the way my blog looks. So I'm trying something new- a video post. I had a lot of say about this particular subject, things that are scary, so I thought it would be easiest on the eyes if I presented it to your ears. Sorry for the poor sound quality, I don't own a microphone...I was going to add background music, but I don't want to be sued for copyright infringement.

Recently, I went through a phase where I really enjoyed GraphJam. It still throws out an entertaining graph from time to time, but I'm far more entertained by kxcd.com. It's consistently hilarious. Anyways, during my GraphJam phase I saw a thermometer of scary that wasn't all that scary...so I made my own. And here it is, the things you should be scared of, how frightened you should be, and ways to protect yourself.

Dinosaur Country: Day 1

Recently I was in a meeting where one of my professors mentioned that she'd been around Dinosaur National Monument. I had a free weekend coming up and was trying to figure out where I should spend it, and Dinosaur seemed like a great idea. I have some really positive memories of Dinosaur from when I was about 5. So I packed up Gus and we headed off Saturday morning.

First stop: Strawberry Reservoir. I was hoping to be able to see a pipeline (not because I love pipelines, but just for my project's sake), I didn't see one, but I did see spawning salmon, which was so much better! Every fall these salmon return to the creeks along the reservoir where they hatched to spawn and die. If you get to opportunity to watch a video of spawning salmon, take it. It's hilarious. The female fish lay eggs in the gravel, then the males fertilize them (fertilize is the wrong word, but I can't remember the right word). After they've satisfied that biological imperative, they die and their bodies provide much needed nutrients to the surrounding aquatic system. Then, in the spring, salmon smelts will emerge from the gravel and continue the circle of life (which I sing whenever I'm given the opportunity).
Next stop: Starvation Reservoir. To get to Vernal you need to cross the Freedom Bridge, which stirs some weird little emotion in me. Then you get to Starvation, then you pass through some really impoverished communities plopped down in really scenic territory. I'm sad for the inhabitants and jealous at the same time. It's weird. At the rest area there I spotted this funny bit of graffiti. Yeah, its a little obscene and mis-spelled. But it makes me giggle.
I ended up printing up a Google Map that took me to the back side of the Monument. While I was lost driving up and down county roads I felt like it was a mistake, but when I figured out where I was going and got to tour those back roads all by myself I realized it was very fortuitous. There's a bunch of little farms plopped down along Brush Creek, and they look amazing. I want to live here, add it to the list.
I ended up driving on about 100 miles of dirt roads, and Gus totally rocked it. The dirt road way into Dinosaur is amazing.

I got to see lots of petroglyphs. And tried to be a petroglyph.

I drove out to the Island Park area, which has a fun little abandoned ranch in it. There was much exploring to be done, then I went off to find a camp site.
I ended up in the a beautiful camp site right next to the Green River.
There was one other person there, who was not really up to talking, so it was like being all by myself, but a little safer. I made dinner just in time to watch the moon rise above the river.
Then I wandered around the area by moonlight, which was awesome. Someone cut down a bunch of sage brush(es?) next to the river, so I ran into one. The more I wandered the more I wondered about the wildlife in the area. I didn't see any signs about bears, so I assumed I wasn't threatened by them, but I was concerned about elk and moose, which I generally feel uneasy around. Eventually I opted to sit down, sip some beverage, and listen to the bats hunting over the river. Awesome!
I slept pretty well, only woke up once, concerned that 'creatures' were getting into my stuff. Then I fell back asleep. I think part of the reason I slept so well is because of the best vault toilet in the world. I'm generally comfortable with vault toilets, but this one had a solar panel on top that generated enough electricity to run a light with a motion-sensor, so I could pee in the light. I really like having that option.

I woke up the next morning to a pretty spectacular view, ready for the rest of what the Monument had to offer.

Why Causey is Great and Cutler is...Less Great.

One of the tragedies of my life is how little I did outdoors this summer. I did a ton of walking, because it helps me focus, but not a lot of really active stuff. In fact, my kayak stayed dry until September. However, I did take it out on Labor Day for a quick paddle with Dad and the Little Girlies. Causey is one of my favorite places (but don't tell anyone about it, its usually pretty quiet). As much as I generally dislike reservoirs, this one is really in the tops of the mountains, so it offers some really spectacular views from the position of the kayak. Every time I'm there I think about how it's like playing in the tops of the mountains. Anyways, here's some photos from that moment.

We found an awesome little cave exposed by the drought. From here we jumped into the water, but Dad has all those pictures. Causey is very cold, I was very glad to have my life jacket on.

We kayaked back to my favorite beach ever.

This area is pretty prime camping. I love it very much. However, the last time I was camping there I was reading "The Hobbit" and ended up freaking out that there were evil deer and the people from Heaven's Gate in the canyon behind us. I recommend never reading anything by J.R.R. Tolkien while camping.

A few days after my successful tour of the Great Salt Lake, I decided I should kayak Cutler Reservoir. I've paddled around the southern end of the res, but there isn't much to see there. The Tuesday I chose to kayak was the Tuesday the weather decided to turn nasty, so I paddled out to the old railroad bridge, heard the wind whistling across the Valley, and turned back. As I approached the bridge I needed to paddle under I kind of freaked out. The wind was blowing pretty hard, and I would be exposed there, and I have issues with kayaking in the wind.
The whole time I was paddling frantically back my brain was announcing "Abort. Abort. Abort." In the voice of the guy from the first Austin Powers movie. That, in addition to my losing fight with the wind, made me feel ridiculous. I ended up beaching the Rhombus just below the bridge and driving my truck back to it. But I got some fun pics of the surrounding land. I've been trying to capture some agricultural pictures, but haven't really gotten what I want.

I like all the different colors adjacent fields can bet, that's what I was trying to get here.

I did get a shot of this awesome grass.

And Gus looking tough.

Despite having to flee, I marked the trip a success because the Rhombus got wet for the 2nd time that month.

The Great Salt Lake IS Great!

So, I've been needing to catch up for a while now, but I've been trying my best to make myself busy. I've taken over 300 hundred pictures in the last few weeks, some of them turned out decent, so here goes....

A few weeks ago I went on a quick kayak trip that started at Antelope Island. My purpose was to try and capture what's awesome about the lake. A few fun facts about the Great Salt Lake:

• The Great Salt Lake is the largest lake west of the Mississippi River, it is 75 miles long and 35 miles wide.
• GSL is a remnant of Lake Bonneville, which burst through Red Rock Pass (which I've been to) 14,000 - 15,000 years ago, because of a "...catastrophic failure of an alluviul fan." Before it drained, Bonneville was up to 1,000 feet deep. You can still see the former shoreline if you look at the foothills of the Wasatch Front (you can even hike it in some places). GSL is much smaller, and only about 30 feet deep. It lies in a very flat basin, so fluctuations in depth, due to climatic variability, produce very large changes in the area the lake covers.
  
• It is very salty, even hyper-saline. This makes it so very few species can survive there. However, before you write it off as a dead lake, there are some kick ass organisms in that water. They include algae with potential medicinal properties and brine shrimp (also known as 'sea monkeys'). There are also a lot of brine flies that feed off this ecosystem (really, billions of brine flies), which in turn are a major food supply for migratory birds. And migratory birds are awesome.
  
• 75% of Utah's wetlands border the Great Salt Lake, and provide a critical stopover for internationally important migratory bird species.
  
• When the mud on the bottom of the lake is exposed, it smells very bad. When the wind blows across the lake, it brings lake stink to nearby communities. I find this endearing. When I smell sulfur-y type places I think of home (not actually a fact, as much as an observation). GSL is also responsible for the "lake effect" which drives the "greatest snow of earth" machine.
  
• The Great Salt Lake is awesome (that is a fact).
  

I was hoping to be able to see some birds on my trip, and I did see a whole ton of Eared grebes.
But the best views were of the sunset. My first and only stop was Eggshell Island, a rocky little piece of land just off the northern tip of Antelope Island. Every spring tons of gulls nest there, but there are sometimes cormorants and other shorebird species there. Here's what I saw:

The glow of the sunset made my kayak (the Rhombus) look really good.

There were some remnant nests.

Some with non-traditional nesting materials.
I paddled away as the sun was setting, and it did some wonderful, technicolor-type things to the lake.
And, I was recently turned on to a program called AutoStitch, it rocks. I tried to capture the whole horizon here. Is it just me, or do mountains with red skies behind them make anyone else think of Mordor?

I got home very salty, but very excited about what I've seen. I highly recommend everyone visit the lake and take a look at it from water level, it really gives an amazing perspective.

Because I'm Awesome

So I spent quite a bit of time today putting together a silly little animation. I'm not sure it will ever be used, but I really enjoyed it. Lately I've been getting in touch with my inner audio-visual nerd, and it's been awesome. Anyways, here's the video, a quick tour of the Bear River, it's choppy, but I'm still proud I made a video (and just a little sad my recorder ran out a batteries just before the end my sentence).

Tragedy Averted

I have a favorite corner in the library, on the 3rd floor in the northwest corner. Its the section with the ecology books. I feel like I know what I'm talking about there, because I'm surrounded by books that I could understand if I read them. There's also big windows facing the mountains, and its a great place to watch storms roll in. But tonight there was someone sitting there. I was irritated, now that everyone is back on campus all my awesome chillaxin' places have been invaded. However, I found an place with the best book titles ever. I should be typing some other stuff up, but I was so excited I decided to share what I've found.

First, "Adventures In Bird Protection." I want to go on those adventures.

Another adventure I would like to have: "Avian Gut Function in Health and Disease." I've had that adventure on a small scale, dissecting pigeons in ornithology, and I feed birds, but what would it be like to do "Inner Space: Avian Adventures."?
Next, a 500 page volume: "Equine Reproduction." I'm scared of it, but at the same time I want to know more.

And a few awesome books looking into the feelings animals have. I love these titles so much. "Social Structure In Farm Animals" reminds me of "Animal Farm" except I don't think it's about socialism. When I have time I'll probably read it.
Next to that one was also "Social Space for Domestic Animals." No one cares about social space for Becka, so I won't read that book, on principle. Having so much social structure is probably what leads people to study "Biology of Stress in Farm Animals."

Finally, a suite of books on pigs: "The Biology of the Domestic Pig" is apparently complex enough to merit a 400 page book. The one next to that is "Controlled Reproduction in Pigs", I think it's a new cause I'm going to oppose. No one should be control the reproduction of another. NO ONE!!!
Sorry for the disjointed post, but I was so tickled to find all these awesome books I had to share them.

How to Make a Boring Day Awesome

I woke up today determined to see something new. I've been given the job (well, half the job) of finding pictures for the case study a bunch of us are presenting in November on the Bear River. Naturally I was psyched because I'm studying the Bear River, and I love any opportunity to get to know my study area better.

Oh, quick side-topic. I live in an old house, I can hear everything that goes on around me, and it's driving me crazy. Every morning something wakes me up, and it's usually this big stupid Dodge truck that doesn't know how to use it's quiet voice, even though it gets up at 7:00 every morning. I figure I have two options, I can get ear plugs or I can put sugar in the trucks engine (or some other form of monkey wrenching). I know which option is the polite and legal option, but wouldn't wearing ear plugs to bed just give a win to big, dumb, early-rising trucks everywhere? And will I still be able to hear my alarm clock?

Back to the matter at hand. After ensuring that I got enough sleep for the days adventure, I tried to map out a way to see everything I wanted to. The Bear River is 500 miles long, and I didn't have time to see all that. I have pictures from the 3 federal wildlife refuges along the river, so I thought I'd focus on seeing something new, namely Cutler Dam, Bear River Bottoms, and Oneida Narrows Dam. Turns out, none of these were easy to see.

My first stop was Cutler Dam. Turns out I've been there before. Me and my old friend the Cockatoo went there 3 years ago, and as I remember it we didn't have any trouble getting right up next to the dam. So you can imagine my surprise when I couldn't find the correct road to turn onto (and the surprise of the residents of Beaver Dam who were out and about that morning and saw me drive by 3 times) and then found two "No Trespassing" signs in between me and the dam. This is all I could see from the other side of the gates, not what I was looking for.

Luckily for me, I only obey No Trespassing signs if I think I could be shot. Seeing as it was 3:00 on a Saturday afternoon, I guessed that there wouldn't anyone from the power company out working on the dam. And if there was someone, I'm pretty sure company policy discourages shooting people.

Anyways, Cutler is one of the places along the river where it's possible to completely dry the river up (there are two others), as two major canals get their water just above the dam and use that to irrigate a good portion of Box Elder County.

The CanalThe River

Then I drove over the world's scariest bridge. It has a 3 ton weight limit, and my truck isn't nearly that heavy, but the noises the bridge made as I drove over it nearly made me pee.

Before I headed back into Cache Valley I took the scenic route around the east end of Box Elder County. It was farmy. The next stop was Cutler Marsh. I've been there a few times, but never with a camera. Unfortunately there wasn't much to take pictures of today (go in the evening and you can get great shots of big, nasty carp). I did see some pelicans, who still make me happy, even if they eat cell phones. I also saw a redhead, a duck I'm sure was named after me. I also tried to get some pictures of agriculture that weren't just pictures of fields, don't really know if I succeeded.

Then I tried to find the Bear River Bottoms. I did find a sign for the Bottoms, but as far as I know it's not managed at all by DNR. There were lots of fences and notices posted, many by hunting clubs. I decided not to trespass there, as I know hunters have guns, and I wasn't wearing my bright yellow don't-hit-me-with-your-car/don't-shoot-me shirt.

This was a little disappointing, but now I know where the Bottoms are. Next I set off for Oneida Dam. It would totally be cool if they made dinner plates and flatware there, but mostly they just make hydro-power. This dam is in southern Idaho, near-ish Preston, and the drive there was wonderful. I drove along the river for like 10 miles through a peaceful canyon, I'll probably go back soon and paddle or tube the river there.

Eventually I got to the top of the dam, but then I couldn't drive along it, or even get anywhere with a good view of the spill way. Remember back in the day, before terrorism was a good excuse for making awesome things lame, when you could drive over the tops of earthen dams everywhere? I miss those days (especially because I didn't own a vehicle in those days). I did find a cement wall to climb, but there was nothing cool to see. I really wanted to explore more, but all those dang fences were making it difficult.
The drive back was uneventful, but nice. I like driving. Every tree-hugger instinct in me wants to dislike it, but I love a good road trip. Eh. I figure I drive places maybe twice a week, so I'm good. (I walked myself over to see "Inglorious Basterds" last night, and I liked it)

And that, my friends, is how you turn a potentially boring Saturday into something wonderful.