Good bye Sheldon.

The end of my second field season in Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge is upon us all, and I'm feeling bittersweet about it. I'm going to miss waking up and falling asleep in the sagebrush... but I'm looking forward to the next thing. Whatever it is. I have a winter bird banding internship lined up for Nov. through March, and I'm currently searching for a field job to tide me over until then. I realized last night that besides New Hampshire and North Carolina (the latter not really counting), I've lived the longest out in the boonies of Sheldon NWR. I am rather attached to it.

We had a crew BBQ at Badger cabin a few nights ago, and Jan, Ben and I dressed up. Jan and I in skirts, because we were feeling a little deprived of occasions to get a little bit girly. The guys on the crew were a little taken aback to see us in something besides Carhartts and a t-shirt.

Here's a few shots from the night:

Our half eaten watermelon...



Adam the grillmaster...



Berti making burger art...





Music for the night...


I'm going to miss it... I will be back to visit someday.

Road Trippin'

Last week marked a transition period in the Sheldon time schedule. We’ve moved our focus to mainly vegetation analysis… the end of the season is fast approaching (only 2 weeks now.) But before we took the plunge into veg season we took a non-typical 2 days off. Jan and I decided that with this sizeable chunk of time, being the rock deprived climbers that we are, we would make a road trip out of it, and head somewhere to get some ripped up fingers and new bruises.
The night before our 2 day vacation began we made the short hour drive to Cedarville CA to eat dinner and use the internet at the Surprise Café (awesome place that everyone should visit if they are ever in the area.) But, being a Sunday night the Café was closed… however, they were nice enough to leave the wireless on, and a powercable running outside so we could sit on the porch and still get online. (Cedarville CA is a small town. Jan left her cell phone out on the porch there for 15 minutes while we went somewhere else, and it was still there when we got back…) So we looked up the phone numbers of some gear shops and climbing gyms in the general area of where we had heard there was climbing, then I got on the phone and started asking strangers questions. This is less weird than it sounds, and also extremely productive if you get a climber on the other end of the line. Climbers love to talk about climbing. And in general, are some of the friendliest people I know.
So I made a few fruitless phone calls, one where the phone must have been passed to about 5 people before someone informed me of a “climb” that was really just a rock scramble. We finally hit the jackpot when I called the Red Point gear shop in Bend Oregon. As soon as the person on the other end of the line said hello I knew that this would be an informative call… you can just tell sometimes. (The tone of voice, the laid back attitude, must be a climber.) I told them what kind of climbing Jan and I were looking for, and he proceeded to list off about 10 places around Bend (including Smith Rock of course). Needless to say I was a bit overwhelmed, and when I pressed for more specifics he told me, “Well, I’m planning on going climbing tomorrow. I’ll give you my cell number so that if you and your friend decide to come up, you can just give me a call.” I happily agreed, and Josh and I met over the phone.
After a dinner across the street at the Country Hearth, Jan and I hopped into the Slugmobile, plugged in the iPod, put on some LCD Soundsystem, and began to rock out while we drove over the pass towards Alturas CA, then Klamath Falls OR, on towards Bend. After an unmeasured amount of time driving, we pulled off onto a national forest dirt road somewhere outside of Chemult Oregon. We found a nice campsite in the pines, set up the tent, (no fly, so we could star gaze), and settled in for the night. The next morning we awoke slightly later than bird time at 6 am, made some breakfast on the whisperlite, and were on the road again by 7 am. We arrived in Bend at 8 am, and attempted to visit the REI. Which was closed. So after waiting a bit, so as not to disturb our climbing contacts too early, I gave Josh a call. I told him where we were, and we made a plan to meet up in a few minutes.
Having a local show you the climbing spots is really the best way to go. Being the manager of the gear shop near Smith Rock, and a local climbing guru it seems, Josh showed us some sweet spots where we only saw about 6 other climbers the whole time. That is besides his brother and friend who also joined us. (Not that more climbers can’t be fun… but it is nice to not have to wait for anything that you want to try.) We got some great top roping in on some cracks, Jan learned how to set some trad gear, and I got a few more bruises and cuts. And that was the first day.



That evening Josh showed us a cool bouldering spot right along the Deschutes River that also had some great “tide pools” that you could soak in. Basically these pools were just areas of the river that were sheltered enough by the big boulders that the river was rushing over to slow it down so you could not be carried away by the current. Jan and I did some swimming, saw a Dipper, and then made our way back to the Slugmobile to drive to our camp for the night.



Because Jan and I are awesome when we do anything outside we had fresh Cod and grilled asparagus on the whisperlite for dinner. Yes, it is possible on a whisperlite. And it was delicious.
The next morning we woke up again, slightly later than bird time, and made our way back to the bouldering spot on the Deschutes by 9 am. We worked on a traverse for a while, then just bouldered around with Josh for a bit before we ate an early lunch, soaking our feet in the river, exchanged e-mails, and goodbyes, and made our way to the Bend public library for some internetting before heading back the 7 hour drive to Sheldon.



The drive back was quite eventful. The Slugmoblie hit 100,000 miles (so naturally I stopped the car, and made Jan take a picture), I interviewed for a job, and caught up with Kirsten. We also made it across the CA/ OR border with a cooler full of produce in the trunk. (Apparently the only thing you have to worry about at the random inspection stations is cherries and corn.) We made it back to Sheldon at about 10 pm… I think… I may have been slightly braindead at that point, hit the sack, and got up the next morning to veg our brains out. And that was vacation.

I'm on vacation.

So I'm currently on my 2 day vacation from Sheldon. As a result, I am not updating my blog this week... next week I promise good stories (and pictures) about The Climbing Road Trip 2008.

Sunrise, sunset, swiftly go the days...

It’s been nearly two months since I arrived on Sheldon this season… and I just turned 23 (yikes.) Although, I know, I really should not be complaining about that. I think it’s just that there’s so much that I want to do and time just seems to fly by. (Note: the above picture is of a sunrise, not sunset. You tend to be up early when work starts 20 minutes after sunrise…)

I’ve finished up my point counting duties of the season, besides the vegetation analysis on my share of the points, and have moved back to nest searching. Things are really busy out on plot. In the past 3 days I’ve found multiple Brewers Sparrow nests, a Vespers Sparrow nest with a Brown Headed Cowbird egg in it, a Rock Wren nest, and most likely today a Spotted Towhee nest.



That’s the Vespers nest with the BHCO egg… quite a difference. It will be interesting to see what happens to this nest if it isn’t predated.

Since this year has been wetter than it was last year there has been a plethora of ticks. More so than the population that seemed to be running rampant last year. It’s always entertaining to see someone when they realize that they have a tick crawling on them somewhere. The methods of dealing with the offending blood sucking insect vary by where the tick happens to be making its way around on your body, searching for a nice place to bite down. On your stomach? No problem, a quick lift of the shirt and pick off is standard. In your pants? A bit more complicated. If the tick is below the knee, it’s easy enough to just pull a pant leg up and pick it off. However, if it has made its way higher (which they frequently do), You’ve got to go find a more private spot to remove the stow away. One afternoon I made the short jaunt down to our wall tent to remove one unwelcome guest, and had just finished, when Jan came bombing down to the tent, zipped up the fly, unzipped her fly, and pulled down her pants, pulling one off in nearly the same place I had just removed one from. We’ve all got our favorite methods of killing them. I particularly enjoy burning them if some matches are handy… watching their little bodies turn to a crisp and their legs curl up… But a pen is my most frequently employed method. Just stick it on your clipboard, and apply pressure. I just can’t bring myself to squeeze them between my fingernails. Keith recently developed a new method for dealing with the offenders. When out in the field one day he stumbled across a hill of the most vicious ants on the refuge, who, were apparently in a feeding frenzy, and had somehow taken down a cicada. (Which is probably about 20 times their size.) Then he discovered a tick on himself. So he threw it to the wolves. The ants would rip off a few limbs, or an antennae, before realizing that the tick was not good eating, and move on. With the whole swarm working on the tick I doubt it lasted too long.

Ticks, feral horses, vicious ants, and mountain lions aren’t the only things we need to be wary of on the refuge. We also need to watch out for the outhouse door, or as we affectionately refer to it, “The Spa.” One afternoon when it was still cool enough to nap in the afternoon in the wall tents everybody was settling down for a little siesta. All the guys were snug on their cots, and I was just settling into my own for a mid afternoon’s rest, when out in the spa arose such a clatter…. I poked my head out of our tent, and saw that the wooden latch on the spa door had somehow fallen from vertical to horizontal. Trapping Jan inside. (I let her out… don’t worry.) This clearly is not something that you want to ever happen to you. Especially if you’re alone at the cabin at the time, or in the middle of the night. Ben and I decided that if either of those situations arose we would sacrifice the spa door for our sanity. (Did I mention it’s starting to heat up out here?) On that note, here are some pictures of pretty wildflowers…



And horses when they were not threatening to run me over.

Only a 2 km hike out? SWEET!

I'll be finished my half of the point counting for the season on the 23rd. Then Matt takes back over, and I move back to nest searching. Things are really going off now. Both wildflowers, and nests. Yesterday when doing a vegetation analysis transect on a point my 50m transect tape nearly ended on a Green Tailed Towhee nest. I politely moved out of there ASAP so she could hop back on her eggs.

Last week Jan, Ben, and I took our weekly town trip on our last day of work before a day off. That way we had our whole day off to do whatever we wanted. So, naturally, we slept in until 8:30 (yes, that is sleeping in, and not much more is possible when the sun comes up and turns the tents into convection ovens.) Then we ate a big breakfast and lazed about the cabin. Ate lunch. Then hopped into Jan's car and drove to Thousand Creek Canyon, which is about 45 minutes from where we live on the refuge.



We went exploring in there for the afternoon, scrambling on rocks, soaking our feet in the water (by accident on my part, intentionally on Jan's), catching cool herps, and just soaking up the sun and relaxing.











After our jaunt in the canyon we fueled up in Denio Junction. (Which is always spectacular, being seemingly the only young women in a 100 mile radius, showing up at a gas station/ bar/ restauraunt on a Friday evening is interesting.)



Then we made our way to Bog Hot where we partook of some warm water soaking and white wine drinking as the sun set. All in all it was a great way to spend a day off.

Beware the horselope

So remember that awesome bluff/ mesa/ huge mountain that I mentioned hiking up last year during a point count… the epic day that I almost got trampled by a stallion for the first time??? Well, if you don’t… just take my word for it that that bluff just won’t let me go. (If you’re really curious, the first mention of it is in the blog titled “A Point Count” from last summer.) I thought I was done with it last year when I completed the vegetation analysis on the points up there. Not so. Just earlier this week I was doing a point count route in that area… I pulled out my GPS unit and compass to find the next point, and found it was straight up the bluff. Again. Up and over even. “You’ve got to be sh*tting me!” I mumbled… then began the trudge up the hill. It’s pretty much like hiking up that first steep section on Upper Blast Off for those of you who know Sunapee… or like hiking up Avalanche, for those of you who know Cannon. Think steep black diamond. Needless to say I was not too interested in the two horses who stumbled across me as I was making my way up. I just gave the “Hey!” shout, then picked up a few rocks and threw them in their direction. They waited for me to cross the horse trail that they wanted to follow, and then moved along, occasionally looking back in my direction. I’m sure they were wondering why anyone (or anything) for that matter would be hiking up that slope. So the horses moved along… apparently right to where one of the other point counters was making his way across a different ridge. They bumped into him, and he did something entirely new in the Sheldon repertoire of feral horse repelling… He brandished a huge horse skull that he had found and was carrying back. The horses did not like this. And left him alone. So add waving deceased horse body parts to the list of things effective on deterring horses from trampling you. Prior to the skull the list of things waved/ thrown at horses includes clipboards, rocks, and their own poop (when nothing else was available.) The skull is currently sitting on the top of a post in the yard at Badger, with some three pronged mule deer antlers stuck in it. I think the other night Berti even placed his newly shorn dreads (They’re really gone!!!) on the top for a brief bit. Thus was born the horselope.

(Disclaimer: as much as I gripe about “the bluff,” it’s really not so bad… It’s more like we’re arch enemies or something, matched in a battle of wills. Except it’s an inanimate object…right.)

Here’s a list of the most recent interesting things to happen on Sheldon:

1. Berti cut his dreads. (I’m really not kidding.)
2. Ben and I have started a Scrabble tournament between the 2 of us. So far I am winning 2-1. (Winner gets a prize at the end of the summer, to be determined.)
3. I’ve stumbled across quite a few junipers while out doing point counts around Badger… where they’re supposedly not supposed to be. So I’ve been dropping waypoints.



4. Last week on our town trip we got a flat on one of the work trucks… and spent more time figuring out how to get the spare out from under the bed, than actually removing the flat, and mounting the spare combined.
5. Jan and I are awesome cooks, and I am eating much better food than when I was just cooking for myself last year.
6. Ticks are rampant. I think everyone has woken up at least once during the night to pick one off of themselves.

Jan and I have returned to our sweet little bouldering area up behind the cabin again. We’ve got a good traverse that’s become our little project. I think the highest you get off the ground is 3 feet, but the route travels all around this section of rock, probably for a grand total of 30 feet plus of good climbing. We’ve got one section down, and now we’re working out a second.



Since we are the pioneers of the Badger Cabin bouldering area we’ve decided that we are going to name the routes up there. Candidates are “The Sage Thrasher,” and “Dust Devil Nest Failure.” (The second of those we can’t really take credit for, as it is what Berti says if he ever has a punk band he would name it.) We also discovered an awesome cave underneath the traverse boulders… Jan went in to explore, and found it went all the way out to the other side.

Let the point counts begin...

So due to some unforeseen personnel difficulties, Matt and I are splitting the responsibilities of our three nest searching plots, and the role of one point counter this season. Matt went for the first half of the first round of point counts, and today began my first day with a rather cold (and still wet) trip to Catnip. Adam, Ben (the other point counters) and I left Badger yesterday to make the trip to Bald, before the trek back to Catnip for Ben and I for the night. It was almost like I had never stopped point counting in Sheldon. It was surprisingly comfortable just jumping back into it again. I almost feel like I never left Bald on July 26th last year at all… Although, the running water was pretty amazing to me after being at Badger for nearly a month now without it. I’m looking forward to my first “real,” non-propane heated, spring fed shower in a month tomorrow. There is something to be said for standing in that shower stall behind the cabin in your nakedness, the breeze blowing and the sun shining, alternately chilling and warming you, while gazing up at the cliffs and blue sky as you clean up… very relaxing. I wouldn’t trade that shower, the Poorwills calling from the spring, and the bats swooping around as the sun sets over the hill beside Badger Cabin for the running water at Bald any day.



We had most of the nests fail that we had found before the horrible weather we’ve been having. My Sage Thrasher nestlings were dead and cold when I last went to check them. The Western Scrub Jay nest on another plot failed with 3 eggs, as well as multiple Brewer’s Sparrow nests. I think my Vesper’s Nest may have survived though. And I found a different Western Scrub Jay nest on plot yesterday. I understand the Scrub Jays better then the Brewers, Vespers, Green Tailed Towhees and Sage Thrashers still at this point. I’m sure that as time goes on, and I spend more time nest searching in the sagebrush that will equal out a bit. Here’s a picture taken looking up across one of my plots… yes, that is still snow. (My plot goes all the way up the hill in the background)



Due to the (seemingly) ridiculous amounts of rain we’ve been getting, we’ve been doing a lot of reading in the cabin by the wood stove. One day we had a discussion after lunch about how there really wasn’t some place comfortable to sit in the cabin for long periods of time while reading… So we brainstormed… and remedied the situation. Keith, Berti, Jan and I cleared off the kitchen table, pushed it against the wall, and carried two mattresses out of the bunkroom office, making a couch. This was the result –



We manage to keep ourselves entertained most of the time when not working. Whether that be with talking bread cutouts and hot sauce, Pass the Pigs, chopping random vegetables left in the oven that have turned to charcoal in half with an ax, Badger Cabin beer bottle bowling, or just exploring around the cabin.