local excusions

Last weekend, our lab manager Brooke and her fiancé Joe took us rock-climbing along a fork of the Sacramento River. This was my first time rock-climbing outdoors instead of in a gym. I liked it! I made it up this rock face only because I didn't look down.

On Wednesday, our lab headed out to sample at Cliff Lake and camp there overnight. (We will be doing this once a month during the field season.) Cliff Lake is uphill, further back in the National Forest, accessible only by the rockiest dirt road. Like Castle Lake, it is a glacial cirque, with high gray cliffs on one end.

We hiked to the top of the cliffs in the evening to discover even smaller lakes.

 I was marveling at the strange vegetation growing between rocks.

This weekend, Joe (the Joe I work with), his friend Chad, and I stopped to check out the Lake Siskiyou dam (and box canyon below) that we drive over to get to Castle Lake.