Snowshoeing and Trip to Illinois

Mountain Alder



Snowshoe Hare Tracks

Snowshoeing was so fun and I am happy to report that my feet have never been toastier! Here are my boots in action:







After the snowshoeing, Craig got an assignment from work to drive to Illinois to pick up charges for rocket-netting sage-grouse. They estimated he could do it in 3 days, of driving ~ 12 hours a day. Since I didn't have much going on, I joined him. Figured I could help keep him awake, and I'm glad I went b/c we ended up driving ~ 16 hours every day. It was exhausting and I didn't do any of the driving since it was a work truck. Saw some interesting stuff along the way though - the most snow geese I've ever seen in my life, in mixed flocks with sandhill cranes. The numbers were incredible! It was nice too, to see some hardwood forests, reminded me of home...



Crazy long-horned bull where we picked up the charges

Once we got back to Laramie, Craig's employers asked me for an interview (I'd sent in my resume a month or so ago). I was nervous b/c this was the first in-person interview I'd done in 5 years! I always do phone interviews since the jobs are usually so far away from one another. Despite not getting to wear pj's and having cheat sheets, the interview went well and now I'm working for HW too! Hopefully Craig and I will get to see each other more frequently this way, maybe even get to work on projects together. My first project will be sage-grouse lek surveys, and I'm really excited to see the lek displays of the males!