Spring Hunting

Last weekend, Justin and I went up to Mt. Rose and did some spring hunting. The topo maps say there are at least 4 of them in his study area and he wanted to sample them. So, equipped with a topo map, a GPS unit and our mountain bikes, we set off in search of some springs. Mind you I've had a mountain bike all my life, but have done very minimal true mountain biking. My toush just doesn't seem to like it much. The first on we found was just by chance because it wasn't on the map...Justin just noticed water coming down the road slope and we followed it up the slope.

Doesn't look like much...but there's water coming out of the ground there!

The view from the first spring looking up to the summit of Mt. Rose.

After a very rough start to my mountain biking experience, we stop for a photo-op. Nice view of the north end of Lake Tahoe. Although I got better at the biking off-road thing, it seemed that no matter how wide the trail, if there was one rock in the road I was SURE to hit it!

Then we ditched our bikes and tramped down this hillside to where the GPS unit said the second spring was...grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Sure enough, there was a spring. The water was coming from underneath these rocks.

Justin was a happy camper. Notice the stream channel from the spring in the foreground.

Make A Splash Day

Last Friday I volunteered at a local community outreach event held in a local park. It was for Carson Valley Middle School 7th graders (all 300+ of them) to learn about water quality, conservation, environmental impacts and also some Nevada history and Native American history. I worked at a station to show kids some of the instruments we at the USGS use to monitor stream water quality and explain why it is important to know the water quality of our streams. It was a fast-paced day of 7 groups of 20+ kids, but it went fast and was a lot of fun.

That's me with the green sweatshirt and blue hat showing the kids something. It was really cold out that day!

We did some cool demonstrations that the kids seemed to really like. It made it fun when they got excited about watching a vile of water turn blue or watching a conductivity meter value soar up when we added salt to a glass of water!

Justin makes TV channel 8!

The main piece of news around Nevada over the last few weeks has been the Spring Valley hearings going on at the State Engineer's office. For those of you who aren't aware, the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) has proposed to pump ground water from White Pine County (mainly from Spring Valley) and pipe it over 200 miles down to Las Vegas. SNWA says that they need the water to sustain and allow Las Vegas to grow. The ranchers in White Pine County (and almost everyone else in Northern Nevada) disagree because pumping that much ground water will most likely deplete water in the area, dry up springs, and kill off plants...which doesn't bode well for ranching. Anyway...Justin has been very involved with these hearings (basically court case) and has even been on the stand questioning SNWA's scientists. Go to the link below and click on the left next to Rural Residents Battle Southern Nevada Water Grab to play the Channel 8 clip. About 2 minutes into it they show some footage from the hearings and Justin is there in the audience (sitting next to the former State Engineer).

http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5456846

The Return of Willy

Now that Justin has a house in Carson City, Willy got to come back north with us after our latest trip to Las Vegas. It had been a few months since Willy swam in Lake Tahoe, but he sure didn't seem to forget how to play fetch in the water!

Money, money, money!

Congratulations to Justin for being awarded nearly $29,000 today to fund his PhD fieldwork!! Woohoo!!

Back to the norm

I think I'll have a normal week for once. Last week I spent Tuesday-Friday in Henderson, NV (basically Las Vegas) working at the USGS office there. USGS people from Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and California all came in to meet about a report we are all working on that encompasses field sites from each of our states. The days were really long and I was really ready to come back Friday evening. Why is it when you really want to leave someplace the plane is delayed? It was so windy there on Friday that while we were sitting on the runway (because there were 20 other planes in line in front of us to take off) the whole plane shook from side to side. I was pretty happy to have a few Southwest drink coupons!

Ellen's moving on

On Saturday morning a group of the hydro girls got together for breakfast to wish our good friend Ellen safe travels to Minneapolis, MN. Ellen is moving on to a better hydrogeologist position that's quite a bit closer to her hometown. We'll miss you Ellen!!

Yes, we were at DSW shoes when this picture was taken!

Las Vegas, a continuation

So after visiting Mummy mountain, Justin and I went out to one of the newest casinos in Vegas...the Red Rock Casino. It's not on the Strip, it really kinda in a residential area on the west side of town; out toward Red Rock Canyon. The pictures didn't turn out too good, but here's one to show the mood.

This was the inside of a bar right in the cent of the casino.

I liked the way they put lights on the plants outside.

And at church on Sunday morning, we celebrated the Greek New Year within the Byzantine Catholic Church. The custom is to break plates. We broke them on the stairs of the church because the inside is being renovated from a recent fire.

Trip to Las Vegas

I spent Labor Day weekend down in Las Vegas with Justin and his family. We drove down Friday...

...and this was some of the scenery along the way.

Saturday Justin and I went downtown to the Fashion Show mall. The runway rises up out of the mall floor where they model cloths from different stores throughout the day. Fancy.

Then we drove north of Vegas to Mt. Charleston, or as Justin calls it, Mummy Mountain. Can you make out the man lying down in this view. (His head is to the right, legs to the left.)

Down at the base of the Mummy's head is a cabin that Justin's grandpa Huntington and he built. It has since been sold, but we went to see how it was keeping. Justin was really happy to see it again.

scenery on the back side of the Mummy.