(As I said, I took very few pictures and none from today are worth posting)
Sunday 6/27: Today was the second day of field trips. After checking out of the hotel, I sat around in the main hotel’s parking lot for a while trying to get a ride (Civic isn’t great on dirt roads and my tire may or may not have been low). Eventually, I ended up with Fitch and the Hummels and we headed in the direction of 1000 Acre Heath.
On the way, we stopped at a river. Several other groups were here as well. Unfortunately, there were very few bugs out (lots of stonefly exuviae though). We did manage a snaketail or two but that was about it.
Moving on, we reached the road to the heath. At the first stream crossing, we pulled over and explored a bit. There were tons of emeralds in the air (baskettails (Epitheca) and Cordulia and Dorocordulia mostly) along with many jewelwings and a spiketail or two down low. Several of the jewelwings were Suberb (Calopteryx amata) and they lived up to the name. Marcia also came up with a Least Clubtail (Stylogomphus).
We continued on and Fitch’s car started making odd noises. It didn’t sound good, but we decided that with most of the group ahead of us, we’d keep going for now. We made a few short stops and had a few odes but nothing of real interest.
Eventually, we reached the parking for the heath itself. The walk from here was still a mile or two and there was very little out. The heath was way down a hill and other people were starting to head out, so we never actually reached it. Fortunately, the car held up and we made an immediate stop for ice cream on reaching the main road.
Back at my car, I decided to head partway to Jackman (the site of the postmeeting). I only ended up a few miles down the road as it was late and I didn’t want to deal with back roads. I stopped at a Barnes and Noble to finally grab a DeLorme and then decided that the timing was right to head back to the Neurocordulia spot. It was a bit tougher alone, but I did manage to capture one Stygian Shadowdragon (N. yamaskanensis). Then it was back to the hotel and a Wendy’s for dinner.
Monday 6/28: Today I headed for Jackman. It was drizzly and rainy most of the way. I eventually reached the hotel and found a good portion of the group (most had come out the day before). No one on the staff was around, so I wasn’t able to try for a room. I wandered down to the market and bought some muffins, then ended up trying the Bishop for a room instead. I did get one, but had to go through the maid’s storeroom to reach it (although talking with people, it still was probably better).
Since the weather was lousy, I took a ride just to scout before eventually heading back to the group. Somewhere along the way, I ended up on a rather rocky, narrow road. If it wasn’t so narrow I would have turned around, but I pushed through and apparently lost one of the bolts holding my bumper on. Getting through the rocky area, I found the road I was following under water, so tried another one which was not on the GPS. Fortunately it did lead through eventually and I got back on the main highway.
Everyone went out for dinner (and the leaders finally arrived). We went to the one restaurant that was open, forget the name but it was not too bad. Most of the group went out on a moose drive after. I had lingered to discuss tomorrow for a minute or two and never caught up with anyone but drove around for an hour or two myself. The fog was rather scary but I did eventually see a moose (and would learn the next day that about two minutes after I passed the Rosenbergs, they had a huge bull moose).