2019 People of the Big River Field Class

Really nice to have a slow start to the day for once. After breakfast we headed out to deploy trail cams at our new location. -- Our group placed one camera along the Deschutes River. As we walked further from the river, we found a cleared area with plentiful fresh piles of elk scat. We placed two cameras at opposite angles in the field. Coordinates, deployment details follow: Site Name: River A Camera Number: 15 Location: N 40° 52.106 W 121° 46.680 Time of Deployment: 12:00 Time Camera Turned On: 12:00 Weather Conditions: mostly sunny, slight breeze Site Name: Poop Clearing B Camera Number: 3 Location: N 43°  52.076° W 121° 46.668 Time of Deployment: 12:13 Time Camera Turned On: 18:46 Weather Conditions  (when camera activated) : partly cloudy, mild breeze Site Name:  Poop Clearing C Camera Number: 12 Location: N 43° 52.077 W 121° 46.669 Time of Deployment: 12:24 Time Camera Turned On: 18:49 Weather Conditions (when camera acti...

So far Deschutes is beautiful. Oatmeal fort breakfast, blogging, then off to Newberry National Volcanic Monument.    -- We spent several awe-inspiring hours at the Newberry National Volcanic Monument (U.S. Forest Service) in Deschutes. We hiked the Trail of the Molten Land and visited the Newberry National Volcanic Monument. Imagine an igneous sea comprised of pumice, scoria, basalts galore, put that in the middle of a pine forest, surround with mountains and that's the general idea. Incredible sights in every direction.                 -- An afternoon spent at the laundry mat, was less glamorous but much needed. -- Evening showers at Lava Lakes resort, near camp. Another late night dinner and bed. Sleeping in until 8:00 tomorrow.   

Very grateful for the Warm Springs Fire Management crew for letting us use their showers and camp in their back yard. [Note the caption: careless people are the problem. Truth, Smokey.] Tiny tree frogs and giant moths gathered around our tents overnight. It was nice hearing the frogs sing overnight, and the level ground/soft grass was appreciated as well. Last night was a very different vibe than the previous night, in a good way. Another cool and unusual experience. A very early morning (4:45ish) made for a timely pack up. The general improvement in efficiency of setup/teardown got us on the road faster too. Claude S. who is the Timber Sales Manager, gave us a presentation on the responsibilities of timber sales in Warm Springs. The unit of measurement in timber sales is "board feet" which measures 1" x 1' x 1'. Warm Springs logs approximately 25,100,000 board feet each year. That's a lot of board feet. Heading out to a timber project site with C...

Granola bar for breakfast. Packed up camp and rushed off to Warm Springs Fire Management. After a presentation of the fire management crew and their different departments/careers, we are headed out to one of their project sites. We're camping behind the fire station tonight. Hot showers and WiFi in our future??? -- Today began with a presentation from Brad D. who is the Assistant Fire Management Officer with 24 years of experience fighting fires. Warm Springs Fire has 100+ staff based at the station and an additional 100+ staff in fire camps. The station takes care of all the projects within the reservation as well as some projects in the surrounding region. Field staff includes a 20 person Hot Shot crew (who are a national resource, currently in Alaska, a 20 person Engine Crew, a 20 person Fields Crew, and a 10 person Fire Module. Bob S. who is responsible for writing plans and monitoring progress of fire management projects, took over the second half of the presentation....

Camping in a park near the Warm Springs community center. Some unusual activities around the site, so we will likely relocate camp tomorrow. Delicious taco salads for dinner. Someone (possibly not associated with our group) may have kicked one of our tents so, around 11:30 we (David, Brandon, Alex and myself) moved all of the tents except for three (my own and two others, leaving me closest to the edge). Afterwards some people watched Disney's Moana. David stayed up the rest of the night to keep an eye out for any further shenanigans. I survived the night without any tent visitors/other disturbances.

Days 1-4.5 Our first three hours in Heritage University parking lot were mostly just hot. Noah shared an apple because I was getting hangry. Arrival and camp set up at Camp Chaparral. ~11:30 pm first night... Explosions?? Two "explosions" a few minutes apart rang out across the silence of our first night. The next day, we decided this was most likely gunshots echoing in mountains. Two bear cubs seen near camp on different occasions (pictures below are of the second bear cub sighting). Deployed trail cams and tuna traps but didn't catch any wildlife. Hiked Potato Hill and fire ants attacked my foot. It was more alarming than painful, to see a boot made entirely of ants at the end of my leg. Nice to cross that one of the bucket list!                                                                   ...

The Blogger app betrayed me. Days 1-4 were deleted without warning or explanation. The amount of time I'd spent on that won't be easily replaced, so I'll do my best to make a brief recap of the more detailed entries describing the indescribably gorgeous Camp Chaparral in Yakama Reservation's closed area. It was really difficult to start this blog again after I lost everything. However, nothing I can write, and no picture can accurately portray any of the experiences I've had so far anyway.