Fourth of July Week
June was a great month, but it definitely dragged on at a snail’s
pace. Once we hit July 1st, everything just seems like a
blur. I can’t believe I am typing this entry almost a week late and
it’s July 10th. By the end of this week, half the month
will be over!! I’ve finally settled in out here as I feel like I’ve
created a whole new life, completely separate from the one I have in
Maine. The various staff and divisions here act like my family. My
supervisor, Mike Henry is like a father-figure. My 3 other trail
crew guys are like my brothers. I’ve got uncles in fire and veg
crew, aunts in resource management and lots of friends and cousins
in interp. I know I’ll be so excited to come home at the end of my
duration out here, but at the same time, I can already feel myself
capable of truly missing all the amazing people I have met through
this intern experience. I wouldn’t trade this adventure for anything
else this summer. I absolutely love it and I am having the time of
my life.
Last week was amazing! We worked Monday, half day on Tuesday,
Wednesday off, and then worked Thursday and Friday. It was a really
nice break to the week. We started off with more regen cutting,
which is monotonous, boring, hot and tiring. To make our time pass
more quickly cutting those baby ponderosa pines all day, we’ve
started a quote book. It is hilarious. We’ve come out with some
pretty randomly funny statements, and it will be great to go back
over them at the end of the summer.
Oh! And Erin read my tarot cards. She is part of the interpretation
staff and apparently really into Celtic tarot card readings. I’ve
never had my cards read before so I didn’t know quite what to
expect, but she was fantastic! It was almost scary how accurate she
was without even really knowing who I am. She also read a little
into my future, so we shall see how it all unfolds.
Fourth of July was a lot of fun. Mount Rushmore always puts on a
grand fireworks display right behind the president’s heads. Since
the actual monument is packed with thousands of people, about 10 of
us hiked up Harney Peak to watch them. It was so beautiful up there.
The sunset on the way up was breath-taking and the granite needle
formations were spectacular. I definitely would love to explore more
that area later in the summer.
And I basically got beat up this week. I played Indian leg wrestling
with a few people and ended up scraping my knee really bad on the
pavement that I didn’t realize I was encroaching on. Then while we
were playing volleyball, Ben fell on me and completely crushed my
hip. He is a huge guy. Now I have an enormous bruise on my side.
I’ve been trying to wear pants even in this really hot weather to
protect my legs from various branches that seem to lunge out and
gouge me. I don’t want to have any more scars.
Friday we were able to switch up the work week by going out with the
veg crew. We helped them manually pull weeds in the morning. Canada
thistle is a non-native species that tends to take over the prairie
and has to be controlled. After that, we headed over to the prairie
dog towns where they showed us how to set-up, measure and GPS a
transect plot. It was really interesting and I learned a lot. They
are trying to complete a research experiment on Horehound, another
invading non-native species. Some studies in Australia have shown
that burning the plant is most effective, but the team at Wind Cave
is measuring different plots to see its true effectiveness and how
it affects the surrounding plant life. Next spring, after some
Horehound plots are burned, they will go back in to see what plants
will take its place. The main concern is that Canada thistle may
take over in those areas, which would obviously defeat the purpose.
We were able to help with their research by identifying plants in a
grid every 5 meters along a 50 meter line. We had to calculate the
approximate percentage of each plant species in the section,
including the amount of Horehound. Then we had to estimate the
percentage of green versus bare ground and other stats. It was
really interesting work and I hope to go out with them more often.
The rest of the weekend was fairly low-key as the hot weather drove
everyone inside. We were able to go to Spearfish Canyon, which is
the picture I’ve provided for this week. It was absolutely gorgeous.
We traveled into a huge limestone canyon that contained a beautiful
winding creek. It was so nice to be somewhere with lush green
vegetation and thick overhead canopies that provided shady havens
instead of the dry open desert-like prairie. It reminded me of
Maine.
The heat was so intense this past week. You can’t touch anything
without getting soaked. We had to make a few trips down to Cold
Brook Lake to cool off a bit. I’ve had a little bit of trouble
sleeping at night without the occasional breeze to sweep through my
window, so I decided to invest in a small fan, which has proven to
be a miracle sleeping aid. It has been so hot that a major fire has
broken out recently, which I am sure you have heard on the national
news. It started near Hot Springs, which is only a few miles south
of Wind Cave. It has spiraled out of control and as of today has
consumed about 9,000 acres, 30-50 homes and at least a few lives.
Right now, fire teams only have about 20% of it under control, which
is nothing. I hope that it doesn’t do too much more damage to the
area. It has made for some interesting cloud formations and evening
sky colors though.
Anyways, my apologies to those avid readers for the entry delay, but
time is slipping through my fingers faster than I can catch it. I
didn’t even have time until now to sit down and write this. I will
definitely have another entry up in a few more days to cover this
week.
