This was the best 5K hike I have ever been on. I am learning the tricks and trades of my roommates research work. She has been teaching me her fieldwork the past couple days, telemetry, veg plots, etc. Today she let me go out on my own to track a few of her birds. She is studying Sage Grouse, out in a little tincy tiny community called Grouse Creek, about as far North and West as you can get in Utah.
Today, I went to track some birds. I had always previously only gone with Steph and learned how to use the gear and everything. I had never come upon a bird that I didn’t flutter. I had a plan this time around though, I was going to make slowly smaller and smaller circles. After hiking for about an hour and a half, I started zeroing in on the bird we named ‘Juvie’ because its just a youngin. Steph also let me borrow her amazing, I mean amazingly incredible binoc’s. So I’m zeroing in on this bird after almost two hours tracking her. I start focusing on this bush, that I’m sure she is in. I am taking every precaution this time to not make her flutter. I’m walking like Robert Redford in the movie Sneakers, you know, that scene where he’s trying to steal the little black box back from Ben Kingsley, but he can only move in slow motion, that’s what I tried to recreate as I zeroed in on my bird. So I’m staring at the shrub, and I look down and to the right, and my eye catches the staring eye of Juvie!!! Right next to me! My heart jumped up into my throat.
Did I mention I saw a mountain lion the other day? Like from me to 1st base close, I bring this up, because I had the same reaction, I froze. I caught that Grousse staring at me, hunched down in her shrub, and I froze. When I gathered my wits, I started moving slowly away, Redford slow. And then I watched her for twenty more minutes with those sick binocs. Such an amazing rush. Something I’ve never experienced before.
By that point it was nearly dusk, and I new I needed to head back before Steph started worrying that I was lost or eaten by a mountain lion. I luckily had the where with all to punch in my car’s location into the GPS before leaving for the bird, otherwise I still maybe trying to find my way back to the car. That’s another thing, I realized on the way, that I hadn’t eaten all day, and the only food I could find in my pack was a pulverized orange peanut butter cracker thing, and you know what, it’s amazing, but if you pore all those crumbs in your mouth, it tastes exactly the same as if the things weren’t all broken down.
Anyway, those last 2.5 km’s back to my car were the most gratifying I’ve had. I have never scene something like that out in nature before, and been able to spy on it. And I finally found a bird without making it fly away. So awesome.
I love it out here in the country. I had a flash forward to my future me, married to a cowboy and living on a small farm or ranch. I’m pretty excited about it. I’ll have a small pick-up truck with a stick shift, but really I’ll probably just ride around on the horses. Steph has been a great patient teacher out here. I feel like I can now finally talk to these fun amazing Natural Resources people and not feel like just a groupie.
I’ve been out in Utah now for almost 9 months. I just moved into a house, that I love, I cannot wait to get settled in there, and start having frequent jam sessions in the back yard. I’ve met some pretty amazing people out here in Utah, and I am in love with my school program, whoever’s out there looking out for me, I’m very greatful. Logan's a trippy little town, a culture shock for sure. But there is a great community of really fun kind hearted souls who enjoy the adventure that life is, my kind of people, it helps having that canyon as a backyard.