Day 18: July 22, 2012

Packed up our stuff today, and canoed back out to Moskey Basin! We have to re-sample LeSage and Richie before we go back, because back when we sampled them originally we weren't sure whether the samples needed to be filtered or not (and of course, because it was our first sampling experience, we hadn't brought the lab notebook to check). So we didn't filter anything, and as it turned out we need filtered samples for nitrogen testing. We figured that it would be relatively quick though, because we didn't have to do any of the other things that we normally do- no transects, no secchi disk or inflow/outflow data, we just had to get fresh water column and sediment porewater samples to be filtered!

After the 2 hour canoe trip, we ate lunch and left to sample! We hiked to LeSage and inflated the boat. We used a slightly different format this time to save time- I went out on the inflatable boat with Charlotte, and Sarah went back with Angela to Lake Richie to get some sediment samples with our other sediment corer! I was a little nervous to be inflatable boat, but I figured I'd been canoeing for over two weeks now- how difficult could it be?

I was so confident, that I paddled right onto the shore.

Well, it was incredibly hard. I definitely underestimated the amount of trouble that their sneaky boat can cause.

You're completely at the mercy of the current, and the boat rarely goes in the direction you want it to. It seemed like when it finally was going the way you wanted, it would suddenly decide, "... I want to turn left." So it would make a sharp turn for no reason, and usually we'd just have it turn in a complete circle and try to move on from there. It was definitely a work out!

Charlotte and I got our four water column samples and four sediment samples, and got back to our starting point about two hours later. In the meantime, Sarah and Angela hiked back to Lake Richie and took a sediment sample, and then Angela snorkeled around looking for some Utricularia vulgaris.

And while snorkeling, she made some leech-ey friends!

They came back to LeSage when we were finished and helped us to carry our sampling equipment to Richie- Angela portaged the boat single handedly!! Way to go, fearless leader! :D

At Lake Richie, Sarah and I went out in the boat to re-do our water column samples, and to get two more sediment samples from the further corners of the lake that Angela couldn't get to without a lot of swimming. Richie is really big though, so we spent a lot of time paddling. Loons were chasing us too! They kept on diving up from under the water and ending up really close to the boat. And, of course, they made noises at us that we're sure meant, "GET AWAY FROM MEEEE!"

LEEEEEEEAVE!!

 To get water column samples, we used the huge integrated tube sampler. It's a task that requires two people- the one in the front of the boat rinses out a collapsible jug and a funnel with lake water while the one in the back of the boat puts the sampler as straight down into the water as possible, to a depth of one meter. They close off the top of it, sealing the water into the tube, and then they drain it into the collapsible jug, held by the other volunteer. After mixing, sample bottles are filled from the water in the collapsible jug.

We finished re-sampling around 8 pm for the July Trip!! WoOoOoOoOoOOOOO!!! (<--basically the noise that the loons made) We got back to our shelter before it was even dark out! So proud of us. It was a very full day, though.

The final July voyage of the inflatable canoe.

Filtered our samples for the day, and filtered more water with the SteriPen bottle filter. It got out the small bits of debris floating in the water- overall it does a pretty darn good job! And then we got rid of the germs and viruses as well! We've used the SteriPen pretty much every day up here, which is really exciting. It still hasn't run out of battery, and it's lightweight and conveniently sized so that it's really easy to transport! As we were about to get ready for bed, we heard wolves howling outside!! They sounded pretty far away, but there were a lot of them. I would guess that there were at least four of them, talking back and forth. How cool is that? :)

Of course, we had to SteriPen some water for breakfast in the morning!

Between this sign on the wall and my Lafuma sleeping bag, I certainly will rest easy. :)

Day 17: July 21, 2012

By the time that Sarah, Charlotte, and I woke up, Angela was already hard at work pressing plants, preserving genetic samples, and checking on old plants. It's a very time consuming process, but she does a great job! I'll have to visit the herbarium once all of her samples make it there, to reminisce.

Here's a bunch of Angela's plants being pressed in one of the offices!

I sorted out things that we'll be leaving on Mott Island to lighten the load for our next trip, and I repacked my bags for our next trip. I'm so glad that our backpacks are durable, and the compartments are all really useful. For instance, I've been putting my wetsuit into a bag and sticking it in the very bottom compartment, which is separated from the rest of the bag by a divider. That way, my other things don't get soaking wet, and my wetsuit doesn't have to be carried on the outside of my pack!

This is one of the other ways to carry the backpacks! I should probably do this regularly, and keep food in the small pack in front, considering how often I snack while we're on the trail. :)

Then I joined Sarah and Charlotte as they were finishing up sanitization. Didn't have to sanitize between our two McArgo Cove lakes, because they were connected. They've really got the sanitization procedures down to a science!

We had taco night for dinner, which was fantastic. Some squirrels got into our tortillas though, and nibbled off bits of both sides of them. We ripped off the nibbled bits, and the tortillas were still good. :)

We also taped up our new bottles so that they'll be dark, froze our samples, and poured silica gel to get ready for our final round of sampling for this trip. And we got to do laundry, which was great!! Nothing like a fresh pair of pajamas when you're camping. Right before bed, we made s'mores over the campfire by our tents! They were delicious.

Nobody puts baby in the corner. Except for Charlotte.

Day 16: July 20, 2012

Angela and the volunteers went to get water after breakfast today, and ran into some National Park Service employees on the dock, who offered to carry some of our heavier gear back to Mott Island for us!! That is such an exciting thing, because the hike back was looking to be more difficult than the hike to McArgo Cove! They took our wetsuits and our inflatable boat, which was so appreciated. All of the NPS personnel have been so helpful since day 1 of our trip- Thank you all so much!! We couldn't have done it without you!!

After packing up everything else, we hiked back to Daisy Farms! We tried to occupy ourselves by telling a story in a line about a wizard named Nantucket. He wore matrix robes and wore a cupcake hat. I will upload a picture of one of the more exciting scenes from our story as soon as I get a hold of it!!

For now, here's a picture of a frog that we saw.

On the way, Charlotte and I talked about the Scarpa insoles for a while. She was telling me that her hiking boots are sort of old and worn down, but adding the Scarpa insoles to them has helped to make them a lot more comfortable! They give her a lot more support, and her feet end up feeling better at the end of a long day of hiking!

We made it all the way to the outlook before we ate lunch!! We all collapsed up there in the small patch of shade. When we finished eating though, there was only a little over an hour of hiking to go! Once we were finally at Daisy, we waded in Lake Superior to cool down, and after that brief break, we canoed back to Mott! We're so tough.

We made it to Daisy!!

Got our tents all set up, and after dinner cleaned up the inside. We discovered a great use for our cute little lanterns from Coghlan's- they can hang right from the top of the tent, lighting it up so that we don't have to wear headlamps inside of it! They were really bright too. Very useful! We love those little lanterns.

You can see our tents in the background!

Thank you, Coghlan's, for the adorable tent lights!!

There was a gorgeous sunset off of the dock at Mott. Goodnight, Isle Royale!! :)

Day 15: July 19, 2012

A particularly rowdy squirrel woke us all up early this morning, and I noticed that the sky was a really nice color, so I walked down by the dock quickly. The following pictures are why it's completely worth it to get up at 6 am when you're at Isle Royale. :)

So beautiful!! :)



Hiking to today's lake was particularly difficult- lots and lots of backwoods travel. At one point, we were in a swamp-like area that reminded me of every fairy tale swamp I've ever heard of. This was added to by the carnivorous plants that were scattered around!

Watch out for the three terrors of the fire swamp.

This butterfly landed on us when we started hiking! We called him Mr. Butters.

He decided that he wanted to pose with all of us.

                                     











Sampling of this lake was pretty quick too, since it was another small one. There were three loons on it as well! There was a young one and two adults. They kept on making stressed noises, like we were upsetting them, but they were following us around the whole time! We tried to keep our distance, but they wouldn't stop following us! Loons are the drama queens of the bird world.

OooOoOOoOoOooooooOOoOoOoOoooO!!! (Translation: GET OUT OF MY SPACE!!)

Angela, you'll have to help me on which plants these are!! I'm tempted to say Potamogeton of some sort, but I readily admit I'm nowhere near positive.

This log was a perfect place to do titrations.

Hiked back by a shorter route, and I ate TONS of wild blueberries and thimbleberries along the way. they were so delicious. Thimbleberries might be my new favorite thing- they're bigger than raspberries, and tastier too in my opinion. I wish I could plant thimbleberry bushes at my house.

Wild blueberries are wonderful!!

When we got back, we filtered our samples for the day. Then, we used the SteriPen to purify water from down by the dock, and we relaxed while eating instant mashed potatoes and bacon (Seriously, one of the best camping meals ever).

Angela had to press some plants down on the dock too! She found a lovely macrophyte moustache in her bag. :)

Basic Step 1: Remove SteriPen from its carrying case

Basic Step 2: Get those germs!!! The SteriPen is so easy to use!

I got pretty cold in the evenings, so I wore my Helly Hansen coat!! It was really comfortable for me, so I wore it a lot, even when it wasn't raining. :)

The spider was back in the latrine again. We have a new theory, since during the day he was nowhere to be found. We think that during the day, he's a daddy long leg spider. And then, when the moon comes up, he transforms into a hideous were-spider, unable to quench his thirst for blood.

...

o____O

It was super cold again! Climbing into my sleeping bag was the most wonderful feeling. I totally wrapped up my head and cinched it up all of the way, so that I was all wrapped up like a burrito. Once I was burrito'd, I got all warm. Best feeling ever after a long day. :)

Day 14: July 18, 2012

It was so cold when we woke up today!! It can get really cold on the island, even during the summer. As soon as I poked my head out of the sleeping bag, my body rejected the idea of moving another inch. So I snatched my ice cold jeans and pulled them into my snuggly warm sleeping bag to warm them up. Figured it would make changing into work clothes less of a shock.

It wasn't. It was freezing this morning. I can't believe that I didn't notice it earlier. Our Lafuma bags are made to keep you warm in temperatures as low as 30 degrees Fahrenheit! I didn't think we'd need it, but as it turns out the temperatures on Isle Royale can be pretty cold in the summer! I appreciated the fact that the area of the sleeping bag around the zipper is a little bit more fluffy, so that the cold zipper doesn't hit your skin when you're getting all comfortable in there. There's also a different kind of fabric at the bottom of the bag, near your feet. The bag itself is synthetic, but the foot-area is more felt-y, and keeps your feet really toasty. That bag has some really cool design features!!

It was a really long hike to sample today- with lots of backwoods hiking. Once we got there, we ate a quick lunch and packed everything up to start our work for the day!

You can see the lake!! Such a nice view.

We saw butterflies!

Ready to sample!!

We sampled the lake pretty quickly! It was a tiny one. There also wasn't tons of wind, so Charlotte and Sarah were able to paddle around without added difficulty.

Although the boat can be difficult even with no wind.

I'm also starting to get really used to testing alkalinity and water color, so that's going more smoothly now and taking up less time. Basically, from one site in each quadrant of the lakes, we fill a bottle with water 1 meter below the surface in an area that hasn't been stirred up by our walking. I test that water, both filtered and unfiltered, to determine its alkalinity, and I test the unfiltered water color. I usually sit somewhere along the shore to do the tests, or on a log or sometimes even in the water. I use little alkalinity and water color kits, and we have a small container for any chemical waste, little jugs of deionized water, kimwipes, and extra reagents in our tiny Eagle Creek backpack!

Angela usually grabbed the sample bottle of water for me while I set up my chemistry gear somewhere on shore.

I usually picked a spot on land where I could run my tests. Occasionally though, I'd sit on a floating log, or stand up in the water and use the floaties as lab tables!

Chemistry is such fun. :)

I also run an alkalinity test on 5 mL of sediment porewater, the water that's found in between particles of sediment a few inches from the sediment's surface. We collect it by sticking a tube sampler with an airstone attached to the inside into the sediment. The airstone goes below the level of the sediment, and we use a syringe to pull water up through the tube attached to the airstone! It takes a really long time to get water up when the sediment is mucky. We put the first 45-60 mL of water back into the lake, just in case there was water from the water column in the tube. And then, we fill up our sample bottles!

Angela became a master of working the tube sampler!

Hiked back to McArgo, and rested on the dock for a bit while Angela pressed plants. While there, we decided that Latin names for plants sound like Harry Potter curses.

EQUISETUM FLUVIATILE!!!

You can't tell who some of these characters are supposed to be. The sparkly one is Cedric.

Sarah brought up that while carrying the integrated tube sampler, she looked like a sand person. So of course, we had to take pictures.



Imagine these sound effects

"The sand people are easily startled. But they'll soon be back, and in greater numbers."

Told ya

There was a killer spider in the latrine when I went there before bed. I'm not joking. You all think I'm joking, but it was seriously huge. And its eyes were glowing, and it was right there on the wall. So I went back to get someone, and Sarah went back with me to take a picture of it.

We were standing very far away, just in case it decided to leap toward us.

To confirm its size and creep-ocity, I'll add some scale to the picture. It was huge.

Not photoshopped.

See?

But in all seriousness, this spider was at least the size of my palm, including his legs. After seeing this guy, I'm convinced that no spider back home is going to frighten me ever again. We had a conversation back at the shelter about how spiders would be less frightening if they looked like ponies.

... Tiny 8 legged ponies with one shiny eye.

And now, reading back over that, I'm sort of terrified. Maybe spiders should just stay the way they are.

Day 13: July 17th, 2012

Ate a fast breakfast, and started on our super intense hike!! It was really wet outside as we started out- apparently there was a thunderstorm last night, but I didn't even hear it. I was that tired, I suppose! We've been doing a lot more physical activity than I'm used to (aka, when I'm home I barely move), so I'm tuckered out by the time we lay down.

The hike today was really difficult for me, though. The trail had lots of crazy ups and downs, and for me it was difficult. It made it harder that our packs were heavier than they had been before, since we had to carry personal gear and sampling gear- up until now, we hike with sampling gear only, since we leave our personal gear back at our camp when we actually go to a lake. I'm so glad that I've got a hiking backpack rather than a normal one though- this isn't the kind of weight that you could carry on your shoulders because it'd kill your back and neck. Our Eagle Creek backpacks held so much, but it didn't feel like as much because if the pack is fitted correctly, it rests on your hips, so you can handle carrying more weight. I love this backpack. I wish I could use it for school, although I know that given the opportunity to pack that much for the day, I would bring things I didn't need. :P Maybe I can unzip the day pack sometimes and use that one! It's so useful to be able to do that. And contrary to what I was expecting, it's easy to get the day pack back on! I figured it would be a nightmare to do, but the zippers all seem to be really sturdy!

The hikes are always worth it for the fantastic views!

Look at how much can strap onto the packs, too! That's especially useful with awkwardly shaped things, like the PVC quadrat or flippers. Those don't fit inside of a pack so well.

Saw tons of wolf tracks on the trail, and they looked really fresh! The wolves just wanted to make sure that we knew the way to McArgo Cove. There were carnivorous plants too! On the island, there are native pitcher plants and sundews, which are sort of similar to venus flytraps.

Pitcher plants!! :D So interesting.

We stopped at Chickenbone Lake for lunch, and after that only had two more miles to go... It was basically a lot of really steep downhill hiking, which we could all tell would be terrible in reverse in a few days, hahaha.

We SteriPen'd more water at Chickenbone Lake! I mixed in a raspberry drink packet, and it was delicious!!

Once we got to McArgo, around 4 pm, we got one of the last two shelters!! We had literally just sat down at the picnic table in front of one, when a boy scout troop came by and asked if the shelter was taken. Phew! They got the one next to us though. We saw them out at the dock later, when Angela, Sarah, and Charlotte jumped into the water to cool off! I stayed up on the dock basking in the sun, because I heard rumors of leeches... (Sure enough, one got on one of the younger boy scouts! He certainly wasn't happy. But our gals were too quick for them I suppose!) There were tons of boy scouts on the island!! Which of course is really great- it's good to be out learning about nature and camping. But where are all of the girl scouts?!? Gotta get more ladies camping. Maybe my troop should do a reunion there someday (What do you think, ladies?) Really, Isle Royale is a beautiful place. I'm certainly hoping to come back after this summer!!

I was a bit chilly before going to bed, so I put on my clean pair of Bridgedale socks. They're good for wicking away perspiration when you hike, but when your feet are out of your hiking boots, they can also keep them toasty warm! :)

Day 12: July 16th, 2012

Woke up and finished packing our stuff for the hike to McArgo! We decided to travel to Daisy today and start the hike to McArgo early tomorrow, spending all day on that. The weather forecast: scattered thunderstorms for the next few days. That means that our Helly Hansen gear will have to be at the top of our packs!!

Take a look at the fog when we woke up!! Normally, you'd be able to see across Rock Harbor channel.

Sarah blends in with her Helly Hansen gear on! See if you can spot her in this picture with Charlotte.

While packing up our gear, we realized that about 20 bottles were missing from our things. Which, obviously, was a huge problem. The park service saved the day, by loaning us sterile centrifuge tubes for our water samples!! THANK YOU!! Still not sure where the bottles went- we'll have to keep an eye out for them. They might've gotten lost in the shuffle of trying to get everything together in the beginning of the trip.

We canoed to Daisy once everything was packed up, and I ended up really seasick. (On a canoe. Sad, right?) There were lots of big rolling waves, especially when we got to the opening in the channel where Lake Superior flows in. At least the waves were with us I guess- we ended up getting pushed while paddling, and made it in 40 minutes rather than an hour!

There are lots of bunnies at Daisy Farms. :)

Didn't unpack much once we got there, since we're going to leave bright and early tomorrow. We just settled down, ate dinner, and are going to sleep early. I'm really starting to miss everyone from back home. It helps a lot though that the girls are so nice. We talked a lot, and are all getting to be great friends. They're making the trip so much more fun. :)

This was is our page in the guest book at Daisy Farms!!