Mississippi Adventures
The following story was submitted by Rebecca Lee about Mr. Mosey’s Advanced Biology class and their recent field trip.
It started at 5:30 in the morning on May 13, 2016. We left Colfax early and went on our way to Alma, Wisconsin. It was a long trip and getting up that early for some people was not easy.
A lot of us slept on our way there while others played games or talked amongst each other. Our first stop was at the Chippewa River. At the Chippewa River, we measured multiple things such as air temperature, transparency, dissolved oxygen, and phosphate levels. We did this at each river we visited. After we were done recording the data we needed, we hopped back onto the bus and headed toward the Buffalo River.
At approximately 7:30 we arrived at Buffalo River. We all walked off the bus and went towards the observation deck. It was cool to see what kinds of birds you could find there. When we were there we saw Canada Geese, Mallards, Common Grackle, and more. Watching the little baby Geese waddle to their mom was fun to see. It was also fun to see how they swim in a pack to stay together. After watching the geese and collecting our data, we then got back on the bus and headed to the Mississippi River.
At 8:30 we reached Alma, Wisconsin. The first thing we did when we got there was go to the Lock and Dam. We were grateful to have our teacher, Mr. Mosey, be our tour guide. He told us many interesting facts like nine barges can fit into a lock chamber at one time and that it normally carries important materials like coal and grains. As Mr. Mosey was telling us these fun facts we were lucky enough to see an actual barge coming toward the Lock and Dam. It approached us very slowly but as it got closer we could see a few people standing on top of it helping to direct it. Once it got closer to us Bryce Kragness asked the closest guy what they were hauling in the barge. The guy paused for a while, but then replied they were transporting sailboat fuel. It took some of us awhile to realize that there is no such thing as sailboat fuel and that the barge did not have anything in it. We all had a great time at the Lock and Dam! The next thing on our agenda was to go fishing. At 9:15 we took a small boat across the Mississippi River to the other bank. It already had a lot of fishermen on it. It was cold out that day and when we were fishing it started raining on us. Thankfully, most of us were prepared for the rain that day. Some of us were not that lucky in catching fish but a few were. Our teacher Mr. Mosey caught a Sauger, Spencer Herrick caught a Small Mouth Bass, and Teddy Arvold caught a lot of nice sized fish as well. As it got colder and started to rain more, nobody was catching any fish. We decided to go to Buena Vista Park for lunch. At 11:30 as everyone got on the bus, most of us started eating right away because we were so hungry. The rest of us waited until we reached the park. When we got there half of us got off and the other half stayed on the bus. It was a beautiful park and a good spot to eat lunch. Once everyone was done enjoying their meal we then made our last stop to Nelson Cheese Factory.
Everyone was excited to eat Nelson’s ice cream and cheese curds. The ice cream they had was nice, soft, and delicious. You could have probably said that the stop at Nelson Cheese Factory was one of the major highlights since it was cold and rainy outside. We stayed there for a while to get warmed up and talk about how the trip went. Once everyone was done eating we then made our journey back to Colfax. Everyone was glad to be back again. We all thought that over all the trip to Alma, Wisconsin was very fun and we learned a lot!