diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index e1252097..f99bfc42 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 Package: amadeus
 Title: Accessing and Analyzing Large-Scale Environmental Data
-Version: 1.1.6
+Version: 1.1.7
 Authors@R: c(
     person(given = "Mitchell", family = "Manware", role = c("aut", "ctb"), comment = c(ORCID = "0009-0003-6440-6106")),
     person(given = "Insang", family = "Song", role = c("aut", "ctb"), comment = c(ORCID = "0000-0001-8732-3256")),
diff --git a/R/calculate_covariates.R b/R/calculate_covariates.R
index 27e46663..03f657da 100644
--- a/R/calculate_covariates.R
+++ b/R/calculate_covariates.R
@@ -1524,7 +1524,14 @@ calculate_hms <- function(
       paste0("medium_", radius),
       paste0("heavy_", radius)
     )
-    skip_merge <- merge(locs, skip_df)
+    # fixed: locs is replicated per the length of from
+    skip_merge <-
+      Reduce(rbind,
+        Map(function(x) {
+          cbind(locs, skip_df[rep(x, nrow(locs)), ])
+        }, seq_len(nrow(skip_df)))
+      )
+
     skip_return <- calc_return_locs(
       skip_merge,
       POSIXt = TRUE,
diff --git a/R/process.R b/R/process.R
index b7bae4bb..cc533e13 100644
--- a/R/process.R
+++ b/R/process.R
@@ -2091,12 +2091,11 @@ process_geos <-
     paths <- list.files(
       path,
       pattern = "GEOS-CF.v01.rpl",
-      full.names = TRUE
+      full.names = TRUE,
+      recursive = TRUE
     )
-    paths <- paths[grep(
-      ".nc4",
-      paths
-    )]
+    paths <- grep(".nc4$", paths, value = TRUE)
+
     #### identify dates based on user input
     dates_of_interest <- generate_date_sequence(
       date[1],