Day 17 - Fish Lake, UT
Today was the so-called "canyon day." 3 teams went up the 3 canyons on the east side of th Mytoges - Pole, Ivie and Splatter canyons. Danielle, Amber, and I were tasked to go up Ivie Canoyon - Shorter than Pole but longer than Splatter (but without the bushwhacking). The assignment was to look for bedrock as we went up, mark bedrock and type on the map. The team of us started just after 8am and the hike took a while. I believe it was over 5 miles to get to N. Crater Lake at the top of the Mytoges. Today was the hottest day it's been yet at Fish lake. We were really drained by th eheat and most importantly the lack of wind down in the canyon. The mosquitos were a bitch too. I've got probably 10 new bites today. Dang it.
Well anyway, up at N. Crater Lake (~1pm), we start eating lunch and gawk at the 700-or-so cows up there. A chorus of moos was the soundtrack to our eating. It was funny to see how they beheaved towards us. While up there we also noticed that the water level had dropped considerably and all the pretty flowers on the banks of the lake were eaten up by the cows.
After dining, the three of us tip toed through the "pasture" over cow pies galore - frightening hundres of 900-lb heifers that could no doubt trample us easily. Quite amusing to me, really.
Tired, but grateful to be back, we arrived at the Lake Creek trailhead at 3pm or so [see note below...] This capped our 8.5 mile-or-so hike for the day. We were supposed to have rendezvous-ed with the other 2 teams (after Splatter got down and Pole [Chuck and Grant] swam across Fish Lake). However, we were long the last group and quickly got back to camp before it rained (which it really didn't). By the way I put a tarp on my tent today to improve its impermeability.
After, we went to the "new" cabin to look at data. There is a nice moraine-like feature that became apparent looking at the bathymetry. Winsconsin-1 related? Who knows? Could be something other than a glacial deposit too.
Cornbread tonight at dinner...wonderful! I think I had too much though and am now a bit full and tired.
G'night,
-S
[Note: I should note that the times mentioned in this entry are a bit skewed. I, foolishly, forgot to put my watch on this morning after taking it off the previous night when doing the dishes. Thus, our only clock while out in the field was on Amber's GPS. I did not learn until days later that this GPS was the cause of our lateness, which was an hour and a half. The GPS was set on California time and thus we were running WAY behind when we thought we were only running a bit behind schedule. Not that you really care anyway.]
Well anyway, up at N. Crater Lake (~1pm), we start eating lunch and gawk at the 700-or-so cows up there. A chorus of moos was the soundtrack to our eating. It was funny to see how they beheaved towards us. While up there we also noticed that the water level had dropped considerably and all the pretty flowers on the banks of the lake were eaten up by the cows.
After dining, the three of us tip toed through the "pasture" over cow pies galore - frightening hundres of 900-lb heifers that could no doubt trample us easily. Quite amusing to me, really.
Tired, but grateful to be back, we arrived at the Lake Creek trailhead at 3pm or so [see note below...] This capped our 8.5 mile-or-so hike for the day. We were supposed to have rendezvous-ed with the other 2 teams (after Splatter got down and Pole [Chuck and Grant] swam across Fish Lake). However, we were long the last group and quickly got back to camp before it rained (which it really didn't). By the way I put a tarp on my tent today to improve its impermeability.
After, we went to the "new" cabin to look at data. There is a nice moraine-like feature that became apparent looking at the bathymetry. Winsconsin-1 related? Who knows? Could be something other than a glacial deposit too.
Cornbread tonight at dinner...wonderful! I think I had too much though and am now a bit full and tired.
G'night,
-S
[Note: I should note that the times mentioned in this entry are a bit skewed. I, foolishly, forgot to put my watch on this morning after taking it off the previous night when doing the dishes. Thus, our only clock while out in the field was on Amber's GPS. I did not learn until days later that this GPS was the cause of our lateness, which was an hour and a half. The GPS was set on California time and thus we were running WAY behind when we thought we were only running a bit behind schedule. Not that you really care anyway.]