Just another sunny morning here on the laptop sitting at a picnic table and enjoying the sound of the stream. We are going on the 5th week here in Utah working with the SOS program out of the Provo office. At first, I was unsure whether we would be working in the mountains or on the valley floors but after a few weeks in the field it seems like the forbs are all somewhat in between. The foothills have been our main focus thus far. A few things that I have learned in the last couple of weeks are that we will be camping 3-4 days a week in the field, mostly in Nevada and that Nevada, contrary to popular belief, has nice camping areas that are free too! I found out that there are actually many different species of plants growing under the pinon/juniper forests and under what seemed like a desolate desert of sagebrush and saltbrush. I learned to identify plants using pubescence and many other characteristics that I never even knew existed and the game of predicting how long it will take a flower to turn to seed. Finally, our mentor has provided us with all the tools to find old collection sites and GPS new sites in order to save time and not get lost. GPS is very useful and it spices the job up making it feel like we are on a treasure hunt and the digital flag marks the spot. So far the sites have been plentiful and the Delorme GPS software has worked flawlessly; now I just need to work on my identification skills!