Now in Rumbling RMBL

I arrived here in Gothic, Colorado, last Sunday afternoon. Christine and I left from Tucson Saturday and drove up just past the state line.  Saturday night we camped on the West Fork of the Delores River. When we woke up in the morning the aspens were especially beautiful, with light and shade playing on their leaves. Here in Gothic many of the aspen stands are just beginning to leaf out.

Aspens catching the morning sun

Entering Colorado's high mountain country

San Juan Mountains

Gothic, CO = old mining town, now the headquarters of RMBL. RMBL = Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory = home of loud, silly, funny overgrown rodents known as marmots, as well as porcupines that for some reason like to chew on cabins in the middle of the night.  (A porcupine chewing on your cabin is, by the way, extremely loud and very obnoxious in the wee hours.)

RMBL (aka Gothic) town: this is the view from my cabin

Also, RMBL is a research station full of scientists (biologists for the most part) who are researching Colorado's alpine environment. One of these researchers was kind enough to hire me as a not-too-horribly-underpaid research assistant, so here I am.

Moonlight exposure (30sec. @ 800 ISO, F4.5)

The research station was founded in 1928, making it a contender for longest running research station in an alpine environment. It also makes it quite interestingly antiquated in terms of facilities. The small cabin I'm living is from '65, and is about as funkily rustic and uninsulated as one could hope.

Thaw is coming a bit late, so the mountains are still covered with gorgeous snow: carunculated in places, smooth and featureless in others, or clawed and scrabbled by late avalanches. Cornices are still built up on the ridges, like frozen white waves. I am told that when they fall off Gothic Mountain, they are louder than thunder here in RMBL 'town', right in the shadow of the mountain.

Christine shows off the cabin: Ender's Annex

After getting set up in the cabin, we hiked around the area for a few hours.  Judd Falls, about a 10 minute hike away, gave a good opportunity to play with long exposures of water.

Upper Judd Falls, 2sec., ISO 100, F36

There were lots of glacier lilies on the trail.  They are the first plant to flower, and all parts of the plant are edible.  Quite tasty really, and an important forage food for bears (as well as biologists).

Glacier lily, Erythronium grandiflorum, yellow-pollen phenotype

Glacier lily, Erythronium grandiflorum, red-pollen phenotype

The sun sets behind Gothic Mountain quite early, around 6pm, but twilight lasts until past 9 o'clock, which has been confusing my sleep patterns.  However, that is a small price to pay for such amazing views.

Gothic Mountain from trail above RMBL town

Yesterday we hiked up the road to the 'plug': a huge mass of snow stopping up a nearby pass.  We hiked up in the snow to play with our new gear: ice axes and simple crampons.  The plug gave me a good opportunity to practice emergency self-arrests with the ax.  Also, it was simply a lot of fun to slide down.

Me and Christine on our way to the 'plug' at Schofield Pass, Mount Baldy in the background

Me walking across the plug

To practice self-arrest, going backwards down the slope

Arrested (almost)

Today we worked on putting in plots for the long term study of respiration and photosynthesis via measurement of biological gas fluxes at my boss's various research sites in the vicinity (i.e. approx. 20 mile radius). Fun but tiring work, especially pounding in the PVC soil collars for getting the control measure for soil respiration.

Goodness, do I look silly...

This person, however, looks way cooler...