by Rhiannon Henderson, of University of Vermont
We have had some hard days out in the field. Days where we were cold, days where the conditions were not easy, and days where we struggled to get along. But the days when I was most impressed by the perseverance of our group were those at the end of our semester.
After our final backpacking trip to collect cameras, we were expecting a few days back at basecamp. But the following day we realized that the solar panel on our ger was not giving us enough power to charge our computers because of the short days. The very next morning we got a call giving us an hours’ notice that we would be moving to the Ulaan Taiga Protected Areas Administration headquarters to work on our projects. We also found out that we had 5 days to prepare our presentations… Yeah. None of us were too pleased with that. But such is the case with fluctuating schedules and work in the backcountry.
Lucy being a dubious research manager
Upon arrival at the protected areas’ headquarters, we all began our 5 day “death march,” as Eli might put it. We were all spending between 12 and 16 hours a day working on analyzing our data and trying to make it presentable. Shout out to Chris and Rebecca for doing so much to help us be productive through this time, as well as Nyamka’s comic relief. During these 5 days we learned a lot about what we lovingly call “Mongolian time.” This is what times things are happening, what is happening, and how it’s happening will change at a drop of a hat and we’d just have to go with it.
On October 30th we all got dressed up in our cleanest clothes and went to present to a large group of rangers, Tumurskuh, and two of the soum governor’s assistants. We each had our own topics; Taran studied talus pikas, Eli studied Daurian pikas, Katie studied waterfowl migrations, Joscie studied an endangered plant called Vansemberuu. The remaining four did our research on camera traps. Cameron did hers on the general methodology of camera trapping, Evan studied wild boar, Jeremy looked into musk deer, and I studied the elk populations here.
Thanksgiving hike. Photo by Rhiannon Henderson.
The following day, October 31st, we returned back to Shiluus Camp without Rebecca, who traveled to Murun to deal with other issues. That night we all dressed up in makeshift Halloween costumes which included Evan and Taran dressing up as each other, Chris being a beautiful fairy, and Katie as a fork. We then went trick-or-treating over at Nyamka’s ger, which led to pure chaos and a dance party long into the night.
November came knocking on our door with a beautiful day to welcome us back out to camp. After lunch Chris took us up to the hill where we did our first Grinnell. Up here we had a time of reflection and thanksgiving for the place in which we had been immersed for the previous two months. For all of us it was very emotional to say goodbye to such an incredible location. That night the temperatures dropped to -30°C which made us think that maaaaybe it was okay that we were leaving. The remaining days left at camp were filled with writing our research papers and taking finals.
Cameron and Katie taking our Humans and the Environment final – Katie is under the blanket. Photo by Rhiannon Henderson
On November 4th, we began the transition of leaving Mongolia. This started with many hours sitting around wondering if the furagon was ever going to arrive. Suddenly a giant Russian military truck showed up in camp. We had originally thought that we would move all of our stuff out in furagons, and the parks would take down the gers later. But we quickly learned that we would be learning how to take apart gers. We also found out that the furagon that was supposed take us out was stuck in the river and we would have to hike out (remember how we have been having subzero temperatures? Ice dams). As we walked out of camp, we looked back upon the now empty place that had been our home before turning westward and away from the mountain ranges. We then found that the big Russian truck had fallen through the ice and they were trying to get it out of the river. We walked almost to Ulaan Uul before the furagon and the truck caught up with us.
Ger take down. Photo by Rhiannon Henderson
We spent the next few days at the park headquarters finishing up our papers. On November 6th Rebecca returned to us, and the rangers threw us a party which involved a horhog (half a goat boiled in a compression container with hot rocks) and Mongolian waltzing.
The trucks stuck in the ice. Photo by Katie Tennis.
On the 7th we left the Darhad. There were many tearful goodbyes, and lots of gift giving in true Mongolian fashion. That day we drove to Murun, and the following we continued on to Erdenet. On the 9th we got started early for the final leg of the journey to Ulaanbaatar.
Taran and Lucy working hard in the van. Photo by Katie Tennis.
A classic Mongolian traffic jam. Photo by Rhiannon Henderson.
Our last few days in Mongolia were spent in Ulaanbaatar. We went back to Narantuul, the street market that we visited at the beginning of the semester, to get gifts for those at home as well as getting new deels. During this time there was also a frantic rush to finish all of our work from throughout the semester, including our final research papers. A few people on the team ended up getting tattoos (not naming names, sorry!) which included a couple of furagons…
Jerm and Evan rocking some Narantuul finds. Photo by Katie Tennis
Despite all the business that was going on during this time, there was an overhanging sense of sadness as we all started to realize that we were about to leave Mongolia and each other. After three months in close quarters, we had become our own little family. On our last night we all went out to dinner as our last time together, followed by returning to our hostel to have a remembrance circle and pay special tribute to Nyamka and all of the things she has done for us.
Very early the next morning we said sad goodbyes to Nyamka, Rebecca, and Chris before the 8 students all flew to Beijing together. From there we all were flying out to different locations, so our goodbyes were drawn out with each other, and some very tearful.