The crew was up till after 2:30 last night writing reports, and so were slow to get up. I was first to awaken, around 7:30, which is late for me. Since our water supply had been restored yesterday, I took advantage of the situation to turn on the water heater (which our power situation precludes using when there is much else operating) and take a warm water Navy shower. (A Navy shower is one in which you run the water for just a few seconds to get wet, then turn it off while you soap up, and then run it just enough to rinse off. We use Navy showers or sponge baths to conserve water.) As I had not had a chance to bathe since Feb 7, this felt really great. By the time I was out around 8, Steve McDaniel was also awake, and he was quick to follow my example. The rest of the crew was still asleep however, and late night or not, we had work to do. So I put a tape of Scott Joplin rags in the boom box and turned it on. This proved completely ineffective. Searching for something more potent, I switched out Joplin for a tape of the 12 year old Mexican diva, Nayeli Meza, who belts out songs as only 12 year old Mexican divas can, escalated the volume 5 notches, and blasted away. This achieved the desired result. The crew acknowledged the arrival of morning and emerged from their bunks. However they were gratified to discover the availability of warm Navy showers for all, and Steve made things even better by preparing a breakfast of hot pancakes and bacon for the entire crew.

All this did much to refresh the team, but it did take time, and it was 11 am before we were ready to start suiting up. This made it unlikely that we would achieve our planned objective of reaching the Factory Butte area, some 20 km away by ATV through difficult terrain. However we decided to try to push as far in that direction as we could. Frank Schubert had returned to the hab the night before, and he showed me a pass through the local ridge that was discovered by one of the shakedown crews. As this route was easier than the Chluda Pass found by the EVA yesterday, our rate of progress would be improved, at least for the first part of the trip. The team would be Heather, Jen, Troy, and me – a four person team being best for a difficult EVA as it provides extra muscle power to lift the ATVs should they get stuck. Four people also take longer to suit up than three, however, and it was not until 12:15 that we were out the lock.

We crossed the local ridge via the Schubert Pass and entered the large region we call Mid-Ridge Planitia which lies just north of the lower Blue Hills. Part of this plain is scrub grass, but much of it is unvegetated Cretaceous marine sediments. Here we found huge fields of fossil oysters similar to the ones found yesterday. These we have now identified as Pycnodonte newberyii, a species which inhabited the Mancos Sea which covered much of Utah 85 million years ago. Interestingly, while we found oyster shells by the millions, no other species were readily in evidence.

We proceeded generally north across the Mid Ridge Planitia. Much of the travel was easy, but periodically the plain was cut by sharp little flash-flood channels too steep to drive down and then up in an ATV while wearing a spacesuit. So we had to dismount and push them across by hand. This slowed our progress, as did the necessity of making waypoints every kilometer or so. This later process is accomplished by stopping and taking a GPS reading, several photographs, a radio link check, and a very brief geological examination to characterize the site. All of this is noted down on a chart that the EVA team carries and then included in our trip report. Our intention is to compile all this waypoint information into a kind of guidebook to the area for future crews.

As we went north, the landscape became increasingly barren, and spectacularly scenic in its bizarre desolation. The elevation changed periodically, and gray Cretaceous peaklets alternated with red Jurassic formations. Finally we entered a region that has to qualify as a geologists paradise; a chaotic assemblage of miniature canyons and outcrops of every description. We call this alien region the Barsoom outcrops, after the Martian world depicted in the romantic adventures of Edgar Rice Burroughs.

While rich is geology, the Barsoom outcrops are also rich in obstacles which would make the remaining 2 kilometers to the Coal Mine Wash path to Factory Butte slow going. As it was already 3:30 PM when we entered the outcrops, it was clear that we could never make it to Factory Butte and get back to the hab before dark. So I decided to call a halt to the advance and have the team spend an hour exploring and sampling the Barsoom outcrops themselves. We did this, and then turned back, leaving Factory Butte for another day. Because we had already mapped out the outbound route, and were not taking waypoints, we were able do the return trip three times as fast as our outward trek, reaching the hab in early dusk around 5:30.

After dinner we wrote up our EVA reports, and sent them to Mission Support along with biology lab results developed by Steve and a hab engineering report from Frank . This was done by around 10:30 PM, which is early relative to what we had managed previously. So we had a little meeting to discuss what to do the next day. The consensus was that it was important that we take some time to analyze and organize the large amount of samples and data we have assembled. So there would be little or no EVA activity tomorrow.

This settled, we had some time for some group R&R, i.e. a movie. Every member of the Mars Desert Research Station crew brings a few books, tapes, CDs, and DVD movies to donate to the hab, so we have a nice little potluck entertainment library. The crew’s choice this evening was “The Matrix,” a film which I had never seen before. I understand that many people consider this to be a very profound work of art, with its deep deliberations about what is real and what is not, etc., but there are more holes in its plot than can be found in a family-sized box of cheerios. So I decided to view it as a comedy and found it very enjoyable when considered in that way. The experience was heightened by the availability of a little bit of rum, which was distributed to celebrate Heather’s 26th birthday.

The film was done at 12:30. I hit the sack and slept like a rock.