life in the desert

So I've been back from New Zealand for 3 weeks now. It was a pretty fast transition to the desert tortoise job in the Mojave. Las Vegas is just as washed out and crazy as I was expecting, however I haven't really spent any time in the city itself. I've mostly been out in the desert during the week and taking off on the weekends. We've had a lot of training for the job, mostly because the tortoises are a federally protected species and so we have to know how to properly handle them. Apparently, in the past biologists have contributed to the spread of diseases between tortoises, oops. We also got wilderness first aid training, which was really nice. It was stuff that I really should know, being in the backcountry so much.
Not having spend a lot of time in this part of the country, I wasn't sure what to expect. When most people think of the desert they think of a barren wasteland. I'd spent a lot of time in the Sonoran desert in Arizona, but I'd never been to the Mojave, which is a lot hotter and drier than the Sonoran. Luckily this time of year is much cooler than it gets in the summer. There is actually an incredible amount of cool places to go hiking, birding, and other outdoorsy things in the area. One big advantage the Southwest has to the Pacific Northwest is the amazing diversity of reptiles It's been really fun to learn new species that I haven't seen before. Some really cool new species of birds as well. Red Rocks is an amazing recreation area only a 10 minute drive from my front door. It's one of the best climbing areas in the country. There is more to Vegas than casinos!!!
Last weekend I went to Death Valley to explore. My co-worker Andrew and I barely scratched the surface of stuff to see in a short weekend but I was pretty blown away by the amount of slot canyons to explore, dry washes to hike up, and all the colored rock formations present. Death Valley used to be the bottom of an enormous lake, and eventually all of the various earth layers got all mixed up and pushed around and the result is really cool rock.
I only have 3 and a half more weeks until I head to my summer job in Yosemite and I'd really like to explore this area as much as I can while I'm here. I plan on using every second of my weekend time seeing cool outdoor stuff. Except for when Emily comes to visit in a couple weeks and we do tons of kitschy Vegas stuff like mini-golf and Guinness World Records museums, etc.

hike in Death Valley

cottontop cactus

a dry waterfall


looks like a headcoming back down a dry streambed in the canyon


colorful hills

more hills
desert tortoise

NZ recap

Well, that moment has finally come. Two months have totally flown by and tomorrow I fly back to the states. I've been spending the end of my time here pretty much like the beginning of my trip, strolling around Christchurch's stellar Botanic Gardens and the enormous Hagley Park, enjoying the grounds and having lots of picnic lunches. There are a couple good free museums in town, but it's too hard to spend time inside, so I haven't made it yet. The main downtown of the city is still completely devastated and it's quite a spectacle to see all the crumbling buildings in various states of disrepair and all the enormous cranes looming in the city's skyline.

So I guess I last posted about a month ago. Since then I've been doing as much backpacking as I could, except for a bit of city time in a place called Dunedin. I've been mainly in two national parks called Mt. Aspiring and Fiordland. Describing all of the hikes, while I think would be fascinating, would probably bore the standard person to death so I won't pore over the details. I'll just paraphrase: 1) New Zealand has incredible wilderness and national parks 2)I'm doing some of the best hiking I've ever done, in January and February to boot 3)Life is good.

I took a break from the trail at one point to spend some time in a really cool city called Dunedin. It's a college town filled with tons of beautiful old buildings,really good food, the best nightlife on the South Island, cool free museums, and it's on the Otago Peninsula, which is one of the best spots on the island to view wildlife. It turned out that I had an old Earlham friend living there who I stayed with and she just happened to be getting her masters on yellow-eyed penguins, one of the world's rarest penguins. She took me around and gave me the first-hand expert tour of the penguins, which was really cool.

After I left Dunedin I stopped for a couple days in a cute little town called Oamaru. I did a lot of leisurely strolling around the old buildings and gardens as usual, but the definite highlight was lawn bowling. I've spied lawn bowling greens around New Zealand since I first came and have really been wanting to see it in action. There was the equivalent of a VA-type place in Oamaru where I actually got to try it out myself. I joined June and David, a really cute old couple, on the green for a really nice morning of bowling and chatting. Lawn bowling is kind of like bocce ball except one big difference is that the balls you throw towards the jack are much heavier on one side than the other. The ball will roll fairly straight for a while and curve strongly after about 20 meters, the length of the green. You have to plan for this curve when you release the ball, it's quite a game of finesse.

Leaving Oamaru, I lucked out and got a hitch all the way up to Christchurch with a guy driving a huge truck transporting medical wastes. It wasn't an 18-wheeler, more the size of a large garbage truck, and it was an interesting view to take it all in from up high. The driver was a really interesting guy, he had just taught English in Thailand for three years, and had traveled around se asia and australia for the better part of 20 years. When I got dropped off in Christchurch, lo and behold there was an enormous beer festival going on. Apparently they had sold out 10,000 tickets (didn't seem quite that big though), but I managed to sneak my way in and enjoy the live music and even a bit of the overpriced but delicious beer. That night I camped at the Occupy site, which was interesting to see how things were at an Occupy so far away from New York.

In the past week I've been backpacking at a national park called Arthur's Pass. Most tracks consist of unmarked trails, and you mostly just follow certain river drainages. I didn't see a single person on the trail for four days in a row. It was certainly some of the most wild and remote wilderness I've been in. I did a bit of shorter hikes and one big burly backpack which had hot springs near one of the huts. They naturally bubble up at a spot directly on the river,so you can divert water from the river until the temperature is perfect for soaking your body battered from the intense hiking and bushwacking.

So tomorrow I fly to Las Vegas where I'll start my desert tortoise job. The big news of the moment is that I just took a job in Yosemite for the summer. I'll be working mainly with birds, but also doing some bat and alpine mammal surveys. One big difference between this summer and the last few is that I'll actually be working directly for the national park instead of a non-profit. The other BIG difference is that Emily is at Yosemite and for the first time in five years we'll be able to spend the summer together!!! We are both really excited about this and look forward to a really awesome summer.

Yosemite Falls II

This weekend I went back up to Yosemite Falls. This time, I left earlier in the morning and was able to make it all the way to the top, an elevation gain of about 2800 feet. While David probably does this every morning before breakfast, for me it was quite a hike, and I was glad to come home last night to the couch and a beer.
Here is a picture taken on the ledge on the top of the falls (yes mom, I was behind the guardrail). From here, it is a 1400 foot sheer drop to the middle cascades and the lower falls, which you can see the top of on the right of the picture.

This is a picture I took on the hike up, you can see the ledge where the above picture was taken.

more pictures on the flickr page. will write more when i get the chance.