Appalachian Trail - Gathland St. Park to Garvey Shelter

Last weekend we decided to hike another section of the AT. Thankfully we looked ahead, saw that it was going to be hot, and we went early. We have been steadily chipping away at the AT, this time we went 7 miles (3.5 miles one way) from Gathland State Park to the Ed Garvey Shelter.

The hike was really nice and I was glad that we went early. The trail started to get very busy when we were nearing the end of our hike. At the end we were all really tired and needed a rest in the shade.

Field Trip to Frostburg, Technically Finzel

On April 18th, I went on a field trip to western Maryland to measure some sedimentary rocks in a road cut. There is about 1 million years of sedimentation shown in this particular outcrop.

This is a picture of the rocks we were measuring. The purpose of the trip was to get us to recognize how different depositional environments can be interpreted from the rocks that are left behind. The large tan section in the middle was a meandering stream bed.

In this picture you can see some crossbedding in the sandstone.

This was my favorite stucture at the outcrop: fossil traces from roots!

Now I have to make a stratigraphic column from the data I collected. I'll let you know how it goes.

Cherry Blossom Time!

The first weekend in April was a very bloomy time. The trees in the park near our apartment were blooming:

The Cherry Blossom Festival was in high gear down in DC. There were so many people there, it was pretty crazy. Usually if you go to the Tidal Basin on a non-cherry blossom day, there isn't hardly anyone around. The steps of the Jefferson Memorial were crawling with people when we were there.We walked by the Obama White House for the first time since he's been in office. They were still in Europe, so the rooftop snipers weren't around.

It was a great day to stroll around DC and look at the trees.