I got so caught up in dealing with the aftermath of our garage fire, and insurance inventory, I totally lost track that the Wyoming cleanup event was moved out 1-week for a COVID off-again-on-again wedding situation.  Suddenly I found myself a week ahead of schedule instead of a week behind!  Time to hit the Dakotas!  I was further south than I would have been had I planned this but nothing like making the drive through Montana longer than it already is!  I specifically did not dive in Montana this leg as I want to hit Glacier and Flathead towards the end of summer, so I just meandered through enjoying the scenery. Next stop - Lake Sakakawea in North Dakota.

First, what's up with the spelling - is it Sacagawea, Sacajawea or Sakakawea?  "Sakakawea" spelling, use and meaning are based on the fact that Charbonneau told Lewis and Clark that one of his wives’ name was “Bird Woman” which translates to Sakakawea in Hidatsa. The three affiliated tribes, Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara, concur that this is the correct spelling and it is widely used in North Dakota. Certainly not what I was taught in history many years ago.

I found my way to Lake Sakakawea State Park and got myself situated. I planned to dive the next morning however I woke to a crazy thunder and lightening storm so I made more coffee and decided to wait it out.  As I ventured around looking for the best dive site I started to get a little confused (a large do not scuba sign).  So I contacted Randy at Scuba One in Bismarck to get some information on diving Garrison Dam.  Randy happened to be in the area and met me at the dive site and provided a great dive brief.  Later he called me to see if I wanted a "job"!?  Apparently a gentleman lost his wallet at the marina and I was the only diver he knew of in the area.  Long story short, it was in the other State Park so I agreed to retrieve it the next morning and hoped to be able to get back in time to still dive Garrison Dam.  

The next morning I was off to Fort Stevenson State Park, about 5-miles as the crow flies but a good 40-minute drive.  I got lost in the sunflower farms for a bit, they were too beautiful to pass up.  When I arrived at Fort Stevenson Marina, I checked in with the Ranger on duty to get his okay for me to dive the marina. After receiving my green light and a sarcastic "good luck in that muck" I found the location and gathered my gear.  There were definitely a couple of dock lines to avoid but the water was still and the shoreline was rip-rap, so I thought there might be some hope in finding this wallet.  Hot as can be already and guess who brought her dry suit!  As I dropped below my buoy, I certainly did not experience a chill - it was more like bathwater.  I positioned myself and shined my dive light. It was a nice rock bottom, very silty and BOOM - there's a wallet, a fishing pole, a reel holder, etc.  I checked my dive computer and sure enough I was 1-minute into my dive!  Now what to do?  My dive light was attracting lots of little fish so I played for a bit, collected a couple items and then decided it was just too boring to waste any more air on.  I ascended and made my way to shore with buoy in tow (cause that law).  Getting out was the hardest part as I climbed the rip-rap rockery in my gear.  I called the owner of the wallet and we rendezvoused just outside the park.  He was happy, or maybe his wife was happier since he blamed her for dropping it! Unfortunately, it was getting too late to pull off a second dive considering elevation and my need to checkout of the campground timely, so I just stopped by and did my dive site cleanup and off to shower and pack up camp.

As a was pulling out and rounding the corner I saw something in my rear-view mirror that I didn't recall being in the roadway...but what could I have dropped??  I parked and took a quick shower, then to the garbage and dump facility where I spotted my DIVE boot on the rack of my truck!  Oh crap - now I know what I saw!  So around the park with the trailer again, only no boot!  I talked to a couple of different campers but nobody saw it.  I stopped by the Ranger Station where Ranger Greg called around to the camp host and then after no luck he took down my information and said he'd send it my way if it turned up.  Two-days later Ranger Greg called me to let me know it was found!  Ranger Greg to the rescue!! I guess I'll be diving a wet suit until I get back to Spokane.  ​

It was a lovely evening for a dive and great to take a break from trying to inventory the damages of our garage fire!  Even the rest of the family joined in above the water.

Special thanks to Jake's Scuba Adventures for letting me crash their weekly fun dive. With a handful of divers picking up a few items and a few more dedicated to the task with bags in hand, we manage to quickly accumulate 35 pounds of trash! Just imagine how much is actually down there!! So sad!

I was also successful in having a weight distribution hitch installed to address the sway I was getting on my trip back from Seattle with the little trailer.  While the trailer is super light, I carry a lot of scuba gear and I think things were just slightly out of whack allowing the semi-trucks to cause me some fishtail grief!  We should have the fire stuff wrapped up here and I'll be heading down into Wyoming for the creek cleanup being hosted by the Wyoming chapter of the IOC!  I'll have to back-track a bit with the delay to address the fire issues - but it will all work out!!

Cheers and happy bubbles!!
Pam

Today is World Ocean Day.  A day to reflect, celebrate, protect, and preserve our Earth’s life support system.  The ocean serves as the lungs of our planet and provide us with more than half the world’s oxygen. The ocean stores 50 times more carbon dioxide than our entire atmosphere. The ocean covers 70% of the Earth’s surface and regulates our climate and weather patterns from the equator to the poles for life as we know it. There is no substitute for this vast ecosystem!

As a SCUBA diver you are taught to never take for granted your life support system.  Proper maintenance and care are critical to help ensure your survival while underwater. The human race is failing our ocean, our planet, and our future existence by taking our one life support system for granted. Years of chronic over-fishing practices, pollution and habitat destruction have consumed our healthy ocean leaving approximately one-third of marine mammal, sharks and reef-forming corals threatened with extinction. The carbon dioxide emitted from our factories and vehicles have made the ocean more acidic. The changing climate is increasing the water temperature and decreasing oxygen in vast areas of the ocean, making them less habitable.

Scientist recommend conserving 30% of land and 30% of ocean by 2030 - referred to as 30x30!  Today only 15% of our lands and 7% of our ocean are protected globally. Please visit and educate yourself at www.campaignfornature.org and take action this World Ocean Day. We need leaders and elected officials that will take speedy action in the right direction. It is about working together state by state, nation by nation to align globally and create a sustainable future for our children and grandchildren.

Yes, these ARE unprecedented times and Mother Earth is SCREAMING at the top of her lungs to get our attention!  Are you listening?  Nature and people will share the same fate if we do not! Our natural world is disappearing at an alarming rate. From 2001 to 2017, the United States alone lost more than a football field’s worth of natural area to development every 30 seconds! Three-fourths of the planet’s lands and two-thirds of its marine environments are considered “severely altered” by human activity. When humans change the environment like this, we degrade natural animal habitats and squeeze their living space. Proximity to these animals increases our risk of contracting pathogens these animals carry as they jump species to species - like coronavirus. The cost of nature’s deterioration is also falling disproportionately on economically disadvantaged communities and communities of color. Sadly, all the chaos of 2020 has been self-inflicted, and we cannot sit back and be observers any longer - it is time to wake up and take action!

The natural world is being consumed by human greed.  Existence of humanity on Earth is threatened by humans – our life support system is in dire need of an overhaul.  Until we learn to work together as one race, for our one ocean and our one planet, our so-called “progress” is our ultimate demise.

I want to see my grandson enjoy the ocean and lands as much as I have. I certainly do not want him asking “why didn’t grandma’s generation do more while there was still time?” 

There is time - 30X30 is the objective!