2022 People of the Big River Field Class

 Day 10 and camping at cow meadows has been the best so far. Today we went to the Lava River Caves here at the Newberry Volcanic National Park. I'm not exactly sure how far it went but felt like half mile to a mile long, and 175 steps down. It was my 2nd time being in a lava tube and I actually enjoyed it better than the first time. Afterwards we got another tour to go to the top of Lava Butte lookout and look at the caldera and cinder cones, stratovolcano's that laid across the earth all around us. Such a beautiful view. I can't believe all the times I have been to Oregon; I have never seen its beauty quite like this. Some of us decided to skip the shuttle ride back down and we walked down it. A beautiful hot foot walk down. Last tour we got to see was the Benham Falls which was a half mile walk, it was also just as beautiful to see. Water looked very refreshing and made me want to get in. By the end of our 3 tours, we were all pooped, I had gotten 18,000 steps in by the t

 Day 9, blog 9 Slept good even if it was at our own little sites, i felt safe. This is a beautiful area being here on the southeast side of Mt. Bachelor in the Deschutes National Forest. We are looking at a 1.5 hour drive towards Burns, Oregon to do a plant surveying with the Forest Service. I am seeing that it isn't just me who is starting to get tired from waking up early every day and then being busy all day and in the heat. We made it to our destination and all I see on the ground right away is Pumas from volcano eruptions. With Marla Fisher who has a degree in Botany and Americorp intern Anthony Luzana. How exciting this is, as we will be surveying the Pumas Moon Wort which is declining in the area. They have cleared an area a year ago that this plant resides, from Lodgepole trees that are taking over the area. To see if the plant is in competition with the tree. The results are positive as we have found more than what was the year before. 756 was the total of flags we counted

 Day 8 Blog 8   Today is travel day and we are looking at a 8.5-hour drive to Bend, Oregon from Kalispell Reservation. With all the stops that we are making it ended up being 12.5 hours when we got to camp, and we were losing daylight. For lunch we made it to Tricities and stopped off at the Columbia Park and i was able to buy myself a sno-cone, Cherry and coconut. We managed to stop In Bend and eat dinner and only some of us got Panda Express and the others got Mcdonalds before heading to camp and putting up our tents. We had so many campsites to choose from here at Cow meadows next to Crane Prairie Reservoir. So, we spread out and put our tents up in the all the reserved sites for us. Before the night ended, we were able to start a small fire to smoke out the mosquitos. We all have given blood to these blood suckers. We been making jokes about how we are just like Will Farrell in Land of the Lost when the big mosquitos got him and made him all pail. Beyond that I am happy to be on th

 Day 7- Last day in Kalispell Reservation and it is going to be a hot one. We spent the night listening to thunder and rain throughout the night. The having to share one shower between 9 of us isn't quite bad as we all thought it would be. Our first stop today is the fish hatchery then going to the Camas Community Center where we learned that the tribe had went around to different reservations and got ideas for how they wanted to build their wellness center. It had an early learning center, clinic, meeting rooms, little store, snack bar, family pool center, basketball court, 9 square, pool room, computer room, 3 workout rooms and offices for the workers. It is so amazing. I wish we had something as beautiful. We got there and spent part of the day with the People of the Canoe Youth camp, where we sat and listened to a story about Brandon Kohler, an Inchelium native resident who had what seems like years' worth of bad luck and yet he kept fighting for his dream which was profess

  Day 6- Monday is finally here and I'm ready to get this day over with. Definitely going to be a hot one today. We are kind of just rolling with whatever comes our way for today's schedule it seems. It was a productive day I would say, we met with Ray Entz the director of Wildlife and water resources this morning and he gave us the scoop on everything that is going on. The most important natural resource they have is the White Pine as it is a part of their cultural where they carve out bark canoes with them. They have a Nature Plant Nursery program where we are camped, and we went and contributed to it by pulling the weeds that are trying to compete with the native species for water. Good little workout I would say. The water here has apex predator fish and non-native species in Pend Orielle River. Which is the second biggest tributary to the Columbia River. Their programs also have, recovering projects on the Grizzly bears as they were once a food source for the people, a cou

  Day 5 and it is Sunday, travel day is here, and we will be off to Kalispell Reservation in Usk, WA at 11am. I'd say it is about an hour northwest of Spokane. We are going to take the long way and head into Airway Heights to do laundry and then Walmart trip. Dehlia is the best, she got us a chicken teriyaki for lunch to split as we waited for the clothes to be finished. The Walmart trip was a heat trap as I stayed in the van with the lab incubator,  and it was the middle of the day. We arrived at the Kalispell Indian Creek Community Forest around 3-5 and immediately began to set up camp and get ready for dinner. Dinner was so delicious;  Monette is great chef she made hamburger burritos and I made two they were so good. The camp site is much more comfortable as it is on flat grass field and not the rugged forest. Downfall is that it is out in the open and the sun is right on us. 9 of us are sharing one shower for the next few days but it all seems to be fine so far. There is no mo