This weekend, I had an eerily familiar experience with my beautiful Lulu. Meet the ex at a public place, drop off the offspring, part ways. It reminded me of the times my brother and I were dropped off in Acton, CA when my Mom and Dad did the switch. This time, it was Aly and I at a Sinclair gas station in Cedar City.

Lulu and I decided that we would stay in the San Frans east of Wah Wah Valley. It was EYE-SO-LATE-TED.

Lulu was so happy, she was jumping for jerky, I mean, joy!

The idea was to look at the local geology, but it was closed-off mine property, so hiking was a minimum.

Lulu had better ideas than hiking…

The desert flowers were certainly out, in all kinds of colors. They all seemed to be the same species, but the colors were very varied. Lulu appreciated one barb a little too much (in her paw), but she handled it like a breeze!

Lulu, the Conjurer of Storms, decided the day was not fun enough, and a storm needed to brew, even though this type of weather is common for August, not May.

A small one in the Wah Wah hardpan fizzled…

…but some cool looking sandstorms were kicked up.

The next storm from the east was much more potent, so we hid in our tent… er… the back of my truck…

…and the Gods slept.

It was a fun little trip. We hiked a little (when Lulu was not too tired), saw an Antelope pretty close, a sleepy snake, and several bunnies that I had a better chance of catching than Lulu.

And now, the best picture I ever took of Lulu, and dare I say, the best pic of her ever.

How I got her to do that, I’ll never know.

Now, time to ready for tomorrow… leave for (what could be the last time at my current job) the field for the week tomorrow.

P.S. My newest music obsession: Lily Allen… I know what you’re thinking; not what I usually listen to… but she’s more musically inclined than you’re average Diva AND she writes her own music (at least in part) AND she is self-made AND she sings about dirty things AND she has a tat of Homer Simpson AND she hates dubya and the like (re:the song Fuck You) AND she has a third nipple. What more could you want in a singer?

Whew. A crazy bit of time lately.

First off, the infamous Rollover incident was appealed. After giving a detailed power point, pleading my case, showing beyond a shadow of a doubt that the tire, not anything else, caused the accident. After an hour of testimony (w/ Q&A) and and hour of deliberation, I lost 4-3. I heard that the main reasons I lost were 1) I did not check the spare tire pressure before I left (Are you kidding me? There is no one that ever, EVER does this) and 2) I had cruise control set, even though it was set BELOW the speed limit on a good dirt road. I can not imagine an independent panel finding me negligent. And I want the MythBusters to check the cruise control scientifically; at the very least, I was never trained to drive any differently with the state, let alone any training regarding dirt roads or cruise control, so how can I be at fault?

As a ‘reward’ for my appeal, (well, I can not prove these things are related, but within 30 minutes of my verdict,) my driving privileges were revoked indefinitely. So, I am officially looking for a new job. SLC prospects are pretty good, thankfully. Also thankfully is my (relatively, I think) secure spot with my current job, but I hope to leave before I can find out if I can drive again.

Last weekend, I had to be in Fish Springs, and I was not even allowed to drive MY OWN TRUCK. I had to get a coworker to drive me out there (Thanks Rebecca!). This is one of those ‘gov gone wild’ stories: She gets paid for hours of unnecessary work, wasting the tax payer’s money, to drive me to work on roads and conditions that she is less trained and less familiar with then I am. Great…

The weekend itself was great! I taught 2 three hour field trip classes, and got a lot of good feedback, as we checked out the Ordovician transgressive sequence of the Eureka-Ely Springs (including trace fossils and a cool slickenside) and some Provo Level (lake Bonneville) Tufa deposits.

The trip ended with some unexpected herpetology… I felt so bad because I told Rebecca ‘there’s no snakes out here’ so many times because of her fear of them. This was the first (live) rattler I’ve seen in my two years with the survey.

The first three days of this week were taken up by Rocky Mt section GSA, highlighted by the talk by yours truly. It was my first ever talk at GSA, and it went better than I thought it would. At least no produce was thrown on stage and no one found out that I’m not really a hydrologist. The one question I got was from the yBu group that does not like the main interbasin flow idea, but instead of asking me questions on that, they asked me, “Did the fact that the drawdown from the aquifer test had such a long time interval of recovery surprise you?” Uhhh… yes?

The best slide was this above, with the caption, “Snake Valley Traffic Jam.” Well, I know you must first be asking about the swag, but this was a small meeting, so I only got a few pens and stickers. The best stickers I got were “Warning: Geologist at Work” and “Don’t Worry, I’m a Geologist” stickers in spanish. But, I did not leave empty handed…

If you had “5 lbs of cookies” in the Matt’s GSA Swag office pool, then collect your winnings.

All in all, a busy but good few days. Now, I just hope to rest my voice, do something fun this weekend, and lay low.

So the Moms and I did a little weekend trip to Southwest Utah… but it started badly… Forgive me for not photo-documenting the incident, but I was preoccupied.

Before the trip, we went to the lds family history library… which was MUCH cooler than less awkward then I thought. I finally found my ancestor from Switzerland (in case you don’t know, there is a suburb of Zurich called Affoltern). My triple-great-grandfather’s name was Ursub, born in 1817, and he was a shoesmith, which I apparently come from a long line of. Turns out we came in through Wisconsin… who knew?

The idea for the trip was: Great Basin, Zion, and then Bryce in three days. On the way to the cave on Friday (at about 4 PM), we decided to take a dirt road to see Notch Peak. My tire light turned on about 14 miles in. I got out, looked at the tires, but they looked fine. After only another few feet, I started to lose control, and had TWO (2) flat tires–both rear. Like most people, I don’t carry two spares. After some fiddling with the one spare I had (by the way, I had a flat the week before, so that tire was brand new), I decided to drive out to the road… walking seemed out of the question.

So, I drove at ~14 mph for the 14 miles (do the math) and parked at the intersection of the dirt road and the highway. As you might expect if you have ever been near mile marker 37 on US 6/50, there is not even a glimmer of cell service. The only thing we could do was hitchhike to Delta, the nearest town, 50 miles away.

After a nice family with a full car stopped, we gave them our info and they said they’d call AAA. About 15 minutes later, a car could take us, so we got in. They were sheep farmers near work, as it turned out. The Mom freaked out that he had bullets on the dash; I never noticed.

We got into Delta an hour later, called AAA on the way. The ‘nice’ lady told me that they could not pick up the car unless we were there, even after I explained that there is no way to call her in that scenario. Luckily, Darwin saw it fit to drop that call for me, and the next AAA lady was very nice, had the tow truck pick us up, and drove out to the car by about 8:30. At this point, we decided to ditch Great Basin and go for Zion, and the tow truck driver drove us toward there, to the town of Filmore. Turns out that I know the family of the driver, and his son is a mechanic with tires there (Thanks Deardons!!!). So, with all that, the rest of the trip was smooth driving.

Afterwards, the only thing that remained was a strip of tire I picked up after it flapped off during the 14 miles of non-airy driving.

We made it to Zion mid day. Thankfully, we missed most of the rain on the ordeal, as it rained that night and off and on Saturday.

This is the Three Patriarchs, named after bible people like lost of things here. Why can’t we use the Native names? I forgot how cool Zion is… definately my second favorite Utah park, with Canyonlands the clear #1.

After that, we started going toward Bryce, but not before I made a rock shop purchase that I’ve wanted for years. This is an articulated Crinoid, from the Mississippian of Indiana. It was a really good price (still too much than I should be able to afford), a really nice specimen with hairs on the arms and a good calyx, and a dream of mine for a very long time. It is now the jewel of my rock collection. I also picked up several great teaching specimens and had two great conversations with rock shop owners; one corrective (Cephalopods and Gastropods are separate orders under Mollusks) and one informative (about Liesegang banding).

Oh, and I was wondering, a question for all you Paleoheads: what’s the object out from the top of the calyx, longer than the arms? Any ideas?

We did Bryce this morning, my least favorite (but still great) national park in Utah. Note Thor’s hammer in the foreground.

So, the trip was good, could have been worse, but good. Considering the start, the end was great. And yes, I have bad car karma, but if you can get over that, let me again extend the invite to all of you to do any of the above and more.

After years of work, 62 wells at 27 sites, drilling is officially OVER with the Snake Valley project. You might ask (as many other have) if I am happy it is over and everything has circled back. Well, the answer to that is… kinda. It’s a bitter-sweet moment for me. I am happy to be at home, not living out of a suitcase in a shakey trailer, in a seemingly endless loop between the SLC and the field. WALDSland is treating me very, very good right now, and I have a job, so I should not complain. However, the prospect of spending so much time in a cubicle is disheartening.

Of course, my last week of drilling couldn’t have been complete without another tumultuous snowstorm. This is the only time Crystal Peak does not stand out.

While we drilled at Needle Point Spring, this injured sheep dog hung out with us. He was very nice! He had a big chunk out of his front leg, but it looked to be healing. Of course, a little bit of Jerky never hurts…

Before the drilling, I did something really cool: I visited the famous Spiral Jetty with the soon-to-be graduated Liz and Kyle! It is an anthropogenic isthmus in the northern-central part of the Great Salt Lake.

It is made out of a Tertiary basalt… the area was also great geology wise for all the intertwined halite and gypsum mineralization.

The place, with the jetty and the lake itself, is an eerie place… but in a good way. The only thing I can say is: there is nothing quite like it.

You do have to watch your step out there. I think it’s time to buy new shoes, because 1) they are now salty/crusty from this, 2) the back is so old it’s falling apart, and the second set of soles is going out, and 3) I can’t remember buying new shoes since right after moving to Missoula, so these have had a good spin.

That was not the only bummer about this otherwise great trip: On the way to the Jetty is Golden Spike National Historical Site. So, guess where the ‘golden spike’ that Golden Spike National Historical Site is named after is found. By a twist of fate, it’s not at Golden Spike National Historical Site, even though it should be at Golden Spike National Historical Site. It at the Stanford Art Museum. Curveball, eh? It turns out Leeland Stanford was one of the railmen in charge of the project, so he got the spike, not Golden Spike National Historical Site. Golden Spike National Historical Site just screws you over by just having a replica. Boo! Damn Trees (sorry earth day, had to say it)! I guess I’ll have to see it next time I’m up there.

The rain that came in late was our cue to go. It was cool to stick around because of the pink algal bloom that came over the cove.

Now that I am home, I finally got my frame work back on my Grandmother’s paining. Turned out nice, eh? The nice touch that the pic does not do justice is the purple background matting that matches the purple flower, and the golden spiral frame that matches the golden flowers. I’m really happy…. it’s like I’m all cultured ‘n’ shit.

I finally did it!

After a relaxing weekend with my Googles, I went out to the field and did a hike almost 2 years in the making, and now, I am more convinced than ever that the House Range needs to be a national park, or at least, a state park or National Monument. This place deserves to be noticed and noted.

One of my favorite parts of the range is Tatow Knob, a nipple-ish looking bump in the northern part of the range. It is so square and prominent that you can see it and recognize it for many miles in every direction.

One of the big attractions of the national park, besides the nation’s second tallest vertical cliff, fossil lagerstatten (Trilobite and Burgess-shale type), and beautiful desert climate would be the extensive wild horse population. On Monday, I saw a group of maybe two dozen, with all ages included.

On Tuesday, I did the hike up the canyon leading to Notch Peak. It was, in a word, awesome.

When you hike in, the canyon walls are so big and impressive (only a measly 1000′ or so), that it’s hard to see the notch itself, much like trying to see the Coconino sandstone rim of the Grand Canyon once you are in the inner (Precambrian) gorge.

Does this not look a little familiar? A big, narrow, steeply-walled canyon leading to a big cliff?

I think it is no stretch to compare this canyon to Yosemite valley. Yes, the scale is smaller, but not much smaller. The hike up that drainage was impressive, and unlike Yosemite, you have more geologic variation: rounded granite boulders transitioning into Cambrian carbonate and siliciclastic cliffs, leading to Notch Peak. This was probably the fourth greatest hike I’ve ever done, to 1) crater of Mt. St. Helens 2) North Rim, Grand Canyon 3) top of Mt. St. Helens.

The contact metamorphism is impressive, like this dike-sill complex. All up and down the valley, you could find fine garnet (Grossular), along with local epidote and a brown bladed mineral that might be Andalucite. No fossils though… too metamorphosed. You have to go to the eastern side of the range for that!

On the way out, besides this view, I met up with some people… I never expected to see anyone out there, but an outdoor education class through Chico State was there! I offered up my geology knowledge, and gave an hour lecture about the local geology on the spot! It was really great, and it made me feel good to give my geology information out to others.

In conclusion, the last two blogs have shown why this place needs to be protected and yet promoted, so any federal officials that find this blog, won’t you consider this as the next national park? If it were, it would help out the locals AND Great Basin NP because of their proximity. For climbers, this has to be #2 on your list of places to climb in the US. I mean, you have multiple rock types to climb, very steep walls, and the second tallest cliff in the US. What more could you want? For geologists, it has lots of cool rocks and fossils. And if you can’t tell from my pictures how breathtaking this place is, then I must be a terrible photographer.

On an aside, two pieces of good news for the Snake Valley locals and defenders of water rights everywhere: 1) The federal side, which initially was going to not put up an individual protest to the pipeline and water withdrawal, has decided to reverse that and stipulate in the EIS! 2) SNWA has asked for a year postponement on the water hearing in Snake Valley, which means we’ll have more time to get the data together.

Next on the list: A hike to the top of Notch Peak. Interested?

(a map of the places I’ve been, from the Facebook)

Just got back from a trip in the field.  How close to the end is this?  I may only have two trips left… EVER!  We wrapped up the aquifer test, but I was not there because of illness (I’m better now).  On an aside,I am leaning more and more toward staying with the state for the indefinite future, assuming they don’t fire me for assault to vehicles.  What I have been doing out there is hand measuring all of our aquifer test wells and other local wells in case the transducer data has issues.  Since this only takes about 4 hours, it has allowed me some time to explore/hike/get lost in the wonderful area that I’ve worked in for the last 2 years.  How Great Basin NP is not 3x bigger is beyond me.  Some examples:

This is King’s Canyon, in the Confusion range.  Beautifully bedded mid-Paleozoic carbonates dominate this drive along US Hwy 6/50.

Even though I had driven past it dozens of times, I had never really looked at this arch.

According to this website, it is called Elephant rock (though their picture sucks, it might not even be the same thing).  It really, really looks like an elephant, with a pack/saddle on it’s back.  Do you see it?  I think this one really does look like it, unlike that ‘skull’ at Joshua Tree.

Possibly the coolest thing about it is if you stand in the perfect spot, there is actually a small hole where the eye should be!  You might just make that out on this pic, but in person, it is awesome.

I spent the most time in the House Range, the place where Notch Peak, Tatow Knob, and the world-class Wheeler Basin Trilobite beds and soft-bodied Cambrian Burgess Shale-type fauna.  Above is Amasa Basin, an OHV paradise, but great even if you don’t have a four-wheeler.

This range is FULL of big, impressive cliffs.  What more would you want in a national park?  From here, you can do the hike to the top of Notch Peak, which I was going to do, but I ran out of time.  If any of you want to do this, I’ll be there in a heartbeat.

This would be the famous drive if the House Range was a national park: Marjum Pass.  It’s a beautiful, winding drive around large cliffs of Paleozoic carbonates.

There are also great knobs and spires… how could this at least be a state park?

Of course, the main attraction.  I was gonna hike up the canyon that goes up to the cliff, but it was too windy and snowy on the day I was gonna do it… Next time…

What I did do that day is drive to Crystal Peak, which is in the Confusion Range, south of King’s Canyon.  I might have mentioned this before, but it is such a strange mountain.  It literally glows and shines compared to the dark miogeosynclinal (passive margin) rocks around it.

The funny thing about Crystal Peak is it’s a xenolith rich magma, NOT a xenocryst or porphyritic magma!  Silly namers…

Here it is up close.. it has really strange weathering pits on it, and it is so out of place locally, though regionally there is a lot of magmatism, even Holocene basalt.

To end, here’s a pic of (what I believe to be) Ord. Eureka quartzite for you Pioche folks.  It really is a great place, and I’d love to take all of you on a tour of the valley, especially because it may be unihabitable in our lifetimes.  If Vegas does withdraw groundwater from the region, this whole area, including Great Basin NP, could be a dust bowl.  So, better come see it before it’s too late!

 

P.S. In my part to help stimulate the economy, I have bought (in the last month) a new camera, iPod (120 GB), and framed a painting by my Grandmother.  The iPod now has every CD I own on it, and then some (that came from a external hard drive I bought from SB Scott).  Now I have all my music ready to go… how cool is that?

I am sick, like epically sick.  I think the last time I was this sick was winter break, 2nd year of UCLA.  In fact, today I should be in the field, but I had to leave a day early so I can try to get over it.  How sick am I?  I actually have vertigo!  I guess it’s an inner ear infection on top of the sore throat, coughing, chills, aches, and post-nasal drip.

The weather has actually been nice out there.  The snow line is creeping upward ever-so-slightly.  The aquifer tests are going well, and I’ll have pictures at the end.

I did get a new camera to replace the broken one I’ve had for almost a year.  It’s a 10 Megapixel 4x optical zoom Sony with image stabilization, so hopefully better centering and less blurry pictures from now on.  Near this wetlands along Lake Creek, I’ve been seeing Bald Eagles lately.  How cool is that?  I was gonna take a picture of one, and I seriously was so awestruck by the flight of the bird that I forgot to take the picture.

This is a Snake Valley traffic jam…  My favorite part of this is the sheep just left of the yellow line… total ‘oh shit!’ posture…

Note the blurriness and not centered nature of this picture, i.e. old camera.  Anyways, the valley has a long history of sheep herding history, so sheep decorate many things all over the place, but I don’t get this.  If a very-thinly-legged sheep on a welcome mat is not strange enough, why does it have a pineapple on it?

Before I forget: March Madness Pool!
http://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/t1
Private group ID=62986
password=sylmar

Sign up, it’s fun!  I know I’ll be watching!  My favorite sports event of the year, even more than the Superbowl.

Please check my protected post… I really need some advice.  Click here to read it.

If you want to see it, and can not, email me and sign up for Xanga, and you can!

I am in the field, so internet and phone are not reliable until the middle of next week.

This is way overdue, sorry…

Last weekend I had an awesome trip to Cedar and the field.

It was extra special because I brought Liz along for the ride!  It was great.

The main thing we did was work on Andrew’s new ranch he is building.  We were finding and installing fence posts.  Don’t get me wrong, we had a lot of good talks and stories between the three of us, but the days were spent like true farm hands.

Andrew and I went through a bunch of junk wood that was lying around with his new chainsaw.

Lulu had a bunch of fun, and I even got her to start playing fetch!  I never thought I could do it, because of her ADD, but we actually played fetch!  I can’t wait to see what she does when there’s actual cows at the ranch.

So, what am I doing this weekend?  Music, music, and more music.  I recently bought a hard drive, and I am working on putting every CD I own on it, plus eliminate the songs that existed on it without deleting something I want.  It’s gonna take a while…

OK, quick rant before news.

So, my coworker is a nice person, and it is sad that my coworker is sick.  But, hearing a cough every 2 minutes since Tuesday is not cool.  Isn’t that why we have sick days?  Isn’t that rude?  Shouldn’t  you be required to stay home, rather than spit up a lung in a public place with many cubicles and so many new, potential hosts?  Yeah, like I’m supposed to sit hear and accept your germs on my $4,000 suit?  C’mon!

The past two days have really set my planner ablaze.  Here’s a rundown:

3/most: Our aquifer tests (above is a pic from the pre-test we did with the drill rig and got ~900 gpm) will be the 4th through the 25th-ish.  We will do 2 tests, one for 10 days, another for 21, and plan to get 1200 gpm out of each well… that’s a crazy amount of water.  I can only hope for good weather…

4/?: We *should* be drilling sometime this month, though the number of holes and depths are speculative at this pont.  Due to budget, we may be down to only two 150′ holes left!  Crazy, huh?

4/29: I am attending a free (to me) Geological licensure confrence in town, and will start looking into my licence. So, I’m sure some of you have a cheap slightly-used study guide for sale, right?  I’ve always wanted to be professional…

5/8-10: I will be leading the geology portion of the 50th anneversary cellebration at Fish Springs… probably the first professional field trip I will have ever lead.  I got cool places to take them, but it’s only 3-4 hours, and everything out there is a long drive from everything else, so I’ll have to plan wisely.

5/11-13: GSA baby!  Yup, my first trip back in a while, and first meeting I will attend as a non-student.  We will be presenting a status report of our Snake Valley project.  I’m hoping for poster so I can put a lot of data up and have people actually see it.

As for this weekend, I’m going to Cedar to see Lulu et al.!