People of the Big River 2025

     This morning we had to wake up at around 6 in order to leave at around 7: 30. It gets pretty hard getting out of the warmth of my sleeping bag when it's so cold up here but I'm able to force myself out eventually. Today we went to look for a rare plant called the Pumice Moonwort also known as Botrychium Pumicola. We were guided by Merlow Fisher who is a botanist and is currently monitoring the amount of moon warts in the area as they have become a rarity. They want to figure out if can help out the population or just leave them be. She also taught us about the type of material we were on; porous rock, ash from a volcanic eruption that happened thousands of years ago.  Pumice Moonwort (image from google)          We first scouted the area for signs of the plant without any visual reference, only a description. Eventually we were given a photo and the plant was first located by Raquel. The plant was a lot smaller than I thought, about half...

     I don't know if it's because it felt like we were able to sleep in a little more this morning, or because I managed to go to sleep at a decent time last night, but I actually feel like I slept well. It's cold but I think I figured out how to maintain warm throughout the night with my blanket. We actually got a whole warm breakfast this morning too which was nice. Fresh bacon, eggs, and potatoes and some coffee on a cold morning sounded great. Today was also laundry day so I had to change into the last remaining clothes I had to be able to send the others to wash which, unfortunately, all I had left was a t-shirt and some shorts. At least I still had my blanket to keep me warm.       In the meantime, while our clothes were sent to wash, we had some science work to do. First, we inoculated the Spokane water we forgot to do last time and then we got to work reviewing our previously incubated bio paddles for any bacteria growth. We made note of the ty...

     Today was another campsite relocating day. We had to wake up pretty early in order to pack up everything and head out by 8 am. The car ride was going to be an 8-9 hour road trip from Spokane, WA to Crane Prairie in Oregon. It surprisingly didn't feel like that long. I think it's also because I slept most of the way there and would only get up to stretch whenever we stopped for a bathroom break. I'm also surprised my head didn't hurt like last time. Lemon usually helps ease my nausea so I think the lemonade I got at the gas station really helped.  I did lose some feeling in legs though.      We finally arrived at around 5 pm, set up our tents and got to preparing dinner. I think tonight's dinner was one of my favorite foods: meat, lettuce, and cheese wrapped in a tortilla but Monette's cooking is always good. But I think I ate so much that it upset my stomach, the cold didn't help either. It kind of feels like every new location it gets even colder...

     Today was a full science day, meaning staying at the campsite for lectures and science work. We finally got the WI-FI set up to do online work but first we had to go through a lecture and review from Jessica and Corbin on the basic things we've been doing so far. Like for our PH strips: a normal PH level is a 7 in terms of testing the toxicity levels of the water samples we've collected. And so far our PH readings have been between 6-5, so only slightly acidic. Or like how our equipment the turbidity tube has a Secchi disc inside and the water is measured by how far you can see the disc at. Things like temperature: the more warmer the water the more bacteria will grow at a faster rate. Which is why we're incubating at 37 degrees Celsius for more than 24 hours, to grow our bacteria. The average temperature we have measured at the bodies of water have been around 15 Celsius so bacteria isn't able to grow as fast. 16 degrees Celsius is the best temperature for the fis...

     Today we went to Tshimakain Creek, Wellpinit guided by Jordyn Mhehmley and Josh Keiffer. Experienced people who took time out of their day to show us what they do as reservation fish technicians in their day-to-day lives. Their group has spent a lot of time getting to know and gain trust with the locals at the creek so that they would be able to run their analysis's on the creek's ecosystem. They taught us about the Redband trout that they are trying to increase the population of.       After about 3 shifts with the first equipment they took us to a different part of the Tshimakain Creek where we took a short lunch break before they would show us how they would get rid of the invasive species threatening the Redband population. This fishing process required some light zapping that didn't kill the fish, just turned them belly-up for enough time to catch them with our nets. We made our way into the creek with our waders on following the lead of Josh...

Today was a very relaxed day. It was finally time to pack up and move on to the next campsite. I made sure to pack everything last night but my bag seems to be, suspiciously, more spacious than when I first packed it. After packing away our tents and preparing lunch, I realized I forgot my laptop at the cafe but luckily it was still there when we went back for it.  When we made it back to Toppenish we stopped by Heritage University to pick some stuff up and take a bathroom break. I was finally able to call my Mom and catch her up on how I've been doing good so far. I even got Spotify premium for the long trip ahead, student discount, so I spent the whole trip trying to download songs. We stopped by a canyon view spot to eat and also passed by a little grocery mart where I got a souvenir hoodie, expensive but it's a nice hoodie at least.  Finally, we arrived at the Powwow grounds of Spokane at around 4pm, set up, ate, and then inoculated our bacteria  from our colle...