I kind of got lost in the woods
today. I was in charge of traps C12 to
C1 and when I made it to the latter I realized I didn’t know what I was
supposed to do next. I looked around and
when I didn’t see anyone I decided to follow my ears instead of my eyes. The voices were coming from up the hill so I headed
in that direction. Not a person in
sight. I listened again and this time
the voices were coming from my right, so I adjusted my path accordingly and
picked up my pace as they were barely audible.
After a couple of minutes the forest was silent and I realized two
things. First, that the area I now stood
in was completely unfamiliar and second, that I had neglected to note any
landmarks on the way. Trying to utilize
my resources I picked up my phone to call one of my teammates. No service.
Instead, I yelled out and waited for a response. No such luck.
After a brief moment of panic, I settled down and recalled what I could
of how I got to where I was. I started
off going up a hill (the same hill I was currently on) and then took various
turns to the right. Logically, if I
headed left I should hit the grid. It was a longshot as my colorblindness made
locating the flagging difficult, but it was my best chance. I’d say I trekked back a good 10 minutes,
yelling as I did so until I made contact with my crew. Crisis averted! I wonder whose or what’s voice I was
following… it is like something out of one of those Grimm fairy-tales. Things to ponder I suppose!
We did one more grid after my
little debacle and found three mice! I
found the first one in A5, which was a big deal since yesterday we found
nadda. The other two were found shortly
thereafter. Mandy, our mammal technician,
tagged them and got the notes she needed for her report about their general
well-being before sending the mice on their way.
It was a good day. Afterward we
returned to our housing and helped her make more bait since a dastardly raccoon
was eating most of what we had left out the night before.
That almost sums up our day! The last tidbit is that I think I have
acquired a fan. Our crew and another
AmeriCorps Team met up for dinner at a local pizza place and I got to
conversing with a teen there. He was
extremely interested in our program and the disaster relief aspect of our
work. When it was time for us to go he
rushed out and thanked us for all that we do and Andy gave him the web address
to our site in case he wanted to look up more information about our program
When we returned to our housing I
felt like a hero—more importantly, I felt like what I am doing matters. Even if we are doing Nature Conservation
presently we are constantly on alert and prepared to head out to respond to
disasters at a moment’s notice. I admit
I slacked a bit this week unintentionally in terms of packing supplies, but my
conversation with the youth has reinvigorated me to stay on my A game.
Good night for now friends.
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