Isle Royale Summer Research!: Day 8: July 12, 2012

Hiked to Angleworm Lake today! We had to go off trail, which was a bit rough. Angela got us there though! I used my Bridgedale socks again today (I've been trying to wear them whenever we hike) and they were super comfortable. When I first saw them, I was afraid that they were going to be too thick, and would get hot on my feet. But they actually keep your feet really cool!! They're cushioning too, which is always an added bonus while on a hike. I wish that I had a pair for every day of the week. I might buy some more when I get home, because they're so comfy.

Angleworm is a really long, thin lake. We swam all the way to the far side of it, and did our sampling as we went down! It was a really nice day, and Angleworm was a nice lake to sample. Everything went well!

I have the world's coolest office. :)

Some underwater shots of macrophytes!! These cameras work really well.

One of the spots where I did my water chemistry tests in Angleworm.

The volunteers had a harder time than we did I'm sure, because we didn't have to go to the very ends of the lake, we just had to go into the furthest quadrant. They had to go to the very ends in order to characterize the inflow and outflow! In short, they have to take photos (with something in them, for scale) of the opening of the areas where water flows into or out of the lake. They also have to take note of any vegetation or characteristics of the flow, note its strength, measure the width of it, and measure its depth. They told me that the most difficult thing about it is deciding where the inflow or outflow joins the lake, and therefore where they should measure. They also paddle against the currents there, which can't be easy in that inflatable boat!

We wanted to refill on drinking water before we left Angleworm, so we used our SteriPen!! We'd been using it on our water back at camps, but this was the first time that we used it in an inland lake. For those of you who've never heard of SteriPen, it's an ultraviolet purification system. You fill up a bottle with water, screw on a special cap, insert and activate the SteriPen while swirling the bottle, to make sure that it all gets exposed to the light, and drink!! At first, I was skeptical, I won't lie. But we've been using it since we got here so far, and now I get weird about drinking anything that hasn't been SteriPen'd! This was one of the first times that we had used the SteriPen filter top though.

Sarah, using the filter to gather water.

And then, you swirl the water while the SteriPen gets rid of bacteria and viruses in it!! You can see the UV light working in the bottle!

One of the handiest things is that the bottle top doesn't only work on the SteriPen bottle that we were sent- it also works on other one liter bottles! That's my one liter yellow bottle that's being filled in the photograph!

Hiked back to Daisy before it got dark out! Along the trail to and from Angleworm, there's a beautiful outlook where you can see Canada! It's got a really beautiful view. We got lots of great pictures!!