arrived safely

Friday at 6:30pm, my coworkers had gone their separate ways for the weekend, and I found myself finally alone after a long week of work. The rush of wrapping up school, then moving, then driving across the country, then a new job dissipated with a lone happy hour beer. I locked the cabin and began walking towards my tent, pausing to look out over Castle Lake.

The lab sits on the western shore of Castle Lake, so by late afternoon, we’re in the shade and it’s kind of chilly. I looked halfway up the western shore where it was still a warm yellow and decided to put on my running shoes and chase the sun…

 

It’s good to be here. I’ll write later about the work, as I get more familiar with it. I can already say, though, that we collect quite a lot of data for a lab of 4-5 people.

I’ve had a fascination with biological stations and field research that started with reading about Jane Goodall and was cemented in high school by attending an ecology summer program up at Lake Itasca, MN. If we’re traveling together near a biological station, I’ll probably try to steer us over there, whether we’re in the southern Appalachians or Panama.

 To get to the Castle Lake Limnology Lab, you drive seven miles uphill until the end of the Forest Service Road. Then you hike in a quarter mile along the lake. The wood cabin is probably sixty years old. It has a lab, a kitchen, a wood stove, a bathroom, and two storage rooms. Typical of biological stations, there are relics of past field seasons on the walls, some humor, as well as maps, articles, field guides, etc. I like the blend of rustic, musty, and science.

We all camp another quarter mile away at a nicely hidden spot with a view of Mt. Shasta. This is my home for the next few months.