Day 76 - More Underground Stuff
Trip Start
May 19, 2008
1
78
161
Trip End
Nov 08, 2008
Carlsbad,
New Mexico,
United States
Saturday, August 2, 2008
So the day was just spent reading, eating, blogging and snoozing. A really lazy day. In the afternoon the camp host came around to let us know that there would be a ranger talk with a guest speaker that evening. We decided to go along and see what it was all about. He also told us to watch for rattlesnakes, particularly after dark as they had been spotted darting out from the bushes onto the paths to catch mice, and in fact his dog was just recovering from a rattlesnake bite!
The talk began at 8 pm and was far more interesting than we had expected. We had seen a site on our map, about 25 miles east of Carlsbad, marked "Waste Isolation Pilot Plant". It transpired that this was a pilot project for the isolation of mid-grade military nuclear waste underground, and the guy giving the talk was the Principal Engineer/Geologist. We learned a lot of interesting facts and a lot of scary statistics, not just regarding this project but about other nuclear tests that had been conducted in New Mexico and also in Colorado. Maybe we'll be glowing in the dark soon!
The talk lasted about two hours by which time it was pitch black, and not having anticipated such a late finish we didn't have a torch with us. So a very tense sprint back to the bus ensued, followed by another nail-biting trip to the shower block and back with our not so adequate torch. It could turn out to be quite useful glowing in the dark!
Miles travelled: 0
Total miles travelled: 6737
Days on road: 56
States visited: 11
National Parks visited: 11
