Thursday July 18,2013-Lava Rock Cave

Our first stop of the day was Lava Rock Cave in the Deschutes Forest. This is where we met with several specialists of different areas and they shared great information with us. We first met with Bart Mills who is a geologist for forest and also the leader of the tour of the cave. He had to ask us if we had been to any caves and if so we needed to tell him where it was. I was wondering why it was such a big deal if we had been to another cave. We later found out why.  As we entered the cave, we were given a lantern. This was mind blowing to me because Boulders cave does not have any guides or lanterns to lead the way. The cave was very cold as it was usually stays around 42 degrees, even in the winter time. The cave is about 80,000 years old and was a lava flow from Newberry. The cave is over  one mile long sinking about 150- 200 feet. It was one of the most interesting locations I have ever been to. There were cracks in the walls of the cave showing the direction of the lava flow. We were on a bit of a time crunch, so we could only go so far inside the cave. After coming back up, we met with Barbara Webb who is a biologist that shared general information about caves and facts about bats that I had no clue about. She had asked if we all like bats and in my head I was thinking " Ew" and "Heck no" but  before I could even answer she said "Well we love bats here, so I hope you all love them" so of course I shut up. She explained to us that bats help our ecosystem by controlling the insect population, because that is what they feed on. She finally mentioned why it was so important that they know what caves we had been to also. It is because of a disease called White Nose Syndrome, which is a fungus brought over from Europe. It is passed on from bat to bat and humans can carry it from location to location by gear.I am out of time for now but will continue my blog when I have service.Make sure to keep checking back with me to see how my day ended.

I'm back.My phone is charged and I have perfect service. One of the main struggles with this whole blogging thing.  

Anyways... as I was saying we were informed about this disease and learned all about there screening process to refrain the white nose syndrome from being passed to the PNW. After an awesome time at the caves we got to go up a lava butte with a man named Doug Johnson, the division chief of his area. He took us up to the fire lookout where he let us know the process he takes to manage his crew and all the precautions necessary to be successful at his job. We were taken up to the top of the fire lookout and got shown how the dragon plot system works, which is a system used to pinpoint the location of a fire down to the exact street. We were then introduced to Aaron, who was a very interesting archaelogist. She let us know exactly what she does for the Daschutes Forest and the journey that she took to become what she is. I loved hearing her story because it made me feel like I do have time to get all I want out of life.   
          Of course, the minute we hear lunch everyone's brains turn off and we all start acting like vultures. This time our lunch was not sandwiches, but the forest service provided us with a very fulfilling lunch. We had a very delicious BBQ lunch! After lunch we got to take a stroll down the Deschutes river with G.I Shane and Environmental Barbie (these are  the nicknames a few of us girls gave them). Over all , it was a great day filled with information, food, and with our bunch great laughter.