Projects usually consist of five days devoted to mapping an area of six to ten square miles, and a day in the field starts when we all pile out of the van sometime around 8:30, complete with compasses, maps, hand lenses, hammers, lunch, extra layers (weather here changes remarkably quickly), and whatever else we feel like lugging up and down ridges all day. We sometimes have guidance of professors, but mostly are left to our own devices for the day and wander like tiny ants over sage-covered hill and dale, gathering data, discussing hypotheses, pondering imponderables, and enjoying the quiet. Typically there is some effort made to start the day with a group but I inevetably am on my own within a few hours -- the country is pretty open but the ridges and valleys sort of swallow people up, and before you know it folks who you were talking with at the last outcrop are tiny figures you have to squint to see on the next ridge. The first thing you do is learn to recognize the rock types in the area. After this you attempt to comprehend the basic structures: folds, faults, and what have you. This requires the ability to move mentally from looking at a collection of data points on a map to envisioning a three-dimensional structure. Last, and probably most challenging, you want to cover as much area as possible to make you map as accurate as possible, choosing transects that bring you through well-exposed rocks and structurally important or tricky areas but still getting you back to the van by four. Evenings are spent going over notes and preparing cross-sections, keys and other materials.
We get an off day between projects. According to faculty, the injury rate on off days is astronomically higher than on work days. This doesn't suprise me because as soon as things are handed in (due 8pm on the the last day of a project), everybody proceeds to the campsite where most students are staying and proceeds to indulge in an evening of revelry around a fire. In the morning the gang compares hangovers and then goes rock climbing or, as I prefer, fishing.
Being without a car, I am somewhat limited in my fishing opportunities. I have two options: either go with someone else, which is difficult to arrange as I do not live at the campsite but in a dorm along with our faculty at a small local college, or walk to the park in town. The park in town recieves heavy pressure and is the site of choice for locals who take a lot of fish out, so it's probably some of the lousiest fishing around. I have not been able to catch any trout yet, but I do not despair -- if I am not able to get any before I finish field camp, I will return in the fall with two deadly weapons: my fly-tying stuff, which allows me cheaply create flies of whatever type I need, and my subaru, which allows me to drive to stupider fish.
Recent News:
My kick-ass little sister and her the rest of the Williams women's team won the 2007 NCAA division III national championship in rowing.
The future:
* Field camp ends June 12, I will go to Missoula, MT and look for an apartment before flying home to upstate NY on June 16
* Following a week or so of re-boot at home, the noble Thomas Jones and I will embark on an end-to-end hike of Vermont's Long Trail. We expect to complete the approximately 270 mile trek from Massachussetts to Canada in three to four weeks' time.
* After the hike I will have a few weeks at home to relax and prepare for the drive west, tentatively set for August 10. On this voyage I will have the always-pleasant company of one Mr. Victor King, strong in spirit as well as in name.
