{"id":676,"date":"2016-07-21T01:54:36","date_gmt":"2016-07-21T01:54:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=676"},"modified":"2016-07-21T01:58:25","modified_gmt":"2016-07-21T01:58:25","slug":"ftv-dont-get-carried-away-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=676","title":{"rendered":"FTV – Don’t get carried away (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Near the end of our unusually mild February of 2016, our old NASA buddy Ralph emailed from southern Wisconsin that he and his daughter had seen some sandhill cranes. \u00a0We went back and forth a bit on the topic of sandhill cranes and the conversation \u00a0transported me back to my introduction to them back in the summer of 1974. \u00a0I had heard their call, but \u00a0never saw one up close and personal until 1978.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I spent the summer of 1974 at Northern Michigan University\u2019s field studies camp at Cusino Lake in Alger County. \u00a0I chuckle every time I hear WLUC-TV 6 meteorologist Karl Bohnak give a weather report from Melstrand because that dot on the map (which might actually be bigger than Melstrand itself) marked the turn off point from paved road to the winding track of gravel road that leads to the NMU field station. \u00a0The field camp was an impressive log structure with some out buildings that served as the dorms, classrooms, and dining hall. \u00a0It was off the grid so I learned the essential skill of running a diesel generator (right down to the periodic oil changes) and everything I ever wanted to know about lighting pilot lights on gas appliances. \u00a0I was the \u2018assistant field station manager\u2019 for the summer, meaning I got to stay there to tend the generator, mow the lawn, cut firewood, and play head cook and bottle washer for anyone who didn\u2019t bug out for the weekend.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The camp was originally intended to be the Michigan DNR headquarters for that area when the main highway was being laid out between Seney and Munising. \u00a0The Seney end of the \u00a0route roughly followed the Fox River (noted for being one of young Ernest Hemingway\u2019s favorite fishing spots). \u00a0When the technology to remove swamp muck and replace it with sand and road ballast evolved, the Seney Stretch was born and the original northerly route was left as a gravel truck trail. \u00a0The University of Michigan used the camp when my geography professor (and former neighbor) Pat Farrell was a student there. \u00a0When the U of M decided to unload the property, Pat jumped on it and convinced NMU to take it over to use for summer study programs. \u00a0It eventually became a YCC facility and after they abandoned it after 1988, the DNR put it up for sale with a minimum bid of $150,000 for all the buildings and 15.4 acres of land. \u00a0The article I read about the DNR sale dated from 1995 and it mentioned that , \u201cmice had been the only occupants since 1988.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The opening crew (consisting of Pat, his youngest son, and yours truly) arrived a few days ahead of the first students so we could do some general cleaning and maintenance. \u00a0Between my crash course on logistics (re: cooking, cleaning and generator operation), Pat took us along the backroads so I would have a working knowledge of how to get around once class began. \u00a0I would be taking the Field Geography class (a required class for all Geography majors), but Pat made it known that I would also be \u201cassisting\u201d him with the class, therefore, I needed to know where things were. \u00a0The first clue I had about this part of the job was given to me when I was hired: \u00a0\u201cYou will be driving university vehicles with occupants so you must have a chauffeur’s license.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The field class was a blast. \u00a0We used the map maker\u2019s tools of the trade to measure, map, and in some cases, find locations that were so far off the beaten path we sometimes wondered if we would ever see a road again. \u00a0There were no Google Map apps to lean on, so it was old school mapping all the way. \u00a0True to his word, I was tabbed to take a van load of students here and there when we had to map parts of the Kingston Plains and the Au Sable Dunes. \u00a0The Kingston Plains were supposed to be prime sandhill crane country, but we never saw hide nor feather of one.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Flash forward to the summer of 1978. \u00a0I signed on for an eight week session at the field studies camp to do research and data gathering for one of the papers I need to write for my Masters degree. \u00a0I needed two classes to qualify for a summer school tuition break so I also signed up for a field biology class. \u00a0I got to tag along with a few other summer school students, a biology professor, and his graduate student on a variety of short field trips in and around the Pictured Rocks Lakeshore National Park. \u00a0When I was first introduced to the professor, Pat told him, \u201cKen worked for me out here and knows where everything is so ask him before you get lost trying to find something.\u201d \u00a0It took the first two excursions for me to realize that he was NOT going to ask me anything. \u00a0\u00a0I kept my mouth shut until we were obviously not where he wanted to be. \u00a0I would then inquire, \u201cWhere is it we are trying to go?\u201d \u00a0We took to calling his grad student assistant \u201ccat\u201d as in \u201ccopycat\u201d because she had this annoying habit of wearing the exact outfit that the good doctor wore. \u00a0If he had a bandana around his neck, so did she. \u00a0If he wore a khaki shirt and a baseball cap, so did she. \u00a0Every time the professor had to ask me for directions, she would burn holes in me with a glare that would have been terrifying had she not been what I would now refer to as a \u2018Mini-me\u2019 of her mentor both in stature and apparel.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The professor was bound and determined that we would show the class sandhill cranes which he was told inhabited both the Kingston and White Rat Plains in abundance. \u00a0Both of these large barren areas were the remains of a great pinery that was cut down in the late 1880s. \u00a0Repeated wildfires had decreased the soil productivity so much that very little could grow \u00a0on these 4 mile by 7 mile patches of glacial sand besides grass. moss, \u00a0and scrub pine. \u00a0The sandhill cranes loved the habitat and the wide open spaces should have made finding them easy, but we managed to only hear them a few times without actually seeing them. \u00a0It became a four week long running joke as in, \u201cI wonder how far we will go to not see any cranes today?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Near the end of this four week class, the professor surprised me one day when he stopped the truck we were bouncing along in, opened the rear cab window and said, \u201cWell, we are going to Miner\u2019s Falls today so we might as well ask Ken how to get there.\u201d \u00a0I admitted that he had picked the one place I had not been to in all my travels with Pat. \u00a0I could feel the laser eyes of his grad student minion burning through my skull when I suggested we head down H53 and look for a sign directing us there. \u00a0\u00a0I was pretty sure he thought I was jerking him around but that was the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth no matter what \u2018Mini-me\u2019 may have thought at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When I shared this story with Pat he said, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have showed him anything!\u201d \u00a0I reminded him that he had offered my services to the biology prof and Pat said, \u201cYeah, but that was only because I knew he would rather die than ask anyone else for directions!\u201d \u00a0Suddenly, it all made sense… sort of.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When the class finished up, I was able to start doing field work for my graduate paper. \u00a0I was writing a \u00a0geologic history of how and when the Kingston Plains were formed. \u00a0The data I was collecting came from the pine stumps that remained from the logging days. \u00a0The sun baked stumps still covered the plains even though the trees themselves had been harvested nearly a century before. \u00a0I located one acre plots across the plains and then used diameter and height measurements of the stumps to build a table of numbers. \u00a0\u00a0By comparing that table to another table of measurements of the live White Pine trees in the area, I was able to estimate the number of board feet of lumber that had been growing at the time the plains were logged. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0On one of my first solo days out on the plains, I heard the loud squawking of what I now knew to be sandhill cranes. \u00a0As the sound got nearer to me, I turned to see a 30 foot high spruce tree with large wings flapping in unison on either side. \u00a0It was obvious that something was flying toward me and my first thought was, \u201cMy God, how big are these things?\u201d \u00a0Visions of me being carried away or having to fend off a giant creature flashed through my head until \u00a0the \u2018bird\u2019 turned and flew off to the north. \u00a0\u00a0It became apparent that there were two birds flying side by side. \u00a0The matching up and down motion of their wings had only made it look like one gigantic bird coming my way from behind the spruce tree. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I chuckled to myself when I remembered the four week search we had put on to find sandhill cranes and now they found me. \u00a0In fact, there wasn\u2019t a day that went by that I didn\u2019t see cranes when I was doing my field work across the 28 square miles of the plain. \u00a0If the biology professor had still been there, I have my doubts that he would have believed me if I had told him I could find cranes for him after the Miner\u2019s Falls incident. \u00a0It was probably just as well. \u00a0Watching the good doctor and his Mini-me in a dual crane photo shoot off would have been more annoying than having time to watch the cranes on my own. \u00a0One of the other biology grad students named John Snow said, \u201cYou didn\u2019t really think one of those was going to carry you off, did you?\u201d and I just said, \u201cWell John, I guess you would have just had to be there. \u00a0\u00a0I don\u2019t know what would pop in your head under the same circumstances.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0A few days later, I got a pretty good glimpse of how John would have reacted. \u00a0We will save that for Part 2 of \u201cDon\u2019t get carried away\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Top Piece video – Okay – I mentioned Hemingway fishing the Fox River – so there you go. \u00a0Even though he wrote about fishing the Big Two Hearted River, he was probably writing about the Fox River!<\/p>\n