10 Jun An early farewell…

Posted at 13:25h in Uncategorized by
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This is my last blog for EFTA. Due to new circumstances and opportunities, I have decided to leave my internship early. I have had a great time working with the US Forest Service and EFTA (check all my old blog posts if you want), but I was fortunate enough to win a Fulbright grant to do research in the Philippines — and it’s very hard to turn something like that down. I have discovered so much about a new region of the United States, as well as discovered new parts of myself. I start graduate school in the Fall and I cannot wait to take the experiences I’ve had in South Dakota, with the US Forest Service, and EFTA with me. With that, please enjoy these pictures narrating the last few weeks of mine living in Rapid City!

Work and recreation

The featured image is of my mentor and coworker, Jackie Ott and Myesa Legendre-Fixx. We are building a fence to protect the rainout shelters (to research drought) from cows, sorry I mean ‘cattle’. I learned that out here, cows are heifer’s that have given birth, and steers are bulls that have been castrated. Cattle is the best general term for them all, and you will get made fun of if you misuse terms. Here is a picture of me pounding T-posts for the fence. I did 50 that day.

WIth Badlands National Park in the background, I use the T-post pounder to full effect with the help of Jackie Ott, left, and Amy Symstad, right, from the USGS.
Walking out onto a formation at the Badlands.
Hiking Notch Trail with Myesa!
Went down into Jewel Cave National Monument one weekend. First time in a cave!
A reservoir of water at the top of Black Elk Peak.
Fire watch tower at the top of Black Elk. I hiked 9 miles this Sunday!
Rock scramble on the way up to Little Devil’s Tower.
A small tunnel on Needles Highway.
Me, Leia, and the Needles
Wall Drug, new hat, and I.
An assortment of pictures of different recreational things I have pushed myself to do while I have lived in Rapid City. Badlands National Park, Jewel Cave, Needles Highway, Mount Rushmore (no pictures because some of my friends think it’s fake), Little Devil’s Tower, famous Wall Drug, and Black Elk Peak!

Well, I guess this is it! Bittersweet but I hope for those of you who have followed my journey that you have enjoyed my posts. Thanks for supporting! – Philip F Yang

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