Into the Jungle [updated]

I helped with the fish survey yesterday. The fish survey is an effort to understand where steelhead salmon are, how many of them, how big, and what they eat. We hiked an hour up Elder to Misery, which wasn't entirely miserable. A lot of the trail wasn't really a trail, some people like to call it a deer path, but that's a lie. I can't imagine deer using the path. We had to scamper over and under trees, pull away branches covered in spiderwebs, and hop across boulders. It felt like I was in an Indiana Jones movie, totally covered in cob webs and collecting little bugs like they were worth their weight in gold. And they'll probably cost much more than their weight in gold to analyze.

Electro-fishing is electro-awesome! The light was getting low, but this really was an action sport. I'm thinking about getting one and starting a magazine, "Recreational Electro-fisher." Electro-fishing uses a battery and transformer to send pulses of current into the water. You use a wand (anode), and a braided steel wire (cathode) trails behind. The pulses of current between the anode and cathode send the fish into convulsions, and they often swim towards the anode, where you scoop them up with a net. Fish are unharmed when used correctly.

Ferry to Kingston

As long as you're going to leave your research site in the middle of nowhere for a week, you might as well have your lovely girlfriend meet you. Everyone took a week off to escape the wildfire smoke that has been smothering us for the last three weeks. I made it to Seattle, where my generous friends have been hosting me. Em and I decided to borrow a car and head to Port Townsend on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. After waiting in a very long line of cars for more than an hour we got to board the ferry to Kingston. From Kingston it was an hour to Port Townsend where we ate some lunch and visited Fort Warden State Park, AKA where "An Officer and a Gentleman" was filmed.

Lunch

The only way to fly, is after lunch at Sol Food.

Stream life

I found these eggs in the stream while I was incubating some bags of leaves. I have no idea what they are, but they were pretty.

Get the big picture on the wildfires

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/07/californias_continuing_fires.html

Seventeen gorgeous pictures of the fires and fighting efforts across California.

An Oasis

This little plant is a morning oasis. The tiny hairlike trichomes covering the leaves collect dew and support a little community of insects.

Oops! Did I dye the river red?

Oops! Did I dye the river red?
Originally uploaded by botanize

I dumped 5ml (about two teaspoons) of 20% Rhodamine WT into Jack of Hearts stream. It was awesome. The stream turned red and pink. Don't worry though, Rhodamine WT is designed and EPA approved for this purpose. It's just that I used about 10x too much.