Owned the Cliffs!

Posted by Alyssa Howlett , Saturday, June 5, 2010 8:44 PM

This past week (week 2) has been a busy one. We started a new project, and finished it turning in a topo map and a cross section of the area. We had a hydro project on Wednesday that was really nice. We got to head up into the mountains and into a more wooded area. We got into the stream and found out how fast it is flowing, looked at the pebbles and surveyed the land. We had a great time. It was so much more relaxed and full of life than us in the field. There was a stream and plants and trees, so nice! We came back that day and worked on equations showing us how important water is to Wyoming and how they use it for irrigation. Nifty info!

The past two days we have been working in a place called “Goose Egg” or “Alkali”. We had to map all the formation contacts and take strikes and dips of the beds to determine the structure of the beds (if they were folded or plunging). The area we had to cover was 4 square miles of cliffs, valleys, ridges, and gullies (aka A LOT OF CLIMBING AND WALKING) it was nuts! I am totally going to have some kickin’ legs when I get back! Woo baby! I keep telling that to my self when I am hiking up those steep sides, ha. We got a new group for this assignment, and I got lucky and got paired with Lisa, one of my good girl friends here at camp. It took us a bit to get started but after we figured out where we were and what formation we were standing on we rocked it! We ended up having lunch at the top of a cliff and then spent most of the day in the valley. Since 4 square miles is so big we rarely saw anyone all day, so Lisa and I bonded hard core. We got a little loopy after 2 pm. We were hot and tiered and ready to go. We ended up laughing at everything, so it was actually a lot of fun. Ha! We saw a badger too, but no one believes us! We ended up hiking to the top of a huge stepp cliff that is at the elevation of ~4500 feet! Woah, I felt like I was touching the clouds! We then had to find the vans, we laughed so hard about our day, just how crazy it was for the whole 30 minute walk to the vans!

The next day we attacked the same location finishing up our map. Lisa and I started the morning at 9am with a vertical hike to summit the one of the ridges. We walked along that ridge for about 2 hours and tried tanning while we are up there too! Hey, why not right? We got all our info down, since we are mapping rock stars, and headed back to the van. Creature of the day Friday June 4th: a Black Widow Spider! It was eating a fly! Cool!

We finished our map like pros and turned it in. We then all hung out and played games last night then made another trip to the Greybull bars to try our luck at Karaoke. We had a great time. About 20 of us went and were we go, we bring the party! ☺

Today I did my laundry and and going to have a chill night by the campfire and make smores!!!!! ☺

ON to week 3! I can’t believe how fast this is going! And Happy Birthday Brother! You are the coolest brother ever! Love you!!!!!!