Although my internship with the Burns, BLM is officially over, I thought I’d take a step back and talk about one of my favorite hashtags — #Fieldworkfails — since my last post was fairly reflective. The Burns District is located in the high desert, therefore it’s usually dry and crispy during the peak of summer, but every once in a while Mother Nature (or maybe climate change) decides to throw a curve ball. And so it was that Burns had a usually rainy July, which is likely the reason that Burns didn’t burn this summer. The district and town were spared from the roaring fires that claimed canyon city and almost consumed John Day. Besides keeping us inside, for the most part our fieldwork is not directly affected by rain. However, we did have a couple days like these:

Now, when you get a Ford F-250 stuck in the mud, getting it out isn’t an easy feat. These trucks are huge, nothing can stop me, run over all the things monsters!

See what I mean?

Immediately you may be tempted to rev the engine and push on through. DON’T DO IT. You’ll only make it worse and dig yourself hub cap deep. After taking a few deep breaths and a moment to lament, assess the situation. Depending on how deep you’re in the mud, primitive methods may yield results. Dig out under your wheels and stick pieces of sagebrush and rocks under them for traction. Then carefully work your way out of the rut.

This is maybe hour 3 of being stuck

If you’ve already dug yourself deep and the former doesn’t work, you’ll probably need more muscle and sometimes that doesn’t even work (atleast not initally). Pull baby pull.

After about 6 hours we finally rescued our truck from the cluthces of that soupy road and then got milkshakes as a reward. All in all the work of an intern is dirty job, but wouldn’t I have it any other way. With this post I bid you all adieu and much luck in future ecological endeavors.

-Jessica