weekend!

THE STARS HERE ARE INCREDIBLE! Last night, a few of us (Lindsey, Bradley Wells, graduate student Ben and I) took canoes out and paddled to a campsite on Palmer Lake. We embarked from Tenderfoot, the lake that our field station sits on, and paddled through a connecting marsh-like channel to get to Palmer. The sun was just setting as we left, allowing us to see so much Nature on our way over: loons, jumping fish, beavers, and birds. So beautiful. Getting to the campsite was a bit of an adventure because Lindsey didn't know exactly where it was, so we were all exploring the lake together with only the knowledge of a weakly drawn map that someone back at the field station had showed us before leaving. Finding the campsite was surprisingly pretty easy though. It was a boat-access only site up a 20 foot hill on a peninsula, with 180 degree views of the water through the trees. the site seems to be maintained by the Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources, so firewood and bark was so courteously already available for us. So after we set up camp and lounged by the fire, Bradley and I canoed out again around midnight when it was completely dark. Hundreds of constellations shone in the sky, with a clear view of the milky way, orbiting satellites, and even a few shooting stars. When we turned off our own headlights, the stars reflected incredibly on the surface of the water (reminding me of Orisinal's shooting stars game) and just floated on this completely dark lake. The few lights from houses twinkled themselves like the stars. With all the stars in the sky, and in the lake, it really felt like I was floating in a globe of the sky. So wonderful.

Taken by our very own Bradley Wells.

This whole weekend has been filled with lake activities: swimming and snorkeling in Roach, canoeing in Tenderfoot and Palmer, and little john boating in Tenderfoot. I think this weekend was a little more relaxed than it's going to be normally, for most people do a bit of lab work on the weekends to catch up/get ahead, but Ashley was out of town and it was Lindsey's birthday today.

Tomorrow holds promises of experiment set up in the woods (yay, ticks!) and maybe a bit more snorkeling for crayfish. wahoo~!