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.