Wrapping up the first field season

11 Enero 2020

Day twenty-five, once again we find ourselves hiking the Tres Bosques. Neither of us was particularly jazzed to be back, due to the hours spent previously lost and frustrated. But it had to be done.

Luckily, the hike out was not as bad as we remembered. All of the time we invested clearing overgrowth and flagging the proper path had paid off. We made it to the first tree on the trail easily. Maintenance went smoothly and we had some close-up photos of howlers on the camera!

The hike continued smoothly as we approached Destiny. When we got there, however, something was off. Looking up at the mount, we noticed strapping hanging oddly. With binoculars, Becca discovered something that filled me with a sense of horror: the camera was gone. Immediately, I was positive we would not find it. This area of the trail received foot traffic so I figured someone probably saw the camera and grabbed it, but I still put in the effort to look for it. Digging through some bamboo, I did spot it! Waves of relief crashed over me.

Even though the camera had seen better days, it was still working perfectly. The only part that was damaged was the mount. I figured I could make it work given the materials we had in our 'repair kit'. I climbed up with the materials I needed and the determination to make it work. Once up in the tree, it became apparent what had happened. A heavy storm took out a branch above the station and took the camera out. The AudioMoth did not escape unscathed. The case was barely clinging to the strapping, covered in scratches, and missing the vent. Because the vent was missing, a few critters had made a home inside the case. Surprisingly, the recorder was still in working order!

With the materials available, I secured the camera as best as possible. We had not brought spare equipment because we had not anticipated such an event. But it was evident that my rig would not last long. The joint that secured the camera had been completely stripped, so I had to tie the camera down to the arm. It would work for a night, but not much longer than that.

Attempt to secure the camera with extra string

We ended with a plan to return and replace the damaged gear.


Miles hiked: 6.69
PB&J's eaten: 97

Day twenty-six, we started an hour earlier than usual because we had a lot to accomplish. A ride was arranged to grab us from Lalo Loor at 5 pm and before that, we needed to replace the gear at one tree and maintenance another.

Knowing why we needed to get up at such an early hour did not make it any easier. Both of us wandered around the kitchen like zombies making breakfast. What brought life to the morning was Becca loudly whispering, "Jackie, get over here right now, there's a tamandua!" Clear as day, one was climbing around in front of the house. I was awestruck! I have wanted to see one of these majestic animals for years! Now I could easily watch one foraging in the canopy. (Side note: tamanduas are anteaters in the same order as sloths) That sighting inspired us to push through the tough day we had ahead of us.

Blurry picture of a tamandua

The hike out was very reflective. It would be my last time hiking in Jama-Coaque for several months. I took the hike to soak in the surroundings. Truth be told, this project is by far the most difficult work I have ever done. It has been so physically taxing, but whenever I felt that I was pushed to my limit, I paused to look around. Everywhere you look out here, there is lush, green life. If you stand in silence, you'll hear several species of birds calling, you may even see an animal wander past you. Each day, there's a chance you'll encounter a species you've never seen before.

We made it back to Destiny without any hiccups. While Becca was replacing the gear in the tree, the same man from the time we placed the gear was back. He had a lot of questions about what we were doing and I explained the project to him (as best as I could, my Spanish leaves much to be desired).

The path to the next tree was not as smooth. Portions of the trail were still thick with bamboo. In some cases, the bamboo was so thick that it took 30 minutes of hacking to be passable. By the time we arrived at the tree, we were exhausted. But we still pushed and finished the tree.

Looking down at the clock, we noted there were only an hour and a half until our scheduled ride. We still had more than a kilometer to hike our gear, and another two to meet our ride. My mind was immediately going to the worst-case scenario. This was not a ride that would wait long for us. This was a ride that would leave if we were too late. I was mentally preparing myself to have to hike through Camarones to get back to the reserve. Once we had stashed our bags, we ran down the trails at Lalo Loor. Thankfully we made it before our ride left and we were only 20 minutes late. The two of us sat in the bed of the truck and laughed hysterically.

Miles hiked: 8.4
PB&J's eaten: 99

Day twenty-seven, the final day of the field season. The goal: to maintenance three trees in one day.

It seemed an ambitious goal, but that is who Becca and I are. The day was a bit of a mad dash. I planned to climb the first tree and let Becca climb the last two. And the day went uneventfully. There were no worries about hitting walls of bamboo, and all the gear was working as it should. On top of that, we finished with a half-hour to spare!

We left Lalo Loor with our heads held high! The two of us completed the first field season on such a high note!

Becca declared this her favorite picture of the day, so I had to include it

The rest of the cameras we were unable to make it to will be checked by Shawn and Ryan over the next few days. Although Becca and I could not complete the process entirely ourselves, I am still immensely proud of what we accomplished.

Miles hiked: 6.72
Total mileage: 154.3
Height climbed: ~606 m or 1988 ft
PB & J's eaten: 101
CAIPs checked: 12

The lightning round! (part 1)

8 Enero 2020

After completing CAIP installation, we took a day off to do laundry and give our bodies a much-needed break. But after our day off it was time to begin maintenance. The lightning round.

For maintenance, the goal is to check the CAIPs. Are the cameras taking pictures of animals or mostly leaves? If there are pictures of leaves moving, we would removing those from the frame to preserve battery life and make the process of sorting pictures simpler. Are the AudioMoths recording when they should? If not, we would need to replace them.

Aside from investigating those two questions, we are replacing batteries and SD cards during this time. After maintenance, the CAIPs will be left for ~ 4 months (the estimated battery life) to collect data. It is crucial that everything is working properly.

Since the CAIPs are already installed, the Big Shot was retired (thank goodness!). The climbing lines are already set, so maintenance will be a quicker process than installation.

Day twenty-two, back to Del Rio. Although I have a checklist and I've run through the maintenance process on the ground, the process will be much trickier in the trees. There are many small parts that can easily be lost if dropped. To figure out all the mistakes that can be made, I did both climbs on our first day of maintenance.

Unscrewing the AudioMoth cases in the canopy is beyond nerve-wracking. The recorders themselves are glued into the cases and the batteries are Velcro-ed in, but the screws and microSD cards are easy pieces to lose. There's a fairly large margin for error. I exercised extreme caution and it worked out well.

Even though the equipment in the Del Rio tree had only been running for two weeks, there were already pictures of kinkajous to look at!

Side accomplishment: I made a pun so terrible, Becca jokingly 'quit' the project. We take walking sticks with us when we hike and she had grabbed the stick I typically used, so I asked, "Oh, not a fan of your walking stick anymore?"

She glanced down for a second, not realizing she'd grabbed the wrong one. "No, I like mine quite a lot, but I don't think it likes me back."

"Oh, so I guess you could say it's a sticky situation?" She went dead silent, trying not to laugh, and walked away for a few moments.

The tree off of the cordillera almost went perfectly. As I was removing the microSD card, it stuck to my thumb as I pulled away...and then proceeded to fall to the ground. Thankfully, Becca was quickly able to recover the lost item. Phew.

Following maintenance, we hiked our stuff down to the very first tree we climbed. It's weird to be returning to the start of it all. But I was too exhausted in the moment to remissness much.

Getting back to the bamboo house, we were in store for a huge surprise. Groceries! Normally groceries are delivered every Monday. Because of the holidays, we've had to go to town when we can (or have someone else get what they can) and it's been difficult to estimate how much food we'll need and how long items will store. On this day, we returned to a surplus of food after we had been running low on supplies.

Both of us were exceptionally excited.

Miles hiked: 3.58
PB&J's eaten: 91

Day twenty-three, today I began climbing up the very first tree we installed. During installation, the sun had been setting so I didn't properly see the setup. Now climbing in the morning, I instantly felt excitement to look at the pictures. The camera is facing a cavity that has collected water. And the wildlife is definitely taking advantage of it.

Collared araçaris taking a bath

Before I could get a good look at the photos, I was distracted by the sound of leaves rustling. Several mantled howlers were moving around in trees eye level with me, maybe 20 meters away. My reaction was torn between awe and nerves. The last thing I wanted was for the howlers to throw dung my way. Rather than take any pictures, I hurried through the rest of the maintenance as they kept their eyes on me and moved in closer. Eventually, their path diverged away from the tree, but I am still in awe at how close they were to me.

Becca went through the process of checking the next tree and the process went smoothly. Unfortunately, the tree required a bit of trimming. Most of the pictures were images of leaves moving, but that is why we did a maintenance period right after installation. Otherwise, the rest of the day went smoothly.

Perfect spot to take a short break from a long hike

Miles hiked: 5.21
PB&J's eaten: 93

Day twenty-four, it finally happened. Rain...well rain during the day. While I was up in a tree, drops of water trickled down. Momentarily, I thought I could push through it without issue. The drizzle suddenly transformed into a downpour. Becca was quick to send up her parka and I threw it over myself to create a dry work environment.

As I delicately went through the procedure of checking the equipment, I noticed something different among many photos of wind. A sloth! I nearly fell out of the tree due to excitement. I've wanted to see a sloth in the wild for many years, and now I knew there had been a two-toed sloth climbing on the branch I was sitting against!

The rain let up before long so there we did not have to worry about dealing with a slick rope. Instead, another challenge faced us - our hike.

Hiking after a downpour with heavy equipment was a challenge. At this point, we were in cloud forest, so the trail was already slightly muddy. The rain from just an hour before made the situation worse.

Many spots would take your feet in so deep that you could lose your boot trying to free yourself. Others were a trick of balance- especially since we were traveling downhill. Can you hold yourself upright with a counterweight on your back? For me, the answer was no. I ended up sliding or skating down the trail more than I walked down it. Without question, my pants were entirely covered in mud by the end of the day.

Just as our frustration became palpable, something caught my eye. A giant worm? No, something else!

If you look closely, you can see its tongue sticking out!

A limbless lizard! The critter may look like a snake, but due to internal anatomy, it is actually a lizard! They spend most of their time underground, except for when heavy rains flood them out. They are a pretty rare find, and both of us were positively thrilled to find one. Any annoyance we had at the hike was gone in an instant.

From that point, the rest of the day proceeded as planned. We visited Friday the 13th and Becca took care of maintenance without issue.

Miles hiked: 6.8
Total mileage: 132.5
PB&J's eaten: 95
CAIPs checked: 6

The outer fringes

4 Enero 2020

Day eighteen, we’ve finally found ourselves at points I’ve been dreading. Our first day at the reserve, we had asked a couple of the rangers about some of the points to get insight on what we’ve gotten ourselves into. When we showed them the points on the Las Cuervas property, they both laughed at the thought of hiking over there. Becca and I knew they needed to get done, but I, for one, was nervous about getting around.

Our goal was to set lines in three of the four trees. We knew the first tree would be relatively easy to get to, but for the others, we would be following property lines and hoping for the best. Shawn gave us a ride through Camarones and as close as a car could get to the points, cutting off a few kilometers of hiking. The first tree was easy enough to get to and we set a line and took off to the other two points.

There was a clear trail to follow, but the trail went up at nearly a 45-degree angle for a distance.

We started below the palms and climbed up to the tree line

We only had the equipment to set a line with us, so the hike was a warmup for what was soon to come. We managed to hike to the other two trees but were running out of time to set a line in either since we had a ride picking us up in the evening. 

If anything, we both are determined to finish these trees in as few days as possible. 

Miles hiked: 6.96

PB&Js eaten: 75

Day nineteen, we returned to the agricultural site. Since we visited the tree on the first day of the year, it was dubbed: new year, new tree (just imagine an excessive amount of New Year's resolution themed jokes and you'll know what Becca had to deal with that day). This was the first tree we attempted to set a line without the Big Shot because it was relatively short. For half an hour, we tried chucking the weight bag over the limbs. No dice. We would have to use our old..."friend" the Big Shot.

The branch Becca climbed in was stable enough that we had a dance break in the canopy.

Nothing but smiles while in a tree!

Now it was time to find the mystery point. Following the property-line was the suggestion. Most of the time, that is easier said than done. That was certainly our situation. As we approached the property line, we glanced to our left and could see the trail descending into the depths of overgrowth.

I think we both screamed a little internally before beginning to hack our way down.  It wasn't too long before the fence and trail vanished. Yet there were still 200 meters to travel.

However, we could see a game trail to a creek.

New plan: follow the creek bed. Before long, we were pleasantly surprised! We walked up to a perfect tree for climbing. A lot of birds were active in the area and the climb was very nice.

Up in the canopy!

To get back, we decided to find a new path. Along the creek, another walking path existed. This trail was much more pleasant. It was a relief to end the day knowing our next visit would not be as painstaking. 

Miles hiked: 3.49

PB&Js eaten: 79

Day twenty; both of us were dreading this day. We would be hiking up what we dubbed as Hell’s hill with all the equipment and it had rained the night before so there was a possibility that the trail would be muddy. In preparation for the difficult day, we both messaged loved ones requesting fun stories/jokes/etc to read on the satellite phone afterward.

Fortunately, the day was not as bad as anticipated. We switchbacked up to reduce the strain on our ankles. Although the hike was long, it was not what we had built up in our heads. We carried on to the furthest tree and the installation went without a hitch.

If you look closely, you can see Becca in the tree

The tree was subsequently named ‘Why can’t it just be flat?’ to reflect our feelings about the hike out (and all hikes here).

We were a little late in the day, but Becca and I did not want to hike up to those sites again, so we prepared to set the line in the next tree.

Do you see how far down that is??

Installation went as planned and though we were running a little behind our scheduled pick up time, I was insanely proud of what we accomplished.

Smiles as we bid this hike adieu

As far as physical exhaustion, this day was on par with our 13-hour day. We both slept very hard that night.

Miles hiked: 5.81

PB&Js eaten: 83

Day twenty-one, we both were hopeful we would complete installation this day. The only points left were in agriculture and were mostly trailed.

Of course, we did not think to grab a key to get into the Finca. So, we awkwardly climbed over the gate.

The first tree had great connectivity and was short enough we could lanyard up. This saved the time and trouble of setting a climbing line.

The downside of being in agriculture - ticks. Ticks everywhere. At one point I looked down at my pants to see hundreds of tiny ticks crawling around. Even though Ecuador is not known to have many tick-borne diseases, it was still a horrifying sight.

Not even mangoes are sacred to ticks

Despite the ticks, we finished tree number 20. Becca quickly got the station installed. With that, we had done it! All 20 CAIPs were up! Both of us were too tired in that instant for the gravity of the situation to sink in, but it is an amazing accomplishment! I can't believe it!

Now to ensure everything is working.

Miles hiked: 5.67

Total mileage: 116.9

PB&Js eaten: 87

CAIPs Installed: 20

Finito de 2019

31 Diciembre 2019

For the holidays, Becca and I traveled to Mompiche. The town was very relaxed, largely populated by surfers, which was perfect, and we returned to Jama-Coaque refreshed. The night we arrived, it started raining. My immediate thought was, ‘I guess we’ve leveled up now, the jungle didn’t think what we were doing was hard enough already.’ Impending rains meant some sites would become extraordinarily difficult to get to, so I turned my focus to those.

Day fifteen in the field we set a line in a tree near a river (and encountered a Tayra on the hike out). There was a beautiful tree right along the river. I couldn’t help but think of how alive the area must be, especially at night with all amphibians out and active.

View from below the tree

Since it was a rainy day, we decided to brew tea!

For those who aren’t aware, my aim is not the best. However, I had a good feeling about this tree, so I took the Big Shot and decided to fire the line. Finally! I made the shot on the first try! I did a celebratory dance.

With the tree being alongside a river, we had to yell back and forth in order to communicate, and both of us thought about how helpful walkie-talkies would be. The climb was straightforward. Mostly. Once again, I pulled through some smaller branches and dropped a few feet, but it is no big deal given all the safety protocols we have (Becca and I joke that I’m just too strong for the trees).

During my climb, Bola (AKA the Shaman [he guides people on Ayahuasca journeys]) was hiking down the trail and greeted Becca. He invited the two of us to come over for papaya some time. After the climb, we packed our stuff out further. The trail we embarked on required some clean up because there had been a few tree-falls fairly recently. 

Miles hiked: 4.25

PB&Js eaten: 63

Day sixteen was another unplanned adventure. The point we wanted to place a camera was in the cloud forest a few hundred meters off the Cordillera trail. My initial thought was to follow the contour line to the tree and clear a path along the way. Staying flat should be simple.

Famous last words.

An hour of machete-ing passed with little progress, so I decided to look for other options while Becca continued attempting to make a path. Further up the ridge, I found a property line. Heck yeah! A path to follow! After getting back to Becca, we started moving the packs the way we came, but the path we had been creating turned into a bit of a landslide down the steep face of the mountain. Carefully, we passed the gear across the landslide, and we were mostly successful but the machete we had been using practically grew wings during the swap. It slipped out of our hands and slid far out of our sight.

Following the property-line started simply, but quickly turned into mud skating. We had lost the trail but thought we could make a track in GaiaGPS and just find an acceptable tree.

In the cloud forest, especially so close to the ridge, trees cannot grow very tall because of the danger of wind exposure. Strong winds can knock over tall, emergent trees and because of this, there were no good options for climbing trees. We gave up the search and Becca suggested that we climb up to the ridge. By climb, I mean we were on our hands and knees trying to gain purchase on the mud through fallen branches and vegetation.

At the top, we rediscovered the property line trail! The day ended with us just finding a tree to climb the following day. It was frustrating, but we still managed to end the day smiling and ready to return.

Miles hiked: 4.95

PB&Js eaten: 67

Day seventeen began on a good note – we came across a Coati walking around as we hiked to our tree. Since we had a hiccup the day before, and since Shawn had returned with his family and a car (side note, for those who have not been to JCR being able to get up close to the reserve with a car is a huge deal. A road close to the reserve was completed a week before our project began and we were all shocked by it), we made a goal to get two cameras installed in one day.

The tree in the cloud forest went according to plan. The line went up quickly, the climb went easily, and before we knew it, we were climbing down the trail to head back to the bamboo house.

On the hike down, five Ecuadorian capuchins were hanging out along the trail. Of course, we had to pause and watch them. They watched us back too. In fact, a few capuchins moved closer and started shaking branches at us to scare us off. One even climbed to almost above us and urinated on the trail. Seeing those wild capuchins up so close was unbelievable. I wish I could have gotten a picture, but they ran off the moment I remembered I had a phone on hand.

We still had daylight by the time we returned, so Shawn gave us a ride to one of our other points. Getting a ride almost right up to our point was a luxury.

Daylight was running out, but we were determined to get another tree done. Despite encounters with bullet ants and the loss of light, we managed the final installation.

What a way to end 2019.

Miles hiked: 4.89

Total mileage: 94.99

PB&Js eaten: 71

CAIPs Installed: 14