Yellowstone Day 1
Written by Cameron Kluger
8:45 AM EST
We took off from Newark Airport after checking our bags and
saying goodbye to family. Lael (Brayden’s mom) flew with us and we got through
customs quickly. Most of us slept on the flight (some in weird positions) while
others watched movies and played games.
11:30 AM MDT
We landed at Bozeman Airport in Montana before noon. After
being shocked at the mountainous backdrop and wooden architecture of the
airport, we picked up our bags and met our EPI instructors, Phia, Emma, and Sarah.
We also met the students that were from outside enrollment, Arthur, Amy, Abby,
Jackson, Alex, and Danielle. We played some introductory games and soon packed
our extremely heavy luggage into a trailer. We got into two cars and began our
hour-long drive to camp.
12:15 PM MDT
We stopped at a pit-stop by the Yellowstone River. We had
our first lesson about the GYE (Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem) and discussed
the questions: Where are we? & Why are we here? Some of our answers to the
first question were outside, at a pit stop, near a river, in north Yellowstone.
Some answers to the second question were to make friends, to learn about
conservation in Yellowstone, and to apply ecology to our communities. We then
studied some maps of the GYE and pointed out what we found interesting and had
questions about. Michael was able to determine where we were on Yellowstone
River and Claire pointed out some spots near Snake River. We learned that
Yellowstone consists of three major waterways that connect to the Mississippi,
Columbia, and Colorado Rivers. After our lesson, we hit the road again to get
to camp.
2:30 PM MDT
We arrived at camp and Sarah took us on a short tour around
the site. We received our camping groups which were in groups of 3-4 and began
setting up our tents. Surprisingly, the setup was pretty smooth with Kevin,
Jackson, Michael, and Cameron’s tent being up last. We camped parallel to the
teacher’s training site and we were all surprised and happy to see Mr. Citron
as part of the group. Everyone took time to move their belongings in and settle
down before dinner prep. After that, we received our roles which were either
cooking, cleaning, or presenting a topic after dinner.
6:00 PM MDT
The cooking group began making dinner as others played card
games and organized their tents. We ate soft tacos and tortilla chips for dinner,
and shortly began cleanup after everyone was full. The cleanup crew set up
three bins to wash dishes and did a great job of managing everything. Kevin and
Ella lugged the big waste buckets across the entire camp twice, with much
encouragement from us, which was a huge favor. Meanwhile, the others chatted
and attempted to make bird calls with their hands, but none to much avail
except for Naomi and Daphne.
8:00 PM MDT
We were finished with dinner and spent the remaining time
reviewing our plan for Sunday. We signed a course contract and we went over
some general rules. At 8:40, we saw an elk across the river and went to take
photos. After some free time, at 10pm we headed to bed in our new tents for the
first time.
No comments:
Post a Comment