Day 20

Six ticks and a flat tire. This is today's story.

Well we had a couple of days off last weekend since I got to go back to NJ for my friend Lisa's wedding for a day, which was a nice visit even though it was way too short. Anyway, today was back to work. And we were tired. Really tired.

We had a pretty good day in the field overall, its really started to get hot here. Today it was over 90 degrees by noon, so we were REALLY hot out there. Birds surveys went pretty well and we did more habitat sampling on 10 year old reclaimed mine site. I took a neat picture of a hardened track in the mud (along with my gps unit for scale, its about 5 in. long). We actually think this is a cat track, probably a bobcat, since there are no claws visible. The larger mammals really must get around on that site- we see scat and prints everywhere (bear and coyote, mostly). Luckily, we haven't run into any aggressive ones yet!

So we're getting ready to leave and there is this extremely steep and rocky road that we have to climb. Seriously, its about 2000 feet elevation done in maybe less than a quarter of a mile- its crazy steep. So we get to the top and I take off the 4-wheel drive since we're on a regular gravel road (we've done this many times before). Anyway, we drive a little ways down the road, and pop! there goes the tire. Good thing Chris and Lupita were expert tire changers. They changed the tire (in record time I might add) and I supervised (and took pictures). Luckily since we are using a rental car, the cost of the new tire is covered, but we have to wait until tomorrow morning to get it done. So my schedule for the rest of the week is all messed up since we won't be out early enough tomorrow to survey birds. It's always something.

Chris and Lupita working on the flat tire on the dirt road in the middle of nowhere.

Speaking of pain in the butt- the ticks were really bad today! I had tons of spray on my clothes and still had to pull six ticks out of me when we got back!! Nasty little buggers. Not one of the nicer parts of the Great Outdoors.