Oh my gosh: this is the first time I was glad to leave my favorite place. Last year we had dangerous rain and thunderstorms, which was unusual for this time. This year, no rain, but no rain for a very long time….so it was not only extremely hot (in the hundreds all day and most of the night), but it was dusty. The wind blew every day. It blew so hard that the fine silt on the ground penetrated our tents daily. This led to some serious dehydration problems, including headaches, dizziness, and nausea. I cancelled the 19 mile hike, as the second spring that we needed to find for water on day 2 was most likely dry. I am glad we did, as I got a heat/dehydration headache, too, and we found out on our 10-mile round trip hike up the Rancherias Canyon to the “waterfall” that there would not have been a second spring. Deadly. ONe group went up to the Oso loop, and one group biked into the solitario. One group got to hang out at the ranch house to keep out of the heat.

We saw big horn sheep, javelina, one rattlesnake, outrageous frogs in the one oasis we visited, and plenty of strange new things the Jersey gang had not experienced. Two tents broke in the last night’s wind storms (but no rain, mind you). The Mexican food has been great, the Vegan on the trip is surviving with a great attitude!

We made it out of the Trans-Pecos Texas region to Carlsbad just in time to fully tour the cave. We LOVED the 56 degree temperature with 90 percent humidity after our week in Big Bend Ranch State Park. The cave is as fabulous as ever, with phenomenally weird rock formations that have grown over time simply by dripping water that has calcium in it. The food at Whites City is as awful as expected for a place with a monopoly in the middle of nowhere. We watched the bat flight and were terribly disappointed. No swarm. Last year the students got to see a full blown whorl of about 400,000 bats come out at once.

We made it from Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico to Tucson, AZ by maybe 10 pm. We made it up into the Catalina Mountains to Mt. Lemmon by 11:30 and set up camp late, once again. This morning we were joined by one of Stockton’s Alumna, Ms. Phyllis Berger. She is a graduate student (just completed year 1) at the University of Arizona. She and I toured the mountain today while the students rested. Tomorrow Phyllis is going to lead the group on a tour of the mountain and she will explain the geology to us!

All is well in camp. We are about to work out the kinks in getting set up at camp and working together as a team. This is the most adventuresome bunch I have ever taken out, which means I have to keep a close eye. The students are doing an evening desert hike to beat the heat tonight.

 you can reach Professor Davis at :  

 cell phone:  609-317-0055

email:  linda.davis@stockton.edu

I’m packing, I hope I pack the right amount of socks and underwear. I’m probably going to drive everyone nuts: tomorrow (if you are reading this) with the chaos stop and start of the day!

Get ready!  We’re in for serious weather extremes!  Long johns!?  sun gear?  broad-brimmed hats?  I’m buying my hat once I get to Texas, so I won’t spend time on the drive out fretting about a hat that will get beat to hell and back anyway!

 Get some sleep!  Hydrate hydrate hydrate

I’ve been reading over the syllabus again and found that I said that ATMs are hard to find on the trip.  It turns out that this isn’t true.  Granted, they aren’t in the parks (except the BIG ones), but you will be able to hit an ATM at least once a week - but wouldn’t count on more than that.

 I am going to have you sign a form Monday that states that you have read the latest syllabus, which is not the one on this blog, but is the one I gave out on Wednesday.  I will also have another form - stating that you are not bringing any illegal drugs, will not use any illegal drugs (this doesn’t mean you can’t use prescription drugs prescribed to you!), and that you are not bringing firearms (yep, it’s happened on one of my trips, and the person was taking heavy duty drugs.  Yep, freaked me right out, but nothing bad happened; the person knew firearms.  Yet, I won’t have a repeat.)

Hey!

Can’t believe it! We could use one more person. Does anyone know anyone who could go with us? It’s not critical, but it would be good.

Some people have not paid the full $500 and that has to be paid by Friday. I think that the Bursar’s office is already on summer hours, so they work 4 ten hour days; not Friday. If this is a serious problem let me know asap.

Linda:

Your trip to the national parks now has sufficient enrollments to off-set the additional expenses for the College: thus it is a “go” under three conditions:

No trailer will be used for equipment.
Please see Dean Weiss tomorrow morning at 9am for the requisite revision of the drivers’ list that will take into account which RSC students ( exclusive of non-matrics) will be eligible for that list.
Our calculations are based on a number of independent study students for this course. As that number may drop for non-payment, I request that you consult with Dean Weiss one more time before departure to see whether the numbers of participants at that time may reduce the necessary van number from three to two.

Jan