Day 3 - Cold but Beautiful Day

June 21st

7.9 Miles

Many Glacier

Yay it didn't rain last night!!! But damn it is cold this morning. With all the stream crossings at the end of yesterday, putting on my wet socks left my feet numb right off the bat this morning. It didn't matter though because the sun was rising and the clouds were minimal and friendly looking. 

The morning was a slight uphill in the woods which went by rather quickly and we took a nice rest at a lake. The suns warmth was more than welcomed for the first time in a few days. It was still really chilly out but was manageable when hiking. The rest of the day was mostly a decent into Many Glacier, a small corner of the park with a number of trailheads, a small restaurant and campstore, and the large historic Many Glacier Hotel. On the way down the ridge I saw my first grizzly from a comfortable distance. I was soo excited to have the opportunity to see it. I personally would have liked to see the grizz a little closer but it was awesome to be able to just see it roam around in its habitat grazing for food. The grizzly is the small brown dot in the picture I attached. 

Arriving at Many Glacier in the early afternoon Spins and I set up our site at a car camping campsite and b-lined it to the Italian restaurant for a large cheese pizza. We then did our resupply for the next stretch where I bought entirely too much food and them showered and did laundry. The day is winding down nicely and it ended with a nice small campfire and an early nights sleep. Tomorrow has a good bit of elevation, Piegan Pass to go up and around, and most likely a good bit of snow to traverse to a good nights sleep is in order.

Day 2 - Miserably Awesome Snowyness

June 20th

10.4 Miles 

Poia Lake

After the intense shitstorm of last night, I woke up relatively early to the sound of light  rain only to fall back asleep for another few hours until the rain mostly stopped. It was cold out and everything was damp which does not make for a good start to the morning. On top of that the wind was pretty fierce which made it even colder but did help in drying out some of my gear. After a hot breakfast we took off for the day to tackle Red Gap Pass.

The uphill started immediately and my lack of conditioning sure shone brightly huffing and puffing the cold air as I slowly made it uphill. The rain picked up again to a steady beat and as I rose in elevation the rain turned to an ice/sleet/snow mixture and then strait snow. The forcast predictions I got when I received my permit came true...near white out conditions as I headed up to the pass. Small snow fields became more prevalent and the wind was howling the snow around as I made it up to the top of the pass. The way down proved to be less windy thankfully. 

After switch backing down and crossing a few lengthy snow fields, Spins and I came to the tree line which was completely snow covered. I proceeded to follow the footsteps in front of me instead of consulting my maps and sure enough after headed strait down the snow I heard someone holler "the trails not down here!!" A group of three out for a couple days who were hiking ahead of us must have ran into the same fate and were now misplaced. Before heading down I checked out the maps and realized as long as I headed across and down the ridge I would be able to hit a stream the trail intersects which I could then find the trail from. So we hiked down to the other three and all agreed on heading that way and after 20 minutes of bushwhacking we found the trail. 

Soon after finding the trail something miraculous happened...the sun came out !!! Granted it was still drizzling but it was a sign of better weather which was exciting. After making it down the ridge we had a number of limb numbingly cold water crossings until we reached camp for the afternoon. The clouds are still in the mountains and the wind is blowing this direction, hopefully the rain stays up there. Tomorrows weather is supposed to be promising.

Day 1 - Umbrellas are awesome

June 19th

10ish Miles

Elizabeth Lake Campground

 

Well today I started the CDT. I am currently sitting in my tent at quarter to 7pm with a river of water flowing underneath my tent and lightning shooting off everywhere around me. Sounds fun right?? 

This morning started off well with Spins myself and two other thruhikers Sky and Tim from Maine getting a ride up to the border from a wonderful woman named Beth who has lived up here for the past 20+ years. She drove us up to St. Mary's visitor center so we could pick up our permits and then onto the border where it was cloudy and fixin to rain. After a couple miles of hiking, the rain started and Spins and myself figured out a way to rig out umbrellas to our packs and we stayed dry the whole rest of the day....until we hit camp. During hiking though the umbrella situation is AWESOME!!!! I stay dry and warm and its oh so wonderful, if only I thought of that system for the AT.

It was raining when we got here to Elizabeth Lake so set-up was a bit messy and Sky and Tim already set up their tents at the site leaving us with two less then ideal sites for our tents but first come first serve. The lake would be quite beautiful on a clear day bur even in the clouds you can see te huge mountain and rock face to the right of the lake, caging in the water. I also past by (something) falls and it was raging from all the rainwater from the past two days.

 We both made dinner at thedesignated  cooking/food storage area and came back to our tents in puddles and it began to really come down something serious so we're now bunkered down wrapped in dry warm clothes while sitting in puddles. When the storm breaks (soon it's already slowing down) I can get out and reevaluate the situation and unpack everything else and hopefully get a good night sleep. Tomorrows forecast: rain, thunder, lightning, strong wind, hail and potentially snow over 6000' (aka the gap we have to go over). But luckily the weather is supposed to break the next day and I'll be able to dry everything out...hopefully. 

Pre-Hike Traveling (Buffalo to East Glacier)

So I am sitting here in East Glacier Park, Montana for the next day and a half to start hiking the Continental Divide Trail starting just below the Canadian Border at Chief Mountain. Both Spins and myself applied and reserved our permits for camping through Glacier National Park today and because there are limited sites and most CDT hikers are starting this week, the first few campsites were reserved until the 19th so we wait.

Traveling to here was a tiring adventure in itself so a few extra days of R&R are more than welcomed! I took a 12 hour train ride from Buffalo to Philly to visit my family and see my youngest brothers high school graduation then jumped on an early flight Sunday morning to Kalispell, Montana which is 87 miles southwest of East Glacier. We arrived at the Kalispell airport around lunchtime and started surveying our options on how to get to East Glacier because we flew in without any plans on how to get there (the usual). The only rental car company that provides service to East Glacier informed me that they would not sell me a rental because they had low inventory at the airport. Apparently they didn't want my money....the taxi service was a steep $140 to East Glacier that I wasn't willing to pay. We mulled around and then came up with two options, taxi to the town of Whitefish and then amtrack to East Glacier or hitchhike strait to Glacier from the airport. I got my thumbs stretched out and ready to go!!

After twenty or thirty minutes a wonderful couple from Columbia Falls (about 20 minutes north of the airport) picked us up and we asked for the shorter ride to West Glacier (only 30 miles from the airport) and would reevaluate our situation from there. They were out scenically driving around because the weather here is GORGEOUS a dry sunny 75 degrees! After talking for a while they offered to drive us the whole way to East Glacier and we also got to stop at Goat Lick crossing where I saw a mountain goat up in the hills. I'm fairly certain it won't be the last I see either when in the park. I just would like to give a super huge THANK YOU shout out for the ride to East Glacier it made life so much easier. So now I sit eating as much as possible, anticipating the trail ahead. 

SCUBA, an Active Volcano, and a Chinese 'Spy'

While on break in the beginning of March on the Andaman Islands I had the opportunity of a lifetime come before me and I jumped at the opportunity: scuba diving off the coast of India's (and South Asia's) only active volcano. Barren Island, which is about 85 miles from Port Blair, is a desolate island surrounded by nothing but the sea and has erupted multiple times dating as far back as 1787(it's first recorded eruption). More recently it's erupted multiple times since leaving its on and a half century dormancy period in 1991. Two weeks before I arrived in the Andamans, Barren Island released an ash plume 20,000 feet into the sky, showing VERY recent activity.

Aerial Shot of Barren Island (obv. not taken by me)

The trip itself would consume a whole day. We would take a slow boat overnight out to the island and then dive right around sunrise and then two more times in the morning before heading back to Havelock, which is an eight hour trip one way! The remoteness of the trip made it even more thrilling because radio communication is nonexistent/very spotty there and your hours away from any sort of help. I was completely interested and a crew of seven divers and two divemasters (as well as ship crew) went to the Havelock Jetty at 8PM to embark on an awesome adventure. When the divemasters are even super excited to go out to Barren Island, you know you are in for a real treat. 

The divers consisted of Tara and myself, an English/Canadian couple, a French guy, a Swiss girl, and a Chinese guy. We were all very excited for the whole adventure. All the tanks, equipment, and rations were loaded onto the boat, which was a medium/small wooden boat with a load-ass diesel engine roaring within it. The boat took off from Havelock and was quickly surrounded by nothing but the dark ocean illuminated from a recently full moon. Sleeping options were limited to the roof of the boat and the flat cover directly above the engine compartment. The Frenchman, Swiss girl, Chinese guy, one of the divemasters and myself took to the roof while the rest slept down below. Sleeping arrangements were a choice of the lesser of two evils. The Swiss girl had dove Barren Island before and brought a hammock for the roof area which seemed odd but proved very very valuable to a good nights rest. Everyone except the Chinese guy slept horizontally on the roof to minimize the rocking and shifting from the waves. I placed myself strategically along the guardrail to anchor myself and keep from moving to drastically at night while the Swiss girl and Frenchmen slept perfectly in their hammocks. The little Chinese guy who couldn't have been older than me flew all over the goddamn place all night. He was perfectly situated so that when the boat rocked he rolled violently into me ALL NIGHT. It was getting really choppy and to be honest a good bit sketchy for sleeping on the roof. The divemaster got up and went downstairs late in the night during the choppyness while the Chinese guy continued to destroy me and any chance at sleeping. Sometime during all this choppyness the Canadian girl rolled off into the aisle (and almost off the boat) onto the divemaster sleeping there and then stood up during a huge wave which sent her literally inches from going overboard if it wasn't for the divemaster and her boyfriend grabbing her arms. After that scare she got seasick and blew chunks everywhere. At least I didn;t have to deal with that!! We arrive to Barren Island around 4:30 AM and I was able to get at least a little bit of shuteye before diving at sunrise.

Tired and congested around 6 AM the sun rose over this epic lonely island and I instantly forgot about all the shittiness from the night. The volcano even had a small amount of smoke coming from it which was really really exciting. If you look at the picture above you can see the massive lava flow (black rock) on the left. Our first dive was a bit to the right of that along the island heading away from it. Once under I was amazed at the visibility! I was 30m deep and could see the surface and just as far if not further deeper. The island has a huge wall along it with a multitude of coral life and a smaller but still colorful array of fish but I was here for the morphology of the landscape just as much as the fish and coral. This first dive went well and after surfacing the boat broke down and was drifting to the rocky shore. We watched the impending trainwreck from the surface as the crew got the motor to function barely and threw the anchor a little further away from the really shallow depths they were at. They couldn't get the motor fully functioning by the time our surface interval was over so we dove the wall and the lava flow in the opposite direction of where we first dove which had never been dove at previously. This dive was awesome!!! We saw a huge manta ray from afar in the open ocean and diving along the lava flow was surreal. Even pinching myself wouldn't bring me to any sort of reality the whole environment was so unique; underwater lava flows with coral deposits around them freaking mesmerizing. The final dive was good and on the other side of the island (they got the boat to work thankfully). I had trouble equalizing and stayed down anyways because I couldn't see missing out  on any of this. Large mushroom shaped corals with psychedelic coloring were everywhere and yet again I was left amazed. 

Back on the boat my ear started to hurt. A LOT. I had a reverse block in my left ear which is when an air bubble get caught in the inner depths of your ear and the only thing you can do to get if out is to wait. All of my sinuses, my jar and ear were in so much pain for the whole 8 hour boat ride. It was miserable but didn't come close to overshadowing the dives at all, it was totally worth it. After landing back up sometime around dinner between my shower and logging my dives I was able to get the reverse block from the inner-inner chamber of my ear to just near the surface and it went away a little bit later thank god. On top of that between the critical lack of sleep and the constant rocking on a boat for 24 hours I spent the night swaying and was pretty much deaf so I looked a little more ridiculous than normal. Oh yeah I forgot about the Chinese spy.

So this Chinese guy who dove with us was shorter and skinnier than me and couldn't have been older than 28. He also had a really high pitched girl's voice. Beyond spending the night throwing elbows and rolling on me (which I was a little bitter about) he was not a very good or attentive diver. One of the divemasters had to buddy up with him and watch over him. He wasn't the only one watching over him. It is illegal to camp on the beaches on Havelock and the Chinese guy had been doing so which attracted the attention of the local police who had been monitoring his activity from afar for the past few days. Apparently Indian authorities are really suspicious of Chinese people especially on the island and think that they could be spies for the Chinese government. Absurd right? Especially for this guy. (But maybe that's what he wants you to believe.....) While we were on our way out (unknown to us) the local police called in the Indian Coast Guard from Chennai to intercept out ship on the way out to Barren Island which is logically impossible distance and time wise and ridiculous. The head of the resort spent hours talking to the cops telling them that the resort has done nothing wrong by letting him dive because he was certified and his illegal camping had nothing to do with them or their operations and intercepting their boat and business is no bueno. The cops response to late their already headed out!! The coast guard turned around shorty due to choppy conditions and the cops pulled back because it was true that it wasn't the resorts issue (AND THE FACT THAT THIS KID IS OBVIOUSLY NOT A SPY!!!!!!!). When we got back the Chinese guy was forced to stay at a resort and chided for sleeping on the beaches illegally. But seriously I wish I had his picture so you could see why considering him a spy was possibly one of the most ludicrous things I've ever witnessed a power of authority suspect. 

So there you have it by far the most interestingly bizarre 24 hours I had/will have on the trip and a story that can tie together a volcano, scuba diving, and a 'spy' from China...life is never boring.

The Andaman Islands

The Andaman Islands are a wonderful chain of islands in the Bay of Bengal. They have a fantastic variety of coral reef which is home to some great scuba diving (more on that later!) as well as an interesting cultural heritage of indigenous tribes. The islands over the past decade have seen a large influx in commercial tourism as a spot for newlyweds Indian couples on their honeymoon as well as a diving hotspot for people from all over the world. The epicenter for the tsunami in 2004 that devastated eastern India and surrounding areas was not far from the Andamans and had a serious impact on the islands.

My personal exposure to the islands has been limited to the southern area of the islands. It's a quick two and a half hour flight into Port Blair from Chennai. A short ride from Port Blair took us over to Wandoor, located on the southeastern side of South Andaman Island  The program collaborates with the primary environmental NGO on the islands the Andaman and Nicobar Environmental Team (ANET). ANET, which is located in Wandoor, was put together to study the massive diversity of organisms present on the island. The organization hosts researchers from all over and additionally functions as an educational center for students. Their role currently is to provide a base for researchers and works to promote the conservation of such a unique and precious island.

While at ANET, the program focused on the unique location and multiple environments found at and near ANET's campus. It is situated between the mangroves and the jungle and a short walk away leads you to a varied intertidal zone and beach. These three ecosystems and their transitioning zones provide an excellent area to study a countless number of organisms and interactions. The students spent the week we were there formulated and collecting data on individual research projects in these areas. The staff and researchers at ANET are a dedicated and fun group who have a true passion for their areas of interest and for the conservation of the Andaman Islands. ANET additionally has a scuba diving operation and  I was able to get two dives in between the coast of Chidia Tapu and Rutland Island on the southwest side of the island. The first dive was quite relaxed and casual going down deep and then working my way up along a small shelf. The second dive was shallow and although there was a bit of a current, the area had a decent variety of different corals and fish. The laid back island lifestyle paired with the remote and simple living facilities and wonderful people found at ANET made it hard to leave after the week was over. 

The next couple of days were spent over on Havelock Island for the student's spring break. Now I mentioned the draw of tourism to the islands and a majority of that lure is based over on Havelock. Havelock is home to a variety of small resorts and dive shops and that's about it. My experiences in 2009 on Havelock were positive and the island had a small to medium level of development to accompany the tourism draw. Flash forward four years, the island has become so developed and entrenched in making a quick dollar from tourism that the slow underdeveloped nature of Havelock that I once knew has been replaced and the streets are now lined with small restaurants and shops all over. It was disheartening and in addition to the influx of a higher density of tourism is a higher density of land use and trash. Although the island itself was a bit disappointing, the diving around the islands here was still spectacular. I was able to do some local dives some I had done four year earlier as well as new sites. The resort we stayed at was the same one I stayed at on my program and is a comfortable beachfront place geared towards scuba diving and has an excellent and friendly staff. The people who work there are so nice and friendly and happy, I mean i can't blame them their job is to live on a tropical island and scuba dive! Tara and I also had the privileged of taking the 'slow boat' to the only active volcanic island in India and dove all day along it which I will share about in my next post...stay tuned!

Goodbye Winter, Hello Pondicherry

My fun arrival experience placed me in a mental fog for the next few days which coincidentally was alright because the students just arrived from Thailand a day or two prior and everybody had a couple of days off to adjust and get acquainted with the workings of FERAL and the town of Pondi. I spent the next day completely awake to try and adjust as much as possible to the time here. The students went into town to scope out Pondicherry and to meet up with the program coordinator Tara. I tagged along mainly to catch up with Tara. She was the program assistant for the study abroad semester when I was a student in 2009 and had since then taken over the program and I was now filling in the spot of program assistant. We all meandered around Pondicherry and tried to convince the students not to buy too much stuff the first day so they wouldn't get ripped off because of not knowing the ins and outs of bargaining and how much things really are worth over here. The next day I slept for 13 strait hours. 

And then I was caught up on sleep. The next few weeks were spent in Pondicherry at FERAL with classes on GIS (which stands for geographical information systems, a simplified description is that its a mapping program), statistics, and a classes on Gender and Culture. The students also created and collected data for projects on local estuarine systems and a few of the areas sustainable reforestation farms. 

I spent a large chunk re-orienting myself and assisting with the GIS course. The problem with computer programming courses is that everyone has a different type of computer with different formats, capacities, and issues. Which means when something goes wrong, there can be up to seven different issues and ways to fix the issue each time an error popped up. I also have been compiling and working on literature reviews for a number of papers that are in the works with Tara's individual research here at FERAL which has to do with the coastal fisheries in the surrounding area. 

Now that we have all been in Pondicherry for a little over a month and have gotten comfortable, its time to start traveling! The program heads to a crocodile sanctuary just south of Chennai for a week, then off to the Andaman Islands for a week at the Andaman and Nicobar Environmental Team's (ANET) campus and then off to Havelock Island for the students spring break and a chance to relax for a couple of days before returning to the mainland in early March.