Another Week In Camp

Another 5 days in camp, well its been more like 7. We started this week of field camp on the 25th of June and finished on the 29th but because of the 4th of July we only did the next week for 2 days, so a total of 7 days. This picture is a view of some of the more green parts of my particular area. Have I mentioned that its dry around here?

TREE KILLING DRY!

On one particular day my classmate and I decided to hike about 7 miles, what a great decision. We got a ride from Bro. Little, you remember him he had a flat tire, up an old mining road. Partway up the road smoke began to fill the car. We stopped and dropped off two other students for their "date"(more on that subject available upon request) and investigated the problem. The hood was popped and the engine was inspect to find nothing wrong there. Smoke was beginning to accumulate in the back seat now that the car was stopped. The professor and I flipped up the back seat to find that it was on FIRE! The body plating above the exhaust had weathered away and the interior was now finally exposed to the full burning fury of the muffler. So we did what any self respecting geologist would do, we put a rock under the seat and drove on.

Further along the same "trail"(there are no trails only old game paths) my classmate and I hiked we stopped at a ridge to take pictures. Behind me is Copper Mountain and apparently the bane of the other students, at least that's what they always tell me.

"Your area is too easy, you don't have to climb Copper Mountain."

Well the picture describes the how wrong they are(Note that I am 1800 feet below Copper Mountain in this picture the angle was just too good to pass up).

This is a photograph of some folded rock in the area. Now its time for a geologic lesson. Sediments are originally deposited horizontally, but over time certain pressures can cause them to fold or buckle. This particular unit is 30 feet tall and 50-75 feet wide.

This picture is of a chert bed in the Snakey Limestone. Really its the last good photo of my rock hammer. Remember that long hike? I left the hammer up there some where. Tears are wetting my keyboard as I think of that hammer. Its all about the memories.

This photo is in Goddard Canyon and was the midpoint of our 7 mile hike. It is a slot canyon where at some points it is less then 20 feet wide. The scary part was that its filled with a ton of caves that reminded me of the movie "Congo". I figured that if albino killer guerrillas showed up I sign 'Ugly Guerrillas', push my classmate down and run.