Oldest living organisms, OH MY!

So our first night in Yosemite was eventful we are staying in a little town called June Lake which is wonderful because we avoid a lot of the crowds. We got ourselves all settled in at our RV site, placed our 50lb bag of dog food locked in the action packer outside and fell asleep. Well at 4 AM I heard a thudump rump, thudump rump. I woke John up and said listen...... thudump lump, thudump, lump. John got up and walked to the back of the trailer. Our metal basket that has two action packers bolted to it was outside under the bed in the back of the RV. There was a bear trying to break into our dog food. John yelled quick and unzipped the window. The bear was gone but had thrown that 200lb basket around like it was a cotton ball. We decided we should get the dog food and put it in the truck. We decided against the trailer because we figure he could easily break in if he really wanted to. It was dark and as we were going to the back to get the food we heard a low grown.....we shined the flash light and did not see anything. We then realized our neighbors water heater was kicking on and our low growl was just water heating up!
Unfortunately no photos! But this was our "bears oh my", experience so far! Not a total loss our action packer has some really cool scars and may e a bit more ventilated now!
We were lucky enough to visit the Bristlecone Pines (Pinus longaeva) our first day here. They are the oldest living organisms on earth! 4000 years old. It is actually quite unbelievable. It seems like all things that are that old, look dead and struggling. We got to see Welwitschia (Welwitschia mirabilis) when we were in Africa several years ago. It is a very cool dead looking plant as well. Welwitschia is a gymnosperm, seed producing plant. Gymnosperm is actually Greek for naked seed which these plants have. There is not a fleshy or protective covering over the seed. It is the only species in the entire order Welwitschiales. They produce a reproductive structure that looks very much like a pine cone. This individual pictured below is the second oldest living organism at a young 2000 years old!







Our bristle cones are the oldest living organism about twice as old as Welwitschia! These plants are around 4000 years old however they are not very big. They grow slowly and therefor the rings you can use to age are much smaller! You can see the very fine lines that show the age below. This tree died in 1676 and because it is soooo dense it has not rotted or decayed yet.







Here are some photos of the live trees. They are also Gymnosperms and produce pine cones. They look dead but they are very much alive!





















These trees were beautiful but the views at 10,000 feet were also amazing.





















Kendra and John
- posted from ipad during the international bug expedition 2012

Location:S Crawford Ave,,United States

Saves the best for last!

The black light was outstanding last night! Fishflies are ALWAYS fun to find. Specifically the California Fishfly (Neohermes californicus). The fish flies are different from ours in Texas because of these long antennae. These antennae are finely serrated and remind me of a hand saw blade. We are hoping this individual will fly for us tonight so we can get some flight shots.

We also got an alate Pacific Northwest Dampwood Termite. This guy is about 3-4 times the size of our typical subterranean termite. Which makes sense, since they have some of the largest trees in the world to take care of!

We also got a very unique (to us Texans) bostrichid beetle also known as powder post beetles. These guys look like the puppy dogs of the insect world, they have a sad dog look to the head. As cute as these guys are they enjoy eating all sorts of oak species. They tunnel into dead or live wood and create a powder (hence the powder post beetle). They then lay their eggs and the larvae hatch and feed on the wood. This is the California Stout's Hardwood Borer, Polycaon stouti , and this species has been known to survive as a larva for 20 years. People have reported them burrowing out of their 20 year old cabinets! Since adults will not burrow into treated lumber the larva or eggs lived for 20years!

We are now on our way to June Lake, near Yosemite! Only a 4.5 hour drive! Below is the map!






Kendra and John
- posted from ipad during the international bug expedition 2012

Our Sequoia at home with Sequoias.

California, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park.

We went to Sequioa and Kings Canyon National Park and it was of course amazing. Oddly enough Kings Canyon is actually deeper than the Grand Canyon! Kings Canyon is 8200 feet at Cedar Grove and the Grand Canyon is 6000feet at its deepest point!

 

Below is the Kings River running through Kings Canyon!

You can actually drive right down into the canyon which is neat but John thought made it not seem as grand as the Grand Canyon. Here is another picture of the Kings River up close. 

Grizzly Falls is actually not in either National Park. It is in Sequoia National Forest. However this waterfall is beautiful, if you could design your own waterfall I think you would make it like this!

We of course got to see several of the giant Sequoias including General Sherman and General Grant, our nations Christmas tree, don't worry though, it does not get decorated, they just place a wreath at its base. Some of these trees are just breathtaking, they are soooo perfect. I have to say that General Sherman (worlds largest tree) was not the prettiest tree but each year he grows the equivalent of a 50 foot tall and 1 foot in diameter tree! General Sherman is a growing machine.We unfortunately did not take General Sherman's picture because the light was horrible and there were about 100 people at the base. This is a picture from 1907 of a man and a couple of horses at the base.

These are a few of the Giant Sequoia's that we saw. Including "The Twin Sisters" which were two Sequoia trees growing together. We saw this a LOT on the trail of 100 Giants in the National Forest. "The Twin Sisters" were very nice and symmetrical.

We looked high and low for a place to photograph OUR Sequoia with the Giant Sequoia's and this was on the way to Grants Grove! I think our Sequoia was happy to enjoy The Great Sequoia National Park. Although it was ready for a rest after the day of mountain climbing and descending. 

We also got to see Tharps Log. Tharp was an early explorer that made a home out of this log. There was a bed frame and a table still made out of Sequoia Red wood in the log! He had a fire place and a nice window! He also had an amazing view.

 

Finally we went to Crescent Meadow in hopes to get a glimpse of a black bear. No such luck but hopefully we will get to see them in Yosemite!

Kendra and John
- posted from ipad during the international bug expedition 2012

Lake Isabella and Rivernook Squirrels!

We ended up visiting Lake Isabella on Sunday afternoon. It was very successful. We got sooo many insects it was hard to photograph it all in one night. In fact there are still some little beetles running around unphotographed.

This is a Pepsis sp. The common name is Tarantula Hawk. These guys are amazing. They will sting a tarantula, which paralyzes it and then drag it to its burrow. Here it lays it's tiny eggs inside the tarantula and when it's larva hatch they eat the paralyzed tarantula alive! The insect world is amazing!

One of the neater finds is the Microcoryphian! Kind of looks like a silverfish but different order entirely. It is not an order that you run across on a normal collecting trip. It has contiguous eyes, is real rounded and has beautiful stripes. We found this little guy running around in the gravel near Lake Isabella.

I was really excited to see a bumble bee. In almost all of their ranges Bumble Bees can be difficult to find because their numbers have declined all over the world.  Reasons for the decline are numerous including competition with the non-native European Honey Bee. This Bumble Bee in particular is one of the prettiest ones I have seen with the red hairs on the tip of the abdomen. This one has a little bit of an unfortunate name Crotch's Bumble Bee (Bombus crotchii).

Finally we have a group of California Ground Squirrels (Spermophilus beecheyi) around our camp. They are actually colonial species which made a lot of sense since I have been smelling rodents the whole time we have been here. About 8 feet from our trailer we have a colony! It is fabulous to see them running around all day AND they love the Texas Pecans! They can be quite vocal as well as you can see below!

If you are unfamiliar with where we are here is a map.




Kendra and John
- posted from ipad during the international bug expedition 2012

First day of collecting!

First day of collecting, Rivernook Campground, Kernville, CA. Sequoia National Forest, 9th of June 2012.


The night we got into Sequoia National Forest we decided to black light. Which was great! We got some pretty common, but very cool insects! They will for sure have an appearance in the Peterson guide. We spent most of the morning on Saturday the 9th, photographing our catch from backlighting the night before and the early afternoon reorganizing everything from the past three days of discovering our trailer.

Here is our final photography set up!

We are very pleased. The dogs get the bed in the back, both kennels fit and Repede can hide all the squeak toys from Kava in his kennel. Our camera gear including high speed can be set up in the corner and if we need to do anything with microphot (for the small stuff that requires a microscope objective) we can set that up at the table. We have it covered! Below are some of the photos we took. The Ten-lined June Beetles are amazing, if you don't think they are amazing than there is no help for you in the insect world!

Our first camp site that we will be staying at for an extended period was a good find for insects. It is nestled between the Kern River which is very large and a small stream that has lots of riffles and pools. We have lots of vegetation all around us, desert willow, cottonwoods and several oak species as well as many other small bushes and shrubs. We have several mountain peaks all around us. We are also close to a large lake, Lake Isabella. We will hit this later on and see what we can find.

We also decided to run up to the trail of 100 giants as the sun was going down. Below are some picks of the Giant Sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum). It was incredible to see them for the first time. You kind of have a sense of overwhelming insignificance.

Kendra and John
- posted from ipad during the international bug expedition 2012

The trailer Gods are testing us!

June 8th 2012 Start in Flagstaff, AZ end in Kernville, CA in Sequoia National Forest.

E.O. Wilson said " There is no greater high than discovery." I am pretty sure he was talking about nature, but this sure applies to discovering your travel trailer as well. I can honestly say that we have had some pretty major adrenalin rushes the past few days.

Day three of our bug adventure, all we want to do is get somewhere where we can stop driving this trailer and just collect bugs! This trailer hauling business is not for sissy's. Since Arizona does not have day light savings time, and it was light out at 4AM (preparing us for the 24 or so hours of light in Alaska), we decided to leave early so we can get to Sequoia National Forest at a decent time and get organized, relax a bit and black light for insects. We get up early to start putting the trailer together and find that one of our tires resembles a mountain range; there were rather large peaks and valleys in it! NOT GOOD! At this point the trailer Gods are testing us! The up side is we got to change a flat in the comfort of our one day rental dirt pad home. Luckily it was 5 AM and not many people were up. We got our massive red bumper jack off the side of our truck (yes, we do use this, it does not just look cool!) and found it very easy to change the tire. We were happy to do this at a RV park and not on the side of an interstate with semi's flying by taking our lives into their hands with every gust of wind.

The mechanic in Flagstaff said that our tire was separating on the inside which would cause it to sway, he also noticed our tires were from 2005. Despite the fact that the other three tires still looked good, since most of its life the trailer sits in a lot with Texas heat beating on it allowing dry rot and other devastating things to take their toll, we decided we deserved new tires. We got 5 new tires and 2 new rims. Yes 2 rims, one was bent (a result of the tire separation) and we wanted two full spares in case something happens on the Alaskan highway! We now have 4 of the best trailer tires you can buy and 2 full spares. With our luck so far, I am sure something will necessitate their usage.

Ok, not leaving by 7 AM we left at 10AM. We took the opportunity to hit the grocery store across the street and fill up on drinks and misc. supplies. We got on the road only to discover that we were driving in some major wind. Let's just say the hitchhikers we saw were having a difficult time staying upright. We think the trailer control has greatly improved, but hard to tell since we are basically driving a huge flat kite through the Sierra Nevada's today. We again, will not arrive at our camp site until late, but at least we can start playing in nature again and just relax a bit. We still plan on black lighting at night and I am sure we will have some really cool bug pictures to post!

We are staying near Lake Isabella on the southern most part of Sequoia National Forest just north of Kernville! So far it is beautiful! We can not wait to explore. There is also a Kernville brewery that I know we will visit although we could use something a little harder than beer at this point in the trip!

California and the Mojave Desert are beautiful! We saw some Joshua Trees but did not get pics of them! Hopefully we see them tomorrow and can get some pics they are a mazing!

Kendra and John
- posted from ipad during the international bug expedition 2012

Wow...... Weight Distribution!

Well we did not have every thing figured out. We left on Wednesday at 10 AM. Planned for 7AM but house cleaning for our wonderful house sitters and house guests was more work than we thought. We have not done much at home in the last couple of months since we have been soooooo busy. Day 1 we wanted to get to Lubbock, TX. On our way we realized our sway bar did not stop the swaying! I don't know if you have ever been in a vehicle that has a trailer causing it to sway, but it feels like your own personal tornado. You have limited control, are thrown around and your heart beats out of your chest. It is SCARY! We regained control of our vehicle, pulled over to catch our breath and tighten the sway bar. That seemed to help quite a bit and we made it safely to Lubbock. Very little to report if you know Lubbock! The KOA was nothing to brag about because like the rest of the Texas panhandle it was a gravel parking lot.

The next day (June 7th) we were going from Lubbock to a little west of Flagstaff, AZ. Actually one hour south of the south rim of the Grand Canyon. It is killing us to pass up the opportunity to visit the Grand Canyon, but that is just an excuse for the great bug adventure trip 2! Somewhere in New Mexico (I am still too scared to remember where we were exactly), we had our own personal Joplin, MO tornado hit our rig. We started swaying so bad we were all over Interstate 40! I am sure people are still talking about the rig that they were sure was going to flip. Our two dogs went from sleeping soundly in the back seat to standing in the back seat with there eyes open soooo big, no words were necessary, they were screaming "what the hell!" If the outside was a tornado than you should have seen the inside. It looked like we took a blender to every single thing in the trailer. Lets just say there are Cheerios in every nook and cranny.

Kava sick after the Joplin MO swaying

One of my mugs fell over and got caught in the handy organizational wire rack and the force of the sway completely busted it off. The cup was on the floor and the handle remained in the wire rack! Sway bar tightening NOT working! We can absolutely not go over 60mph or we sway. This makes no sense to us since bigger travel trailer truck rigs are FLYING by us. We of course have to stop (change our pants) and regroup after this one!! John heads into the Flying J and I call the travel trailer and RVing God and really all knowing one in any motorized vehicle situation (aka my Uncle Kent Davis). He has helped us solve many of our newby travel trailer issues and I was really hoping for some all knowing wisdom here. Kent of course had a whole list of solutions starting with tire pressure and ending in weight distribution. We needed to have more weight at the front of the trailer. Once again our massive amounts of gear were causing a problem. We cleaned up the mess in the trailer and moved a lot of our gear to the front of the trailer. This really helped. Problem solved? We still felt like we could not go over 60 and every time a semi passed us, we were at risk of another sway event! So our Flagstaff AZ KOA arrival time of 4 PM ended up being 8PM. When we finally got there and set the trailer up and went to bed, we were exhausted.

Below is a picture from the Flying J facing East. We had gone over the Rockies with our swaying RV! That was NOT fun.

We also have not gotten anything but the G9 out to take pictures. Our focus is to get to Sequoia National Forest. BUT here is some high speed photography.... pictures taken at our max speed, between 50 -60 mph! First are some Texas panhandle pics.  Yup flat!

Then New Mexico!

Then Arizona, We did not get pics of Flagstaff, but it was beautiful! We got in after dark.

We look forward to start taking insect pictures and sharing them!

Kendra and John

- posted from ipad during the international bug expedition 2012