Rhys: Well, I was always kind of a frustrated biologist. I have a degree in English myself, but that was always something that I was very interested in as a kid. And I never got to go to summer camp. So when my girlfriend told me about the whole BioBlitz situation, I was like, "Okay, gotta see, gotta see what's up with it." So I'm excited.

Nancy: Is this your first one to come to?

Rhys: This is my first one, yes.

Nancy: So as you were imagining, I love the metaphor of summer camp. That's, yes, 100%. Aside from summer campiness, do you have other expectations, or how were you imagining the time that you're gonna spend out here?

Rhys: I've been telling everyone that I'm going to drive up to Wyoming to count bugs for a weekend. Because I was told that we would be doing surveys, so I just figured we'd be blocking out the little string box and counting all the bugs in that little thing, and I get varied reactions to that.

Some people think that sounds like the greatest thing ever. They're like, "Oh my God, I wanna go to Wyoming to count bugs." And other people are like, "You're doing what?" At which point I have to tell them that there's gonna probably be more to that, but I've never done it, so maybe there won't be more to that.

Nancy: I like the little imagination, but also openness to who knows what's gonna happen. What does it mean to be out in nature for you?

Rhys: I feel like nature is very centering. I live in Denver, so it's a lot of people, a lot of cars. Even at my house, which we specifically got so that we had some nature areas nearby, a lot of road noise. Like, you wake up, and you can hear the highway.

And so it's very good to get an area of silence and kind of connection between all living beings. I feel like you have this connection in the city, but it's very artificial, kind of like we've built this connection. Whereas in nature, you're like, "Oh, this just is kind of here. It just kind of happened," and it's incredible.

Nancy: Yeah. Where did you grow up?

Rhys: I grew up in Fort Collins, Colorado, so about 40 minutes south of the Wyoming border.

Nancy: Okay, yeah, absolutely. So do you have any favorite story? It can be from childhood or adulthood, like timing doesn't matter, just about being outside or doing something fun in nature.

Rhys: I do. This is maybe not the story that you're looking for. My mom, when I was a kid, sent me to horse camp, so I was learning how to take care of horses, ride horses, all this other stuff, and I was a very outdoorsy kid.

A lot of the kids at horse camp were very indoor kids, and they were very nervous about like, "Oh, we're going on a trail ride. Oh, we're outside." I was not.

And at one point, on the final trail ride, I'm trying to get my horse over this bridge. And the horse doesn't wanna go. I'm six years old. I'm not gonna be able to get this horse over this bridge. There's no way I'm gonna get a pony where it doesn't wanna go.

And the entire trail ride rides past me, including the instructor, and she's like, "You'll figure it out." And then she rides past me over this bridge, and I finally am giving up on getting this pony over the bridge. He keeps giving me this look like, "Girl, if you think I'm going over this bridge, this is not gonna happen."

So I get back on the horse, and I know how to ride a horse, 'cause I just spent a week learning how to ride a horse. And so I just turned him around, and I spent maybe the next 30 minutes just out in nature by myself, riding this horse around the farm.

And my mom was very angry. Not with me, but with the program. But that's actually one of my fondest memories of just, like, wow, it is amazing to be out here with this amazing creature and this stream and these trees and nobody bothering me. And my mom was like, "Why wasn't the teacher with you?"

Nancy: Sounds to me like the spark that ignited that whole love of why come out here and count some bugs.

Rhys: Yeah.

Nancy: Nice. Rhys, thank—

Rhys: I'm not stealing horses, but—

Nancy: Nope, you're not stealing. There's no horse thieveries. No horses to steal. No horse thieves. All right. Rhys, this was a pleasure. Thank you so much.

Note: The transcript above has been condensed from its original audio recording to improve the flow and readability of the story.