The Magic of Montana
As I walked through the wild roses and Indian Paintbrushes one early morning in the backwoods, I got caught up in the magic of Montana. At the beginning of this experience, I felt as if I was peaking in my wildlife field experience, but as I continued to work, my eyes were opened to the endless opportunities of life. I realized that this wonderful experience was just raising the bar for my future. I have always been so structured; thinking that I had to finish school before I started life. What I did not realize until now is that life started a long time ago, and there are no rules for the direction I go except for the ones I establish. I think about my trip to Montana as a John Muir quote. Muir once said, "I only went …show more content…
Inez has four grids, Spring Creek has three, Tally has nine, and Marcum Mountain has two. We began "Snowshoe Hare School" on June 11, 2016 by setting two of the Inez grids. According to Dr. Mills and his current graduate student, Brandon Davis, Inez is good to learn on before moving further northwest to Tally. Now that I have completed all the grids, I agree. Some of the first things we learned was the gear we needed and how to carry it all through the backwoods of Montana. Apples, alfalfa, bear spray, multi-tool, knife, sharpie, radio, traps, flagging, and a few other things loaded us down. Brandon taught us how to find and follow flagging on grid lines as well as on transect lines used to cut across the grid. The grids are marked across using the alphabet and down using numbers. Therefore, one trap site could be A1 or B7 and so on. We set 50 traps on the Closed Old grid and 50 on Closed Young before calling it a successful first day. The names of the grids in the Inez region refer to the canopy closure and the age of the forest stand. The next day of Snowshoe Hare School consisted of processing captured hares; the moment had finally come. We started checking Inez Closed Old first. Brandon and Adam, a volunteer, went down A line, I went down B line, and Dr. Mills and Worth went down C line. …show more content…
First, on the drive from Raleigh, North Carolina to Missoula, Montana, I experienced the Badlands National Park where I saw prairie dogs, coyotes, and bighorn sheep, not to mention the miles of wonderfully rugged landscape. Next, we visited both Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse monuments, which were both extravagant. Throughout the summer, we were given days off, and we chose to use these days by further exploring Montana. We went on several hikes, including a ten mile round trip hike in Glacier National Park. We drove Going to the Sun Road from the West side of Glacier to the East side where we parked and backpacked five miles in to Otokomi Lake. We camped at the Otokomi Campground, which was amazing. There was a waterfall running into the lake and a river full of Cutthroat Trout flowing out. The serenity and solitude was indescribable; as I was writing in my journal down by the lake around dusk, several mountain goats appeared on the horizon several feet above us. I felt as if I was in a scene of a movie. Glacier also offered us the chance to see Jackson Glacier, a glacier that is still visible today. Glacier National Park is like no other place I have ever seen, and I really enjoyed the exploring we got to do there. On the way home, Worth and I drove through Yellowstone National Park and The Great Teton National Park. We took the time to
As I walked through the wild roses and Indian Paintbrushes one early morning in the backwoods, I got caught up in the magic of Montana. At the beginning of this experience, I felt as if I was peaking in my wildlife field experience, but as I continued to work, my eyes were opened to the endless opportunities of life. I realized that this wonderful experience was just raising the bar for my future. I have always been so structured; thinking that I had to finish school before I started life. What I did not realize until now is that life started a long time ago, and there are no rules for the direction I go except for the ones I establish. I think about my trip to Montana as a John Muir quote. Muir once said, "I only went …show more content…
Inez has four grids, Spring Creek has three, Tally has nine, and Marcum Mountain has two. We began "Snowshoe Hare School" on June 11, 2016 by setting two of the Inez grids. According to Dr. Mills and his current graduate student, Brandon Davis, Inez is good to learn on before moving further northwest to Tally. Now that I have completed all the grids, I agree. Some of the first things we learned was the gear we needed and how to carry it all through the backwoods of Montana. Apples, alfalfa, bear spray, multi-tool, knife, sharpie, radio, traps, flagging, and a few other things loaded us down. Brandon taught us how to find and follow flagging on grid lines as well as on transect lines used to cut across the grid. The grids are marked across using the alphabet and down using numbers. Therefore, one trap site could be A1 or B7 and so on. We set 50 traps on the Closed Old grid and 50 on Closed Young before calling it a successful first day. The names of the grids in the Inez region refer to the canopy closure and the age of the forest stand. The next day of Snowshoe Hare School consisted of processing captured hares; the moment had finally come. We started checking Inez Closed Old first. Brandon and Adam, a volunteer, went down A line, I went down B line, and Dr. Mills and Worth went down C line. …show more content…
First, on the drive from Raleigh, North Carolina to Missoula, Montana, I experienced the Badlands National Park where I saw prairie dogs, coyotes, and bighorn sheep, not to mention the miles of wonderfully rugged landscape. Next, we visited both Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse monuments, which were both extravagant. Throughout the summer, we were given days off, and we chose to use these days by further exploring Montana. We went on several hikes, including a ten mile round trip hike in Glacier National Park. We drove Going to the Sun Road from the West side of Glacier to the East side where we parked and backpacked five miles in to Otokomi Lake. We camped at the Otokomi Campground, which was amazing. There was a waterfall running into the lake and a river full of Cutthroat Trout flowing out. The serenity and solitude was indescribable; as I was writing in my journal down by the lake around dusk, several mountain goats appeared on the horizon several feet above us. I felt as if I was in a scene of a movie. Glacier also offered us the chance to see Jackson Glacier, a glacier that is still visible today. Glacier National Park is like no other place I have ever seen, and I really enjoyed the exploring we got to do there. On the way home, Worth and I drove through Yellowstone National Park and The Great Teton National Park. We took the time to