Hello from the Butte (Crested, that is)

Hello from Colorado!

I hope you all are having an awesome summer so far. So far it sound like you've all been having an amazing time, which is great :)


I'm living in Gothic, CO, right outside of Crested Butte for the summer, working at the Rocky Mountain Biological Lab doing thesis research on rock snot (fascinating, I know) and working as a research assistant for one of my FSP profs. Work generally means wading around in streams all day, electrofishing (kind of like playing lacrosse with fish) and taking water and algae samples. Or on days like today, it means mountain biking to one of my sites, taking samples and biking back for the afternoon. Not bad.

RMBL kind of reminds me of being at summer camp all over again (with awkward summer romances, dining hall food and all) but the people are great and it's an absolutely gorgeous, awesome place to be. One of the best mountain biking trails in CB, the 401, is literally half a mile away from my front door, and makes for a great, long post-work ride.



Home sweet home! Sadly the cliff face in the background is unclimbable (apparently people have died trying, which is scary)


Laura Tabor and I have been mountain biking a lot and having some fun adventures on the weekends. This past weekend we went with some of my cabinmates to hike over Triangle Pass to try and climb a 14er in Conundrum Basin. Sadly weather kept us from actually reaching the summit, but it was a beautiful hike and we got to hang out in the hot springs in Conundrum basin with a bunch of hippies and yuppies from Aspen, including a guy who has probably been high since the '60s, and kept telling us how he'd recently figured out how to hear like a wild animal.



So if any of you happen to be in Colorado or anywhere else in the Wild West, come to CB to go mountain biking, hiking, climbing, whatever.

-Erin