Tromping Through the Maine North Woods

I spent this weekend hiking around the woods and streams and lakes of the middle of nowhere Northern Maine. It was actually pretty fun, despite the fact that my lab group partners and I had to FIND let alone sample 4 streams in 3 days. On the drive there we saw a MOOSE and I was sooo excited!!! (But then later when we were bushwacking our way around this pond we saw moose tracks and I was like, AH! I hope we don't see a moose! :D
Despite all the copious amounts of hiking and carrying sampling gear all over the place, it was beautiful up there and all the leaves were turning breath-taking colors. It was also really quite, which is hard to find.
Sadly, it rained on and off and was overcast both nights so no stargazing....
But, here are some pictures. Enjoy!

"Whatever Helps You Get It Up"

That's one of the things I overheard yesterday during my kayak roll clinic with the MaineBound Adventure Center folks.

But, innuendos aside, I am SOOOOO excited that after only about an hour and a half I finally learned how to roll a whitewater kayak! This has been something I've wanted to be able to do for so long and it's just an awesome feeling to be able to finally do it!!!!
Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of video, so you'll have to take my word for it, but overall I had a really fun time, met some cool new people and go really exhausted. :D
That's all for now folks!

Mimicing is a form of Compliment

Lesson #1-Tea Parties

And NO I'm not talking about the political "tea party", which is definitely NOT as cool as a real tea party. Hmm...so maybe I don't exactly fit my own trend lines...

An Economist I Can Relate To!

Soup x Soup x Biscuits x Friends = 1st Dinner Party in Maine

Tonight I'm having some new friends over for dinner and I'm so excited!
I'm making 2 kinds of soup (Spicy Peanut and Creamy Potato Leek), biscuits, and possibly an apple dessert!
Here are some pictures of my table. I'll post more after the food's done!

Living in a strange small town

I've driven past these places a few times now, but today I noticed something particularly intriguing.
I don't have pictures but I'll try to paint the picture for you.

An archery store that has in the front window display a stuffed bear holding a hunting bow riding an inflatable triceratops, surrounded by other inflatable dinosaurs. This store is across the street from a store called Gary's Discount Store, which sells....I don't know what. Rumor has it you can get bed frames there. Both are down the street from Tim's Little Big Store, which is apparently the place to get the cheapest beer.

That's all for now.
Next time I'll try highlight some of the more exciting, but in a good way things :D

Apples and an Answer

So, I don't have any pictures yet, but I bought a bunch of really yummy, crisp, tart apples from the farmers market and I'm planning on making some sort of apple dessert soon!

As for an answer, I was in my Advanced Conservation Biology grad class yesterday and our classroom has a bunch of stuffed deer/bison/elk heads, etc (which are slightly creepy), BUT, it also has a bunch of other random biology specimens and a bunch of them were LICHENS! and one of the forest/alpine ones looked just like the fluffy stuff I saw on my hike. This means my mom was right!

That's all for now...

Quiche and a Question

MMmmm! I made quiche last night for dinner and it was sooooo good. I think quiche might be right up there with ice cream and cream cheese for why I don't think I'll ever be vegan.



















Also, I went on a bike then hike adventure with a new friend today and when we were hiking we came upon a big patch of this mossy stuff. I'm not sure what it is, but it was pretty stiff, not at all the soft fluffy greenish snow that it looks like from a distance. Any ideas on what it could be?

the little things

i was grocery shopping last night, just browsing and wandering and i found this. i really loved the color and texture of it. i didn't buy it because i wanted to smell it first...

LOONS!

I was out early this morning with the lab technician from my research lab, helping him do some lake sampling and we saw LOONS! It's the first time I've seen any since I've been here. I would have liked to take a picture, but I didn't have my camera with me in the boat...maybe next time.
(I kind of felt like I was on Golden Pond) :D

In Which Katie Encounters a School of Fish (up close and personal)

It has been blazing hot the past couple of days in Maine, which is really unusual for this time of year. Today it was ~89F with a heat index of much higher.
So, because none of the houses or buildings up here have A/C, I decided to go for a little swim.

Earlier today my River Ecology class when out to the Stillwater River to collect aquatic macroinvertebrates, and it was a lot of fun, but it also introduced me to a really cool place on a nearby river. There were TONS of rocks everywhere (because the river was so low, because it hasn't rained here in a while). And if you don't already know, I LOVE rocks, especially ones like these, because they were so smooth and rounded and big and small and just perfect for stacking.... I'll have to take pictures, it's hard to describe how beautiful this place is, it's so different from how rivers in Ohio look.

Anyway, so, after my bike ride home from campus after lab, I decided to go over and have a swim in the river. It was wonderful. I felt like a combination of Pocahontas and a river nymph, because it was so rocky and there were little pools and riffles and big rocky outcroppings with secret pools. Needless to say, it was cool and refreshing and I was exploring around, which I love to do. I found a good spot that was deep enough to relax in and was doing just that when I looked down and found a 5-6inch fish looking at me. I then realized that there were several other of the same kind of fish also looking at me. For some reason my first thought was that they were a school of piranhas! (Must have had something to do with having Sheldon, our piranha around in our house last year) I soon realized that piranhas are not native to Maine and that they were of course some other kind of fish, which was true because they didn't have teeth, just regular open fish suction mouths. Following the whole Pocahontas theme, I kept very still and just watched them back, I was hoping to touch one or something, but eventually a really brave one, who had become intrigued with my shoe (Keen's are pretty cool) decided to get closer. He tried to nibble at my shoe a few times and then lost interest. It was really cool and crazy. They all sort of realized that I wasn't terribly interesting or threatening so they kept watching for a while but then swam off. I decided that I probably couldn't top that so I got out, stacked a few rocks (because I couldn't resist, they were so perfect for it), tried to balance a few rocks on end, like the amazing rock balancing/stacking guy in Vancouver (who is amazing and probably who I want to be like when I get older) and then came home for dinner.

All in all, a pretty darn good day.