I got an email from Uncle Tom suggesting I provide my readers with some info on the camp. The camp sits on a decent sized chunk of land (maybe 10 acres) in the South Boulder area of the Tobacco Root Mountains. The camp is composed of a main meeting hall, which served as an army mess hall pre 1950s. The 50 campers (2 got quit or were kicked out)left stay in 1960s "cabins" which are unheated and uncooled wooden shacks. The cabins each have 2 lights and variably sleep 8 people. The shower facilities are communal, but at least they have plenty of hot water. The 50 students represent 31 universities from across the nation. The age spread of the group is fairly large from about 20-31. Some of the students have graduated and some are already in graduate school. The nearest gas station is 25 minutes away and the nearest town, Whitehall, is 35-45 minutes further.
On Thursday, I wrote of a death march. Friday was exactly the same, only worse because in addition to hiking up and down all day we had to come back and finish our maps by 10pm. I didn't even finish my work so I had to speculate on the geology far more than I would have liked.
Saturday, we went to an abandoned silver mine and mapped the geology of the region. Afterwords, we combined our map data with a bunch of stream chemistry looking for point sources (seeps) of acid mine water. Later, we had a bbq and then went into town for "frontier days" which was marketed as a festival but ended up just being a bar with a live band.
Today, I went into Virginia City. The town used to be the territorial capital of Montana. Of course, the town was built just about over night when Gold was struck about 6-9 miles away in Alder Gulch. Without even knowing it, I ate lunch at a pizza place in what was once the capital of the Montana Territory. The town has been preserved exceptionally well by a private family and then sold to the state upon their death in the 80s or 90s. It is now a remarkable tourist trap but was well worth the time spent poking around. After getting back to Camp, I ended up playing volleyball and horseshoes to relax because for the first time in a million years I have no work to do.
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Oh, I LOVE this site! Mom and dad just visited and told me about it! I can't wait to read on, but I wanted to tell you quickly how cool this is and that I love that in this post you mention acid rain and in the next sentence you had a bbq :). You crack me up :) Lots of love,jackie
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