Success!

.... Well, kinda. After being a little behind our our plans, we worked really hard in Pawnee Co. Nebraska yesterday and only have one Rhinichthys to show for it. But that's better than none. There is no water out here. The Platte River was reduced to three tiny channels that were no more than a few inches deep. On to northeastern Nebraska today, then due west!

On the road!

We finally hit the road yesterday and stopped off at Finger Lakes State Park last night to rest our eyes. Great night for camping and the campsite was pretty quiet (except for Dave!). It is still 6 hours to our first sight for the trip near Pawnee City, NE. The forecast calls for cooler temps (96F) and wind, which is a welcome reprieve. But first, we have to get there.

     The trip up yesterday was pretty uneventful. We got out of town about 4:30am and finally got to a campground around 9. We only stopped in St. Louis for a few hours to stretch our legs and sit down for dinner. Traffic was slow, and it turns out our A/C works better when you're moving- a nice thing to have when it 100+ outside. We got our stove working last night, so we are set to get away from civilization! Pictures and more to come soon!

Lessons (Being) Learned

Each time I embark on a collecting trip to a new area, I read local guides to sights, weather forecasts and climate data, stream gauges and flow data, flora and fauna reports, and other such stuff. On this trip, however, I find myself looking at something few ichthyologist or aquatic bio people in the eastern US rarely deal with: wildfire. And wouldn't you know that some of our sites are VERY near some of the big fires in Colorado. So I'm concerned about how this affects my plans and keeping our crew safe and out of harm's way. I have been putting my knowledge of GIS and remote sensing to good use following the progression of the fires in relation to our field sites.
     I'm also learning that there's no water in the Rockies this year since the snow pack was low (thus the wildfires). This means that there are few places to collect since fish usually like water and we are VERY limited with locations in most states that we are visiting. I hope there's water when I get to the preselected sites!
     I'll update my lessons with the permitting process when I get a chance. It's been a long, drawn-out process that has been humbling and frustrating. That may take more than 1 post to get to, but in the mean time there is gear to gather!

Van shelf is complete!

Me cutting the handle on the table.

So last years Great Lakes Expedition was a great learning experience. One thing that was a constant pain was the lack of a steady, flat surface to work on. Problem solved! I spent the last year thinking of a way to fix this problem, and Malorie and I rebuilt the gear shelf that sits in the back of our van. Here are some pictures of our handy work. 

The table at it's full extent.

The table slides underneath the top shelf, and locks in place when fully extended. Now we just have to put a couple of coats of polyurethane to protect it and make it easy to clean off. The whole shelf system basically doubles the vans gear capacity.

The final product stored away.

Malorie demonstrating the sturdiness of our contraption. 

Gear Checks

Tomorrow starts the last week before we set off and that means final gear checks. For us, that means setting up the van, getting the gear together, and checking on things that are still being shipped from suppliers. It is mind boggling for me to think about the amount of gear and the volume of gear that we actually have to pack:

- two 52 quart coolers capable of holding 24 gallon containers full of fish
- several other coolers for other specimens, food, and preservative
- a 30 gallon barrel of back-up supplies that will serve as a container for holding really big fish
- 4 or 5 large seines
- an electrofisher (think Ghostbuster backpack!)
- buckets, dipnets, tissue kits, and camera gear

     All this doesn't even include our personal field gear and camping gear. Since it's going to be super hot here in the Loveliest Village on the Plains, tomorrow will be a slow work day. I hope to post some pictures of the van alterations when we are done. It should be an improvement over last year's design.

Welcome!

Welcome to the CROME page! This year we are traveling along the Continental Divide searching for minnows and suckers as part of the All Cypriniformes Species Inventory (ACSII II). Along the way I will post updates about our progress and what we see/ do/ taste/ feel/ hear along the way. Be sure to check back on our planning phase as we get set to take off on a big adventure that is slated to take us to Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Nebraska in search of dace, shiners, minnows, and suckers (and whatever else we find)!