Fiona's Adventures: Week 4- Yellowstone here we come!

Monday 15th September-

After class I went to the mammalogy lab and went over all the skulls we need to know for tomorrows exam. I also studied the pelts of the animals. In Vert.Design we continued with our cat dissection. This week was much easier because.. well it didn't look too much like a cat without any skin. Me and Shannen quickly caught up to our classmates. I separated out the muscles while Shan removed the fat and fascia (muscle attachment surfaces). Kris, our TA, was impressed with our dissection. Once we had separated the pectoral girdle and axial muscles we were finished for the day. Now just to learn them for the quiz. I spent most of the evening studying for my mammalogy exam.

Tuesday 16th September-

I had my carnivore lab exam this morning. There were 20 stations with 5 questions each and we had 4mins per station. I felt it went alright although there were a few questions I had to guess at, such as what habitat the animal lives in. After the exam I met up with Shannen and we had a meeting with our academic adviser, Jeanne Franz. We thanked her for all her help in helping us to register for classes and spoke with her about which classes we should take next semester. That afternoon we had a field trip to Ninepipes nature refuge with our Habitat Conservation class. This is a large wetland area in Mission valley which is very important for waterfowl, migratory birds and other wildlife. We met with the park manager and he led us on a tour of the park, speaking about how he manages the wetlands by controlling the water levels. He also told us about how he creates different habitats to suit different bird species such as pheasants and waterfowl. That evening me and Shannen watched The Amazing Spider Man 2. As the main action scene approached I was careful to hide my expression as I've already seen it and knew what was coming. Safe to say, Shannen was not impressed with what happened.

Wednesday 18th September-

College was the usual; class, work, class. I worked on an assignment about different methods of constructing phylogenetic trees. I chose to do mine on the Canids, which was very interesting. Eventually Shannen and me decided we would watch some documentaries. I put on one about the dessert lions of Namibia, which was about a small population of lions which is making a comeback thanks to the care of one man. After that we watched one about the wolves of Yellowstone to prepare for our trip Saturday. It focused on the Druid Peak Pack and the Slough Creek Pack and their rivalry in the Lamar Valley. It was very interesting to watch and see how the strength of the park depends on the strength of its leaders. I could remember parts of it from watching it years ago.

Thursday 18th September-

Got the bus into work at 6.15am and I was the only person on it. When I was working later that evening we were setting up for a special harvest themed feast on the oval, which was fun. Me and Shannen decided to watch The Lion King that night. Elliot and Dave called over for a few minutes and ended up watching the whole movie with us.

Friday 19th September-

After work I had my cat dissection class. As Kris was at a wedding we had Brett (our lecturer) teaching the lab. We moved onto the lower half of the cat which was quite easy to separate out the muscles for. When me and Shannen finished we headed home on the U-Dash. After making my dinner and getting all my food ready for Yellowstone, I sat down to look at my phone. Unfortunately my phone was nowhere to be seen. After searching through my room and the rest of the apartment frantically, including turning the couches upside down, I decided that I must have put it into the washing machine with my jeans. This was backed up by the fact that it wouldn't even ring when Shannen tried to call it. Then I thought about the bus. I went out and asked the driver of the next bus if any phones had been found, no luck :( . Eoghan was getting on the bus so the driver took his number in case he found my phone. Resigned that my phone was gone forever, along with all my contacts and photos I sulked around the apartment for the next hour. Until... Eoghan rang Shannen's phone. The bus driver had found my phone and was going to drop it back to Lewis and Clark! Lifesaver! Safe to say I mind my phone slightly better now and avoid leaving it on bus seats :P

Saturday 20th September-

IT'S YELLOWSTONE TIME! Well, not quite yet :P. Shannen and me got up just after 2am to meet the bus outside at 3.15am.We were fairly worried when we went outside because there was no-one else waiting and no sign of the bus. Then we spotted it on the other side of the buildings. We were the only two getting on at L&C. After picking everyone else up at campus we headed east towards Butte. Within minutes most of the people on the bus were asleep, including Shannen beside me. I was too excited though. I've been dreaming of visiting Yellowstone ever since I was a child watching documentaries about it. I watched the countryside go by in the night, eventually drifting off. I woke up nearer to Yellowstone where the landscape was much different. Shannen and myself started to spot some volcanic features, including a few huge dykes, putting our geology skills to the test. We arrived at the north entrance to Yellowstone at around 9am and no sooner were we in the park than we spotted a huge 7-point bull elk. While me and Shannen were impressed the many Asians on the tour were amazed with exclamations of "ooh!" and "ahhh!". Our first stop on the tour was Mammoth Hot Springs, which unfortunately did not include any mammoths :P, but nevertheless was stunning. We strolled around here with the two other Irish girls, Éilis and Sheena, and took some lovely photos. From here we traveled south through the park, where we saw bison causing traffic jams. Our guide Mona (from the Foreign Student Scholar Services office) informed us all about the geologic history of the park, including facts about the giant caldera (55 by 72 km) created by a super-volcano which erupted around 640,000years ago. She also told us about the rampant wildfires which tore through Yellowstone in 1988, destroying about 60-70% of the park. However, this actually proves beneficial for the trees and animals that live here. It regenerates the forest, just like in Glacier. The park rangers have adopted a policy of letting fires burn unless they threaten human settlements or are caused by humans. We had lunch on the shore of the beautiful lake, which although seemingly peaceful is actually writhing with volcanic activity beneath the surface. After lunch we traveled to some boiling mud volcanoes, the Dragons Breath Cave and Yellowstone Canyon, which I didn't even know about. It was formed when an ice dam burst and all the water behind it rushed down the valley, widening and deepening it. While we waited patiently for our turn to take pictures near the edge, a very rude middle aged Chinese tourist elbowed past us and not once but twice! Anyways after that we traveled west towards more hot springs. We visited Paint Pot Springs and Grand Prismatic Spring, both of which were very colourful and impressive. We made it to the grand finale of our tour at 5.30pm, Old Faithful, a geyser which erupts every 30-90minutes, shooting boiling water 27-56m into the air. We had 3hours free time here so we watched the geyser twice, got dinner, shopped for souvenirs and explored the famous Old Faithful Inn. Shannen and myself fell in love with the old wooden inn and tried to imagine what it would be like to stay there. At 8.30pm we all got back on the bus and started the 6hour journey home. Again almost everyone fell asleep right away. I tried to stay awake just in case we drove past a bear or wolves. Sadly not, so we will just have to go back at some stage.