Wetlands Stink.

An young engineer, a feminist hippy wetland ecologist, and an ex-military unexploded ordnance technician walked onto a wetland…..

Sounds like a joke, right?

Well, it isn’t.  I have been working all week up on Whidbey Island in Washington on a wetland delineation project with the two most opposite people in the world; a wetland ecologist who is a feminist liberal and a ex-military conservative southern good old boy.  It makes for interesting conversation while tromping through wetlands and forested areas for 10+ hours a day. 

The site is gorgeous as we are in a very rare wetland type that is right along the west coast of Whidbey Island overlooking Admiralty Inlet.  There is a lot of wildlife and beautiful plants.  BUT wetlands smell like rotten eggs, the mud is knee deep, and the outlier areas are covered in thick needle and other thorny bushes.  And we spend the entire day mapping the boundary of the various types of wetlands through this challenging terrain.

Needless to say, its been a long week and I am glad it is the weekend…..

But I can’t complain too much because it is so nice to be outside working and hiking/walking (and sometimes running) over 3 miles each day.  I also did some lifting:

 

I’m so strong.

In the evenings I have been running each night and am running WAY faster at sea level.  My “fast” pace in Denver feels like my “easy” pace at sea level.  Its so nice.  Plus I have been trying to run along water fronts to soak in the views. 

Today I am headed down to Seattle to see my friends and go to a Sounders game.  Tomorrow I am going to get in a long run along Alki Beach, one of my favorite places to run in Seattle!  Hopefully I won’t be too hung over from the day before and that the long run goes well.  Then the end of next week I will head down to Oregon to run the Hood to Coast Relay!  WOOO HOOOO!