The Adventure Begins!

Grinning like an idiot because I was

so excited to get my ticket to board.

I'm super excited to start working directly for the National Park Service, and at nothing less than the beautiful Isle Royale National Park (ISRO) in Lake Superior. Working for the Park Service has been a long time dream, and I'm so excited to get this opportunity.

On the island, I'll be working for the Great Lakes Inventory and Monitoring Network, a scientific branch of the Park Service that works in the Great Lakes area, doing water quality testing on the inland lakes. Other duties will include assisting with bat surveys.

Natural Resources Team, including our chief, summer  volunteers,

ISRO biotechs, and me and my water quality biotech buddy.

Since we're working on an island, the first thing we had to learn was how to operate a motorboat safely on the waters of Lake Superior, so we got to start with a boating class! This was a ton of fun. I particularly enjoyed the practical section, which of course was done in a cool rain. We practiced useful skills, like docking, and had other drills to help us improve our boat handling skills. This included boating forward to gently "kiss" (touch) a buoy with the bow of the boat, but backing away before running it over, and a serpentie course where we got to practice taking sharp turns at higher speeds and making sure we know how to avoid obstacles. Oh yeah, and we took expired visual flares and practiced setting them off. Boat training is no fun whatsoever.

"Kissing" the buoy. In the rain.

Smoke flares are awesome!

First day in uniform!

I also had the proud moment of getting my uniform, here complete with a boating whistle and a hand held radio (not pictured), cause cell phones won't work in emergencies. On a related note, please don't leave messages on my phone right now. They'll be a bear to sort through later and won't do either of us any good. I have zero reception here. The landlines have dropped calls. Anyway, I'm told I'll get sick of wearing this grey-green, but I'm not sure it will really happen. I love green. It brings out my eyes. I might already be tired of the high-waisted pants though. The Park Service could fix that. At least I get an awesome leather belt with sequoia cones embossed on it.

Okay, but my biggest high this week gets back to my plant nerdiness. You guys, I saw Calypso orchids, and totally freaked out. And they're on the island I live on, so I'm going to go see them everyday. While I hike around with my plant and lichen ID books. Like the happy plant nerd I am.

Calypso orchid.

Happy plant nerd enjoying Calypso orchids.