Going to these field sites is sorta fun--except that the Alturas site is about 5 hours from Davis. And downloading the loggers only takes about 5 minutes. So we spend all that time in the car just to hop out, plug in the laptop, and just jump back into the car. It's a little bit of a kill-joy, honestly.
But we make the most of these road trips. Like all regular outtings, we have our little rituals.
I get the rental car from fleet services at the butt-crack of dawn then pick Rebecca up at her house. We drive up I-5 to Redding to download the loggers near the airport. This site is COVERED is unnaturally-dense manzanita bushes (there was a recent fire and the bushes haven't gotten to the point of crowding each other out yet.) I'm always a little skeptical that we'll even find the logger.
We litterally have to plow through the bushes, then hunker down to look for the logger box through the trunks. We come out with manzanita leaves and bits of red bark in our hair, down our pants, in our pockets--everywhere.
Then we usually stop at the Sundial Bridge for a grilled panini (yummy!) and a stroll across the hot glass.
We always forget how to get onto the 299 highway so we have to drive around a bit. This next part of the drive is beautiful but frustrating. The scenery is amazing along the windy road, but there is inevitably road construction that forces all traffic to stop for about 15 minutes to let the opposite-direction vehicles pass.
Finally we reach Alturas mid-afternoon, turn onto highway 395 (also the main drag through this sleepy, dilapitated town), and head south to the unmarked turnoff. We always forget where to turn (notice a trend?) and have to whip-out my handheld GPS to remind us. Then it is another few miles on a horrendously bumpy/rocky/dusty dirt road. We navigate our standard-issue exempt-plated sedan ever so slowly on this road, lest a rock rip off some vital part of the undercarriage.
We wander around the field for a while, looking in vain for the plastic irrigation box containing the logger (I usually use the GPS again for this since the annual grasses that have sprouted between the sage bushes make it very hard to find unless you're standing right on top of it). Last time we went, we stacked a bunch of rocks on the side of the dirt road so we'd know where to stop. We're not supposed to alter the landscape at all, so we're hesitant to use flags or a post or anything to mark the logger boxes. But this time I just strapped a Ziploc baggie to one of the sage bushes--sacraficing a hairband to secure it. With the rocks, the 3 sets of GPS coordinates, and the baggie we should be able to find it next time without too much wandering. I've marked that site three times now with the GPS but all of them mark it about 20 feet apart so I don't want to rely on only on that information.
After all is said and done, we make a pit stop at the gas station in Alturas for gas and scrumptious artery-clogging, blood pressure-rising snacks. Rebecca's usual is a mug of the flavored coffee from those little espresso-looking machines. Yesterday she tried toffee. Last time it was a mix of vanilla, creme brulee, and toffee. I always get a bag of chips--usually nacho Dorritos--and a chocolate candy bar. I almost never eat this type of crap, but treat myself on road trips.
Monday we have to venture over to a reservoir in Marin to do the same thing, plus take some vegetation measurements. I love going to this particular site because we pass the Marin French Cheese Company, where we always stop for a quick taste. (You didn't think being a graduate student means all work and no fun, right? Being a grad student in the environmental sciences sure does have it's perks. Especially when your field sites are located next to cheese factories!)
=)
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