Day 6: August 7, 2012

I'm slowly (very slowly) starting to become a morning person! How could I not, with views like these?

Today, we made our way back to Mott Island for our first processing day!! One of the NPS staff members brought some gear back for us to make our load a bit lighter. Thank you so much, Mark!! :) On our canoe trip back, we saw four river otters swimming in the Rock Harbor channel. They were so cute! Reminded me of my younger sister because otters are her favorite animal.

Before leaving on the canoe trip, we saw two moose as well! Rachel spotted them while we were eating breakfast, on a far bank. It was a mother moose and one of her young! They're the first moose we've spotted while at the island, and in fact the first moose I've ever seen! :D

They saw us too!

Toward the end of our canoe journey, we had to quickly paddle to the side of the channel, because the Ranger III passed through! They slowed down quite a bit, but even so they left behind a gigantic wake! Rachel and Jennifer's boat almost tipped over in the shallow water, but they saved it at the last minute!

Once we were back at Mott, we sanitized our gear using the same procedure that we used on the last trip- we put all of the waterproof gear into 140°F water and leave it in the sun to dry completely. Anything else was cleaned off with bleach and water. We were all pretty sore from doing so much hiking in the past three days, so we relaxed and helped Angela pack plant samples into their silica gel baggies. We also got to call family members and take showers! Always a good thing. Finally got back to the tents at around 2 am (there were a lot of plant samples to take care of!!) Leaving tomorrow for Daisy Farm!!

Help to prevent the spread of invasive species: Disinfect/clean your gear properly!!