okay, so not to get political....

but it's a little crazy that the Green Heron made national news.... stupid scum Sanford.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31605085/ns/politics-washington_post/?GT1=43001
more pictures tomorrow... On Sunday David and I climbed Jackson Peak. 10, 715 feet in elevation. Yay for snow!

We'll see if this works... Video from right below our campsite...

Snow Days

Hello from Moose again! So today should have some fun pictures. On Friday, Anna and David and I left to make the loop up Open Canyon Trail and back down Granite Canyon Trail in the southern end of the park. But don't let "southern" fool you... the snow was definitely there and definitely changed the course of our trip. Started out early on Friday so as to get as far as possible before the snow started softening and before any afternoon rain. First things first, we had the most AMAZING weather. That might be because it's rained straight for the past three weeks, but it did not rain at all on Friday and that was a very good thing. We probably got a good seven miles or so and lost the trail probably close to directly north of the Mount Hunt Divede because the snow was so deep. We decided we'd try the up and out method and try to figure out where we were so we climbed about 1000 ft in elevation up a bunch of snow fields to the south and realized we should have continued west some more before turning up. So... at that point, it was what the heck, we find some place to camp here with an amazing view at about 9500 feet in elevation, or we go back down and look for the trail and hopefully make it to our camping zone on the other side of the divide at who knows what time. We definitely chose the former... you should have seen the view... a little bit different than the lowcountry.

(Note: These signs are usually around waist high...)

We definitely pulled out the ice axes and crampons and used them. Tons of fun, but, man, my toes did get cold. Time to re-waterproof my boots.Sun - out + Exhausted - after zig zagging up those actually really steep snowfields = Naptime on the ground in the sun for two hours. GLORIOUS.

So, then for dinner, actually made some delicious camp food with noodles, a creamy pesto sauce, peas, s & p, garlic powder, parmesan cheese and chicken out of a bag (that smelled a little like tuna on first sniff but actually tasted pretty good once cooked). Oh, and chocolate for dessert. Can't forget the chocolate. Slept okay, but the site was a little sloped so Anna and I ended up a little squished. But, the worst part was the sleeping pad, the damn thing must have a hole, but I can't find it. Anyone want to contribute to the fund for a thermarest z-lite that won't deflate?

We slept in the next morning (temps had definitely dropped over night) and made some hot tea and breakfast and got the heck out of the there. (The weather was definitely set to turn bad in the afternoon.) This led glissading down numerous snowfields and otherwise sliding down on our butts in the snow... The snow also got really soft on the way back because of the sun the day before ,so quite a few times I ended up up to my hips in snow. We were lucky that we got as far as we did the day before, because we definitely lost the trail on the way back as well (and found it again) but we did sort of do some creative trailblazing along the river...

So, safe and soundly back, we splurged showers at the cabin and pizza at Mountain High Pizza Pie (SO worth it.). All in all a fantastic trip even though we didn't make it all the way around the loop. Probably a good thing we ended up off course anyway.... we forgot the permit at the cabin.

YouTube Links!

My driveway....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08cPTBV7Cy4

Anna going across a tree...  don't have a video of me, but this is what we do while not at work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aowrbYmiXE

The jets have overheated.....

Okay, so today's a quick post....  and the photos are totally out of order, but I thought I'd put up something...  So going from the bottom of the photos...  Anna and I went for a hike up death canyon trail...  started out climbing rocks and ended in the snow...  

as for internship fun...  Al (one of the preservation crew) and I went to do a condition assessment on a backcountry cabin on Lower Berry Creek.  Ended up wading through two feet of icy lake water after a forty minute boat ride.  Actually was a blast.  And then the ride back.................  well, the smoke explains it all pretty much.  We didn't make the park significant rescue events for the next day's report, but we did have to get picked up by the park's boston whaler rescue boat.  AH, that reminds me....  I do need to tell the story of how we DID make the park's dispatch report the next day the night of our potluck party.  that story's for next time.  I'll have to take the time to write that one out before hand.

Anyway, miss you all and love you all!

GIS is my new volunteering outlet...

Okay, so I wrote the last post just the other day and posted it today, so their just now both going up.  

Anyway, just a few more pictures...  I'm currently having a margarita down at Dornan's uploading this stuff and then I'm back to the cabin.  Last night we had a potluck out at the ranch and i think about fifteen people ended up coming....  Amazing food was brought by all.  I made gumbo (I didn't fall asleep this time while cooking it, and it turned out much better), eggplant vegetable lasagna, curried korma beef tips, and a ton of other things...  including some awesome Duvall cookies from John.  

So, other very cool things going on with the internship... I'm volunteering on my friday's off with the GIS department.  Very fun work out in the field.  My roommate's in that department and the other day we headed out to Elk Ranch to record the locations of the historic irrigation system out in the fields.   

Anna and David and Steve and I went for a hike today in Targhee National Forest.  Tons of gorgeous flowers....  And time for me to get in better shape, we've been hiking a few times a week now, time to up the ante so I'll be ready to do Grand Teton in July.

Anyway, I miss everyone so much and I hope that all of my girls' & Chris'! internships are starting out well....  Again, please send me your number and addresses so I can give you a call and say hello! (and send postcards!)

I peeled a log!

So, finally a little bit about my internship!  So, I’m up here living in this crazy little wood cabin in the middle of nowhere in Grand Teton…. 

At work we’ve been working a lot on getting caught up on the 106 Compliance Reports that have to be done for almost all of the preservation projects within the park.  The major ones have to go through the state SHPO office while regular maintenance gets to skip that process through the Programmatic Agreement among the National Park Service, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, and the National Conference on State Historic Preservation Officers for Compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act.  I’ve also been writing some completion reports that have to be done when projects are completed.  So, tons of paperwork…  but it’s not that bad.

Now, fun stuff…  the center is rehabilitating an old dude ranch to use as their training center in the future and right now they are in the process of stabilizing the main cabin, Hammond Cabin.  Today, Lauren, the other intern from last year, and I stripped a log that was then installed at the base of the wall where the previous one had deteriorated too much to be saved.  Very cool, but my back’s going to kill me tomorrow.  I did the whole left hand side of the log!

Anyway, miss you all…  This weekend is potluck night at Sky and I’m making gumbo.  Should be about twenty of us sitting around drinking beer, listening to people play music  and watching the elk graze….