Yellowstone
Day 2
Written by
Daphne Qin
6:30 AM MDT
The
cooking group for today woke up early to set the tables up, but some of us also
woke up earlier since we were still on Eastern Time. We ate a simple breakfast,
then played a game where we had to balance a rock on the back of our hands
while we simultaneously had to try to knock rocks off of other people’s hands.
After that, we went to the nearby gazebo, and discussed the ways to discern a
black bear from a grizzly bear (profile, hump or lack of hump, environment),
and how to remain safe in the event of a bear encounter (slowly back away, bear
spray if the bear gets aggressive, no running in any situation). We left for
the hiking trail at around 8:30 AM.
10:00 AM MDT
We arrived
at the Beaver Heads hiking trail, which we told would be around a five mile
hike. During the hike we worked on collecting data about hiker preparedness
which is shared with the rangers of Yellowstone National Park. We observed the
other hikers and took note of how many people were in the group, how many of
them had bear spray, how many of them had firearms, and how many of them had
bear bells. To not make it obvious that we were searching for these items, we
came up with code names, with people for pizzas, pepperoni for bear spray cans,
mushrooms for firearms, and olives for bear bells. Most of the hikers had bear
spray, and no one had any firearms or bear bells.
We hiked
the entire loop. To encourage us to drink water, the instructors (specifically
Phia) came up with funny or interesting activities, such as thanking Poseidon
(and the bears) for the water and hike. At the end of the hike, we saw a white
and orange landform that we were told was made out of calcium carbonate.
3:00 PM MDT
After our
hike, we stopped by Arch Park. While we were there, we saw a couple of elk,
including a calf, in front of Gardiner High School; apparently, rumor has it
that the students that receive detention are forced to clean the poop off the
school’s football field. We also saw another elk that was alone, and we assumed
that it was either pregnant or ostracized. After that, we discussed scientists
and the scientific method. The instructors then told us that we would be
conducting research for the next few days, and told us about the SMARTI
experimental design (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-based, and Interesting). We then hopped into the cars and went back to the
campsite.
4:15 PM MDT
We had an
hour before dinner was to be made, so a few of us decided to have a dip in the
(cold) river that was pretty close to our tents. Michael, in particular,
decided to dunk his whole body twice. We also saw a pipe that carried the warm
water from the hot springs, and a few of us stood by the pipe for its warmth. We
got assigned our groups and we went to work cooking, designing a presentation,
and waiting for food. Cameron did an amazing job cooking ground beef and tempeh
which was a huge hit in the camp. After that, we mostly chatted until it was
time to eat chili for dinner.
6:15 PM MDT
We ate dinner and we cleaned our dishes. After that, the group that was supposed to present a topic after dinner presented about Leave No Trace. Ella, Kevin, Claire, and Alex presented with Emma helping them. Afterwards, we reviewed our schedule for the next day and discussed some first ideas about bison.
10:00 PM
MDT
We were
all pretty tired from hiking and headed to bed for the next day.
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