Tracy delivered me safely home and sporting only a moderate layer of southeastern Colorado topsoil.

Our pronghorn protecting adventure ended with me gently coaxing some trespassing hunters from our preserve this morning while Tracy diligently took down license plates and descriptions. We were on our previously uneventful patrol when we saw a truck and camper top rumbling up the hill into the middle of one of our preserve pastures. They went straight past the clear “No trespassing” sign and continued inward looking for prey. We pulled in, I waved them down, and they left with a polite social lie about thinking they were further North. But they left.

Then we visited with other pronghorn protectors, visited some prairie dogs and burrowing owls, and made the long trek home.

Here is some of what we left behind:

Open range cattle enjoying the wind farm neighboring the preserve.

Valleys and buttes.

Scenic vistas.

A lovely spring.

Vast open land protected for wildlife.

Some people take cars full of gear to go camping, this weekend we are camping in a car. Hatchet and I have removed the seats from her mini-van, covered the floor in mattress pads and sleeping bags, and driven far east to monitor SPLT preserve lands for trespassing hunters.

We have found some lovely things along the way and made new friends.

Our creek and beaver dam.

Someone fuzzy lives here.

Another lovely water spot.

A busy tarantula walks by.

Another stops to say hello:

Our “dinner table” and the foot of our bed.

Tomorrow we patrol the borders and protect pronghorn. Tonight we attempt to overcome our fear of peeing in the dark surrounded by tarantulas.

Update:

This is what lunch looks like:

And this is the turtle we herded off the road:

Update part deaux:

We are stalking beavers!! There is a stream/creek running through the preserve and in it are beavers. We have seen proof of them!

Okay, we were wrong, we’ve seen proof of racoon.

We have also gotten to see monarchs!