May Long Weekend

May long weekend a long trip back to Saskatchewan for me. I decided that an upcoming presentation on grass fires required some in situ work that I didn’t manage to do in my last three years in Val Marie.
It was also an excuse to see some of the people I miss from out there.The drive in was long, taking me down the #1 highway from Winnipeg to Swift Current—with a short stop at home in Regina—then south on highway 4 through Cadillac. This view greeted me as I crossed a drainage divide:

If it couldn’t get more majestic than that, I saw a fairly large doe prance well in front of me on the highway, perfectly lit up by the fading sunlight against a backdrop of dark skies.
That cloud became quite the boomer overnight, but there is nothing like a prairie thunderstorm to clear the air and make things seem fresh.

My first day in Val Marie saw going for a hike in Grasslands National Park with a friend to look for a snake hibernaculum and a hike up 70 mile butte near the park gates. The afternoon was field scouting, where I got the fire pictures I wanted:

Notice the line between the unburnt (left) and burnt (right) areas.

After a couple days of catching up, it was time to head to Regina for the weekend’s highland games. The band played well, considering the number of auxiliary members from out of town such as myself, and won the Grade IV Saskatchewan Championship...

..in a three-way tie. Everybody wins!

I’m an optimist like that.

More coming on the ol' thesis front, and next week the Prairie Summit in Regina!