“I stink and its only day one!”

The weather in Montana is that of a desert – the days are scorching hot, while the evenings and mornings are very cold. Also the fact that we work high in the mountains means all weather phenomena are exaggerated. Here’s how cold we were 3 days in:

At least we had many layers.

This week we have been doing more integrated riparian monitoring, which can be monotonous but we entertain ourselves by playing games, reading the measurements in different languages and having dance parties in the wilderness. We blared Lady Gaga from my limited choice of music on my phone, in the middle of the forest and had a boogie for our lunch break. Three crazy chicks with a large appreciative audience comprising moose, birds and deer. We were happy our spectators were animals and not the fire fighters that were patrolling the nearby wild fire.

For the beginning of the week we stayed at a lovely camp ground with an actual toilet. When I say toilet I mean hole on the ground but it had walls… luxury! The camp ground host named Glenn, a retired miner was a friendly chap and offered to take us out on his ATV (all terrain vehicle) for a quick whizz around. We spied a female moose, which was pretty amazing. Apparently, it was the first one he saw this year. It was the perfect end to several long days in the field. However, it wasn’t over yet – we still had another adventure on the horizon…