Not much to say about the hell that is packing up camp. After running full speed for our 2-month-plus season, it is always sooooo tempting to take a couple of days to relax. This never happens though, since, when the end is in sight we are usually ready to get back to California as quickly as possible. It always seems like packing up camp should be a 2-day job- one to pack, one to clean, but it always takes much longer than this, especially when we are down to just 2 people. A whole day can be eaten up by, for example, making two runs into Riverton to wash the ATV’s and drop them off at Four Seasons. To throw added salt in the wounds, we got a dose of weather during our last 2 days of packing. Thankfully we didn’t get snow this time, but lots of rain ensured that everything would be wet and muddy. Yuck. Let’s hope our stack of lumber isn’t a moldy, rotten mess when we take the tarp off next year.

We also fit in time to spend a morning with Sue (BLM) and Greg (Game and Fish) to head out to the Gas Hills near Shoshoni and train them in the use of the sound pressure level, or SPL, meters. They’ll try to collect some ambient noise readings while we are gone, and possible measure the noise level at a lek or two.

Finally, with the RV dropped off in Riverton, the office trailer cleaned up, and the vehicles packed up, we were ready to hit the road. Our one small detour on the trip back was to a fossil area near Farson, on the west side of the pass from Lander. The view of the Wind River Range from this side of the continental divide is even more spectacular than from our camp.



Gail had found this site a couple of years ago using one of the roadside geology books- otherwise there is not much to indicate it’s presence.



One area had a lot of fossil fish in mounds of broken shale, and nearby was another area with a lot of petrified wood, some of which were clustered around what were stumps of ancient trees. Very cool!

Not much else to report- the rest of the ride back was smooth, and the Harry Potter audio book I borrowed from Gail carried me much of the way through Nevada. A quick stop at Cabella’s on the way through Reno, and we were back to Davis! Field season over!