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Mike’s Southwestern Adventure
Well, it has been a while. I shall tell you a bit about this, my newest adventure.
Cast of Character:
Mike- a 25 year old graduate student at the University of Missouri working in the field of Entomology (study of insects). spongy_mesophyll@hotmail.com
Plot:
The university at which Mike studies offers a scholarship for students to participate in a meeting, workshop, etc. concerning biodiversity that would otherwise not be included in that students general list of course work. Mike has been granted said scholarship and is attending the Eighth International Symposium of Neuropterology. This is a meeting of the greatest neuropterologists in the world. The meeting, a four day affair, will be followed by a two day tour of the area, and a two week collecting excursion throughout Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.
What are Neuroptera? An order of insects composed of antlions, lacewings, owlflies, mantidflies, and many more strange and wonderful beasts. I shall provide pictures when they become available.
24 July
The meeting is taking place in College Station, Texas, so I drove down. I left in the afternoon to make the drive more bearable, with plans to camp at Prairie State Park, and of course geocache on the way. My first cache was past Collins on 54. Located in a Conservation Area, one could tell this used to be a nice rocky glade area, but was badly overgrown with cedar.
Above are some nice pictures of a cactus, which shows how dry the area is, a flower, AND an amazing find for me, a beautiful antlion.
Next I headed to a prairie, Mo-Kan Prairie on the signs directing traffic and found a geocache placed about half a mile back. Nice hike. I met two gentlemen who were collecting seed. Additionally the Regal Fritillary were flying, but no pictures.
Above is the true name of the prairie, a nice spider pic, and the sweeper used to collect seed (raised).
Lamar, Mo, near Prairie SP had a few new caches I haven’t visited yet. They were nice, I got to see areas around and within the town I had not seen before. One frustration- caches hidden in brush piles on flood plains are not fun to seek.
Above is a picture of a dragon (Plathemis lydia).
I set up camp as the sun was setting. Started a fire and my black light trap. Dinner was bratwursts and chips. Prairie has two nice campsites and there are rarely other campers. Additionally you are removed from other light sources, so you are alone with a beautiful field of stars, the occasional Opossum, and the howling of coyotes.
25 July
I got a nice sample from the blacklight and packed up camp.
Above are pics of the camp and some moths near the trap.
I drove, and drove, and drove. Finally arriving at college station around 7 or 8 pm. Ate at Arbys and hit a book store around 9:30 where I got a couple good books.
26 July
The symposium begins with a check-in from 3 to 5:30pm, so I am out early because there are ~15 caches in the area and I need to get as many as I can!! The first two are on campus. The first directs one to a container with a "clue" in it.
The "clue" was a call number, so I headed to a library and quickly found the log book, smartly placed between books on GPS technology (brown with a hand written label). The second was a film canister stealth-fully hidden. I shall not belabor my adventures, but below are some pictures I collected whilst hunting. I ran into two other cachers on the trail, nice guys.
A damselfly on a water fountain, and a black vulture at the park.
At the Texas A and M university.
A maze set up behind a church in town and the two guys I kept running into while caching.
Pretty flowers and a BIG cedar.
A nested dove on campus.
A tree on campus and some aphids on the trail.
Hurray! This is a type of acorn fungus right near a cache.
At about 3:30 I had 9 caches found, and finally gave up on one I am convinced was plundered. I changed clothes and headed back to campus to check in.
End of Log.