MBFE - Day 2 - Wet and Wild

Day two of classes for the daring crew of the 2017 MBFE dawned wet and drippy.  It rained pretty much all night and continued through most of the day.

We started early, meeting in the lab immediately after breakfast at 7:30am, gathered the gear and walked down to a rocky shore adjacent to the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology to collect data showing intertidal zonation.  Here we are heading off into the gloomy grey of an Oregon morning, but with smiles on our faces - we were headed to the field.

I was so proud to see our newly assembled group helping each other as they clambered over boulders and rocks as they made their way toward the research site.  Then once we got there I helped them set up their studies and they got to work.  The class was divided into three groups...

Here are (LR) Ashley (in orange with an elevation pole), Harrison, Wyatt (kneeling) and Rob  

This team included (LR) Janae, Darren, Caitlin, Darby, and Emily.

And the other team was made up of (L-R) Jay, Courtney, Stephen, Bri, and Katie (with pole)

I have to tell you that I've spent quite a bit of time at the coast doing field work over the years, but this was one of the more difficult times I recall in the field.  It was raining, the tide was coming in, yet the students carried on and worked until we had to retreat to higher ground.  It was about 2.5-3 hours before we headed back to campus but not before we took our first group photo: 

BYU-Idaho MBFE Participants 2017

(L-R) Wyatt, Darby, Janae, Katie, Jay, Ashley, Dr. H, Emily, Stephen, Bri, Darren, Caitlin, Courtney, Rob and Harrison

They were soaked, they were drippy, but the were still smiling!

Later on that day the crew reassembled to record data and work up their observations.

Students also worked into the night identifying specimens collected during the the morning's outing. Yep, things are working out nicely.  Like a student from a previous MBFE class once happily quipped, "Sleep is for tourists!"

And this day that started so dark and grey ended with a beautiful sunset at nearby Bastendorf Beach. Here's to the possibility of a drier even more enjoyable field day tomorrow!

Stay tuned for the ongoing adventures of the 2017 BYU-Idaho MBFE.