Two in One.

Sorry about the absence of a post yesterday, I've kept pretty busy the past few days...

Yesterday.
We had originally set out yesterday with the intent of doing my least favorite thing in my most favorite watershed. Dilution gauging in watershed 17. Why do I hate dilution gauging. By all means I should really enjoy it because of the dye we have to put in the water, turning it a lovely shade red. Who doesn't want to see a stream turn into a river of blood (hypothetical blood of course) before their eyes? Well, it's everything else that annoys me. The hours we have to spend beforehand meticulously measuring out bags of salt. The slow trickle of stream water we have to use to try and fill a 10 liter bucket. The pouring of salt into the bucket one bag of salt at a time, bit by bit, until a certain amount is reached (5, 7, 10 salt bags later). The stirring of said salt into said bucket after the addition of each and every said bag. The dumping of the bucket of saltwater in the stream. And finally, the waiting...and waiting...and waiting for all the salt to pass by our conductivity probe only to pick up all our stuff and do it all over again 50 meters upstream. I've never been the most impatient person, but neither have I been the most patient, so I find this experiment particularly trying. To pass the time, Catherine, Joey, and I sat around talking. One thing led to another and next thing I know we were having a pretty indepth exchange of ghost stories and paranormal anecdotes. My kind of afternoon. I even came to learn that Nitin himself is a real life palmist! As in reads people's palms to determine their future!!! Who would have thought I would be working under one! I can promise you this, you have not heard the last of this discovery...After our first try at dilution gauging, we realized that we hadn't put enough salt in the stream to get the results we wanted, so we tried a second time with 100 grams of salt rather than 30 and then sat back down and kept talking ghost. Welp, turns out that by the time this second go-around finished up, we realized that the data logger we had been using wasn't recording any of the data correctly. A bit discouraged, but relieved to have an excuse to stop dilution gauging, I went upstream to grab my walking stick when I had my first one-on-one showdown with a snake. About to step down on its wrigling body, I proceeded to hold my foot mid-air for a brief moment before leaping further than I ever thought possible back onto the trail and down to Joey and Catherine. Clearly startled by my excessive panic, they assumed it must have been a substantially large copperhead, so of course hurried up the hill to get a good look at the beast before it disappeared. Much to my embarassment, it was instead a harmless little garter snake. Better safe than sorry though? Anyways, upon seeing the snake, Catherine proceeded to fetch her work gloves and quite literally WRANGLE the thing from underneath a log...

So there he is ladies and gentlemen, the vicious killer I tumbled down a mountain fleeing from...I've really got to get over myself...

Today.

This morning also began in the heart of watershed 17...

Sent to collect serial numbers from the cap rods, I hiked up to 17 only to discover that you needed a computer to determine the serial numbers by connecting them into the cap rods...oops. Instead of wasting the hike out, I decided to explore a bit and saw some pretty cool critters...

My hand for scale.

"Sup."

I haven't yet decided if this is a queen bee or the bodyguard for a queen bee...

Please take note of the abnormally large size of the above snails and bee and the beauty of watershed 17 in the early morning light. 

While Catherine came back to get a computer to actually collect the serial numbers of the cap rods, I prepared all my syringes for tomorrow's rain gauge sampling and did some data entry before we all met back up for lunch. After lunch we drove out to Josh's sites about an hour away from Coweeta to look around since the last time we had been was on my first day here, needless to say we needed to reacquaint ourselves with these long since forgotten wells and transects. After all the re-touring was over with, we stopped at a cute little diner for milkshakes and visited this cool rock museum/store that we stumbled upon in Ruby City. Seeing all the cool little shops and random museums and mountain stores made me excited to be driving out to these sites every week to collect rain gauge samples. I guess there is stuff to see way out here in the middle of nowhere...

Today also marks the day my little sister graduated from high school. Unfortunately being here at Coweeta prevented me from attending...still, I can't help but bragging some about what an amazing sister I have and how proud I am of her for all that she's done and the person she is growing up to be. Being without her or the rest of my family and friends is probably the worst/hardest thing about this summer internship, it gets a bit lonely being surrounded by people but not really knowing anyone, if you know what I mean...but I digress. Point blank, congrats little sis! I love you Cam, you're going to do some pretty great things...

I Got Bruises On My Knees For You.

Today was the first official day I woke up to a somewhat substantial rainfall.
Thanks to my years of experience in the outdoors however, I managed to stay relatively dry trampsing through overflowing stream beds. I did not however manage to avoid the muddied mush of the trails, some of which felt like a mucky slip-n-slide tilted at a 45-80 degree angle. I don't care how sure-footed you are, it is impossible get up slopes of freshly exposed clay and leaf litter without losing your grip. When it comes down to it though, I've decided I'll take muddy knees and nails over wet wool socks any day...
Amongst the long hours of cap rod calibration in the rain, I managed to have a nice conversation with this little guy before my calls got a bit too overdone.

*Caution mindless grunt work in the forest can oftentimes force oneself to begin conversing with the surrounding wildlife, in particular the local barred owls of the area.* 
After work today, I'm sorry to say that besides some afternoon yoga, data entry, and card games with some of the biologists, I spent the rest of my day curled up in bed watching netflix with a big mug of tea. Just a typical rainy day here in Coweeta...

One Mountain to Another.

Sorry for the lack of post yesterday, there wasn't enough time in the day to sit in front of a computer screen...wow never thought I'd say that in this day and age... As a recap however, yesterday was my first day out in the watersheds doing solo work! Although I"m helping out everyone with everything that needs to be done, Friday has officially been set aside as my rain gauge isotope sampling day, for my own summer research project. I essentially hike around to all of Nitin's watersheds, collect rain water samples from all the rain gauges (there are 9), dump the rest of the water, dry the gauge out, and put it back up with some fresh mineral oil. We line the bottoms of the gauges with this slimy nuisance to prevent evaporation. However, as I have most unfortunately discovered it has the tendancy to stain not only my favorite t-shirts but apparently my rain jacket as well... After I had collected all 9 samples, I headed back up to Boone for the weekend and let me just take a moment to say how nice it is to be back, if only for a few days. The 3+ years I've lived in this small town have really grown on me. Returning to Boone feels like returning home, although I suppose the people here waiting for me definitely play a role...Anyways, due to the fact that I don't have anything else of any interest to report, I'll cut this blog short until I'm back in Coweeta on Tuesday. No sense in boring you till then...

Stream Trippin'

Yesterday was finishing up work in watershed 17, back to the dorm for data entry and equipment organization, Indian food, and The Matrix. I have to say, watershed 17 is one of my absolute favorites to work in, the way the sunlight hits the trees, the commanding nature of the pines, the squishy moss and apple green ferns that line the ground...it makes you feel like you're the only person in the world who has ever laid eyes on it. I like that feeling, even if it isn't true.

It was Nitin's last day, so as such he offered up his services as chef for the night to cook us all some authentic egg curry. Being a bit skeptical about any food that contains a spice I've never tried before, I was unsure of what to expect. However, it not only exceeded my expectations, but I might be begging Nitin to cook more often when he returns. From now until mid-June however, it's just me, Joey, and Catherine. Shortly after his departure, his empty bed along with any others, were filled with a sudden influx of newcomers last night. The dorms are now at full capacity and everywhere you go there are new scientists settling into the Coweeta routine; which from what I've observed consists mainly of eating, sleeping, netflix, and reading with the small exception of almost continuous banjo music. I know what you're thinking...banjo in the mountains?...unheard of. Cliche as it sounds, i'm not kidding. As for what I did today, basically this (see video below) only instead of the ground picture a muddy stream with rocks and crawfish and instead of lasers, picture rotten fallen trees, spider webs, and snakes...

If you're not the imaginative type, I spent most of my day trekking through this...

Not exactly an easy task, but I am proud to admit that although I found a total of 5 ticks crawling up my pants throughout the day, not one got to sink its grimy little teeth into my flesh. As to why I had to spend the day crunching through fallen rhododendron, we were measuring the length of the stream within one of the watersheds. So if you ever wondered how someone knows the length of a creek running through some random mountains, that's how. 

And that's about all I have to say about my past two days here, so in parting, I'll leave you with the following picture of a spider I found right outside the dorm. If you know anything about me, you will know of my hatred for these 8-legged beasts, so naturally you can imagine my horror at the existence of this particular species...

Coweeta, aka "The Middle of Nowhere"

I know it's been a while...ok almost 3/4 of a year...but this summer I actually have something worthwhile to blog about besides my relatively uneventful past semester. From now until the end of July, I am a hydrogeologist field intern at Coweeta Hydrologic Lab, located in the small town of Otto, North Carolina. 3 hours from Boone and a whole 5 1/2 hours from my hometown in Raleigh, I'm living far from familiarity this summer. I've been here for a little over a week now and so much has happened I don't even know where to begin. I came into this internship with a pretty sketchy knowledge of hydrogeology, having never taken an official hydro class before. However, I seem to be learning quick. I'm finding it quite impossible not to out in the field. My main research project for the summer consists of isotope sampling (oxygen isotopes more specifically) of storm events on hill slopes. I'm collecting water samples from rain gauges and wells during storm events to better understand water flow during these events down a hill slope into a stream. Our hope is to be storm chasers in a sense that go out during a storm event and collect water from the wells and stream as it rains. Yes, this means running around in the rain like maniacs anywhere from 4-8 hours until the rain stops. It's going to be a loong summer... Most of my days have been spent out in the woods in the watersheds hiking, collecting samples from wells, hiking, taking measurements, and more hiking. Last week was especially long, working 10-12 hour days every day. However on Friday we all took a trip to one of the last (if not the last?) old growth forest in the southeast, Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest, located about 2 hours away from Coweeta. This week has been just as eventful: I saw my first copperhead, heard my first black bear huffing, have already acquired new bug bites, scrapes, and bruises to replace my ones from last week, and am already sore again 3 days in. Instead of typing out all of the details of my time here in Coweeta thus far, I'll show you my first week and a half...

The dorms where I'm living.

The view from the dorms.

Breakfast and some good ole' mountain morning fog.

A log is blocking the road...what do you do?

The obvious answer, ram into it repeatedly with a Ford.

Meet Baxter!

In an experiment to determine the difference between hydrology in a deciduous and coniferous forest, Coweeta clear cut this watershed and planted nothing but white pines 6in. apart from one another. You feel like you're in another part of the country...it's eerie.

Some fancy hydro technology that I have no idea how to work. Story of my life...

Sometimes I wish I knew my fungi...

Pumping some water from the wells.

Nitin hiding from the rain, i'm sorry drizzle haha.

I have a feeling I'm going to be seeing this pump a lot in the next few months.

The long metal tube (caprod) Joey is holding sits in the wells collecting data.

An old abandoned experiment, Coweeta is filled with these creepy remnants.

A weir, used to measure stream discharge. Depending on the stream size and velocity, there will be different shapes for it to flow through.

Watershed 2 weir as seen from the road.

I can cook afterall!!!!!

Please take note of the 4 foot snake disappering IN the tree. I didn't know they lived inside of trees...great.

Just another day at the office...

The Hemlock Woolly Adelgid killing off eastern North America's hemlocks.

Dilution gauging.

My boss, Ryan.

Those are some big splinters. (At Joyce Kilmer)

An incredibly tall tulip poplar. (At Joyce Kilmer)

Joyce Kilmer.

A boulder caught in the roots of one of the trees, don't see that everyday. (At Joyce Kilmer)

I think Nitin had just called me a tree hugger. (At Joyce Kilmer)

Joyce Kilmer.

Joyce Kilmer.

Joyce Kilmer.

The COOLEST most INTRICATE roots i've ever seen. Tree of Souls much? (At Joyce Kilmer)

A big ass tree, Joey and Nitin for scale. (At Joyce Kilmer)

Chinese graffiti!...on one of the oldest trees in the eastern U.S...typical tourist. (At Joyce Kilmer)

The Pleasing Fungus Beatle, and yes, that is it's real name. (At Joyce Kilmer)

Joyce Kilmer.

I'm getting really tired of seeing snakes...(At Joyce Kilmer)

So now I know snakes can be found on the ground, inside of a tree, and on a tree. Nowhere is safe...(At Joyce Kilmer) ............................So there's my first week and a half at Coweeta. So far, so good.