The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in Andorra...

We've got two investigations going on right now: 

1. The small mammal and insect plots. 

2. Everything else: diameter of trees, bird boxes to see if there are any nests, recording plant species in specific plots, decomposition using tea bags, cameras that are set up. 

I haven't explained every thing, but basically the mammal and insect plots are at a site that's straight up the hill but close to the road. We start there because if there are mammals caught we want to record the data and get them out of the trap as soon as possible. 

Here was the 8 am view as we arrived to the first location. 

The Shepard showed up this morning and the mama cows came running over. 

My job was to set up the insect trap (more on that another day), but the mammal people caught 5 micey mice. Here's a new one you haven't seen. 

This was a male. He's getting his ear tagged. 

The next stop was to the end of the road in Andorra. There is a ski resort here, and some of the most beautiful hiking I've ever seen. Here's a general idea of where we were. 

Tristiana is the mountain peak in the area, and there are loads of hiking trails. 

Of course our mission requires is to bush wack-it quite a lot especially trekking straight uphill, but we did hike all over this area. 

The high alpine meadows, the high elevation lakes, the surrounding peaks - breath taken away. 

The forecast was calling for a bit chillier weather, but it's been so perfect that none of us payed much attention, and then the clouds started rolling in. Sun blockage combined with the whipping wind made for a day of constant shivering. 

Did you ever see the movie "The Way"? Martin Sheen is the dad and his son, played by Emilio, decides to hike the French Way of el Camino de Santiago, which starts in the French Pyreenes. Well, in the movie (this happens right away) Emilio is caught in a storm in the Pyreenes, gets turned around, lost, then dies. I have seen the movie a couple of times and always thought that sounded

dumb, until today...

At one point the clouds rolled in right on top of us, and blanketed the entire area. Now I don't have to imagine this part of the movie, I walked right through it. 

A few hours later the clouds lifted and this is the view. 

I feel like I've been though all four seasons in just two days. Invigorating.