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!

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..