Greetings from southern Oregon where it’s still slowly cooling down, but not enough in my opinion. Growing up here, I remember a lot colder, rainier winters, and times when the local ski area would be open by now, but alas, there’s not even an inch on the mountain. Last year was a very bad drought for southern Oregon as well as northern California and it’s not looking much better. Last year was the lowest snow measured since the Forest Service started measuring snow pack here fifty years ago. All I want to do is hit the slopes, but it looks like I’ll have to travel a little farther for that this year. The local, seasonal outdoor ice rink where I’m a hockey instructor is even struggling due to the above average temperatures. Maybe someday it’ll get cooler.

Recently I’ve been doing a lot of GIS analysis for the RMP here. Kind of slowing down a bit. The highlight as of late is attending the American Exploration and Mining Conference in Reno, Nevada last week. I was able to attend technical sessions, meet folks from industry, as well as from other federal agencies. With that, I’ll leave you some sweet pictures of my days in the woods and some bonus nice looking gold.

Wagner Butte in the distance and some north slope snow

Nevada gold!

View from Hobart Bluff

Mt. Shasta, California