rocks and stuff

So I havent posted in a while...
....because I was in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the desert in the middle of nevada.  For two weeks. With the exclusion of the two people in the store where we bought ice and water, and the grad student I worked with, I saw nobody.  The area we worked in is supposed to be the third largest stretch of unpaved America, behind the Grand Canyon, and somewhere in Idaho.  We saw lots of lizards, lots of crickets, a few snakes, a few wild horses, antelope and burros.  Most importantly, we saw lots and lots of rocks.

As part of my graduation requirement for Stanford, I needed to spend a total of 6 weeks in the field, either at an undergraduate field class or as a research assistant for a graduate student's dissertation.  The area we worked in was composed of a series of mountain ranges, composed of large slices of the Sierra Nevada split up over hundreds of miles during the tectonic extension of the Western US.  One of the questions we are trying to answer is when these rocks were brought to the surface, and when they were shoved miles upward to form mountains.  The answer to this question will require months of labwork before any data is acquired.  I will not be involved with this.

As I described, most of the area where we worked was incredibly barren.  Dusty, dry, table-flat lake beds rise into rolling sage-country, which rise into tall rocky mountains littered with gnarled juniper trees.  Very rugged, but at the same time beautiful.  Initially, the landscape seems lifeless, but as time goes on, you begin to notice more and more of the richness becomes apparent.  Most readily apparent are the Mormon crickets.  The size of your thumb and juicy, they scatter by the thousands when you walk in some canyons.  In some places, it was impossible not to step on them, resulting in a loud crunch and splatter of fluid around your foot.  completely disgusting.

My days consisted of waking up with the sun, fixing a quick breakfast, driving up a nearby canyon as far as our RAV4 would take us, and then walking up and down the mountains for hours across talus and thorny bushes.  Many days we wouldnt return to our camp until almost sunset, completely exhausted and sore.  The hot dry air sucked moisture out of every possible orifice.  We rationed ourselves to 6 liters of drinking water every day, and I still felt dehydrated most of the time.  I also might mention that there were no showers in our field area either.  When we finally returned to civilization, I felt like Clint Eastwood in a cowboy movie. People stared at me as if I were either a movie star or diseased, I'm not sure which.  I was equally freaked out by the common requirement in American civilization that you stand within 50 meters of complete strangers.

The grad student I worked with probably know more about rocks and loves rocks more than anybody I have met except maybe my professors.  He also loves Caltech.  And strictly rationing food.  Every day I ate: 

8 oz.  canned fruit

12 oz. of cereal with milk

8 oz. coffee

4 oz. salami

4 slices of bread

4 oreos

2 apples

2 cups soup

1 lb pork chop

8 oz. vegetable

2 cups mashed potatoes

no joke.  I actually ate this every day. I'm not commenting on the quantity; I ate plenty.  Rather I am commenting on the precision with which my diet was determined.

I am portraying both my Grad student and my experiences in a negative light.  In reality, I had a great time.  It was fantastically beautiful country, and I enjoyed most of my time there. I really liked my Grad Student despite his love of rationing and rocks. I was happy to return to showers and soft beds, but I love the wild country, and I love walking up canyons where no one has walked for decades.  A couple of highlights:

-seeing a rattlesnake; I'd never seen one before, so it was exciting to find one living in the boulders near one of our camps.  In general it was really cool to see the desert wildlife.

-watching the sunset and sunrise every day; there is something magnificent about sleeping outside and waking with and watching the sun.  The sunsets were spectacular because of the wildfires in California.

- camping in the Sierras; We left a day early and went camping near Yosemite.  We hiked up to the base of mount conness, which we planned to climb.  Unfortunately we took the wrong route, and my grad student friend kinda freaked out after sliding 10 m down a chute made of ice and rock slush, so we turned around.  The eastern sierras, particularly in the south, are the most beautiful country in the entire world.  I am a good judge of this, because I have been everywhere in the world.

-swimming in Pyramid Lake and climbing tufa towers; we stopped at Pyramid lake in transit after a week, and even though it is brackish, it felt incredible to swim.  We also climbed the strange towers of Silica left on the floor of a prehistoric lake.

-playing the guitar; lots of cowboy songs.

Overall it was an incredible experience, and I am excited to do more of it in a couple weeks when I go to Cedarville, California for a field class. If you havent heard of Cedarville, thats because it is a tiny ranching town in the middle nowhere in the middle of the desert in the northeast corner of california.

Since my Nevada experience I have been kinda bumming around, watching the Olympics religiously, and eating a lot.  I bought a new bike which I am very excited about, because riding in Sonoma County is incredible.   Thats about all, I head for England on September 19th, so I am hoping to visit some folks before then if I have time.