May 2nd- Day 34

An even longer training day was about to happen today. We started off training at the Rainforest Trail which involved a detailed walkthrough of the trail with a lead guide. We were supposed to do two detailed walk throughs, but the lead guides figured a four hour tour was good enough and scrapped the second walk through. I learned some new plant species as well as a few stories here. I was glad since I had to shadow a tour  that needed me back at the office by 3:15.

I used my hour or so between training and shadowing to look through Scott’s book and I got to meet a new person. His name was Dennis and he astonished me with his Whale knowledge and experience. He has been a part of research programs as well as other whale tours and you could just tell that whales were his passion. After talking with him some, we made a deal to trade information about whales and plants!

By 3:15 it was raining, not sprinkling and a group of us had to get ready for Keith’s Disco whale tour. As we were pulling out of Auke Bay, our GGC group chat got texts that the tours were canceled for the day, but we still went out. Oops. A Disco tour involves a crab pot pull and a citizens science portion section. Our crab pot had two species of crabs as well as some sculpins.  It was kinda a terrible day for whales, but again after an hour or so we spotted one in the pouring cold rain. Once we got back from the tour, we were reminded that we need to follow the orders of the DDC. 

By the time I got back home it was 8:30 and I still had to make dinner and pack for tomorrow's trip home. I was dead tired, but got packed, my checklist completed, and went to bed.

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