Monday, July 11, 2011

Trout Creek 2: Son of Trout Creek


Some of you may recall that the third field school session of 2010 took us into the mountains for some backcountry survey near Jim Mountain in an area referred to as Trout Creek (off the Four Bear Trailhead in Shoshone National Forest).

Laura, Katie, and I (as well as Laura’s good friend Cody) went back up to Trout Creek for two and a half days to reevaluate our survey work from last year, set permanent datums at the sites we identified, and generally tie up loose ends.  A big difference this year (aside from not having a crew of 20+ students) was that we rode in to our base camp at Bear Park.  I haven’t been on a horse in a good while, but Lee’s horses could probably have gotten there blindfolded.

(Do I look like I cowgirled up yet?)

We finally saw a bear in the backcountry, though I was….nonplussed…. about the encounter, and glad when another of Laura’s acquaintances showed up with a couple horses to make our crew a little larger and noisier.

Trout Creek was burned in the 2008 Gunbarrel Fire, and last year’s survey was identifying sites uncovered after the duff and grasses were burned away.  What this means is that all surfaces are charred or ashy, and everything is EXTREMELY dirty.  But hey, what’s archaeology without a little dirt?

(The ethereal-looking remains of a pine forest.)

Doing backcountry work, even if only for a couple days, felt fantastic!  I love hiking all day and cooking over fires (even though we cheated a little this year and brought a propane stove…)  I feel like my passion for archaeology was renewed and I am ready to get down to business for the second half of the summer.

(A view of Jim Mountain from one of the sites we worked on.)

That’s all the News from Nowhere that’s fit to print!  Laura, Katie, and I are headed back down to Red Canyon for another ten days to continue work on the Nostrum stage stop and begin investigations of some of the ranch’s tepee rings.

Until next time…

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