Final Reflections

Now that I have arrived 'home' in New Hampshire, I've had some time to reflect back on my experiences during the past couple of months.

After graduating from college and almost immediately taking a 4-day train ride out west to Montana, I was full of optimism. Graduating is an exciting and scary step, and it challenged me to take the 22 years of knowledge and life experience I've gained and start an independent life of my own. This challenge continues to prove itself rather difficult, in the best ways possible.

When I first arrived on the prairie my optimism was shattered. I had an incredibly rough first day due to harsh conditions I had not anticipated (aka.. the heat. Fair skinned, red hair? not the best for coping with sweltering heat with no shade or wind). Although my crew was super supportive, it took me a long time to bounce back from that crash in confidence. I wanted to get out of the endless grasslands and seek shelter in the comforts of New England. No way. As much as I wanted to take the easy route, I have learned time and time again that adventures and memorable experiences do not come about when taking the easy route.

Soon the prairie became more beautiful to me. Any resentment I held toward the landscape evaporated and I was able to see the beauty it held: the rolling hills, diverse vegetation, the vastness of the land, the night sky, the solitude, the storms, the wildlife, etc.. My reasoning for coming to the prairie was not only for the adventure, but our work towards conservation. I could feel my bitterness begin to shift inside me as I became more passionate about the wildlife and their roles in the ecosystem. Also, both my mind and body started looking forward to the hikes, as they became somewhat therapeutic.

The trip to Glacier National Park was incredible: backpacking in impressive mountain valleys after watching the landscape shift from flat grasslands to steep, snow-caped peaks during the 6-hour car ride. I expected Glacier to make the prairie a dull comparison, but it was anything but. Coming back to the prairie after Glacier allowed me to appreciate it more because they both hold their own unique beauty and harshness.

I know I will visit the prairie again. It was an adventure and the prairie was an incredible teacher that I will value forever.

The Little Rockies sunset 

Supermoon on the prairie: no headlamp required

Last time seeing the herd!

North America's most endangered mammal: check!

Last night, myself and two others from Landmark had the privilege to work with Randy Matchett of the US Fish and Wildlife Service (the same biologist who runs the prairie dog studies) on his 20-year study on one of North America's most endangered mammals: the black-footed ferret.

The black-footed ferret is a small weasel that feeds on prairie dogs. Therefore, their habitat of choice is that of grasslands, particularly prairie dog towns. The black-footed ferret was on the verge of extinction in 1987 (only 18 wild ferrets!), and in 1994 reintroduction efforts began in Montana. Randy has worked on this reintroduction project for over 20 years and unfortunately the reintroduction process hasn't been easy. As I've mentioned in a previous blog entry, prairie dogs have had an outbreak of the plague which has greatly affected their population. Not only are BFF's prey numbers dwindling, but the BFFs themselves are susceptible to the disease.

So last night we pulled an all-nighter and drove around a large designated area in the Charles M. Russell Wildlife Refuge with a spotlight attached to our truck, looking for these small endangered weasels. Well guess what?! At 1:54am, we spotted a mother and her kit in a burrow (and we were the only ones to have found any last night!) After following the procedure Randy taught us (the ferret hissed at me because I had my hand in her burrow, oops), we were able to determine that the mother had been released last season from Randy's reintroduction project. Nonetheless, there is at least one adult female ferret and she has at least one kit, meaning there's a male out there somewhere too! 

There she is! She was very curious and came right up to the GoPro and our feet! She wouldn't let her baby, who was likely born in April or May, come out and take a look at the crowd of speechless humans. (photo: Jonah Gula).

Prairie weather

The weather on the prairie is a force to be reckoned with. With forceful winds, large thunderheads are blown around in search for the 6 people who live on the prairie. And without fail, these thunderheads have found us every time. Whether the skies actually open up and rain on us or the winds threaten to take our tents to Oz, the storms make their presence known.

I love storms, and the prairie is one of the best places to watch them. With the lack of topography and trees, the storms can be traced from very far away. The rolling thunder is a product of the incredible lightning that allows for some sweet photo opportunities. Better yet, we have had some storms in the middle of the night that consume half the night sky. So one half of the sky displays the Milky Way, and the other half has a angry-looking storm. On these evenings I've come out of my tent and watched the scene.

As nice as these storms sound, they can be a real nuisance. Driving conditions become nearly impassable after a big rainstorm. The prairie roads turn into thick mud and 4-wheel drive is mandatory to get anywhere. I've become a mudding master, getting the car unbelievably dirty and successfully breaking two mudflaps. It's safe to say that my 2002 Ford Focus wouldn't stand a chance out here.

Aside from the storms, the heat is killer. We wake up for early hikes to beat the heat, which means we spend the majority of the day sitting in heat comas. The prairie is not very forgiving when it comes to heat, especially when there is no wind... But I've definitely gotten used to the heat (and so has my skin and hair - I'm freckled/tan, and my red hair is brighter than ever!)

Storm and sunset (4 August 2014)

Beer-drinking and storm-watching, myself and Alex (4 August 2014) (Photo: Jonah Gula)

Lightning west of camp (~9:30pm, 4 August 2014) (Photo: Jonah Gula)

jonahgulaphotography.weebly.com

American Prairie Wildlife

When I first came to the prairie, my impression was that the land was a vast, flat, somewhat boring place with very little wildlife. Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Except for the vastness – this place is SO VAST. Montana is named Big Sky country for a reason… Out on our hikes, I have learned that this landscape may look flat, but it is rather hilly (which great for interval training). We are constantly coming across wildlife while we’re hiking and it is a part of our job to document what we see. However, there have been times when the wildlife have come to us. For example, when we came back from Glacier, we woke up to the bison herd about a quarter of a mile away from our camp. Throughout the day, the herd made their way to our camp, surrounding us and stranding us on our picnic table. That night, the new August crew arrived and were welcomed by the bison herd at Buffalo Camp as their welcoming party.

In mid-July, we were headed out for an early hike one morning and saw three badgers looking for their breakfast in a prairie dog town. Badgers are carnivores and primarily eat prairie dogs and small mammals. They often hunt alongside coyotes. Badgers are also incredibly skilled diggers – they can dig through cement! They’re about the size of a large, fat cat and are pretty cute looking, although they could gouge your eyes out with their claws.

We also stumbled across four bull elks one evening on our way to Fourchette Bay for a sunset swim. They surprisingly did not run away from us, but instead stood there, staring at us curiously. After a 4-minute stare down, they decided to scamper off into the sunset. It’s pretty fun hanging out with all these animals!

Bison oftentimes hold up traffic in the prairie

Crew member Jonah Gula (J$) taking a photo of a huge male bison. NOTE: Our large canvas tent broke while we were in Glacier in a huge wind storm. Two poles broke and almost all of them bent. As you can see, the canvas also ripped. In case you were wondering - my tent survived. 

Our badger friends (Photo: Shannon Rebinski)

Our elk friends

New life plan: live in Glacier forever

Glacier National Park is so BEAUTIFUL. The dramatic topography in Glacier was mind blowing, and the wildlife was INCREDIBLE.

We (5 of us from the Landmark crew) did some backpacking by the Canadian border along Belly River for three days. The entire time we were surrounded by steep mountains that rose so quickly out of the U-shaped valley floor. The stratigraphy on the rock faces were continuous as far as you could see with vibrant patterns and colors. Trees, lakes, meadows, waterfalls, mountains, valleys, stars, sunsets, rocks, stromatolites, glaciers, snow, ice, Narnia, rivers, critters, ahhh Glacier has it all!

After spending time in the back country, we headed to the more touristy places in the park ....along with thousands of pushy people. As beautiful as those sections of the park were (sooo beautiful!), there is something precious about the less traveled sections of the park. The solitude of the back country is a huge part of its appeal, especially with such beautiful landscape. To mitigate against the crowds, we visited the more popular sections of the park during the evening and early morning.

Here's a list of the animals I played with:
Moose
Black bears
Yellow-bellied Marmots
Hoary marmots
Mule deer
Mountain goats (!)
Big horned sheep
Martens
Ground squirrels
Bald eagle
Coyote
Birds birds birds

I now love mountain goats because they are devastatingly cute and completely defy the laws of science. They can climb 72 feet in 60 seconds! That's on a near vertical slope, on a loose-rock surface, with HOOVES.
Here is a photo of my new best friend and I gazing into each other's eyes:

Backcountry views in the Glens Lake valley

Not the best photo quality of our moose friend who visited our camp site at Glens Lake. He hung out with us for about an hour, munching on his evening snacks.

Pretty flowers that were along the trails

Buck Mule Deer along the Hidden Lake trail ~9pm.

Hiking up the Hidden Lake trail on snow and ice in my Birks and shorts. (Note: sweet sock tan)

Mountain Goat along the Hidden Lake trail

Mountain goat friends along the Highline Trail at 7:30am. This trail was along a cliff edge that was hundreds of feet above the valley floor. At some points the trail was only 3 feet wide.. 

Heading to Glacier National Park for a week

I AM SPENDING THE NEXT WEEK BACKPACKING THE BACKCOUNTRY OF GLACIER NATIONAL PARK. Hopefully I won’t get eaten by a bear… 

Things I’m looking forward to:

Trees, mountains, birds, stars (New Moon on Saturday), COLD WEATHER, rocks, glaciers, alpine animals, any fellow backpackers I meet, roadtrip music, hiking on different terrain other than prairie, the smell, and so so much more.

Stay tuned for some sweet photos and some adventurous stories

Prairie Dogs and some heart-melting photos

Prairie dogs are a huge part of the ecosystem here on the prairie. Their towns are scattered around various spots, ranging in size. We often stumble upon a p-dog town on our hikes and are greeted with surround-sound chirps as they call out to warn each other of the tall bi-pedal creatures roaming through their town.

Black-tailed prairie dogs inhabit grasslands and sagebrush in extensive underground burrow systems.  Because they’re herbivores, they rival some of the fanciest golf courses with their landscaping capabilities.  Their burrows, however, wouldn’t be ideal for a golf course because of the cone-shaped mound of dirt that protrudes a foot or two at their entrance.  I have been so curious about their underground burrows, picturing them to be these extensive systems with dirt-furnished living rooms, kitchens, and bedrooms. But in reality, their tunnels extend vertically down from the entrance about 3-10 feet, and then continue horizontally for an additional 10-16 feet with some connecting tunnels every here and there. I still like to believe that they’ve made tiny couches out of dirt to lounge on during hot days.  I also picture a serious hierarchy among the prairie dogs in the prairie dog town: a king prairie dog, with his various mistress lady prairie dogs, his 37 children prairie dogs, and his noblemen prairie dogs who he comes to for advice on ruling his grand p-dog kingdom. As far as I know, this is not a real thing, but I still like to believe it is.

The past two days we have been fortunate enough to meet up with a team of prairie dog biologists and technicians who are working in the Charles M. Russell Wildlife Refuge (just south of where we are) and help them in some of their field work. They are working to help the prairie dogs deal with some diseases that are devastating to the colonies.  In this effort, they trap the prairie dogs, put them under, comb for fleas, pluck some hairs, weigh them, take blood, put in tracking chips, and mark them with ear tags. Just like a trip to a fancy salon and taking a nice nap! And somehow with my degree in geology and scientific curiosity, they let me help… So I threw on some gloves and manhandled some napping prairie dogs today. THEY ARE SO CUTE. Except when they poop on you while they’re sleeping… which of course happened to me.


Warning: these photos may make your heart melt

Hello Prairie Dogs (Photo: Shannon Rebinski) 

Holding my p-dog friend in her soon-to-be napping chamber (Photo: Shannon Rebinski) 

Putting ear tags on (Photo: Shannon Rebinski) 

 Releasing my p-dog friend home after her trip to the salon (Photo: Shannon Rebinski) 

Prairie dog on his mound

Prairie dogs kissing with a photobombing third-wheeler (Photo: Jonah Gula)

Chillin'

Burrowing Owl: A migratory owl that hijacks prairie dog burrows and lives there during the summer months

Wildfires and Windstorms

Wildfires in Oregon and Washington have completely changed the vibe here on the prairie. With winds blowing east, the sky is a constant hazy-grey color with a small smokey scent. Wildfires are a natural process in many places, including the prairie, so the habitat and animals are used to the environment during this fire season. However, it was awfully surprising to wake up one morning to see the grey haze covering the landscape.

For the environmentally curious folks, here's an article on the ecological importance of wildfires:
http://www.nps.gov/tapr/naturescience/fire-and-grazing-in-the-prairie.htm 

Speaking of wind, two nights ago we had the wind storm of the century. It lasted from ~1-4am (it was hard to gauge how long it lasted because survival instincts can fog timescales).  I was convinced my tent and I were going to get lifted off to Oz.  My tent survived, but some of the other tents were seriously injured. During the beginning of the storm, I braved the weather and tied down my tent in two more spots, and the wind was wildly impressive while I was out there.  I spent maybe 2 hours pushing against the western side of the tent, trying to brace my tent poles from the crazy wind forces. 
Sleeping through this storm? Impossible. The sound of tent fabric flapping in my ears was not exactly a soothing lullaby. And then the tent would cave in on my body every 8 minutes, startling me awake from any soft slumber I may have fallen into. When we all arose at 5am for our hike, we were not exactly the happiest campers (haha). We all expressed how badly we wanted it to rain TO JUST GET THE STORM OVER WITH. But no, not one drop fell from the sky. Just wind speeds that rival Katrina. 

I have a new appreciation for walls and a roof. 


On that note, here is a nice photo of the bison herd:

Mail me

Here's my address on the prairie if anyone would like to send me a love letter and/or some Jolly Ranchers:

Meghan Riehl
44704 Regina Rd
Malta, MT 59538.

The Malta mailman drives an hour to our mailbox, which is about two miles from my tent. 
That's dedication, my friends. So don't let him down.

TV special on prairie conservation

A friendly man at the Malta coffee shop just told me that Dan Rather has a special on AXS TV about the efforts to get the Bison herds back on the prairie, it's called Range Wars on Tuesday, 22 July at 8pm.

http://www.axs.tv/programs/danrather/

WATCH IT, because I won't be able to.
I also have no idea if it'll be good and/or what stance it'll take on the conservation efforts. They may not like what we're doing out here, because many ranchers don't.



8 Sept 2014: 
Here's the link to the documentary! It's a bit long and I admittedly had to watch it in two parts, but the first half is worth watching to get an idea of the current issues APR is dealing with and the landscape. 
http://vimeo.com/101404171

Fun Fact: Bison are not Buffalo

Bison are not buffalo. Contrary to what basically EVERYONE believes, they are a different species. Bison are solely located in North America (their scientific name is Bison bison.. very original). Buffalo, however, are native in Africa and parts of Asia. They both belong to the Bovidae family, commonly known as the ungulates. Hoofed mammals, including buffalo, bison, antelopes, gazelles, cattle, sheep, goats, etc. are all ungulates.

On that educational note, here are photos of some of my many Bison bison encounters.
(ps - I don't understand which idiot named Buffalo Camp, but they need to read this and reevaluate their understanding of bison vs. buffalo).

Crew members Caleb and Alex observing the bison herd from the top of our trusty Toyota Sequoia. 13 July 2014

Bison Crossing! 13 July 2014

Blurry photo from my tent on the morning of 14 July 2014. We woke up and were all stranded in our tents because the bison had taken over Buffalo Camp. Hikes were about an hour delayed that day.. 

A male trio about a mile from Buffalo Camp.

I wish I could take credit for this adorable photo. It was taken from one of our crew members in June. The calves are now larger and starting to get darker in color. 

Rattlesnake Encounters

On my past 3 hikes, I have seen and/or heard a rattlesnake everyday.  It's very exciting, but certainly a huge adrenaline rush considering those things can kill you. It doesn't help that we are recommended to get anti-venom within an hour of being bitten, and we are just about an hour away from the nearest hospital in Malta. Sure, we could drive fast. But also consider that we're out in the middle of the field not near an accessible road. So we'd have to radio for help, hope someone is listening and is fairly nearby, and hope that person has access to an ATV. During this time, the victim is to lay down with their bite location below their heart and to stay as calm as possible. See? I listened during training. 

However, since we get up at 5 for our hikes, the snakes are still pretty cold when we encounter them. Therefore, they're not likely to strike. So they rattle aggressively to warn us off. 

Don't worry Mom and Dad, I'm wearing gaiters. 

 My first rattler sighting. This is the one I nearly stepped on... His rattler reveals that he was 5-7 years old. 

 Slithering away; 13 July 2014

 Rattler on 16 July 2014, you can see his face and his rattler indicates that he's fairly old

Rattler on 16 July 2014

The video you've been waiting for: I apologize for any crude or weird language I used... I was in shock and weird things came out of my mouth. Snake sighting on 13 July 2014

Rabbits, rattlesnakes, and decapitated birds

Today's hike was an adventurous one! My feet and boots still are not getting along, but they go numb after the first half-mile usually. By 7:15am I was already dripping in sweat, which led to a constant swarm of approximately one million mosquitoes. Although I don't approve of bug stray, I couldn't resist because it was too early in the morning to be THAT annoyed. 

In a moment of concentration as we fought to keep our breath as we crested a hill, a small rabbit scampered about one foot in front of me, giving me my first heart attack of the day. 

My second heart attack was when I almost got bitten by a rattlesnake..... 
While Leah (my hiking partner today) was documenting a small lark sparrow who was nearly decaptiated by flying into the barbed wire fence (photo below), I decided I was going to start switching the camera trap batteries/SD card. As I walked towards the camera (very angrily because of the 47 horse flies biting me in that particular moment) I heard a frighteningly close rattle. I looked down and there was a rattlesnake in its coiled/attack position about two feet away from my foot. I didn't really handle it well because I screamed like a little girl, probably frightening the snake even more. I did, however, run away pretty damn fast. Leah came over to check out the snake from a safe distance, but he was not happy to see another giant homo sapien, so he warned us again with another rattle. In my series of curses, panic, and fly swats, I was able to get a photo of the snake (coming soon!) 

...And there is a strong possibility that my reaction to the snake was caught on our motion-sensors camera. Stay tuned and I'll post it if that's the case!

Dead lark sparrow on barbed wire! :( So sad! (Photo: Leah Mabee) 

I found a mule deer jaw and thought I was funny (Photo: Leah Mabee)

The prairie is not made for humans: an idea of what we're doing out here

As I've mentioned before, our job out here on the prairie is to observe wildlife and document their behavior and locations. We work in teams of two and each group hikes one of the eight transects that are mapped on our GPSes. There is one team who is on 'car team' and their job is to check certain cameras and pick the hikers up when they're finished. We have 27 cameras on the Sun Prairie that are motion triggered. Therefore, most of the videos are of the grasses blowing in the wind. And each camera can have up to 250 one-minute grass movies - really exciting stuff...

Because it is a trillion degrees starting at 8am, we get up at 5am to get our hikes started. Don't worry, napping commences around 1 after we've returned from the hikes and have replenished our energy with lunch. 

About once a week we conduct 'Bison Counts' and sunset wildlife scopes. The bison counts require two teams to walk 5ish miles and count only the bison they see. The herds can be up to 200 bison!

The prairie doesn't cater to humans. In the winter it's absolutely freezing with harsh winds, spring still has snow and occasional storms, July and August are f##king hot with mosquitos, late summer and early fall is the wet season with lots of storms and fires due to the lightning, and then it gets freezing again. 

Sounds nice doesn't it? We have had a couple of families stay at Buffalo Camp, and we can't understand why on earth anyone would want to come here when Glacier and Yellowstone are 5 hours away... But then again, why am I here?! Oh yeah, to enjoy the unique landscape and collect data towards this giant conservation project that will (hopefully) obtain nearly 3.5 million acres within 10 years! It is pretty rewarding to be a part of something like this at the end of the day (when the sun is down and it finally cools off) and be around people who share a passion for nature and the earth we live on! 🌎✌️

An idea of what out transects look like

The gear we take in the field, along with a million liters of water and high energy snacks (thank you Clif Bar company for sponsoring us and providing is with a plethora of bars) 

Shannon and myself on a sunset wildlife scope, protecting ourselves from the mosquito swarms. (Photo: Leah Mabee) 

Shannon and myself (photo: Leah Mabee) 

Oh to be clean

Public service announcement:
I SHOWERED YESTERDAY!

But really, showering after 10 days of sweating for 22\24 hours of the day felt better than I expected. Granted, I ran the water for all of 1 minute to conserve it (perks of short hair!!). We only have access to solar-heated showers at Grouse Camp when there aren't folks staying there. My typical shower is a swim in Fourchette Bay after a hike.

I was on dinner duty last night and cooked some baller burgers: Avocado, bacon, pesto, caramelized onions, tomato, and lettuce. I wish I had taken a photo, they were very beautiful burgers (if that is even possible..). Stretching our mouths large enough was a challenge, but it was well worth it. Afterwards we all sat in the cook tent in a food\heat coma and had to dunk our heads under the water spicket to cool off, which has become a very common thing a Buffalo Camp this month.

Below are some photos of Buffalo Camp, where we're staying. We have a trailer and a cook tent, but all the cooking happens in the trailer. The cook tent is where we eat and is home to a nice fridge and microwave as well as a family of mice. Pretty fancy living!

My little green tent is on a platform and has kept me safe from the swarming mosquitoes and scary spiders at night (thank you Sarah and Jevon!). I have discovered that a field mouse has taken residence underneath my tent vestibule, and we have maintained a nice relationship (as long as he stays OUT of my tent). My tent platform is also a favorite scratching post to our neighborhood bison whom I've named William.

A Little Shower on the Prairie, at Grouse Camp 9 July 2014

Our trailer and cook tent. And our trusty vehicle that goes through hell everyday. How we haven't gotten stuck or broken the car yet, shocks me.

180 degrees from previous photo, looking at our tents

Inside our trailer

Sunset from my tent. 9 July 2014

My comfy tent