Becka Makes Good Decisions

I know, I know. Three posts in one day, I could be doing other things my time. I promise, this is the last for today. Going through my camera I found this gem.


A few weeks ago I was craving processed foods and ended up with a box of day old doughnuts from Smith's. Most of them were your garden variety glazed, frost and cake doughnuts. Then there were these. I don't even know what to think of them, florescent frosting, gummy bears/worms and fruity pebbles? I didn't eat them though, which I think is one more example of the excellent decision making I am capable of.

(I also didn't eat a croissant covered in chocolate frosting. Buttery, flaky and chocolate-y don't go together in my book. Be just buttery and flaky or just chocolate-y, don't be all three.)

Stand Your Ground, Don't Poop Your Pants

(This is how I look standing my ground, it seems to be a pretty good way to scare off wildlife)

The other day I tried to conquer Mt. Logan again...and failed...again! However, rather than sink into despair, I've decided to focus on the cool things I saw.

I was cruising up the mountain, but stopping to take notice of the pretty flowers. I have this almost irresistible urge to pick flowers, but then my conscience kicks in and reminds me that if everyone picked flowers no one would get to enjoy them. It sucks, but I feel better about myself in the end, not having taken away from someone else's experience, and setting a good example (even if I was the only one in the canyon that day). I took lots of pictures of flowers, here's one that sort of turned out. My ultimate goal is to be able to recognize flowers, so far I can tell an Indian Paintbrush and Evening Primrose.

Then I ran into this fungal oddity. As near as I can tell, this is a fungus. It looks like a wad of toilet paper, and is a bit bigger than a softball, but it's spongy. I poked it both times I passed it and still feel like it might actually be an alien life form. I should have taken a mycology class.

Things really got exciting about an hour later when I ran into my first moose of the month. I've run into a moose outside before. It was on Causey Reservoir, a moose had parked itself in the water about 15 feet away from the beach I was kayaking to. As exciting as it was to see a moose, I was really disappointed that I wouldn't be able to chill on the beach the moose was so effectively guarding. I considered trying to kayak past it, and figured I could do it, but getting back in the water seemed kind of risky. I spent more time than I should have debating what I knew about moose behavior. I knew that females with calves would be aggressive, but I wasn't sure about the males. In the end I kayaked away, without taking a break on the best beach there. I've since learned that anything with antlers shouldn't be trusted, they have too much testosterone and the ability to gore you.

Anyways, here's the moose I saw, it's a little blurry, but that's because I decided not to sneak up on it to get a better picture.

And here it is running away. I felt kind of victorious because it was the first time I got to use my new mantra: Stand your ground, don't poop your pants. The mantra came from an "Outside Magazine" article on rodeo clowns, but I thought it was applicable in most areas of everyday living.

It was at this point that I realized I wasn't on a trail. Along the way there had been little plastic flags tied to things, but they weren't really necessary for finding the trail. Suddenly they were necessary. For the last few minutes I'd been following the path a marmot had dug under the ground, and really that's not a reliable way to get to where you want to go. Eventually I spotted a flag about 50 yards away and hiked toward it. I spent the next hour hiking through brush and trees following these plastic flags. I was really hoping they were put where they were to illuminate a trail, but toward the end of the journey it began to seem like someone was just playing a prank on me. I tried my best to avoid hiking through any place with a lot of trees, because that seemed to most likely place to run into moose. By the end of the hike I had run into moose at 4 different locations. It's possible I saw the same individual multiple times, but they don't wear distinct styles of antlers to help me distinguish individuals, so I'll never know.

In the end I ended up about 100 vertical feet short of where I thought the peak was. I hiked for as long as I could before turning back. I kept thinking that if I made it to the top I would find the easy way down (and there has to be an easy way down, there's a cell phone and fire watch tower at the top, there has to be an access road). But at 8:30 I decided since I was hiking using binoculars to find my path, I had best turn back before the sun went down. [I think that's excellent proof that I am capable of making good decisions.] Here's what I was facing, there are two flags in this picture, can you find them?

If not, here they are again.

Here's what I was hiking through most of the time. If you can find a trail through this you're amazing. I try not to be scared by much, but it really freaks me out to be hiking through waste high brush, not know what I'm stepping through.

A fun trick I learned about a year ago to tell sunset is put up your hand and measure the distance between the sun and horizon with it. For every hand distance between the sun and horizon, there's an hour between that time and sunset (ex. four hand breadths means about 4 hours until sunset), and each of your four fingers (don't add your thumb into the measuring mix) gives you about 15 minutes. So with two fingers (or 30 minutes) until sunset, I turned back. It was difficult, this is my disappointed face.

The views from up top were amazing. I like the one below in particular because it shows several mountain ranges (the nearest is the Wellsvilles, the next is the Promontory Mtns, and behind that I have no idea), Cutler Marsh, the Bear River and the Square Ponds. I love the Square Ponds, it's where Logan's waste water goes through it's primary treatment. Solids settle out and bacteria and algae digest a lot of organic materials.
Here's the view to the north, it's kind of cool to be able to see Logan Canyon from above.

On the way back down I tried trail running the dark again, and I was far more successful this time. I only tripped a couple of times, but I managed to catch myself before I ate any dirt. I also managed to get some poor-quality pictures of the nocturnal wildlife in Dry Canyon. Here's one of those creepy Common Poorwills. Note the glowing eyes, and imagine how scary it is to catch those eyes in the beam of my headlamp from several yards back. Creepy.

And here's blurry picture of the horrible spiders. Note how the eyes are big enough to gleam in the flash, those are some pretty big spiders.
I'd hate to end this epic blog on a creepy note, so here are some more pretty flowers.
Sorry for the errant bolding. It seemed like a good way to break up such a long post.

Quick Brag

Warning: here comes a bit of bragging, I've been looking for something to be excited about this week, and here it is!

I've been having a bit of a loser week. I've got plenty to do, but no impending deadlines, so I've not done much. Today I had to reply to my advisor's email, asking if I'd heard anything back about this conference I submitted an abstract for. She emailed me about it yesterday, but I hadn't gotten anything done, and didn't really feel like admitting that I hadn't heard anything, because it felt like failure. Anyways, I emailed back this morning that I hadn't heard anything, then three hours later I heard back from the Ecological Society of America that my poster had been accepted! I'm really excited for another opportunity to present my research, and the whole conference sounds exciting to hear, its called "Water, Ecosystem Services, Drought and Environmental Justice." Those are four topics I love, and now I get to attend a conference covering them all! Yeah me!

Things like this help me push on in my research because it makes me believe someone else thinks the things I'm studying are interesting. I've been pretty lucky in receiving a bump like this every week, usually in the form of a good interview with someone who is both passionate about the resource they're protecting and interested in talking with me.

Anyways, sorry for the geek-out, I'm just excited. The only down-side is that this conference is scheduled during the last few days I can schedule to defend my thesis and still walk in the graduation. So, it seems I won't be putting my defense off until the last day possible because I'll be in Athens, Georgia. Boo ya!

On a Sadder Note

There was a mudslide in The Island on Saturday. It didn't get close to my home, but has still made me more sad than I thought it would. The mudslide killed 3 people and displaced a bunch of families. I used to walk past those homes every night, I saw these really happy kids running back and forth between their houses almost every night, then when I looked up what happened online I saw those same kids crying in pictures. It was heart-wrenching. I hope they can get back in a house soon. I've felt better wandering down around the site and seeing that there's a pretty steady stream of people volunteering, reminds me that Logan is a pretty good place.

The other thing that makes me sad is the reporting going on in Logan. The Herald Journal isn't my favorite source of news, and I think their editorials tend to be kind of crazy. However, I think it's kind of horrible that issues in Logan are reported better in the Salt Lake Tribune. I figured it out a few months ago when a fraternity pledge up here died of alcohol poisoning, and the Tribune covered it better than the HJ. It almost seemed like they were trying to pretend it hadn't happened.

Anyways, here are some links to the story.
"Logan failed to act of canal warnings"
Landslide Photos

I hope it clears up soon and some real changes are made. I'm trying to avoid finger pointing, but it looks like there are issues with keeping leaky canals safe and with responding to complaints about flooding in the Island. While it's important to identify who is responsible for the landslide, I'm hoping the powers that be spend more time ensuring it doesn't happen again, rather than covering than fingering a scape goat. Now that it's clear lives are on the line, it seems like something should change.

Sorry about the bummer of a post, it's just been on my mind.

Nerd Alert: More Bird Pictures

I spent today in at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, and it was pretty nice. I sat in on a meeting with a bunch of people involved in Bear River issues, then took the opportunity to drive around the Refuge, while I was there. I got some pictures, they're not amazing, but I'm proud I was able to get them with my camera from my truck. Some day I'll have a fancy camera and the time to stake out a position and get some really good shots, but I thought I'd share what I've got.

This is probably my favorite picture. It's a Black-necked Stilt, a cool bird in its own right, but I like how you can see its reflection in the water.

Here are some Pelicans. I like pelicans, they're such goofy looking birds in the water, but when they fly they looking really cool. Plus, they remind me of my Grandpa singing "Poor Mr. Pelican, mouth can hold more than his belly can."

These are some Western Grebes and grebelets (a word I made up). Grebe mating behavior is really interesting, they weren't displaying though (as the mating has already happened, obviously).

Here's a Snowy Egret, there were lots of them later, but they're hard to take a picture of, as they somehow refuse to sit still and wait for me to aim my camera.

And here's an American Avocet, one of my favorite birds. They're kind of graceful, and shorebirds in general are fun to watch.

This is a Barn Swallow chilling on a sign. I like to watch them dodge around catching bugs around bridges and stuff, because I'm a geek.

This isn't the best picture of a White-faced Ibis, but I think it kind of shows the different colors their feathers can turn, because they're really iridescent. They've got these wicked long beaks, and are just generally cool. My dad, Alex and I kayaked the Bear River about a year ago and saw huge flocks of Ibis' dropping down on the refuge for the night, it was cool.

I got some pictures to try and capture the lowered water levels in the wetlands. There are a lot of decisions being made as to how to manage the water, as the refuge can expect to see their water supply drop significantly as irrigation season begins. I think it's cool that not only have wetland plants adapted to being inundated with water, but they can also deal with seasonal lack of water. It's pretty cool.

If you get the chance to head up to the Refuge I highly recommend it. Even during the middle of the day in July you can see lots of birds. It's very cool. Also, check out the movie they have at the Visitor's Center, it's called "Wings of Thunder" and is amazing.

Becka's Wild Wildlife Adventures

As you know, I try to ditch indoor monotony for outdoor adventuring whenever I can. The last two weeks have been remarkably productive, but I've also managed to stumble around outside a bit, and I've run into wildlife I haven't seen before, which is freaking awesome!

First off, the fam and I went to Yellowstone a several weeks ago, and I finally saw a bear! One of the great tragedies of my life, up until then, what that I hadn't seen a bear in the wild. This black bear was right off the side of the road, Liz got a better picture of it, because she got to see it closer, but this is still awesome to me.
Tragedy struck later, when we missed seeing a grizzly bear by a few hours. A grizzly bear!

A few weeks ago I began this habit of wandering up to First Dam and seeing what they're releasing every night. It's geeky, but it changes from week to week, which I think is very cool. Anyways, there are quite a few birds there, and a lot of them don't look like they should (I've posted many of these on Facebook, so please forgive the redundancy).
Here is what a Mallard Duck should look like:

Here's what the one's at first dam look like:

Note, there is some serious differences in plumage. I read up on it a little bit, and according to Sibley (quite the authority on birds), "The many domestic variations [of mallards] may cause confusion." Indeed, I was quite confused. I plan on researching exactly why domestic varieties are so different, and why it is advantageous for them to change. Sibley explains it a little, in discussing domestic waterfowl he says, "Interbreeding produces a bewildering variety of plumages and sizes; some bear little resemblance to the parent species." My question is how do they manage to reproduce if they don't look like their species?

There are also some Greater White-fronted Geese. I was pretty excited to see these, because I hadn't seen any before.

It took me a while to figure out what these birds were, I think this is a Swan Goose (also known as a Chinese Goose). I was really scared for a while, because they're goose-sized, but have a bill like Mute Swans, and I'm still scared of Mute Swans (I almost stabbed one the other day with a pitchfork).

Last week I got to spend the day in Ogden, and I took the time to revisit some of my favorite places. Make fun of me if you will, but I went to Weber State first, and I really enjoyed it. I went through all the buildings I used to spend time in, I even did some note-typing in the library. Then I headed up the some of my favorite hiking trails. While I was revisiting old things, I decided to shake it up a little and hike a familiar place from an unfamiliar route. I hiked Waterfall Canyon, then went up the side of the waterfall cathedral, over the ridge, into Malan's Basin and up the Malan's Peak...and it was awesome! While I was scrambling up the mountain without a visible trail in my soggy Chacos, I was thinking about what a bad idea I'd committed myself to (because scrambling up is much easier than scrambling down), then I got to the top of the ridge and remembered what a great idea that hike was. It was really a beautiful view of a place I really like.

Anyways, my first brush with wildlife was with a rattlesnake. I was just cruising along, when I saw something yellow coiled up on the trail. If you've run into a rattlesnake before, then you know how it makes your heart stop for a second (unless you're Scott, in which case you're overwhelmed with the desire to pick the snake up). Once my heart started going again, I started trying to figure out a way to get past the snake. I thought about back-tracking and hiking up the stream bed, but then I got a better idea. I threw sticks at the snake until it moved off the trail. I might have stumbled upon a yellowish Western Rattlesnake, but I kind of think I actually saw a Midget Faded Rattlesnake. Its a subspecies of the Western Rattlesnake, and it really looks like what I saw. Awesome, right?
(This picture, the that of the regular mallard, bobcats and poorwill come from Utah's Division of Wildlife Resource's web page, all others were taken with my camera or phone)

The hike continued to stay awesome. A few minutes later my heart nearly jumped out of my chest when I ran into an Eastern Racer. Looking at it, I decided it probably wasn't venomous, it didn't have any bright colors or markings, and it didn't make any alarming noises (venomous snakes really do their best to make you scared). However, I was still frightened, so I yelled at it and threw more sticks until it moved.

The only other frightening moment after that was seeing, well actually not seeing a Spruce Grouse. I eventually saw it when it flew out right in front of me. It was nice getting to Malan's Basin, it's one of my Happy Places.

I also saw some blooming Prickly Pears. I think it's cool that such a prickly plant has such pretty flowers.

On to the real adventure. Monday I decided I must hike Mt. Logan. I'd had an unproductive day and really just needed to accomplish something. I accomplished something, but it wasn't reaching Mt. Logan. I missed the trail I should have turned off on, but found it on my way back down. I decided to go as far up the right path as I could before the sun set, and I ended up turning back right at sunset. It was really a fortuitous decision, because almost as soon as I turned back I saw a bobcat! Well, the paw of a bobcat. I was momentarily frightened it was a mountain lion, but it was far too small for a mountain lion. It creeped really quietly across the path, then just sat in the brush beside the trail. I was pretty freaked out, so I yelled and moved as loudly as I could toward where it was in hopes that it would move further up the side of the hill. It took a while, but eventually it moved and I ran past as fast as I could. Here's what a bobcat looks like.
According to the Division of Natural Resources, bobcats are rarely seen because of their secretive nature, but they are very common from Mexico to Canada. So really, it was super cool for me to see part of one. However, it got me all freaked out that I would be eaten by something. One of my friends had told me earlier that there were mountain lions up that particular canyon and that I shouldn't hike alone. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that mountain lions could be almost anywhere and I'd never let that inhibit my hiking before, so why start now? (Also, you never see wildlife when hiking with others because you're less observant and noisier) Well, that type of reasoning seemed down-right dumb to me as I started down the trail in the dark. Based on what little I know about mountain lions, I knew that I should be noisy, so as not to startle them. I also knew that if I found one I should stand up as tall as I can, to make myself look big and not anything like prey. Beyond that, everything else I thought that evening was conjecture. It was getting cold though, so I needed to keep moving, and I did have my headlamp in my pack, so I decided to run. This seemed a little foolish to me, as most mountain lion attacks are on trail runners and mountain bikers, but I was cold. So I ran down Dry Canyon clapping my hands periodically and singing (really kind of hooting and wooing, as I was also trying to run).

It's odd, but somehow, when faced with challenging outdoor situations, the only songs I can remember are church hymns and children's songs. When I was trying to paddle my way off a beach at Lake Powell, the only thing I could think to sing as I paddled into the wind was "Praise to the Man." Monday I had the song that goes "I often go walking through meadows of clovers, and I gather armfuls of blossoms of blue" stuck in my head. Once I started running I up-graded to "The Spirit of God" and eventually progressed to "When the Saints Go Marching In" and "Do Your Ears Hang Low?" This seems a little silly, but I didn't pass anyone else in that canyon until I got to the very bottom. If there was anyone else there, they were hiding from the girl running, clapping and singing "Do your ears hang low? Do they wobble to and fro? Can you tie them in a knot? Can you tie them in a bow?" And if there were any mountain lions, I scared them away.

Eventually I tripped and fell and decided the headlamp was not illuminating enough of the topography for me to continue down the rockier stretches of the canyon at that pace.

That turned out to be a good idea because I saw a type of bird I've never seen before, boo ya! They're actually pretty ugly birds called the Common Poorwills, a member of the Goatsucker family. These birds repeatedly scared me. They just sit on trail at night, and their eyes would light up in the beam of my headlamp, in that light their eyes were red and creepy, and they didn't move like almost any other animal would. I ended up almost stepping on them several times, but still, it was cool.
I also saw these ginormous spiders who's eyes also lit up in the beam of my headlamp. They were seriously like 3 inches long. I have no idea what kind of spider they are, but I will not be camping in Dry Canyon without a tent, ever.

So there you have it, some of my dorky adventures have been blogged about. More to come later.