UPDATES

8/15/08 - Went into Jackson and collected our last sample north of Wilson.  Continuing with the weeks trend, it turned out to be a big pain, lots of bushwacking and yellow jackets.  However, when we got out of the woods and back to the car, there was a moose and her 'mooselet' waiting for us!  So, like any southern gentleman, Ryan offered her a beer.

8/14/08 - Phil took the day off after his record breaking Moran triathalon while Ryan and I caught a boat ride over to Colter Canyon.  We planned on it being an easy sample, until Ryan fell down a dirt cliff and we got into a hornets nest, but we found our rock.  When we got back to the boat we saw a bull moose swimming across Jackson Lake!  Enlarge this photo to see the moose (didn't have enough time to zoom in!)

8/13/08 - After taking a day off to rest our tired legs, we decided to divide and conquer.  Phil went back up to Mt. Moran to get the last two samples above the high camp and two lower ones, Ryan went to try to find the samples between Phelps and Taggart lakes (again), and I went to Colter Bay to try to snag us a boat ride to the other side of Jackson Lake.  For the afternoon, I headed down south to Teton Village and met up with Ryan to clean up the rest of the Rendezvous Mountain samples (some severe and steep bushwacking).  In the end, we all got our assigned rocks and celebrated with some Teton Thai!

08/10/08 and 8/11/08 - Headed up Garnet Canyon for the last of the high altitude samples!  We left Lupine around 1:30 and made our way up to The Meadows to set up camp.  The weather was pretty awesome, the mountains were generating storms so the action was happening in the valley.

We met up with Lisa and Roger, set up camp, and enjoyed some sweet sunset action as the storms rolled out.

After waking up at 4am to start our day, we headed up to the Lower Saddle and finally got a look at what was ahead of us...

Roger hung out at the Lower Saddle (as he had just flown in Saturday and was still adjusting) and Ryan, Phil, Lisa, and myself headed up to the Upper Saddle to get our rocks.

Finally made it!

After a speed scramble down to the Lower Saddle and the talus stomp back down to camp, we packed up and practically ran the five miles back to the car with our rock laden packs.  We hopped in and made it to Dornans for pizza and beer with 30 minutes to spare!  After a few drinks and some amazing pizza we made it back to the research station.  Mission accomplished. 

08/09/08 - Yesterday we went to do the top half of the Rendezvous transect.  Sent Ryan back up to the gondola halfway down with four samples.  Phil and I headed down in to bear country and managed to wander down two drainages that had no bedrock whatsoever.  Made it back to the car before it rained with seconds to spare.  So, unfortunately, that means we will have to head back up there sometime this week. 

Headed down a run (minus the skis and snow) at Jackson Hole

Found the east-facing Asters for Gram!!!!

And in other news, we think the swallows fledged from the stairs today!!! (here they are pre-fledge, after their nest collapsed)

This morning Captain Rich took us over to sample along the shores of Jackson Lake.  The boat ride was a blast! 

08/07/08 - Gram and Pop-pop came to visit, so more about our tours later!  Back to work tomorrow!

08/06/08 - Where to start... so Monday, the guys went back up to Moran.  I told them I would meet them at highcamp yesterday to help carry rocks and gear back down, and asked Lisa to join me.  The guys estimated that they would be down by 3pm.  Lisa and I took the two man kayak at the research center and left at about 8am.  We put in around 8:30 and made it to the base of Moran around 10am.  They had requested that we bring them sandwiches and doritos, and also that we leave a couple of beers at the lake for that evening.  We did some speed stomping and made it up to high camp around 1pm, meaning plenty of time to spare.  Well, 4pm rolled around, and still no guys... We started to get concerned, until a group came down and said they saw Ryan and Phil but they probably wouldn't make it out by dark.  Since we didn't plan on leaving so late, we didn't have headlamps (to go back), warm clothing, or extra food!  By the time it was dark, there was still no sign of them and it started to get pretty cold.  We decided to get in the tent the guys had left set up and fell asleep.  Finally, around midnight the guys staggered back, dehydrated, starving, and one rope (and some gear) short.  After hydrating, Ryan, Lisa, and I crammed in to the tent and Phil nested in some rope and his sleeping bag.  We woke up the next morning and made our way down to the boats.  Although they didn't really want to, they felt obliged to consume the beers at the bottom of Moran at 9:30 am.  So we made it back, stinky and starving. 

On the upside, we stumbled upon a Grizzly at the String Lake put in!!!

08/04/08 - Ryan and Phil are headed back up Mt. Moran today to summit in the morning.  I collected a few more samples along strike and enjoyed some quiet time with the wildlife!

08/03/08 - More along strike samples... a lot of hiking for kind of poor samples and no good pics!

 08/02/08 - Rested our legs for a day and did a little roadside collecting on Teton Pass and along strike...

08/01/08 - Just returned from a two-day excursion to the CMC high camp on Mt. Moran.  We borrowed a canoe from the research station, paddled in across String and Leigh Lakes and hiked up to camp and crashed.  This morning we woke up, hiked up a couple hundred meters to get a sample, and then sampled on our way back down!

(Mt. Moran is the big one in the picture)

In between String and Leigh

Cooking some dinner for the boys!

We forgot our tent poles...

Ryan demonstrating the correct usage of bear mace.

Not the easiest rock to sample...

Finally, the long hike out!

Paddling back after a long couple of days!!!

7/30/08 - A couple along strike samples to get the legs warmed up!!!

07/22/08 - Ordered SPOT, so everyone can track us in REAL TIME while we are out and about! (and also so search and rescue can find us if anything goes wrong....)

07/22/08 - 6 days to departure.  A little over 2000 miles.  The Civic hates me.