Caught!

So we took a long camping trip to see California mammals and also--back off uncharismatic microfauna antidefamation league!--bacteria. We were armed with a Game Spy Camera, a rodent trap, a guide to California mammals and, true story, A Field Guide to Bacteria.

The mammal our game camera caught most often was ourselves. Here is Clementine getting ready for a predawn mammal walk. We got up close and personal with some viruses, so a few kids who really wanted to go on this walk had to remain huddled in the tent. The few, the intrepid, those of us without fevers, did spot tracks by Smith river, but my camera battery had died. We couldn't be sure, but we hold out the possibility that they were otter tracks.

We were also all for seeing interesting plants.  Our campsite, surrounded by old growth redwoods, was the best one of the trip.  A really great thing about redwoods is that they don't hide from you.

Evelyn, looking over the brochure for Jedediah Smith Redwoods Park, remarked that the conditions were perfect for the California pitcher plant, Darlingtonia californica, California's only native carnivorous plant. She set off to ask the rangers if there were Darlingtonias in the park.

She came back beaming.

A short drive and a very short path brought us to this:

We soon wished that the Darlingtonias were not such passive carnivores as a whole swarm of insects began practicing carnivory on us.  Mosquitoes.

We high-tailed it, pausing only to give this coyote hole left by the miner 49'ers a glance.

We hopped back in our vans headed for Oregon Caves, home to stromatolites, formations created by cyanobacteria.  These bacteria, also known as blue-green algae, once covered large parts of the earth in mats. 

At the visitor center I asked the woman at the desk if we'd hear about stromatolites on the tour.  "Oh yes," she said, "They'll tell you all about them.  The uppy thingies and the downy thingies.  I can never remember what they are called.  We've got 'em all."

The kids got no end of amusement out of this, but I think she was trying to spare my feelings as I'd clearly got the name wrong.

As it turned out, there were, indeed, plenty of stalactites and stalagmites, but no stromatolites on the tour.  They are in parts of the cave not accessible to the public.

But, we did get to see the endearing moon milk formation below which is believed to be caused by the bacteria Macromonus bipunctata. 

And guess what swooped right over our heads.
A Townsend's Big-eared Bat.

The kids enjoyed themselves thoroughly on the tour and I thought they were really well behaved, but when the ranger swore them in for their Junior Ranger badges he appended "I will always obey my mother" to the oath.

After two hours winding through a half mile tunnel we came out to this:

The next day we were cruising down the I-5 headed for Lassen Volcanic Park when I spotted a coyote loping along a hill.  I called to the kids to look, but they missed it.  Then, on the next rise, there was another coyote, in the same place on the hill running the same direction.  Everyone saw it. 

I've been blogging about this trip for much, much longer than the trip actually took.  One day I hope to catch up with real time, but there is still more to tell.

If I don't get it down I'll forget it ever happened.

In a related note...I hadn't posted in two weeks but my stats showed a big jump in visits.  I investigated and it turns out some kind soul nominated my blog for an award!  Whoever it was, thank you.  It is always nice to have your little corner of the blogosphere get noticed.

It turns out I was nominated for Best Super Homeschooler.  I'm a little sheepish about that because I don't feel all that super.  Before I started blogging I thought we did nothing at all.  We have done some big trips lately, but we've also had amazing experiences just walking around our block and in our backyard, paying attention to the little things.

If the spirit moves you, you can vote here, before Friday.