I took a course this summer that required quite a bit of fieldwork.  Toward the end of the class, we split into small groups and planned our own projects.  My group wanted to ask about forest succession.  We went on an exploratory jaunt through the Michigan State University’s Experimental Forest the first day of the project.  It was not very successful.

First of all there were MOSQUITOES.  I put that in all caps because I have never seen such a high density of such hungry insects.  I would have eaten DEET to keep them away.  Jenny was stung by a bee and was quietly disgruntled about having been “bitten on her bum” for the rest of the afternoon.  Joanna made the mistake of sitting down and was treated to a large number of very irritated bug bites in awkward places.  I ended up bleeding from a briar with my face in poison ivy.

Overall it was kind of terrible, but we bonded over the experience and were better prepared the next time we went out.