I Say Edinburgh, You Say...

I have not posted in quite some time now and I know exactly the moments to blame. I've decided that the best way to explain this event is via a comparison to Mario Kart, everyone's favorite Nintendo themed racing game. Periodically during the race your character (in my case, Peach or Daisy) will encounter boost strips in a certain area of the path. If you can manage to get your kart over to pass overtop the strip, you'll get a short boost of speed, so hopefully you can pass up your siblings for the win. I somehow managed to navigate myself to a fabulous CouchSurfing festival in Edinburgh and was given a giant burst of speed and excitement! Edinburgh Rocks 7 opened my eyes to a whole new side of the CS experience!

Guest Blog: Ecologist on the Appalachian Trail

This is my little sister, Sara!!!!

Note from Rachel:  I'm really excited today to have the very first guest post of this blog's (short) history!  Allow me to introduce my kid sister, Sara.  When I describe her to people I usually give these stats:  she's a scientist, she plays competitive roller derby, she's way smarter than me, and she's one of the coolest people you could ever meet.  She just graduated with a BS in Biology with a concentration in Ecology and Wildlife Management from my alma mater Western Kentucky University.  In college, she had some pretty amazing adventures and some really cool scientific experiences.  Check out this write-up of her long-term internship with the National Parks Service and this article about an African wildlife management course she participated in last summer (here is a video about the course...she's basically the star).  After her graduation and the completion of her honor's thesis this spring (she examined song bird use of restored old-fields), she decided to take a much deserved break from the world.  And what better way to get away from it all  than to go hiking, right?  

Never really known for moderation, my sister doesn't just decided to go camping for a few weeks.  No, no.  She decides to hike about 600 miles of the Appalachian Trail.  And, because I think a big portion of this blog should always be dedicated to enjoying nature, I've asked her to write a few guest posts along the way.  So here you go.  Two girls, two hammocks, one dog, and about a million trees.  What could go wrong?  

First day in Dublin

Day 1

Location: Isaac's Hostel, Dublin Ireland

I don't think it's possible to have a smoother, jet-lag free international traveling experience. I left from Chicago O'Hare (ORD) on Wednesday around 7. About thirty minutes behind schedule, mind you, because apparently Air Force One was nearby? (Insert meme: 30 minutes less holiday time in Ireland. THANKS OBAMA.) Once in the air, my seat mate struck up conversation and I was really hoping he'd be a complete bore so I would have no choice but to sleep. He expressed similar concerns, but I sadly informed him that, unfortunately, I'm fascinating. He shared a stick of gum with me and we proceeded to shoot the shit until dinner and then snoozes. 

The entire plane, landing, customs, baggage retrieval, etc process was so painless that it doesn't even warrant mention. Really, my bus ride to Chicago was only an hour or so less than my entire trans-Atlantic flight! My new friend, seat mate KC, had even less plans for his solo trip than I and decided to tag along with me to check out the hostel I'd booked. More smooth sailings with check in there. KC decided to stay for a night as well. Rooms weren't ready for a few hours, but we miraculously were just in time for the FREE daily walking tour. Most hostels come equipped with rentable lockers and are a great bargain for securing your large bags while exploring the city. KC and I split a locker (they really are huge here) but I made sure I was in charge of key duties. 

Cue three hours of wandering about with our trusty Irishman tour guide, Sean, and another new friend, SC. Sean certainly earned his tips, and we had gathered some solid Irish history knowledge, as well as some ideas for where to explore further.

Dublin's "Spire" in the middle(?) of the city. Great place to meet up if you get seperated, but really it looks like a radio antenna. 

Sean, our lovely free tour guide. 

Super cool architecture/housing in Dublin. 

The thing about traveling abroad to large European cities is to not over think them, or to put them on a pedestal, as it were. As we were finding our way back to the hostel, it dawned on me that Dublin is not really so different from any major American city. Once you check out a map well, find some solid landmarks, familiarize yourself with the transit systems, and just go out and wander about, you'll feel just as comfortable. Yes, we did walk around in a few superfluous loops while trying to find some noms, but that was just as illuminating as any bit of the guided tour. 

The rest of the night has been a blur of hotel chilling. Sauna and tablet monopoly. If my next 89 days are this glorious, I'll be just fine with that. 

Low Impact Travel: Snow Mt. Wilderness

Preamble: I feel some of these "Low Impact Travel" posts are going to get a little repetitive in their environmental action content.  Unless I have a striking new tip or experience, I'll just include ways I generally lower my impact into the narrative and sum up at the end.  As I do more different kinds of travel this summer (travel for conferences, going home to Kentucky, or driving for work) I'll write more posts with more specific tips.  As suggested in the comments, I'll bold some of the basic tips/suggestions throughout the post.

****

I wrote on Wednesday that I needed to re-up my commitment to make time for nature before the month ended and I inadvertently killed my 2013 streak of monthly nature outings.  In the middle of writing that post, I sent an email out to a group of my friends about organizing a hiking trip or adventuring some other adventure.  I got a reply from two of these pals about a potential camping trip already in the works with a few mutual friends.  I'm super duper shy and was a little nervous about spending the weekend with numerous people I don't consistently spend time with (but I did know almost all of them...super duper shy).  But, my friend A (who I went to the snow with) and another friend J were going to be there, and honestly I knew everyone else going was fun and nice, so I decided to get over my irrational reservations and do what I wanted to do:  go camping!


The other nice thing about tagging along on someone else's adventure is that I had to do very little planning.  The ring leader of the operation, M, had us all over to her house for dinner on Friday night where she made us delicious food and we worked out the details.  A had already picked out a great spot, the Snow Mountain Wilderness in the Mendocino National Forest.  I do my work along the coast in salt marshes, where there aren't really any trees and even less mountain action, so I love exploring in areas like this.  There were nine of us leaving together on Saturday morning and planning to return early Sunday evening, with another person meeting us up later on Saturday night.  So, we split up meal/beer duties and decided that we only needed two cars.  Everyone would sit close, but we would use way less gas, which, in a group of ecologists, is a prime concern.


I headed from the lovely dinner straight to the Co-op to get food for my meal, Saturday dinner.  I was going to make burritos with guacamole and my dinner counterpart planned to make roasted vegetable packs to put in the burritos or eat on the side.  I got my supplies and went home with the best of intentions intentions to make everything for my food contribution that night.  Instead, I went to my room and set my alarm for early...I'd do all that stuff in the morning.  We were planning to leave at 8am, and I didn't roll out of bed till 7:20.  I hadn't packed a single thing.  Oops.  Lucky for me I keep most of my camping gear in a single location and this was only an overnight trip.  I quickly threw all my stuff together in my backpack, went downstairs and threw all my food in a bag.  No coffee yet, ugh, but I rolled up to M's house only 15ish minutes late, just as everyone was bringing their stuff outside to pack in the cars.  Perfect timing actually.  And M had coffee.  A good woman.

We blew a tire on the way to the campsite,
but with our powers combined overcame

We piled into the two cars and began our caravan out to the Ranger's Station closest to our end destination.   Meridith wrote last summer about how we love to talk to park rangers and get their recommendation on what to do in the area.  We planned to ask this ranger where she thought we should camp, and we needed to get a campfire permit.  I actually didn't know that, in CA, when you are camping outside of designated camp grounds you must have a campfire permit to start a fire or use a camp stove.  It's a cool practice because they go through a bit of basic fire safety with you and make you state (cross your heart) that you will abide by certain cations to minimize fire risk.  If we want to keep enjoying the wilderness, we need to make sure and follow the rules.  Fire permit in hand, we headed to the recommended Summit Springs Trailhead.  Along the way we drove through the remnants of a forest fire, which A (a forest ecologist who studies fire!) told me happened in 2009.  We pitched our tents at the informal site along a flat about a quarter mile short of the trailhead.

The light green looking clearing in the center is a
serpentine outcrop

Serpentine

After an awesome lunch, we headed to the trailhead around 2:45 for a 4 hour hike about the wilderness.  We saw tons of really cool native flora and some awesome vistas.  One set of really cool ecological features we saw were the serpentine outcropings.  These unique geologic formations result in the very unique serpentine soils.  These soils are the result of the erosion of metamorphic rocks which contain high levels of iron and magnesium.  Due in part to the unique mineralogy of these rocks (and in part to some other ecological characteristics about which I am certainly not an expert), this soil has very characteristic properties and supports a specific group of native plants.  The really cool thing about serpentine outcrops is that they represent small discreet patches of habitat for theses specialized communities.  As a result, these soils and their associated flora and fauna have been used to study many ecological theories (island biogeography, meta-population structure, meta-community theory, just to name a few).  Plus, these are just really pretty rocks.

Forest Frisbee

Old Forest Fire

We arrived at an open glade around 5:00 pm, and everyone was pretty ready to turn around and head back for dinner prep before we lost the light.  A little game of frisbee broke out, and a few of us wandered a little past the open area, and around a meadow to attempt to get another good view.  Meadows are really cool ecosystems as well.  A lot like wetlands, they are periodically wet and walking through them can cause subtle changes in elevation, which alter hydrology and can impact the native species.  Public service announcement:  when you are hiking, always walk around a meadow.  We found our final view, which was a great glimpse of the valley and part of the Coast Range, and we also passed through another, older (according to A) forest fire.  Seeing all the burned trees standing there, stark white, with little saplings popping up underneath was really cool and moving for me.  Seeing the natural cycles of nature, and feeling like I understand even a small part of what is going on is humbling and exciting.  We headed back to camp, made an epic dinner, had an killer bonfire, drank some adult beverages, and ate (at least I did) one too many s'mores.  As the night wound down, we dowsed our fire with a substantial amount of water, stirred the embers, and headed to bed.

Informative Sign

The next morning after breakfast, we packed up our camp and headed back down the road.  We wanted to get another short hike in, but weren't sure where we wanted to go.  One of our party had a really poor night's sleep and another had long standing knee issues.  After a full day of hiking the day before, we were looking for something low key.  Luckily, on the way out, we passed a sign for Letts Lake.  We snacked by the shore then took a short, hour long hike all the way around the shores of the lake.  I, naturally, poked all around at the edge of the water and took a picture of the lake from every angle.  I love ecology in general, but when you add water to it, I'm in my element.  I saw some cool dragonfly exuvia on the emergent vegetation and a pretty interesting informative sign.  I wish there had been a little more information as I could infer a lot from this sign, but I think the general public would have been interested in a  bit more information.

Letts Lake

And that was that.  Adventure success.  And, despite my initial shy-girl reservations, I had a great time with this group of people and think I will hang with them again in the future.  It's hard for me, but I always feel so great after making new connections or expanding on ones that are already in place.  I'm excited to see what will happen in June as that will be the half way point for this new year's resolution.

Last Word:  After feeling sort of despondent after a few weeks of pretty intense work, getting out into nature totally recharged my batteries.  As usual when traveling, I tried to make sure we took as few cars as possible.  We brought and cooked almost all our own food (we stopped at a little Mexican joint on the way back out of the woods) and were careful to LNT (leave no trace) when we packed up our campsite.  We also were very careful about our use of fire in the woods and made sure to get the proper permits.  I also took lots of pictures and made sure to get thoroughly wow-ed by the natural splendor of the area.  A very successful trip indeed.      

This is me, glorying.

What do you think?  Do you get nervous going on trips with people who you don't know super well?  What are some of the best nature facts you've learned on the trail?  Any awesome "wow, this is beautiful and makes me feel small, which is AWESOME!" moments to share?   

Cool Stuff Sunday 7

Everyone's favorite Sunday smashup of cool and informative news and videos around the web is finally back for week 7! I tried to cover all pertinent topics: space, science, mathematics, travel, as well as a very inspirational video from a fab Woman in Science, Mayim Bialik.

I haven't forgotten about the HI-SEAS mission. It's well underway!

Col. Christ Hadfield is currently back on Earth following Command of Expedition 35 aboard the International Space Station. This was his last video before departing. Space. Baller.

Say what you will about Big Bang Theory as a show, this woman is inspirational and hilarious.

A 2010 study published online suggests that gentle electric shocks to the brain can improve mathematic skills.

I recently came across a new (old) concept that I must try while traveling around Europe. Sharing home-cooked meals should appeal to everyone!

I originally heard Abraham Verghese talking about this TED talk on NPR. Immediately looked up the full talk when I got home. So interesting and, if you'll excuse the obvious wording, touching.

Question of the Day:
What dish would you cook for others if you were hosting a home-cooked meal?

Edit: May 20, 2013 - It was pointed out to me that the article about electric shocks to the brain was published in 2010. Not quite recent, but still fascinating!

Everything the Light Touches is Yours

Day Five

Zion National Park
Established: 1909

Total Miles Hiked: 11.1 (25.7 overall)

Arriving at Zion NP the afternoon before had been a breathtaking event. Chelsea had warned us of its beauty, but the canyon is truly a sight you need to behold with your own eyes to appreciate. We wound down the mountain from the Southeast entrance, taking in as many views as possible without driving straight off the road. We passed through a tunnel and held our breath like good adventurers are supposed to do. We attempted to do the same at the next tunnel, but when we nearly passed out we decided it was best to cut our losses. For your future endevors, know that a 1.1 mile long tunnel is not the best place for the breath holding game. We managed to snag one of the few remaining First Come First Serve campsites (South Campground), checked out the nearby Visitor's Center for our customary swag, and settled down with a hot dinner courtesy of my new backpacking stove. Then off to bed for another night in the tent.

Ranger Carolyn had warned us the previous day against hiking the Narrows due to a high chance of flash floods (we later learned that there indeed had been a flood on this day). She could tell we were pretty extreme ladies and recommended the Observation Point hike. This 8 mile hiked gained 2,148 feet to a viewpoint of Zion Canyon.

We were up and scurrying around the campsite before the sun peeked over the canyon walls. With a hot breakfast in our bellies, we gathered the supplies we'd need to fill our day packs. Snacks. Lots of water. First Aid Kit. Rain gear. Hats. Sunscreen. Headlamps. Multi-tool. Binoculars. Phones (in a plastic baggie). Cameras. Maps. Rain.

Rain?

We might have been ready to head out on our hike, but apparently nature wasn't ready for us. We managed to stow our packs in the car, grab our letter writing box and hide in the tent while we waited out the rain.

A few postcards later, the rains let up and we quickly grabbed our packs and headed towards the visitor center before the sky changed its mind. Zion NP is uniquely in that it is primarily car-free park. We were able to leave our car at the campsite and walk a short jaunt to the nearby shuttle stop, where we immediately hopped on a shuttle. The ride was accented by an audio tour that points out major formations along the route in addition to detailing each stop. We rode our shuttle to the very top to catch the whole speal before heading back to our desired stop at Weeping Rock.

Hiking a narrow part of the trail.

After taking in a few informational signs, we were hiking and ascending towards Observation Point. We hike and climb. We climb and hike. We sweat and walk. We later agreed that had someone pointed out to us the ending location of our hike it would have been much more daunting. However, since we were blissfully unaware of the realities of our situation, the day went by quickly. We cheerfully greet people as they pass us. The normal hiking pleasantries, "Hey there, How's it going?, See ya at the top, Holy crap, sir, is it much further?". We enjoy talking to strangers. Most smiled and replied in kind.

It must be noted that every single stretch of this trail offered a wonderful view. We twisted in and out of different areas along the canyon walls. Sometime overlooking the Virgin River. Sometimes in narrow canyons. Sometimes with a view of pine trees. We took a birage of photos along the way, each time completely certain that the image captured couldn't possibly be topped by another.

When we were thinking that we simply couldn't go on much further, a lovely couple encouraged us with the reassurancet that we were only a few switchbacks from the top and then the trail would level out among the trees. We scrambled to the top and bathed in the shade of the Ponderosa Pines. Only a tiny bit further.

Hol-lee-crap.

View from the top

Now that's a view. Even with clouds rolling in with some light rain on the far side of the canyon, this was still a spectacular vantage point overlooking Zion Canyon. The other hikers seemed just as pleased with the visual reward and lounged around, looking victorious. We were quickly welcomed into the elite ranks of successful summiteers. People are much more willing to chat with you when they are rested and enjoying the fruits of their labors. We took photos for other groups and they returned the favor for us.

I believe everyone would have been content to stay at the top of the canyon wall for the better portion of the afternoon. The clouds were creeping closer, and even though we were on the highest of high ground, we still felt the need to get back to our campsite. Bidding farwell and exchanging some campsite numbers with our new friends, we scampered down the trail much faster than the climb.

Happy faces at the top!

Safe and sound at the campsite, we once more began to forage. We were quite proud of our afternoon feat and felt deserving of an appropriately delicious treat. Before leaving for our journey, we'd stocked up on food and snacks, but one stood above the rest.

M&Ms.

They are the perfect candy. My favorite. I love eating them one color at a time. Letting them sit in my mouth until the candy coating melts (in the rightful place) them enjoying the chocolately center. Rattling the bag to make sure I've captured all the yellow ones before moving on to green.

We pull the unopened bag from our cooler. A fresh chill treat. I pull back the plastic tab to reveal the resealable zipper. XXL 56 ounce bags don't mess around. I pull open the bag.

Now there is really only one reason I would go through the trouble of taking you through this giant lead up. Something bad has happened. Something tragic. A disaster of fierce proportions.

The bag had leaked.

Only a wet, brown desicration remained.

You can imagine my heartbreaking disappointment. My new favorite candy is now goldfish crackers. That is all I have to say about that.

I decided to make a glorious dinner to raise our spirits and set off into town in search of an onion. So many grand meals start with an onion. I decided on the camping stove version of the meal Chelsea had prepared for us. When I got back to good ol' campsite 34 I was greeted by Rachel and two of our new friends from Observarion point. B and Br had decided to take us up on our dinner enticements and came bearing gifts of cheese, ramen, and a slackline. My dinner didn't call for their provided ingredients, but Rachel's enthusiasm over the slackline was immense. She's now hooked and wants her own to perfect her skills.

After enjoying some after dinner refreshments, we chatted, we wandered about, we discussed the finer points of being a trail creeper (hint: it involved popping out from behind bushes and aggressively inquiring whether the unsuspecting hiker is a part of a very popular social networking site). The night wound down, as did we, and the first few stars began to visualize. Rachel gets excited if there are more than 4 stars out and tried to point out what she could. Br somehow manage to manifest a purple laser pointer that could be used to point out stars. But it was not quite dark enough. Our new friends eventually had to return to their own campsite, but gifted the laser pointer to us (they had two) so that Rachel could fulfill her new found desire to point at things in the sky. We will have to pass it on eventually and keep the camping karma going by meeting more friends and bestowing something of ours onto them.

Zion friends, if B managed to remember the website and you come check out our blog, shoot us an email with your details at alwaysscientist@gmail.com. If you include your addresses we'll send you postcards!

Questions of the Day:
Have you ever made friends when talking to strangers on an adventure?