Luck

A great man named Randy Warren once told me that luck is simply when preparation meets opportunity.

If you think about luck this way then it is little more than a game of odds; a mathematical probability that if you keep preparing you will meet opportunity at some point. While at times I do feel relatively prepared, I must admit the quality of opportunities that present themselves to me make me feel that I am not just playing a game of odds, rather, the odds are in my favor as I've gotten lucky time and time again.

Exactly one week ago I seem to have struck yet another chord of good luck. 

I transfered into the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Biology at CSU less than a year ago. I entered CSU as a Zoology major and to be completely honest I didn't know getting a degree in Wildlife Biology was even a thing. After taking a look at the curriculum - one that includes courses in mammalogy, ornithology, botany, GIS mapping, project design, management and human dimensions - I knew in my bones that this was it. My calling. 

While perhaps luck doesn't factor into discovering this program, it does factor in that I decided to attended CSU without knowing that the university houses one of the best programs in Wildlife Biology and employes a faculty of researchers making ground breaking discoveries in the field. And lucky for me, many of these researchers are at my disposal as professors and advisors. Furthermore, they are all inspiring, encouraging and enjoy providing their students with opportunities.

Microchip found in scat. RIP River the cat.

Anyhow, fast forward through a pretty motivating last couple semesters of school and I've found myself working as a Wildlife Technician for a research biologist named Stewart Breck. Stewart is a carnivore ecologist at the National Wildlife Research Center hired on to specialize in non-lethal resolutions to human-wildlife conflicts. To put it simply, he's pretty freaking rad.

I've been working on an urban coyote conflict study he is running in Denver the last 6 weeks, mainly sorting through remote camera trap photos and coyote scat, but also spending a bit of time in the field helping with scat collections and utilizing telemetry to find radio collars. If you asked me last week how I was liking my job I would have told you it was awesome - better than anything I could have hoped for - a great learning experience and very interesting. For example, a couple weeks ago, while sorting through coyote poop we found a pet microchip! We were able to track down info from the microchip and confirm with the owner of a cat named River that it had indeed been eaten by coyotes. 

So it couldn't get better, right? Well last Thursday it did. Stewart got a call that a researcher he was working with on a black bear study in Durango needed an extra hand starting Monday to set up hair snares (basically squares of strategically placed barbed wire with bait in the middle - used to estimate the population of black bears in the area via hair samples - the techy term is non-invasive mark and recapture) in a remote wilderness area near Pagosa Springs. He didn't have to ask me twice if I wanted to go so Sunday I was off to set up camp on the banks of the Piedra River. I'm going to try not to gush too much by simply providing the cold hard facts:

Monday: drove an ATV for the first time. All research a side, ATVs are insanely fun I discovered. Ripped around trails with a kid named Colin who is a really good tracker. We saw lots of bear and coyote tracks including those of a sow (female bear) and cub(s). Sat around the camp fire by night and learned...

Mountain Lion. Not my photo. But I saw one!

Tuesday: probably my most adventurous day in the woods ever. Went out on a loooonnngggg hiking route loaded with supplies (barbed wire strapped to back and bottles full of fermented fish and bacon and berry baits). I was partnered with a kid named Skylar who was simply awesome - so much positive energy with a phenomenal brain. The hike into the sites on trails was hard enough with lots of elevation gain but then the adventuresome part came when we would bushwhack and scramble up sttteeeeeeeeeepppppp slopes following game trails when we could to set the plots. We found some great bear habitat plots and as I hammered staples into trees in the middle of the woods I just smiled. It was a hard, perfect day. To make it even more perfect as we were driving down the dirt road back to camp we came around a switchback and there was a MOUNTAIN LION. It was beautiful. I only saw it for a few seconds as it froze, looked at the car and then bolted but the picture is seared into my memory.

Wednesday: another long hike through a stunning box canyon along the Piedra river. It was a hot day and I was pretty smoked from the previous day but soaking in the river, having a flushed turkey fly straight over my head, and a silly chipmunk run right through my feet made it heaven. I was hiking with Stewart and we got stopped on the trail by some guys who declared to Stewart "You guys have the best job ever." I quoted the guys after they left and all Stewart could reply is "Yeah, we really do have the best job." The night end with more great conversation. Physics, dark matter, and a sticking point that I really ought to embrace math. But when I think of preparation and opportunity as a probability of luck maybe I can let it in a bit more...

Thursday: A short day highlighted by a horny toad (they shoot blood out of their eyes as a defense mechanism!) and a beautiful drive home through the beautiful state that I am oh so lucky to call home. 

I feel so lucky to have been granted the opportunity to be a part of the last several says of work. I feel lucky to suddenly KNOW I have found my calling. Knowing things like this lets me know a lot of other things as well; things I know I love, things I know I need, things I know make me happy and content. It makes me know that with a little bit of luck, everything I want in life can be mine.