First, that last post, begging you to vote...yeah, we didn't get that grant. BUT we did make it into the top 6 votes-wise, which is pretty impressive for an organization as small as ours, not to mention that we are located in the least populated state of them all, so kudos to you! Our voting and adoring fans, we really appreciate the support you showed us and it meant a lot to have your support through that process. So even though we didn't win, we still did in a way, because it feels wonderful to know that so many people are supporting us and the work that we pour our hearts into every day.
Next, obviously I finished my 2012 inventories and submitted them. The PDFs of these documents are now up on BCA's website, and I have to say I'm darn proud of the final result so I'll give you a link here, to see them. Check them out, read through a bit of the narrative (don't go crazy, a paragraph or two will give you the right idea) and then if you are in Wyoming, please by all means, VISIT these places! Visit them, love them, and advocate for them. Because as of this month the BLM has only found wilderness character in ONE of them, and it's not clear if they even intend to protect it just yet (I'll try to keep posted on this, I'm sure I'll forget to update, but if you have questions then please contact me!).
Now it is just the beginning of field season 2013, and this year I have a full plate, with a ton of units (14 to be exact) to get through, including the amazing and impressive, and evidently very hard on truck tires, Adobe Town! So I headed out this past Tuesday, the 4th. I left in the late afternoon, reaching the bounds of Adobe Town in time to make camp, enjoy a beautiful desert sunset, and snooze before starting the inventory work itself the next morning. In traditional Shelby fashion I merely lucked out in a lot of ways: I have been to Adobe Town once, almost a year ago, and I followed my boss out, missing most landmarks in the cloud of dust kicked up by his car. This time I grabbed some maps, but obviously missed the one that I really needed, because that's how I roll, and had only the map just east of where I needed to end up. I got out there and drove west, knowing eventually I would bump into the 130,000 acre proposed wilderness area at some point. I should clarify that I had all the right 1:24,000 maps and the wrong 1:100,000 map, so I could navigate to the edge of where I needed to be and then drove blindly west until I just happened to show up on one of my 1:24,000 maps. Magically, and with the luck that seems to follow me around out there (thank the stars!) I bumped right into the most pertinent map fairly quickly and with no back-tracking or getting lost.
So there I am, in the "Crown Jewel" of the Red Desert, maps and snazzy new I-Pad in hand, early on the morning of Wednesday the 5th of June. The desert looks different in June, it is green and birds chirp, wild flowers dot the hill sides. This was just what I needed, to be back in action, in the relaxing setting of the silent desert, my new puppy Mia by my side, just inventorying the day away. This is what I live for. Of course things never go that well, and I discovered a confusing maze of new oil and gas roads covering, shadowing, and crisscrossing the original two-tracks that I was hoping to travel. Covered with recently crushed sharp gravel and laying huge swaths of ugly destruction across the desert. In my line of work though you not only have to roll with such things you have to completely document them with photos and GPS points. So this is what I did, for a tedious 12 hours, jumping in and out of the truck, enduring the yelled suggestions of passers-by (assumed in general to be oil and gas industry employees, all very nice, all very confuddled as to why I should be out there with my dog, just hanging out in an active gas field) regarding being aware of rattlesnakes and mud, deep sand, and gravel, and such. Sometimes I wonder if they don't talk to me just to make sure they aren't imagining me, because after all this country isn't exactly beautiful anymore, with gas wells dotting the countryside, so why would a girl and her dog, all dressed up in hiking gear, be traipsing around the place anyway?
So at the close of my day, as the sun is setting and the silence of the desert is closing in (my favorite time of day out there) I prepared my truck for sleeping in and promptly passed out at 8:15 in the evening, the sky still lit with rays from the setting sun, and don't wake up for an instant for a solid 9 hours. I guess I should have worked back up to this...
Day two of field season 2013 started great, warm breakfast, happy puppy company, and a beautiful sunrise accompanied by singing birds, what could possibly go wrong? Well see here is where I run into trouble, because as soon as things start to seem idyllic I should always know trouble is on the horizon. So on this beautiful Thursday morning I start by hiking a long some bits and pieces of an old two-track route that has been mostly covered by a brand spanking new gravel super highway to a not-yet-been-drilled wellpad and the camera on my I-Pad app starts malfunctioning. It can't focus and sits on a white screen and no matter what I do I can't seem to fix it (here I guess any remotely tech-savvy person would probably tell me to try rebooting the I-Pad, but on this I claim ignorance, I had no idea that was even possible) so after frantic text messaging with our business manager it is decided that I should head back to town and get on the phone/internet and figure this out.
So, after one successful day and two nights in the desert, I hea back towards civilization to try to find a solution to this problem. It takes nearly an hour to get from where I was to the nearest gas station and I was feeling irrationally confident about my gas situation when I reached the paved road so I decided to not go 20 minutes out of my way to get gas and instead continue on the additional hour to the nearest gas station on my way. This proved to be possible, but more than a little nerve-wracking as I rolled into the gas station with the arrow on the far side of E a little over an hour later. Perhaps it was the low-on-gas related anxiety, or just general disappointment at heading back so soon, but for whatever reason I was able to roll right up to the pump, fill my tank, and head inside to grab my receipt without noticing that somewhere along the way one of my tires had become completely flat. On my way back from the receipt collecting mission I did happen to notice a disturbing tilt to my truck, and the deflated tire soon claimed the spot on the very tippy top of my to-do list. I slowly drove it away from the pump (there was a line forming behind) and begin the tedious procedure of dragging out all the bits and pieces required to change the tire. Happily I was at this point in the parking lot of a truck stop, and it only took about 20 seconds of me jumping up and down on the tire iron in an attempt to loosen air-wrench tightened lug nuts for a kind soul with bigger muscles than mine to offer some assistance.
Another set of hands made the whole process so much easier, and so with many thanks to my kind stranger at the Rawlins' Loves, I was on my way again soon at the breakneck speed of 55 MPH required by the donut I had just torqued onto my truck. The kind stranger's last words to me were "you might want to check out that front one too, looks a little low," and he was off toward the truck that he likely currently calls home. There are 100 miles of highway between Rawlins and the nearest Walmart Tire Center (where I had a warrantee on my tires) in both directions, I chose the eastern route, as Laramie is where I could sleep in my own bed that night. Upon my arrival I checked the truck all in, called a coworker to pick me up, and left Grimace the Purple truck in the (assumed) capable hands of the Walmart Tire Center staff. A few hours later they called to say my truck was done, but a conversation needed to be had about my tires when I return. Ominous, I thought, so I headed back up there with my coworker only to find my truck still in the bays with no tires, no wheels even, on it at all. Uh-oh.
The staff calmly informed me that they had thought it was done because they had tested the Firestone (read: donut, that clearly features the words "temporary tire, max speed 55 mph" on its side) and found no issue but later realized that (as I had mentioned at check in) the flat was in the truck bed. Upon further inspection, they had apparently also found that I had also, somewhere along the way, punctured a second tire as well. Finally they informed me that these particular tires were not in stock at the moment, and one to seven days would be required for them to come in on order. Super.
A lengthy discussion about tires ensued, somewhere in the middle of which we decided a slightly higher quality tire might be more appropriate for my line of work and an order was begun, at which point it became clear that the wrong tire size had somehow been taken initially and in fact the tires currently on the truck were actually in stock at this very moment, but it was too late. We had already decided on better tires, and better tires we would get! So, order placed, approval received, receipt in hand, we parted ways with Walmart once again under the understanding that I would be getting a phone call when the new tires came in, sometime in the next one to sseven days. The very next day though, I came to realize that among the gear I had left in the bed of the truck, I had also left behind a few essentials that I now needed to go pick up, so I popped back by Walmart to grab a few things and learned, to my surprise, that at some point during the day my new tires had come in, though they still were not on my truck, and that they were "just about to call me," but had "misplaced my number." Okay, I said, put them on please. We again completed a redundancy of the checking-in process of the day before and I was told I would be back on the road the very next day, they took my phone number again (this time even entering it into the computer) and we parted ways on promises that I would receive a call as soon as my truck was ready. This was two days ago now, and yet somehow I am clearly still in range of internet access, so if my having returned to the desert seems unlikely to you, you'd be correct.
In other, more splendid news, the app problem that I was having with the I-Pad turned out to be easily solved and the solution does not require internet access, and so can be preformed in the field. So I am thrilled about that! I am packed and ready to head back out, as soon as I have a truck again, and when that day comes I will be sure to share the trials and tribulations that are sure to occur on my next trip; because if these first few days are setting the tone for the entire summer than it is sure to be interesting to say the least!
Tomorrow morning, first thing, the Walmart Tire Center will be hearing from me, but for now I am enjoying my weekend and having a glass of wine. Wilderness Inventory Specialist: The impatient and easily discouraged need not apply.
Adobe Town Proposed Wilderness:
Geez, and I get ticked when Sarge pees in the sink!!!!
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