All the photos from Mexican Border to Mt. Whitney

... are now online!!

http://isc.astro.cornell.edu/~don/pictures/v/friends/gerry/NEW/album_004/
(If link doesn't work, then copy and paste into browser. Sometimes there are problems with the "~" symbol.)

We haven't written captions yet.

and below are 5 of my favorites-


Michelle watches a Yellow-bellied Marmot from the trail





Michelle crosses a snowfield on the way to Mount Whitney




Michelle standing among alpine penitentes



Michelle at Antelope Valley (did I post this one already?) maybe...



Can you find Michelle in this picture?

Hello from South Dakota

Here we are, hundreds of miles from the PCT, in Brookings, SD, attending the annual American Society of Mammalogists Meetings. Gerry will be giving his talk on social calls in white winged vampire bats tomorrow morning, as one of the recipients of an ASM award. South Dakota reminds me of Pennsylvania but flatter and with more cowboy hats. Being here is strange in so many ways. It's not just staying in a dorm room and holding it for the flush toilets and making numerous trips to the fresh fruit platter at the opening day social for pineapple! and strawberries! It's also the incredible feeling of laziness that I've had all day; the slow struggle to walk the .2 miles all the way from the dorm to the Performing Arts Center. What!? How did I just walk 760 miles? The trail is a mile-crunching machine. It eats miles for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and 4 snacks a day. It elates and motivates and moves you to just walk, just keep going! Even though your feet and legs are aching and you're just too hungry and tired. The scenery is beautiful and the activity so elemental.

There is so much disposable stuff in the world of airports and college campuses. The waste is overwhelming. The convenience and lack of dirty dishes are sweet of course, but mental images of bags of trash hauled off to mammoth landfills, and of all the resources plugged into the production of these disposable goods, burden more than the convenience helps.
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Yes, it's true, we didn't leave the desert entirely after my last post in Tehachapi; the long, hot and thirsty days that followed were a suitable reward for my cockiness. After Kennedy Meadows, though, we truly did enter the high sierra. Mt. Whitney was stunning, and we managed a ride into Lone Pine easily, with two climbing guides from Washington. The next day, we were lucky enough to get scooped up by Chuck Norris and Tigger's (two fellow hikers/angels), who gave us a ride to Bishop. Sadly, they were also driving Warner Springs Monty (amiable PCT veteran) to the hospital, as he had fallen and badly hurt his leg. Hope he's feeling better by now! He seemed to have such a good attitude about the whole thing. We are incredibly lucky to be healthy.

Love to everyone,
Michelle

PS This is old news, but Gerry gave me a wonderful haircut at the Saufley's. He is now my official hairdresser.

A bit premature

Michelle's last post was a bit early methinks. Here's what the next 100 or so miles looked like:

good riddance stoopid desert!

Mwahahaha. goodbye suckers. goodbye stinging sand. goodbye stoopid mojave. I never much liked you even though I kinda tried. ok you're beautiful in a barren wasteland with shredded tires and rattlesnakes and dirtbikes kind of way, but you're not really fit for human habitation. you're too frikking hot and windy and stoopid. my body is made of water and near water I'm meant to be. why did all the movie stars used to vacation in palm springs? it's one of the most fearsome gaddawful places I've ever experienced in my life. might as well buy a condo inside of a giant oven, or maybe in hell.

we made it through the section of trail that we have most dreaded since the very beginning, the walk along the LA aqueduct through the mojave. thankfully, we had relatively cool temperatures and wind, although the wind kept us from sweet sleep for most of a very rough night, and felt like walking against a wall for most of the next day. what a relief to be through with that. I was awed by how stoically Gerry pushed through this harsh section despite his aching lungs and cough. he just set his mind and barrelled on ahead. I could barely keep up.

bring on the Sierras! this farewell to the desert is premature, I know, as our next two water sources are still close to 20 miles apart, and we won't feel like we're really in the Sierras until close to Kennedy Meadows, still some 7 days and 130 miles away. but geographically, the Tehachapis are the lower hook of the Sierra Nevada. Everyone says: "but it doesn't feel like the Sierras!" but I'll take it. cool mountain air and lakes made of snowmelt sound like heaven.

We've started to run into the same people again and again. It's neat to have this relationship with other hikers. you get to know their shoeprints, their etchings in the sand, their trail register humor. Many have curious trail names: Yeti, the 101, Jester, Coyote, Bobcat, Monty, Spiff, Fembot, Weak Sauce, Slowride, High Octane, Shake n Bake, and Gallahad, to name a few. The great thing about these names is that they are often way more memorable than real life names, which seem to slip out of my brain as soon as I hear them. Gerry's been given many options for names but none has yet caught on. He could be Batman, batbum, batboy, or the bat. I think trail names come more easily to lone hikers than to couples, unless they resolve to name each other. We tried Batman and Michelle for a few days, but that doesn't sound quite right ...

love,
michelle

3 nights in Tehachapi

Tonight will be our 3rd night in town. Two rest days in a row! This is craziness. I'm still a bit sick and we decided it was most prudent to get completely rested before heading into the Sierras. I do feel a bit pathetic for holding us up. I just keep thinking about my dad's mantra: "your health comes first". So here we are in the motel resting. For the first time yet, we are officially behind schedule, by one day. No biggie I guess. We just have to get to Independence, CA (or on the road south of it) by June 19th, 2:30pm (and 17 seconds). That's the latest that we can catch a bus or ride to the airport in time to catch our flight to the Mammal Meetings.

Besides, I'm sure I'll feel better tomorrow. I may have said that for the last 3 days, but this time, I mean it.

-Gerry

Bats, bats, bats, bats....

Yes, thats right, this entire post has nothing to do with the Pacific Crest Trail. Just wanted to record my thoughts on some other things... This entry is really more of a personal journal thing than a trip report, so feel free to skip this if youre reading about our trip. I didn't carry a journal with me, too heavy.

***

I've been thinking about bats a lot on the hike. Originally, I was going to use this trip to figure out whether or not I wanted to do a PhD. Well, I've decided before I've even started. I can't stop thinking about all the things I want to learn about and the experiments I want to do.

For my M.Sc., I studied the social calls of a vampire bat, the white-winged vampire. I've only managed to publish one paper from that work since I graduated in December: I showed that the social calls form antiphonal duets and allow the bats to vocally discriminate individuals. So after I finish this lovely hike, I've got 2 or 3 more papers to write up and submit in 2008 before I start a PhD.

White-winged vampires. Photo by Dan Riskin

First, I have to do a multivariate analysis of the call structure to ask the question: "What features of my bat's call "encode" information on individual identity?" That will be a good way to get better with multivariate stats.

Second, I have to analyze the data I collected this last fall. I wanted to know if my white-winged vampire bats use their social calls to keep track of each others' locations. I did a simple experiment where I recorded the amount of antiphonal calling during two conditions. In the test condition, I scrambled the locations of the bats in a dark room (There's no light in the room, the walls were lined with anechoic foam, and the bats were in nylon mesh cages.) Then I recorded the amount of vocal exchanges. In the control condition, I pretended to move the bats around, but put them back in their original position (a fake scramble). I randomly repeated these trials with different individual bats. My prediction is that the bats called more often when they hear that their roostmates are in different locations. I think the bats use these calls to localize certain individuals. But like I said, I havent analysed the data yet, so I'm not sure they support my hypothesis. Finally, I will try to use the rest of my Masters data in a descriptive paper on the vocal repertoire and social behaviour.

In 2009, I'm starting my PhD, probably with John Ratcliffe at Memorial University in Newfoundland. Yeah, I know, I've never heard of Memorial University either. It's not exactly Berkeley or Cornell. And yes Newfoundland consists of some barely populated islands just south of Greenland. BUT... I'm pretty excited to work with Ratcliffe. He does really good work (example, read discussion) on bats and behaviour and does exactly the kinds of experiments I like and want to get better at. (And frankly, the guy doesn't screw around when it comes to publishing lots of good papers. He's authored 22 papers since he finished his Masters in 2001. Just for 2008, he already has his name on 9 papers, including one in Nature. See, that's the way I want to operate. Learn from the masters, I say. Also, he has mucho funding. Besides, Newfoundland even has some climbing, not that I consider such things for where I do a PhD....)

Anyways...

A bunch of research topics have been floating around in my head. I'm sure most of them are stupid, but I want to get record them somewhere anyways. Some ideas have to do with reciprocity. Vampire bats perform reciprocal altruism via food sharing. (Heres some footage I took.) Jerry Wilkinson showed that the bats' sharing of blood (via regurgitation) fulfills all of the conditions for reciprocity outlined by Trivers, except for one I think: He didnt show that bats punish "cheaters". Imagine a bat that tries to get blood from partners but doesnt reciprocate. The idea is that donor bats will withold giving blood to begging bats unless they have received blood from them in the past. But this anti-cheating behaviour hasn't been observed yet. How long will a bat give blood to a sharing partner before she says "Ok. Enough is enough. When was the last time you fed me, eh??" It would be interesting to examine how bats react to a conspecific who doesn't reciprocate...

Last time I was in New Mexico where we have captive white-winged vampires, I tried to observe and manipulate food sharing. I found I could observe it fairly easily with an infrared camera and could get one bat to elicit it from others by keeping it hungry for one night. So there's some potential for interesting experiments there.

Which is more important: sharing food with relatives or sharing food with bats that shared food with you? If she had to choose, would a vampire bat favour estranged kin or a long-term "friend" (whose shared blood with her in the past over a long period of time)? Would be interesting to see whether kin selection or reciprocity plays a larger role...

Another set of ideas I had related to vocal communication. For my masters, I suggested that white-winged vampire social calls could be considered "contact calls". That is, they convey individual identity and location. But- What's the adaptive function of contact calling in these bats? Do they monopolize and defend a group of bird prey? Do they travel in groups? If so, why? Are the calls used as an "entrance pass" to share prey with certain individuals? Why do some vampire species use these calls while others do not? I could work on wild white-winged vampires in Trinidad, where I know I can find them. And I know where to get Diphylla (another vampire species) in Mexico...

Diphylla ecaudata the hairy-legged vampire bat

White-winged vampires also have a completely unique chemical defense. I would really like to colloborate with a biochemist on that one. It's all pretty exciting...

At the foothills of the Sierras! (posted from Tehachapi)

We did it! We crossed the Mojave Desert. I came down with a bad, bad head cold just before we descended down into the desert. I was aching, congested, weary, and hacking up my lungs. We left "Hikertown" Hostel at 4:30pm, and hiked 16 miles (till midnight) to avoid as much of the daytime heat as possible. The "trail" followed the LA aqueduct in a straight line across the flat arid valley. It wasn't too hot when we crossed, especially because it was the evening. Unfortunately, the wind was ridiculously strong. We had to lean heavily into it in order to avoid being knocked over. That night, we were unable to sleep because of the loud storm-like windy conditions. We set our tent up beneath a low bridge, tied down all the guyline points to heavy rocks and even added new ones, but the wind still took it down. We probably slept 2-3 hours total. The next morning I felt awful. We walked another 24 or so miles out of the valley and back into the comfortable mountains. I can't explain exactly what it was like, but you will understand if you watch the film "Gerry" (Yes, theres a movie with that name; it's one of my favourites. Heres the trailer.)

Today we find ourselves resting (aaaaaaahhhhh) at a Holiday Inn Express in Tehachapi. We are taking a full "zero day" here, as in 0 trail miles today. Baths, showers, delivery pizza, and sleep, sleep, sleep... Michelle's taking a swim in the pool right now. That last paragraph made that section of hiking sound really bad, but really it was quite enjoyable overall. But maybe that's just the strange phenomenon of hindsight. Anyways, I cant wait till I'm 100% better and return to that blissful state of hiking (with a healthy body) in the heavenly mountains.

It's been one month since we started. We've done 1/5th of the whole trail so far. Wha?! Seems crazy.

For the last 250 miles we've been skirting west around the bulk of the Mojave desert. Now it's straight north into the Sierras!

Here are some more pictures from our trip so far.



Two lizards mating on the trail. Not sure what species.


Michelle at Vasquez Rocks



The Saufley's lend out 2 cars to thru-hikers. I took this picture just in case you didn't believe me.


Does anyone know what species this is? I've been trying to document all this cool western plants.


This is classic Southern California chapparal covered with Chamise.


the famous trail angels- The Andersons. Their house is invaded by hordes of thru-hikers every summer. Terri makes a huge taco salad buffet for everyone each night, and pancakes in the morning. Their house is called Casa de Luna.

"The Lunatic Lounge":





Not sure what plant this is either. Here's a closeup:




We found this mouse nest with mom and babies in an abandoned graphite mine.


There were several of these mines. Of course I had to crawl inside of every one to look for bats.


Michelle crawling out the entrance.


Holy Pinecone, Batman! I dont know what kind of tree this is either... If anyone reading this knows, send me an email.


A blue-tailed skink!



Michelle stands at a rocks piled on the trail denoting the 500-mile mark.


Me filtering water from one of many reservoir tanks. I actually had no idea my hat looked so stupid until this photo.


Species anyone?


Michelle with Antelope Valley (the Mojave) and distant Tehachapi Mts in the background (which we are now on the otherside of).


Hikers relax at a trailer at "Hikertown" watching Democracy Now! (The TV station alternated between that program, sports, and Chuck Norris).




We begin the (very straight) march into the valley by walking through some fields.


The Mojave marked by the incredibly silly looking, Dr. Seuss-like Joshua Trees.


The Los Angeles Aqueduct


The windfarms outside Tehachapi.

Bats are being massacred by these things. Learn more here (news article), here (videos), here (website) and here (paper).

trail angels

Even if you don't like to hike, y'all should seriously consider hiking the PCT just so you can experience Hiker Heaven (the Saufley's) and Casa de Luna (the Anderson's). Holy Moly these people are incredible. They just let their lives and homes be swarmed by thruhikers and they are so cheery and welcoming and generous. It's totally unreal.

We decided to take an (unplanned) day off at the Anderson's as we were both feeling a little punky and this place is so darn pleasant.

The first two weeks of our hike we saw very few people on the trail. Over the past few days though we've met lots of people. It makes for such a different experience -- it's been really nice to meet and hike with different people.

love to everyone,
Michelle

10 Important Uses of Rice Krispy Treats

1. Flotation device. This function is more common at sea, but it can even come in handy on the PCT: while fording a deep creek, Michelle and I simply strapped Rice Krispy Treats to our shoes and walked across the surface of the water.

2. Signaling planes. Rice Krispy Treats have highly reflective surfaces, and can easily be used to signal long distances by re-directing sunlight.

3. Insulation. We've often stuffed them into our clothing and/or sleeping bags to avoid hypothermia. Built for a superior warmth to weight ratio, the treats are considered better insulation than goose down, and they are waterproof.

4. Fire starters. One treat can be easily lit with a single match, and will burn for at least 20 minutes.

5. Everyday multi-use kitchen tool. Pot scrubber, cutting board, spatula, stove fuel tablet, and more. Shavings can be used to spice up favorite dishes.

6. Navigation. Although many people know that if hung on a string or placed in a bowl of water, treats will automatically orient themselves in the North-South alignment, most people do not realize that Rice Krispy Treats also automatically adjust themselves for magnetic declination.

7. Anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-itch medication. We've rubbed them over poison oak, and found that they can relieve painful insect stings and bites.

8. Insoles. They provide superior cushioning and can be carved to fit any size foot. They may be the best prevention and treatment method for blisters we've come across.

9. Emergency cash. Even if the US dollar collapses, rice krispy treats will still be a valuable form of wealth. In fact, many gold investors have begun switching to rice krispy treats. Vendors all around the world will treat them like cash.

10. Finally, Rice Krispy Treats are actually edible as well. Indeed, they are quite tasty!

FACT: The earliest records of rice krispy treats date back to ancient Egypt. Evidence suggests the first and largest pyramids were constructed from bricks of tasty rice krispies and marshmallowy goodness.

FACT: Rice krispy treats contain twice as much Vitamin C as orange juice and 3 times the calcium of milk. They are rich in antioxidants, fiber, and omega-3 fatty acids. They contain every known amino acid, as well as some ones that have not been discovered yet.

FACT: Rice krisy treats provide more efficient energy than crude oil, coal, or nuclear power. Energy companies found they could not market them as fuel however, because they are just so damn tasty.

FACT: To date, seven Olympic gold medals have been retracted after the winners tested postive for rice krispy treats.

Posted from "hikertown" (mile 500-something), on the edge of the mojave desert
Gerry