Life in California

It's been a long time since I updated this. I apologize to my legions of loyal fans.

This summer saw some big changes for me. I left my job of 15 months at Eastern Mountain Sports to come out to Yosemite and do something related to what I want to do long-term. I have been volunteering with the Aquatics program in the Wildlife branch at Yosemite National Park since mid June. I was on their "Toad Crew" for most of the summer. This entailed working 8 days straight for 10 hours a day, surveying meadows in the back country for the Yosemite Toad and other amphibians. The Yosemite Toad has declined ~50% recently and hopefully with the data we collected this summer and that other crews collected in the past, this species can be better protected and its range in the park better understood. I don't know too much else about what is specifically causing the declines besides the Chytrid fungus (which can alter the skin of frogs, making it much more difficult or impossible to perform the functions that their bodies have developed for living with their permeable skin) and climate change, along with a bit of impact from trampling in their breeding habitat in the meadows. It was a great and grueling time and I wouldn't trade it for the world. Between our 8 day 'workweeks' we got 6 days off. I used these to rest, drive 1.5 hrs each way to Oakhurst for groceries and other necessities, meet people in the town of El Portal where I was given housing (it's just West of one of the entrance to Yosemite on CA RT140) and even go for a couple bike rides!

Now the field season is all but winding down. I got to go visit a few lakes late in the season (mid August on) helping with the other project they have going, got to cruise around on a float tube with flippers on my feet (a first on this type of on-water locomotion) and had a general good time. Now I'm in the office of the Resources Management and Sciences division-this includes Social and Physical Sciences, Visitor Use, Wildlife and other branches-doing office work 4-5 days a week. It's not glamorous work, I'm either doing data entry from the lake sites this summer or checking the Aquatics literature database for errors. But I'm getting to work with the permanent employees in the Aquatics branch more which should help me for next season!

I volunteered there this season which means I was given housing but not much else... it was a sacrifice I was (and still am) willing to make, but it hasn't been easy. However I have the qualifications now to be on the crew on a paid basis next summer, which I plan to do. My California adventure continues in Mammoth Lakes this winter. I'll be working at Footloose Sports, one of the town's big ski shops. It's sure to be a demanding and fast-paced job but I'm excited for the change and the challenge... And a chance to see my first West coast winter... which should be pretty crazy! So I'll do my best to save some money in an outrageously expensive resort town and make some new friends and reconnect with old ones. I'm pumped as my friend Netana who I raced bikes with at UVM will be instructing at the Mountain and a friend I made at Yosemite this summer is working as a vacation planner at one of the hotels in town. AND my dearest friend Melissa (who I worked with in Muir Woods & Alcatraz in '09 and who is working in Social Sciences at Yosemite now) has a friend who will be swinging through El Portal this month on her way to Mammoth and we will be introduced when she passes through. So I'm off to a good start.

I have been following the buildup to this year's Cyclocross season with bittersweet feelings. I kind-of wish I was back in New England this fall so I wouldn't have to drive ~4 hrs to get to races. And that I had money to afford the drive/entry fees to the Sacramento series races. But good things must come to those who wait. Now that I'm not in the field 8 days straight anymore I can ride more. That started today with a 72 minute ride out on Incline Rd in El Portal going West. This follows an old railroad grade that I believe serviced gold and other mines in the Yosemite area years ago. It's mostly flat and I was on pavement on the mtn bike for ~2/3 of the ride BUT it was my first ride over 10 minutes (i.e. runs to the El Portal Market for a choice few things-those prices hurt!) in about a month and it was AMAZING! I had been getting my endorphins from hiking recently which was good but it was like coming back to an old friend, this ride today. Pure bliss. I was singing lyrics to the "Performance" video (which I watched again recently-HILARIOUS!), telling rodents I saw scurrying off the road "hey! I saw you!" and being a happy idiot in general.

Anyway this post has met its end I believe. I will try to update you folks more as the days go on in my California adventure. Until then, get outside and enjoy life, food and each other!

- El Jefe

P.S. RIP DJ Mehdi... I only had heard one of this guy's tracks before finding today that he died in September... check him out!