feb. 29-march 15th

Spent the past few weeks finishing up video and pod casts. Erin and I received alot of help from video masters, and ended up with the video we wanted. The podcast has been a bit more challanging because of tecnical difficulties with installing software on my computer. Further more my computers microphone has very fuzzy sound quality unless I am the PERFECT distance away from it. If I am too near, then it sounds fuzzy and loud, and too far away it sounds distorted and full of static. I will solve this problem some how or another.... I hope.

-Gus

feb 18th-29th

A few days ago Erin, Jen, and myself got together and started working on our vidcast and our research breifing. We were able to get a vauge outline of our research breif started, and the first half of our video filmed. Then yesterday me and erin went out in the field with Robert Knapp and searched for river otter latrines all day and finished up our vidcast. We then finished the day by going down to the lower elwah reservation and locating a dead beaver which we then bagged and put in a USGS freezer for later research. Thats all for now!

-Gus

Feb. 4 - 18

Last week we had a meeting with members of the wildlife grop at the Olympic National Park headquarters. We discussed what our objectives would be over the spring and summer and what would need to be done to achieve them. I was given some traps to snip to make jagged, so that they will catch on animal fur and hopefully pull it out. The wire snippers that i had however were not very well suited to do the job, and I quit clipping before i ruined all the traps. We met again at the college on valentines day and spent 2 hours working on traps, mostly snipping and attaching groud anchors to them. Field work should start within the next few weeks. Thats all for now!

-Gus

jan. 19th - feb 4

A week ago, Dwight, Cris, Shaelee and I drove deep into the mountains up a network of old logging roads in the colleges jeep. Despite the 4wd, and eventually chains, we still managed to get stuck, and spent a good hour and a half digging, and re-digging the car out. The rest of the day was spent hiking up Deer Ridge, looking for good sampling spots, and coming across a varitiy of cougar tracks. Luckily the weather was cool and clear, and we were greeted with many beautiful views up the Graywolf River. On the way back down we set up 4 different snow plots, and took 6 samples at each spot. By the time we got back to the car it was close to being dark and we were all exausted from the job well done. Thats all for now!

-Gus

winter break - jan. 19th

Over winter break we had snow training up palo alto road behind sequim on a cold snowy morning. It was alot of fun to learn how to sample snow and use all the tools. However it wasnt fun having 4 people smushed into the back of a jeep while driving through a few feet of snow. I must say that Dwight is a relatively good snow driver though. There is newse that we might start to do some animal survays with the wildlife group starting in feburary on the lower river. Besides that I am trying to get in a few days of snow survays, but it is hard to do because the sample days are tuesday and friday, and both days i have class all day. A few of them will have to be skipped I suppose! Thats all for now.

-Gus

November 20th - December 10th

Just taking a break from researching the annotated bibliography assignment to type up a blog. Went hiking up to humes ranch yesterday once the road had re-opened, there was alot of storm damage to the trail in the form of blown over or washed out trees. The river was quite exciting to watch thundering through goblins gate. Snow training will be in a few weeks, then after that we should be doing some field work. Thats all i know for now!

-Gus

november 5 - november 19

It has started to snow in the mountains so we should be going out in the field soon. Last week I reviewed the two drafts written about projects on the elwha river, they both seemed pretty good. Hopefully it will continue to snow in the mountains to give us something to measure, and also a nice base for snow sports all winter long.

-Gus