Adventures on the Prairie : One week on the prairie

One week on the prairie completed! And boy has it been a wild ride.

I left Boston last Saturday to travel to Malta, Montana by train. That's 2,260 miles on a train. I overnighted on the train from Boston and arrived in Chicago 7 hours behind schedule, causing me to miss my train to Malta. Amtrak put me up in the Hyatt in Chicago for a night, which gave me one more night of comfortable sleep and one more hot shower - I wasn't complaining.
The next train journey was delayed and ultimately ended up arriving in Malta 6 hours late. So my 2,260 mile train journey to Malta took me 3.8 days. A message to all travelers out there: if you plan on traveling across the country by train, give yourself 4 extra days. The freight trains cause ridiculous delays...

I was the only passenger to get off the train in Malta, and the conductors were making fun of me, asking why on earth I'd be going to Malta, MT. In fact, many people asked me that question, and when I responded with 'to do a conservation project on the American Prairie Reserve 40 miles south of Malta' I'd get a wide-eyed response of 'Wow, that's ambitious...'. This didn't phase me. But when I arrived on the prairie, I understood why they responded in that way.

The prairie is a land of extremes. Our first hike almost killed me. We were out on a 95 degree day, with no shade or breeze hiking during the peak hours of the day for 8 miles. And coming off a 4-day train trip with little food, sleep, and water did not help me any. I suffered greatly from heat exhaustion and found myself rather ill for the rest of the day. And when I went to sleep that night, I vomited in my tent. ..What a great first day.

The first couple of days on the prairie were very hard on me. Blisters, heat exhaustion, dehydration, homesickness. I wanted to jump back on the train and head back to New Hampshire. What have I gotten myself in to?! Two months in the middle of no where...? Oy

Since then, however, I've started to change my frame of mind.
The reason I'm here is to help gain a better understanding of this vast landscape in the name of science and conservation, and it is certainly an incredible place. 10-mile hikes on specific transects in groups of two everyday allow us to see animals in their natural habit. Bison, mule deer, sage grouse, jack rabbits, owls(!), prairie dogs, elk, white tailed deer! We record what we see on a GPS and document them. At first I thought this place was boring and flat, but now I'm realizing the diversity and beauty of the landscape. Nonetheless, it still scares the crap out of me.