What an awesome day, it was my first time out on the field with my mentors! We were just doing a little recon for one of several of our research sites. We did about a 6-mile roundtrip hike to Upper Gordon Gulch, which is part of the Boulder Creek CZO, and got to use my Mini Disc Infiltrometer which will tell me hydraulic conductivity for unsaturated soil. But there is some serious talk about building our own single ring infiltrometer to use for on different sites which will have a larger radius and be able to tell us infiltration of saturated and unsaturated soils.
Had to fix of our markers for the Gordon Gulch site and learned how to use an app to mark our coordinates (GPS Essentials). Went over the data I collected with my mentor this morning and now have a rough idea how long it will take to get a full set of data for the Gordon Gulch north and south sites. Approximately it will be a 10 hour day if I want to collect at both sites in Upper Gordon Gulch which I plan on getting done Tuesday of next week.
Setting up my Decagon Mini Disc Infiltrometer for the first time at our north site of Upper Gordon Gulch.
Collecting data at the south site of Upper Gordon Gulch yesterday.
My mentors Ryan Webb and Anna Hermes of INSTAAR CU Boulder. Multitasked a bit on our recon mission…after checking out our soil sites, Ryan checked on a few of his flagged points along the creek with his infrared camera on the way back down the mountain. The camera shows the cold spring water flowing from ground water into the warmer stream. Pretty cool to see the mixture of water temperatures through an infrared camera.
The stream was a little cloudy
Lots of shooting stars and lilies along the creek in Gordon Gulch
Aspen grove along the creek in Gordon Gulch
Gordon Gulch is a very popular site for other researchers with many different projects. This contraption senses water depth of the creek.
-Kara
Fascinating and looking forward to your findings of the hydrolic conductivity. Fantastic photos of Gordon Gulch!