Mountain-Top Celebrities

It happened unexpectedly. My team, The Adders, had just finished our work in the field and decided to take a trip to the Black Mountain fire lookout tower so we could see an amazing view of southern California. When we got to the site, Rusty began to talk to the staff and volunteers who worked there. As he talked to them, he realized that he remembered one of the women from one of his earlier visits there, but made a joke about how he must have been recognizing her from the movies or television. Ironically, it turned out that the volunteer's name was Michele Marsh, an actress who had several roles in movies and television series over a period of decades. She took the time to tell us about her adventures as an actress, and we told her about what we were doing with plants on our expedition. What was really surprising was that she had been in many movies and TV shows that the team had grown up with, including Fiddler on the Roof, Top Gun, Star Trek, and Little House on the Prairie. As we walked away, knowing that we had made her day and she had made ours, I saw that Earthwatch isn't just about learning about plants and collecting them: it's also about meeting amazing people in the least predictable places.