Collecting Rocks in the Appalachian Mountains (Part 1)

Presently, I am sitting in front of my computer waiting for some data processing to finish in ArcGIS (a geospatial mapping software package) and going over edits to a paper manuscript I am getting ready to submit for publication. The paper is essentially Part II of my Masters Thesis which I finished this past January at the University of Vermont. My project was fairly simple in scope: determine the erosion rate for bedrock outcrops in the central Appalachian Mountains. Turns out they are slowly eroding away at only a few millimeters per thousand years, so don't worry - the ground will not just drop out from under your feet!

We use various chemical procedures to extract a form of the element, beryllium, from rocks and since the rocks we needed were in the Appalachian Mountains, someone had to go get them. This someone happened to be me!

Two summers ago (2009), my classmate, Charles, and I spent two weeks traipsing around the central Appalachians hiking up mountains and collecting rocks from the uppermost parts of rock outcrops. Charles was doing field work in that region as well, so we also spent time collecting sand from streams and rivers for his research.

We touched down at BWI with our advisor, got our rental car (a nice little Chevy Colbalt) and were off! The first place we went was to Harpers Ferry National Historical Park at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers. We hiked up to a small segment of the Appalachian Trail and got our first few samples (NOTE: I have documented permission from the NPS staff at Harpers Ferry to collect samples. In this and any other State and National Park, the removal of any material is prohibited and in many cases a federal offense!). My advisor showed me what kind of rock outcrops I wanted to sample, how some were better than others, and how to get the sample.

Harpers Ferry is a quaint little town with a storied history seeped in trade, bloody battles, and industry. Many American Civil War battles were fought here and some of the trenches dug out by the soldiers and battlements are still visible.

Civil War battlements on the Maryland Heights side of the Potomac at Harpers Ferry NHP.

Civil War battlements preserved on the Loudoun Heights side of the Potomac at Harpers Ferry NHP.

Civil War battle trenches preserved on the Loudoun Heights side of the Potomac at Harpers Ferry NHP

Our advisor was only with us for a few days and so the next day we moved further north to Maryland. It was mid-May and Spring had come to the central Appalachians. Fortunately for us that meant the hiking would be beautiful! Unfortunately for me it meant learning the hard way that I have allergies... The first hike of that day was in Cunningham Falls State Park and it was a long, sunny walk through a dogwood forest. The trees had just begun to bloom and except for my constant sneezing, it was perfect.

Dogwoods in bloom in Cunningham Falls State Park, MD

More pollen-producing sneeze machines

The nice thing about this time of year was that the wildlife was also just starting to come alive. In Cunningham Falls SP, we came across many animals we would frequently run into during the two weeks following. But only here at our sampling site did we see a snake, sunning itself in the hollow of a tree!

Red spotted newt (it's about 2 inches long!)

These millipedes were everywhere, all over the hiking trails

The only snake we saw!

With four new samples collected, we went up to Catoctin Mountain Park, a unit of the National Park Service in Maryland. I had never really heard much about Catoctin before, other than Camp David - the Presidential Retreat - is nearby. I was pretty astounded with the size and grandeur of this small little Appalachian Park and though we only had a little bit of time there, I plan on going back and exploring more of it!

Rock formations in Catoctin Mountain Park

My classmate exploring the rocks at Catoctin

My advisor had to get to his folks' house that evening in Baltimare, so Charles and I drove him back to the city and then we parked downtown and got a delicious seafood dinner at Eat Bertha's Mussels in Baltimore's back-bay. I was still in my picky-eating phase, so I stuck with fish 'n' chips while Charles opted to go for the restaurant's namesake - mussels. Charles and I spent the next few days collecting rocks again at Harpers Ferry NHP as well as in South Mountain State Park in Maryland.

Taking notes at a sampling site at Ravens Rock in South Mtn. SP

Then it was Charles's turn. We had an agreement that while I was collecting samples, I would navigate to the next sample site and he would drive and then our roles would be reversed when he was collecting samples. So the next few days I spent driving around the greater Washington DC area. While most of his sampling sites were out in the countryside, a good few of them were in suburban neighborhoods where we had to suspiciously cross private property to gain access to a creek to collect the sediment. Another good few of them were very near government properties like...Andrews Air Force Base or the Department of Agriculture's Research Facilities.

I'll be honest: I was nervous. We would leave our rental car at the end of some cul-de-sac, put on our muck boots, and go tromping through forested plots of land where I could all but help think about the number of dead bodies that may or may not have been dumped after unfortunate mob encounters or something fantastical like that. I became increasingly aware of Big Brother's presence everywhere around Washington DC. This feeling was most heightened around Andrews AFB (where Air Force 1 lives) and I could actually see the thin barbed-wire boundary just strung between trees with little tags that read, "WARNING: Government Property! Do not cross!" But this boundary was not always marked and my worst fear was that we would unknowingly step onto government property, be detained, and have to explain ourselves to intimidating officials, who wouldn't buy our "we're-grad-students-doing-research" story, and ship us down to Guantanamo Bay where we would be water-boarded and forced to bunk up with real terrorists. Luckily, my worst fears were unfounded and sampling in DC was complete without a hitch.

We left the DC area for the sandy flat-lands south of the City on the peninsula between the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay. I could tell from driving around that this area was very seldom traveled by tourists but I was amazed at how beautiful the landscape was - and we were just a few hours from the city! It was mostly flat and sandy with towering shady pine trees. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought I was up in the woods near my family's cabin in northern Michigan!

Another day was spent crossing back over to the Alexandria side of Washington DC where we collected more stream sediment and tried collecting some more rock samples for my research, but nature thwarted us again, and in fear of being gassed out, we drove on.

Stupid gypsy moths...ruining my research!

Most Visited National Parks of 2010

A few times throughout the year the United States National Park Service waives admission fees, hoping to attract visitors to the parks and raise awareness for the historical, cultural, and natural landmarks they protect. I get the feeling that when most people hear the phrase "National Park" they think of places like Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, or Yosemite - which they should, but of the 394 official National Park Units, only 58 of them carry the title of "National Park." The other 336 are made up of National Monuments, Memorials, Historic Sites, Historical Parks, Battlefields, Military Parks, Seashores, Lakeshores, Recreation Areas, Trails, Parkways, Scenic and Wild Rivers, and Preserves.

According to the National Park Service's Public Use Statistics Office website, 281.3 million recreational visits to the National Park Units in 2010 were counted. Even though only 23% of those visitors actually went to one of the 58 units with a "National Park" designation, no other park type received more visitors. The second and third most popular types of parks were National Recreation Areas and National Memorials with 17% and 11% of the visits, respectively.

According to the National Parks Conservation Association, of the top 10 most visited National Park Units in 2010, only one holds the "National Park" designation:

1. Blue Ridge Parkway (NC, VA): 14,517,118 visits
2. Golden Gate National Recreation Area (CA): 14,271,503

My friend, Dave, and me on the beach at Golden Gate NRA (April, 2010)

3. Great Smoky Mountains National Park (TN, NC): 9,463,53
4. Gateway National Recreation Area (NY, NJ): 8,820,757
5. Lake Mead National Recreation Area (NV, AZ): 7,080,758
6. George Washington Memorial Parkway (MD, VA, DC): 6,925,099
7. Lincoln Memorial (DC): 6,042,315
8. Natchez Trace Parkway (MS, AL, TN): 5,910,950
9. Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area (PA, NJ): 5,285,761
10. Cape Cod National Seashore (MA): 4,653,706

Hundreds of gray seals sun themselves on sand bars exposed during low tide at Cape Cod NS (August, 2010)

It seems as if the most visited National Park Units are those receiving the most automobile traffic. Three of the Top 10, are specifically designed with driving (Blue Ridge, George Washington Memorial, and Natchez Trace Parkways) and many of the rest seem to have thousands of vehicles driving through them every day as people commute to and from work in large urban centers or require respite from the hustle and bustle of the big city (Golden Gate, Delaware Water Gap, and Gateway National Recreation Areas).

Two of the sites most likely receive their patronage from visitors who are not even traveling with that park in mind, only using park land to get to their actual destination. For example, summers out on Cape Cod are relaxing getaways for the city people and it's no surprise the National Seashore is on the list. Anyone would guess it if they've ever had to sit through traffic on Route 6, trying to get on or off the Cape. Another example, Lake Mead NRA, is most likely only on the list because busloads of tourists going out to the Grand Canyon typically start their trip in Las Vegas and since people on buses can be impatient and restless, the buses will probably stop once or twice along the way, including a brief 5-minute pause at Lake Mead so people can see the Hoover Dam. Photos are taken and the bus rolls out of the park.

Most of the park units on the Top 10 involve people staying in their cars, driving through, and probably not even realizing they are in a National Park. And only two of them were specifically set aside for the public's enjoyment of nature (Great Smoky Mountains NP and Cape Cod NS). I understand that families on these trips have limited time to get to so many places and that cars are necessary to do this. But from my own experience, a visit to a park is so much nicer when you're able to slow down, put your feet down on the ground, take a look around, and forget about time!

So with the vast majority of national park visitors not even visiting the National Parks, it's a wonder why Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, and Yosemite are some of the first images that come to mind. Or is it? We have some spectacular landscapes and ecosystems protected in our country! Here are the Top 10 most visited National Parks (of 2010):

1. Great Smoky Mountains (TN, NC): 9,463,538 visits
2. Grand Canyon (AZ): 4,388,386

My friend, Kelly, and me at the Toroweap Overlook in Grand Canyon NP (May, 2007)

3. Yosemite (CA): 3,901,408
4. Yellowstone (WY, MT, ID): 3,640,185

American bison grazing in Yellowstone NP (July, 2007)

5. Rocky Mountain (CO): 2,955,821
6. Olympic (WA): 2,844,563
7. Grand Teton (WY): 2,669,374

Me, hiking up to the summit of Middle Teton (Grand is behind me) in Grand Teton NP (July, 2007)

8. Zion (UT): 2,665,972

The view of Zion Canyon from Observation Point in Zion NP (May, 2007)

9. Acadia (ME): 2,504,208

Granite cairns guiding me to Cadillac Mountain on a stormy morning in Acadia NP (August, 2010)

10. Cuyahoga Valley (OH): 2,492,670

Exploring caves at the Ledges in Cuyahoga Valley NP with friends (December, 2010)

To me, this list seems much more complete and appropriate for what we think of when we hear someone talking about the National Parks. I am proud to say that I have been to six of the top ten and cannot wait to get to the other four! They are spread throughout this great country of ours and cover vastly different landscapes. It's no wonder Americans are fascinated with the idea of summer road trips. There is so much to see in this great country of ours. Oddly enough, many of these parks are so often referenced, that I feel we have become immune to them. Also, I know for a fact that a large percentage of the general US populous doesn't even know where some of these are or that they even exist!

The National Park Service of the United States of America was founded in 1916 during Woodrow Wilson's Presidency. The 100th Birthday of the Park Service is fast approaching and it would be a wondrous miracle if, by then, we could get people excited again about exploring nature in all corners of our country! And who knows? Maybe Congress will even designate a few new parks in celebration of the Service's 100th (that will be a blog post in the near future)!

Travel Reading: Hugo, Stoker, Bradbury, and Bryson

While I wait for my sister to send me photos from our excursions in Nürnberg, Germany, I thought it would be a good time to talk about something mildly psuedo-travel-related: books!

Growing up, my family would take a few trips every year. There was the schlep down to Florida for Spring Break, the two-week summer road trip in June, and the obligatory stay up at our cabin the first two weeks of August. When we first started taking our family trips, there were no video games, laptops, or iPhones which left my brother, sister, and I with three options: look out the window and count cows or train cars (much more fun than you might think!), play cards, or read books. When we were really little, we had a ton of those books where you read along with a cassette tape and when we heard the sound of chimes, we turned the page.

It started off with Disney story books and then came the adventures of "Bones and Dodo,"  a book/tape set that came in your McDonald's Happy Meal back when McDonald's was a place to go on special occasions and toys were not imported from toxin-laden factories in China. But as we got older, we phased out the Disney tapes and replaced them with our own personal reading (I should note that the "Bones and Dodo" tapes still exist, much to my Dad's chagrin).

Reading was all around us. My mom's Time and People magazines were never far out of reach nor were my dad's Guitar and Whitetail Unlimited subscriptions. Some of my clearest memories from our family trips involve listening to my mom read newspaper and magazine articles to my dad while he drove with his knees because he needed his hands to snack on peanuts. But more importantly, there were the books. No matter where we went, my mom made sure our back-seat libraries were filling up.

We kids were not the only ones heading straight for the gift shops everywhere we went. My mom was typically right behind us. But while my siblings and I headed for the trinkets, stuffed animals, and office stationary (seriously, we loved the pencils and those rulers with lots of location-based photos!), my mom went right over to the books section. It was always a struggle between mom and us over the book to trinket ratio. But in the end, it was usually 50-50.

Once Nintendo Game Boys became prevalent, my parents tried buying one for my brother and I in hopes to reduce the amount of fighting in the car on these trips. Let's just say it didn't work and we fought more and more. No matter where we were, when the fighting got to be too much, we were scolded, the Game Boy was taken away, and because Walk-Mans (Walk-Men?) were not very accessible to us in the early 90s, we spent our post-fight time-outs sulking and reading.

What we read could have literally been anything, from short-stories about the Kennedys while vacationing on Cape Cod to reading true stories of the Donner Party around Lake Tahoe; from childrens' stories from the Civil war at Gettysburg to the first three Harry Potter books flying to and from Dallas in middle school.

I've since learned that books can really be a double-edged sword to a traveler. If you are trying to travel lightly, books add bulk. But if you buy an electronic reader, you are depending on batteries lasting and must be over-observant to make sure your shiny new device is not subject to theft (I will choose not to relive my personal experience with the latter here).

As a graduate student, I never really have time to do personal reading - something I've tried really hard to correct. So when I had the opportunity this semester to spend close to 48 hours in airplanes and airports and on trains, I made the point to read. My goal was to pack lightly, which is tricky when you're bringing books along because of their bulk. With my recent acquisition of an iPhone, I took advantage of the iBooks app and downloaded some free classic titles.

So over the five weeks I was traveling, I am proud to say I made my way through three classics and one travelogue. On the way to Germany, I was determined to finish Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

I tried getting into the book numerous times before, but like Hugo's other writings, the first third of the book is filled with seemingly-inane details about the layout and architecture of Paris - names of roads and how they intersect with certain corners of this university or that park. Mostly, these details are something that were of utmost importance to the politics of the day but to the common modern-reader, really are not that important (maybe scholars get something out of it, but not me). So it was a chore to get through the first quarter of the book, but then the characters and plot comes alive and keeps your interest for the duration. I am no literary critic, so I'll just say: read it!

I finished The Hunchback of Notre Dame while in Berlin and had it both in paperback and on my iPhone - something I decided I must make sure to do each time to ensure that the book-printing industry remains alive. It was great because I could hold and read the book at home or on the plane and then while I was on the train going around town, I would pick up where I left off using iBooks. So I checked out what other free classics could be found on the iBooks store and downloaded Bram Stoker's Dracula since I meant to have read that long before now.

Having never really been into horror movies or the recent and absurd vampire-obsession, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, but I thought it would be good to get an idea of what popularized vampires in pop-culture to begin with. Let me say that Dracula is an absolutely terrifying book! It is written through the diary and journal entries of the characters and their various correspondences to one another, so you're never actually seeing anything happen in "real-time." Everything is passive and each chapter just leaves you hanging in suspense. The way Count Dracula is portrayed and how he affects those around him is just creepy and weird!

But while I started to read Dracula in Germany, my iPhone was stolen and I couldn't read it on the plane on the ride home. Luckily, I also brought a paper-back copy of Ray Bradbury's Farenheit 451 - that's the temperature at which book paper burns.

It's a great classic you can sit down and read in a jiffy. I remember watching the movie-version of the book when I was little and was glad to finally read about Guy Montag and his wife's obsession with her "family" on the wall. Again, I suggest you read it.

I got my new iPhone and finished reading Dracula while in Australia and Singapore, but I got sick of looking at my little screen and so while in the Changi Airport, I picked up Bill Bryson's Down Under (published in the US as In a Sunburned Country) and devoured it!

Bryson just has this way of writing that keeps you captivated. He's informed, cynical, humorous, and has a gift for putting abstract knowledge and ideas into words we can all understand. I'd read his A Short History of Nearly Everything before and while that is a brief introduction to each and every modern science, I was excited to read one of his travelogues for which he is more well-known. I was excited to read about his experiences in the places I just left and gave me great ideas for things to do and places to see and how to get around for the next time I go to Australia.

Isn't that the purpose of reading anyway? To give you ideas for what to do and where to do it and see cultures, viewpoints, and opinions you otherwise may never have had the idea even existed!