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Show Patton, J. L. 2015 226 | Great Basin National Park 16 August 2015 Carol and I left Bishop on Sunday morning, 16 August, driving on Hwy 6 to Benton Station, and then east into Nevada through Tonopah to Ely, where we checked into a motel about 5 o’clock this afternoon. 17 August 2015 Wedrove from Ely to Baker, about an hourto the east; early in this morning, had coffee and muffins in a local breakfast place, and then checked at the Great Basin NP visitors’ center where we were to meet Brian Hamilton, the vertebrate biologist on the park research staff. After a bit of wandering around, we connected with Brian, had a nice conversation about the resurvey work that Eric Rickart, Becca Rowe, and Brooks Kohli had begun, met a few of his co-workers, including Gretchen Baker, the park’s ecologist, were given a campsite permit for the Wheeler Peak campground, and weretold that Brooks wasalready up there waiting for the Utah crew to arrive. We then headedinto the park, stoppedbriefly at the Lehman Cavevisitor center, and then went on up the Wheeler Peak road to the campground.I found Brooks, who hadalready reserved two campsites in addition to the one he was occupying. He told methat there were to be about 10 people coming,three plus Eric and Shannen Robson from the Utah Museum of Natural History, Duke Rogers from BYU, Lois Alexander Merkler and two ofher students from Los Vegas, and eventually Jason Malaney from UNRin Reno. Carol and I thus took an additional campsite just up the hill from those that Brooks had reserved and set up camp. The day wasclear and warm,butthe air was heavy with smoke blowingeast from the major wildfires raging in parts of California, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. 7 The Utah and Vegascrews arrived by late afternoon and we organized the sites that each group would work. Asall of the specimenscollected within the park are to be deposited in the UMNH,Dukewill work someofthe lowerbajada ofthe Snake Range outside the boundary of the park as those specimenswill be deposited at BYU. Eric, Shannen, Brooks, Los, and their compatriots will work the lakes above the campground, particularly Stella Lake andits input andoutlet streams, and will subsequently movehigher up onto the ridge between Wheeler Peak and Bald Mountain. Brooksasked if Carol and I would initially work along LehmanCreek here in the campground, including both the streamside and the forested slopes on either slope, and when finished here move downto the pifionjuniper woodland around Lehman Cave, which is a mid-elevation area that E. R. Hall and his colleagues workedin the 1930s. |