Baby Tortoises and Goldstrike

---

Hello again!

Certain people have been demanding (or, asking politely) for another one of these things, but I was waiting until I had something exciting to report. lol. And now I finally do!

So, on wednesday I was just in the office doing random things, mostly entering data for one of the projects they are doing with Joshua Trees. Many hours in front of a computer.

Then on Thursday I went with a few others to one of our sites at Coyote Springs where they are doing research dealing with fire damage and what tortoises might eat if some of the vegetation is destroyed. So basically they have many different 10'x10' plots set up and they sprayed different pesticides in each, killing grasses in some and killing bushes in others, etc. Each area started with 4 baby tortoises and they go every one and a while and get the weights and other measurements of the babies to see how they are doing. So, we basically spent the morning getting the baby tortoises out of the cages! They are sooooo cute! And so so tiny! But after a while it got slightly annoying because they were often in their burrows and there were some that we simply either could not find, or could not get out of a burrow because they were so far back we couldn't reach them. Gretchen, I thought of you because basically the entire time we were sticking our hands in places we couldn't see. Whoops! But I was fine, nothing in there except tortoises. Some people encountered spiders but I did not. Thank goodness. hehe. So that was pretty fun and we got back around 1:30 and were back at the apartment by 3. I proceeded to laze around the rest of the day, spending some time by the pool 😊

Friday and Saturday, not too much to report. I was a lazy bum. It was nice 😊 I slept in and watched quite a few movies with my one housemate (saw I am Legend friday morning, Boondock Saints friday night and Wanted saturday morning). I also spent quite a bit of reading and laying out by the pool enjoying the sun. I also had a talk with the sun and explained how it needs to get out to the east coast since ya'll have been sun-deprived. We'll see if that helps at all. lol 😊

Saturday night we were invited over to the home of some of the staff. It was a lot of fun. We did bbq... veggie burger for me and there was tons of fruit and other yummy things. We sat outside (because it was gorgeous!) and talked while eating and then we played Tripoly. Lots of fun. Poker is involved for part of the game and I pretty much suck at poker but by the last round, I actually had a good poker hand and half the people were quite drunk so one guy bid everything and everyone else folded but I called... and I won! 😊 hehe so that was funny. But yea the games were fun and all the people were nice. All the interns were there (eventually) and there were 3 of the USGS staff (that are probably in their late 20s) and then 2 guys who were friends of some of the staff. It was a fun night. Some people went out into vegas around midnight but me and 2 other interns headed home.

Then today. At first it was just me being lazy again. We watched another movie in the morning and I was just online. But then one of the guys from last night wanted to do this hike and so he called and we ended up eventually doing that. It was him driving and then me and Julia (other new intern, from San Fran) also went. It was a place called Goldstrike. Beautiful. Kinda a more challenging hike then I was expecting (as in, there was some legit rock climbing... even some ropes set up to help at some parts) but totally doable and lots of fun. Basically going down into a canyon. The poor guy had to go slower than he normally would for us girls but he was very patient. Partway down there were hotsprings... very neat. We didn't stop in them thought because we had another goal in mind. The hike ended at the Colorado River! 😊 So I got to go swimming in the colorado. Awesome!! Parts of it were really really cold but other areas were quite warm. It was definitely enjoyable. Sadly we had gotten a late start and then it took us a good hour and a half or more to get down there so we did not stay very long at the river but it was still nice. Hopefully I will get to go back at some point, and spend the whole day there... that would be nice. The hike back was a bit easier, just because up is easier than down. Still, I think I'm going to be sore tomorrow. But that is a good thing I think. 😊 I took many pictures, as per usual when I'm out in nature, but I don't think I have time to put a few up yet. I will do that when I get back next weekend.

For those of you who don't know, I am heading out into the field all next week (Gold Butte, Nevada). I will be camping all week so I will not have my computer and probably wont have cell phone reception either. So don't expect another entry until next weekend. But hopefully I will have some cool adventures to share 😊

<3

---