Day 13

July 21, 2017

We heard Jessica coming and when I looked up I could see Jessica’s legs! The deer had ripped the tent. We had waited for Pedro to come check on us last night make sure we were okay but apparently, he didn’t hear the screaming all he heard was the deer running around. This is the craziest camping experience ever! We taped up the tent and went to go check our traps to see if we had caught something. Nothing. None of the groups caught anything. So we left them there and will check them back tomorrow.

So we headed to Kamaik Park to meet with WSU graduate Landon Charlo. Hearing about the struggles he had to overcome to get through school. He talked about his studies with the Schomochile County. They have to study the Pileated Woodpeckers for 100 years. I thought it was crazy that he has been studying the pileated woodpecker for a awhile but has never seen one in person. He gave us a handout that had information about the pileated woodpecker. They are huge and their beaks can rally make some damage.

Afterwards he had us compare the aspects of the mountain and the different vegetation at different elevations. It was really interesting to see how the lower elevation had more vegetation even though it got lees sun because it had more moisture. We hiked up to the second point which was a 2 mile hike. It was such a beautiful view. At that high elevation that had more sun was dry and had little to no elevation.

Then we went to the wellness center to take a shower and while I waited for a shower to open up I was able to get some exercise in, even though technically the hike counted as a workout. It was time to get ready to go to the Pow wow. They had been telling me how cool it was to see everyone dancing. This was going to be my first time going to a Pow wow so I was excited. We drove about an hour to get there and went straight to an Indian Taco stand. I had never tried it and am not really a fan of trying new food. But since Alexis, our vegetarian, was trying it I just had to try it. I was surprised when I got mine. It was like an American hard taco or nachos but on frybread. It was good and big. I could not finish mine I got full with half of it. Afterward we were let lose to go explore. It was amazing seeing all these stand with handmade jewelry, bags, and paintings. Those were my favorite, the paintings. At 7:00 pm we went to sit down to see the introduction. Especially the little kids, they were so cute and they really got into the dancing. It was cool to see all these people dancing. They put so much passion into it. I loved it! We didn’t have time to watch the individual dances because Jessica said it was getting dark. ☹ It was still pretty cool seeing how it was. Hoping I ca make it to another pow wow in the future.