RAINDROPS ON WILDFLOWERS, BIGFORK MT
I've gotten some (justified) flak from a few people about not keeping my blog updated. Well, To be honest, not much particularly blog-worthy was going on. Until now. So here is the update -- I have some free time in Montana before my field work gets really rolling and I guess I am caving in to peer pressure. So here's what's up:
Last time I posted it was March and I was in Texas. I survived. Now it's June, and I'm in Montana enjoying spring in the northern Rocky Mountains -- we are having a wet one though so the streams are all completely blown and I will have to wait even longer for good fishing -- but there is lots to do in the meantime!
I suppose it would be best to get the basics of what's happened in the last few months nailed down before going into all the little fun stuff with pictures and all. Here is the three-point synopsis:
2) Had a great drive from TX to MT, spend a bunch of fun time alone in the desert
3) Started field work for my M.Sc. thesis on Flathead Lake in MT, it's goin' good.
Here is the Long version:
TEXAS
My inner workaholic was loving things down in Houston: In addition to working working very full-time for a Fortune 500 company, I completed one and a half college courses online, had two more grants come in for my M.Sc. work, wrote my M. Sc. Thesis proposal and got it approved by the U of MT faculty, managed the U of MT AAPG student chapter from out of town, filed my taxes, had the pleasure of hosting my baby sister and a college friend of hers for a week, and very much enjoyed played a few rounds of golf with an old friend who happens to live in Houston. It seems like I was more or less successful at everything except the golf. I shared a house with a sarcastic old man, we got along great.
HOUSTON RODEO AT NIGHT
My inner workaholic was loving things down in Houston: In addition to working working very full-time for a Fortune 500 company, I completed one and a half college courses online, had two more grants come in for my M.Sc. work, wrote my M. Sc. Thesis proposal and got it approved by the U of MT faculty, managed the U of MT AAPG student chapter from out of town, filed my taxes, had the pleasure of hosting my baby sister and a college friend of hers for a week, and very much enjoyed played a few rounds of golf with an old friend who happens to live in Houston. It seems like I was more or less successful at everything except the golf. I shared a house with a sarcastic old man, we got along great.
My day job down there basically consisted of sitting in front of a bank of computer monitors in a tiny office with no windows lots of floors up in this big corporate-looking office building with glass all over the sides of it. (I did get an opportunity to visit a drilling rig on a gas field north of Houston, which was sweet -- photos here). I had a lots of data to work with, and my project required me to pick up some new skills on the fly, so the learning curve was steep which made me happy. Despite the lack of sunlight I found the work enjoyable and satisfying and was pleased to be able to line up a full-time job with the company for when I finish my M.Sc. work here in Montana. And while I'll admit that the prospect of living in the same place for more than a semester or two is daunting to me, I am glad to be able to focus on my academics without wondering what I will do with myself after I finish. It also seems like most people eventually get a window.
The gorgeous blond in the photo above is my baby sister. She and a friend came down for their spring break on account of the fact it was March in upstate New York. And they wanted to go to the rodeo, so we did! Rodeos in Houston are a clash of cultures -- all these people wearing cowboy boots get out of minivans and walk through this parking lot that has a carnival in it until they get to a giant air-conditioned stadium where they can buy eight-dollar nachos and watch other people run around and tackle cows and stuff through their binoculars. There is country music an everybody cheers when the marines march a flag around the stadium. Rodeos are entertaining, too -- it actually is pretty fun to watch all the different events, and people sure are friendly -- I got called "partner" a bunch of times by old guys with mustaches who I never met before. As you can see, I bought a hat. My sister and her friend bought turquoise jewelery and assorted girly stuff. There are more rodeo pictures here.
HEADED NORTH
SUN-BLEACHED BRANCHES BELOW CLIFFS, GRAND GULCH, UTAH
SUN-BLEACHED BRANCHES BELOW CLIFFS, GRAND GULCH, UTAH Anyways, after spending a few days waiting because a mechanic broke my car while he was changing my brakes, I was able to load all my stuff up and drive away. I headed west at first, got lost outside of San Antonio for about an hour, and then spend a night in the Texas Hill Country where I was treated to what may the wildest thunderstorm I've ever tented in. Then I drove through west Texas where I tried to visit Caverns of S0nora only to find that they were full of school kids until later in the afternoon, which was too long for me to hang around. So I kept pushing through Pecos and into New Mexico where I went through Carlsbad and Roswell. In Roswell you always feel like something is watching you, but it's just the little cameras on the stoplights which are everywhere in that town. Anyways I made it to Villanueva State Park where I spent the night. After that I got some groceries in Santa Fe and kept going to Farmington. Then it got dark and I got lost and ended up going south when I wanted to go west, which landed me in Gallup by the time I saw a sign telling which road I was on (100 miles out of the way). So I go a room in Gallup and then drove through Arizona, which was beautiful, on my way to Grand Gulch in southeast Utah where I spent three days and nights backpacking, which translates to exploring old Native American ruins, planning your moves from one spring to the next, trying to find ways to beat the heat, and hoping not to see any mountain lions or rattlesnakes. It was awesome. Afterwards, I was exhausted, so I went pretty much straight back to Montana spending only one night along the way in Pocatello, Idaho. Pics of the drive and the hike are here.
BACK UNDER THE BIG SKY
BIGFORK MONTANA ON A CHILLY SPRING DAY IN JUNEUpon arriving in Missoula after my fourth cross-country move in a year, I unloaded my stuff into the lovely apartment of a generous friend who is looking at bones someplace in the desert west of here all summer, and met up with my geo grad crew for some necessary storytelling over a few beers. After a few days I got motivated to organize stuff for my fieldwork, and when my field assistant showed up we loaded up his truck and drove north to the eastern shore of Flathead lake, which is mostly just a bunch of woods clinging to the side of a mountain but there are also a lot of cherry orchards, with some rich people's houses and a few trailer parks mixed in for good measure.
During the day we drive around looking for places where the geology is exposed. We spend a lot of time poking around roadcuts, gravel pits, construction sites, and stuff like that. We pretty much try to drive every single road looking for exposures, and will also be bushwhacking to likely spots in the mountains. I am supposed to make a map of the surface geology and interpret the glacial history of the area shown by the red blob in the northeast corner of the right-hand map above (the map on the left shows the location in Montana of the one on the right). So far things are going pretty good -- we found a brewery and some geology that I am hoping might be cool enough to publish a paper on (time will tell), and we have only been chased by dogs twice.
During the day we drive around looking for places where the geology is exposed. We spend a lot of time poking around roadcuts, gravel pits, construction sites, and stuff like that. We pretty much try to drive every single road looking for exposures, and will also be bushwhacking to likely spots in the mountains. I am supposed to make a map of the surface geology and interpret the glacial history of the area shown by the red blob in the northeast corner of the right-hand map above (the map on the left shows the location in Montana of the one on the right). So far things are going pretty good -- we found a brewery and some geology that I am hoping might be cool enough to publish a paper on (time will tell), and we have only been chased by dogs twice.
FIRST-CLASS CAMP COOKING As usual, I am enjoying camp living. We set up in a campground just south of Bigfork, and we've done some great open-fire cooking. Our dutch oven cracked in half, and we don't have a grill to put over the fire pit or anything, but honestly the old skillet has been producing some great stuff with only one major grease-fire incident so far, and that was bacon so of course there was a grease fire. It got about four feet high so I was glad it was in a campsite and not on a stove inside anywhere, but once we pulled the bacon out it was pretty cool to watch.
Anyways that's all I have time for today. On June 17th I move into the apartment where I will live for the coming school year. We are renting a small house very close to campus -- I'll try to put a photo up on my next post, whenever that is. It will cost more than where I lived last fall but I think the convenience of being near campus will be worth it and help me to get the huge amount of work in store for me finished by May. Regardless, I will be glad to be able to unpack some of my stuff and settle in a little bit, It's now been three weeks of suitcasing.
Anyways that's all I have time for today. On June 17th I move into the apartment where I will live for the coming school year. We are renting a small house very close to campus -- I'll try to put a photo up on my next post, whenever that is. It will cost more than where I lived last fall but I think the convenience of being near campus will be worth it and help me to get the huge amount of work in store for me finished by May. Regardless, I will be glad to be able to unpack some of my stuff and settle in a little bit, It's now been three weeks of suitcasing.
