The day before Obama Day and I'm sick as a dog

03- 05 November 2008

Image: This is one of two Andean fox (Lycalopex culpaeus) or culpeos that lived on either side of the Aduanas (immigration) building on the Bolivian side of the Chile-Bolivia border. These animals have been habituated and are always looking for a hand out. This little guy approached me and was about five meters away when I took this shot.

After spending two days acclimatizing in San Pedro (at 8000ft), it was time to go even higher. On 03 November, we left for Laguna Verde National Park in southern Bolivia. This reserve is situated on the Altiplano and is at 14,000ft.

Image: We stopped briefly for a photo opp about 30 miles from the Bolivian border. This is the sacred mountain, Lincanbur, in the background. This is one of the 19,000ft volcanoes we will be climbing during this expedition.

Well, I don’t know exactly what happened to me, but I got really sick. It may have been the poorly washed raw carrots that I ate en route to Laguna Verde National Park, or it may have been something else. Whatever it was it resulted in projectile vomiting and diarrhea at 0200hr in the morning. Admittedly, I have a bad time with food poisoning. It turns me into a winy five year old boy with a tummy ache. I’ve been beaten up by caves, I’ve competed in tortuous endurance races, but food poisoning has always been a weakness for me. This is something that I need to work on, but I’m not looking to get sick just so I can “man up” when it comes to throwing up.

Image: A small mixed flock of Andean (Phoenicopterus andinus) and Chilean (Phoenicopterus chilensis) flamingos feeding on Laguna Blanca, Bolivia. Andean and Chilean flamingos have black and dark pink tail feathers, respectively. Andean flamingos are listed as "Vulnerable" on the The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

On 04 November, we were scheduled to go to Uynie. The closest town in the Altiplano. This involves an eight hour drive across rugged dirt roads. The expedition doc decided that I was to remain at the reserve. I was glad because I felt horrible. However, because the purpose of this little outing was to obtain our tourist visas, so we could remain in country, they took my passport, and this is where it gets interesting…

Well, I slowly recovered from my bout with food poisoning. I’m not a 14,000ft elevation and the body tends to recover much more slowly from an illness when at high elevation and low oxygen. As I was getting over the food poisoning, a gnarly cough set in. Due to the high elevation, my cough was dramatically exacerbated.

Image: Employee bunk house, Laguna Verde National Park.

As it turns out, the team is delayed by a day in Uynie, and I remain at the reserve. My cough gets progressively worse. When I move around too much, I cough so much I can hardly breath. Two of our Bolivian teammates were observing me, and told me that I had altitude illness. I didn’t think that I did. After all, I live at 7000ft elevation, and compete in races at well over 10,000ft. However, I figured the Bolivians were very familiar with altitude issues and if they said I had altitude problems, then maybe they were right.

So, I called Global Rescue, and they wanted to evac me back to San Pedro. They indicated they often err on the side of caution, and given what I told them, I needed to get to a lower elevation. Only one problem…I have to cross the Bolivian border and enter Chile, but I don’t have a passport. So, I was stuck.

Image: Another view with flamingos foraging, Laguna Verde National Park, Bolivia.

Global Rescue suggested that I find someone to sleep in the same room as me to watch over me and make sure I didn’t get worse. There was a touring cyclist from Poland named Peter. He agreed to sleep in the same room as me and make sure I was okay. I slept through the night, and made it to the morning.

The next evening, the team arrived back from Uynie and the expedition doc sent me back to San Pedro – with passport in hand. I spent the next five days in San Pedro, and I stayed in bed mostly because I was trying to heal myself as quickly as possible.

Image: The view looking out the guest house, Laguna Verde National Park.

Gearing up for the 2008 NASA/ SETI High Lakes Expedition

29 October - 01 November 2008

Blogger's Note: I have been incredibly slack in getting all my blogs posted over the past two months. My apologies to my one fan, my Mom, who keeps up with my blogs. Sorry Mom!

The team loading up the bus and truck. We're getting ready for our departure to San Pedro de Atacama.

Gosh, it seems I never left here. It's been a little over two months since I was here. The first couple of days back in Chile was uneventful. As is tradition with the High Lakes project, we fly into Antofagasta. Our first day is a down day; this is a much needed day. It allows us to recover from the long flight. Day two involves going to the grocery store and purchasing comfort foods – nothing glamorous, but food is an essential part of any expedition. Then, we pack, boxed up all the food and the remaining gear and prepare ourselves for departure to San Pedro.

Image: Waiting to depart for San Pedro. Credit: Cristian Tambley.

San Pedro is our home for the cave detection work. So, I know this town well. It is always nice to return to SP.

The San Pedro stop is rather important for most of the expedition team members. Two days at 8000ft starts the acclimatization process, and prepares us for the higher elevation work that we will ultimately do. Living in Flagstaff, and training at altitude, I should be able to adapt to high elevation working and living. We shall see.

Image: Group photo at the Tropic of Capricorn.

En route to San Pedro, we made a couple of stops that I was unfamiliar with. We stopped at an old mining town along the highway. This mining town was likely a boom town during the turn of the century. They were mining nitrates in the area, and the town suffered the same boon to bust fate that most old towns in the American Southwest have suffered. Today, all that remains are numerous adobe structures and all the artifacts one may expect to find in association with an old mining town.

Image: A crypt that was broken into. Unfortunately, the remains have been heavily disturbed. In many cases, the skulls were stolen.

The cemetery leaves some tell-tail signs of this town’s demise as well. We encountered numerous headstones with the dates 1933-1935. There may have been some sort of epidemic that went through the town. Perhaps this epidemic ushered in the demise of this once bustling mining town. Along the back wall of the cemetery, there were numerous mausoleums that had been disturbed and looted by grave robbers. There were numerous burials completely exposed. Most disheartening was that many of the skulls had been removed. We saw many of the flower arrangements that were interred with these departed souls. We even saw their clothes that they were wearing. In most cases, we could actually see the bodies in various stages of mummification. I took a few pictures of this, but chose to do it tastefully. These are the remains of someone’s loved ones and should be respected; however, now mother nature is continuing her work to return these individuals to dust and dirt.

Image: We also saw this lone and rather desert-worn vicuña (Vicugna vicugna) was observed about 30 miles from San Pedro.

For more information about this expedition, you may go to the NASA/SETI High Lakes 2008 website.

A New Yorker and Cave Bugs

Originally drafted 12 October 2008

Today, we pulled traps at Zuni and Abyss Cave. Yesterday, we had planned to pull traps at Zuni Cave, but given the weather conditions, we were unable to do this. So, we had to pull traps at two caves today.

Inspecting an inverted Chrysler New Yorker.

En route to these caves, we came across an old 1970s New Yorker. It was upside down and appeared to have been largely stripped. We walked around it a bit and took some photos. It was rather interesting to encounter this abandoned vehicle in the middle of the monument.

One of many Rhadine beetles found in Zuni Cave. Credit: Kyle Voyles/ NPS.

This work went incredibly well today. We found numerous crickets and Rhadine beetles in Zuni Cave. We also found several spiders and Psocopterans.

Once done, at Zuni we hiked across the Malpais and arrived at Abyss Cave. This cave is a much colder cave than Zuni. When we were there deploying traps a few days prior, I didn’t think we were going to encounter many arthropods here.

A mummified bat, possibly a Townsend's big-eared bat, found in Zuni Cave.

We did see extensive bat activity throughout this cave. There was a light deposition of guano almost throughout the cave. Also, numerous moth wings and beetle parts littered the cave floor. We also encountered one Townshend’s Big Eared Bat that was apparently in a torpor.

As I expected, we didn’t find many invertebrates within this cave. We encountered mostly crickets and Rhadine beetles.

We then packed up all of our gear, and gravid with an additional 20 temperature/humidity sensors and ~60 traps, we headed back across the Malpais and back to the truck.

Mummified bat pups in Abyss Cave.

We had the luxury of arriving back to camp at a reasonable hour, where we uploaded the data from our data loggers and digital cameras, organized the collected specimens and data sheets, and made preparations for tomorrow.

Popcorn speleothems in Abyss Cave. Credit: Kyle Voyles/NPS.

Staying Dry on the Malpais

Originally drafted 11 October 2008

A to-be-identified spider in Roots Cave. Credit: Kyle Voyles/NPS.

Today was an incredibly rainy day on the Monument. This created a little bit of chaos for the team. One valuable lesson that all field scientists must learn is that things do not always go as planned. Thus, one of the most important rules when working in the field is to be prepared for things to go wrong. Secondly, one must have the flexibility to work through and around the problem.

Hiking across the Malpais. Credit: Kyle Voyles/NPS.

Everything started out smoothly. We broke camp and left the Bandera property by 0830hr. Our plan was to work two caves near the Big Tubes area. These were fairly remote and involved over a one mile hike across numerous lava flows to reach the caves.

First off, the weather was not cooperating with us today. It was a 40% chance of rain on the Malpais. We were discussing when is the last time you heard a forecast involving a 40% chance of rain and then it rained? Well, it rained all day. All team members had Gore-Tex and were prepared for the elements.

However, once we were about half way to the caves, one of our team members (and I won’t mention who) set down a valuable piece of equipment in the forest when we had stopped for a few minutes to remove our Gore-Tex shells – it wasn’t raining at the time, and we were all getting really hot hiking in our jackets.

When this happened, I gave this person my GPS with all the coordinates programmed into the machine, and we programmed the coordinates to the first cave into his GPS. Before we temporarily split company, we doubled-checked the coordinates to make sure they were entered correctly. Upon making this determination, we proceeded to the cave, and at out person tried to follow the GPS track back to where the gear was left.

A rainy self-portrait. Credit: Kyle Voyles/NPS.

Given thunderstorms, pouring rain, uncomfortably cold temperatures and some navigational issues with the GPS, all of this took us a lot longer than we had anticipated. My around noon, our rendezvous point was about 200 feet from the cave. We went to the cave and started the work.

We were working at Roots Cave today. We visited this cave last year, where we opportunistically collected invertebrates. This time, we were systematically trapping and conducting time constrained searches within this cave in hopes of improving our understanding of this caves biodiversity. Oddly, we found numerous spiders, but not many other organisms, within this cave. We will have to wait to see what our traps yield in four days.

Moving through the back of Roots Cave. Credit: Kyle Voyles/ NPS.

Our drive out of this area was very interesting to say the least. The roads in this part of the monument are notoriously known for being impassible during inclement weather events. Well, we had a bad weather event today, and the roads were a mess.

I radioed into the ELMA Information Center, and MaryAnna told me the roads were going to be bad. She had been out there earlier in the day, and was very concerned as to whether we would be returning to camp that night, or if we’d be camping where our truck got stuck.

I drove out slowly and cautiously in 4X4 high. We slipped and slide for about five miles. At one point, we almost went off the road. Fortunately, I recovered and we proceeded on.

We made it back to camp in one piece.

The storm that made for a cold and wet day. Credit: Kyle Voyles/NPS.

Incredibly Grand Moss Gardens

Originally Drafted 10 October 2008

A glimpse of moss from Grand Moss Gardens Cave. Credit: Kyle Voyles/NPS.

Today, we went to one of the main tourist caves on the monument – Grand Moss Gardens Cave. Our plan was to deploy traps in this cave and recon Train Tunnel Cave.

We deployed traps and opportunistically collected invertebrates within an extensive moss garden. While we were in part of this cave that often contains ice stalactites and stalagmites, we found crickets! While we don’t have the temperature data for this part of the cave yet, I would suspect it was in the mid to low 40s. So, I was rather surprised to find crickets in this area.

Collecting arthropods from Grand Moss Gardens Cave. Credit: Kyle Voyles/NPS.

Once we successfully deployed our traps at this cave, we spent about 30 minutes searching for invertebrates in the moss gardens. These moss gardens are perhaps the most extensive moss gardens on the Monument. We collected numerous spiders, Psocoptera, mites, Collembola and beetles.

Because this cave is so heavily used by tourists, We are hopeful that our traps will not be disturbed. In three days, we will know how they faired.

One of the numerous tunnels we walk over en route to Grand Moss Gardens Cave. Credit: Kyle Voyles/NPS.

Into the Abyss

Originally Drafted 09 October 2008

Preparing to enter Abyss Cave. Credit: Kyle Voyles/NPS.

Today, we surveyed Abyss Cave. This cave is located about two miles from Zuni Cave. This cave is characterized by extensive breakdown on the floor. It involved a lot of scampering over the rocks and large monolithic boulders to navigate through this rather large lava tube.

This rim fragment was found near the entrance of Abyss Cave. Note the hole near the rim. This is likely a hole for placing a leather or yucca fiber handle. Credit: Kyle Voyles/NPS.

While there was some evidence of use, this cave was not as extensively used by ancient Americans. In the front part of the cave near the main entrance, we found two areas where the floor had been cleared, and dry-laid stone walls were constructed. We also observed dry-laid stone walls on the surface near the cave.

One of the two cleared areas on the floor of Abyss Cave. Credit: Kyle Voyles/NPS.

The team ahead of me received a great treat while deploying traps ahead of me. They entered a side passage directly below a large skylight. When they did, they disturbed a pair of great-horned owls. They were actually able to watch the owls fly over head as they moved to a less disturbed part of the cave.

Once we were done here, we went into town for a few provisions. We decided to eat dinner in town.

While we were getting water, a guy approached Kyle and I and asked if he could help us with our water. He indicated he was a “professional,” and that he did this at the jail. I told him that I appreciated his offer, but we thought we would be able to handle getting our water. He was a very interesting fella.

I saw this juvenile gopher snake (Pituophis melanoleucus) sunning in the road on our return back to camp.

Ancient Use of Zuni Cave

Originally Drafted 08 October 2008

Preparing to set traps for invertebrates in Zuni Cave. Credit: Kyle Voyles/ NPS.

Possible Anasazi marker stone. It was located at the second entrance of Zuni Cave. We found one of these at the entrance of Roots Cave last year.

Today, we set traps at Zuni Cave. This cave was most impressive. While the extent of biodiversity within this cave remains to be seen, it determined this cave was used extensively by ancient Americans. This cave contained several dry-laid stone walls near each entrance/ skylight. There was a sandstone marker stone at one of the skylight entrances, and there was significant deposition of pottery, stone material (from tool making), a couple of hammer stones, and a metate. All of this suggests this cave was used extensively.

Kyle using a slave flash technique to illuminate a larger extent of the cave. Credit: Kyle Voyles/NPS.

The hike into this area is most impressive. You traverse vast expanses of lava flow; the basalt is loose, rocky and undulating. It is quite easy to lose your footing on this type of material.

In a packrat midden, we found pottery sherds and a corn cobb.

On our return to the truck, our traverse across the Malpais offers spectacular views of Mount Taylor. This is one of my favorite mountains in the southwest. With the exception of last year, I have competed in the Mount Taylor Quadathlon. Viewing this majestic mountain from a far stirs my desires to tackle the mountain in February. I definitely plan on doing it again!

View of Mount Taylor from trail to Zuni Cave.