Nature is Neat

By the time we got even close to the Grand Canyon on Tuesday it was snowing and dark and the people at the resort we stopped at to use the bathroom looked at us hopelessly and told us we were crazy.  We had planned on camping in the park that day but with the late start that we got we decided to just find a place on public land to stay the night and go to the park in the morning.  After an amazingly huge grey owl almost flew into my windshield followed by me almost running it over as it sat in the middle of the road looking for mice, we finally found a dirt road that looked promising.  I drove down it for a few miles and found an outhouse and a little area that looked campable.  At this point there was actually snow accumulating on the ground so we made a fire, drank our coldness away and Lindsay, Matt and I slept in the back of my car while Sung slept outside in just his sleeping bag (his choice).

Snow at the top of the North Rim.

The next morning we were just planning on winging it so we went to the back-country office to see what someone could tell us.  The guy working was super helpful and due to the government shutdown and lack of visitors on the North Rim side of the Grand Canyon at this time of year we were able to get a back-country camping permit for 2 nights at the sites we wanted without having to wait.  That day we hiked 14.2 miles down to the bottom where the Colorado river ran through.  It was so beautiful and much of it literally took my breath away.  It was amazing to see the drastic changes in rock color/texture and flora and fauna as the elevation decreased.  We hiked down 6,000 feet total!  It took longer than expected however, and the last 2 or 3 miles we ended up walking in the dark with headlamps.  At the time it felt torturous; we had been hiking all day and had no idea how much longer until we reached the site.  Looking back it was kind of fun hiking in the dark, and even more exciting is waking up and seeing your surroundings for the first time in daylight.

I woke up on a patch of sand next to a creek, and my first sight upon waking up was a mule deer across from me and endless cliffs going up to the sky.  We were only hiking 7 miles back up to the other camp ground this day so we spend a few hours exploring and walked to the Colorado River.  It was beautifully relaxing and almost felt like an exotic ocean.  Apparently only 1% of people who visit the Grand Canyon actually go to the bottom and it was cool that everyone around was just as excited as us and intrigued enough to experience it from the inside. 

     
Before we left to hike back up we weighed our packs on the scales at the bottom that are meant for the people who pay mules to carry their belongings.  My pack was 35 pounds, Lindsay's was 32, and Matt's was 50.  (To have a mule carry your bag it had to be under 30 pounds.)  We had divided Sungs gear up so that he wouldn't have to carry as much with a bad knee.  It was nice to have a heavy excuse for being so ridiculously sore that morning.  One of the best parts of the hike was just talking to everyone that we passed and hearing about their backpacking experiences.  The whole hike was serene and beautiful, being surrounded by so few people and so much wildlife.  It made me want to go on more harder and longer backpacking trips and just meet people and explore the rest of my life.  Who needs money or a job. 

We the People

"If you are lucky enough to find a way of life that you love, you have to find the courage to live it."

I absolutely love this quote by John Irving.  It basically represents everything I feel about life and how everyone forgets that we have the ability to make changes in our lives.  So many people wish they were doing something else, and like me after graduating college have no idea what it is they even want to do.  Some people dream of traveling or quitting their job and leaving town to start the life they've dreamed of, but how many people actually do it?  I always wanted to do something different with my life but I never knew how to go about it, or worked up the motivation/courage to just do it.  I first thought I wanted to move to New Zealand and work for a year or go backpacking through Europe or be a ski chalet host in Switzerland and finally AmeriCorps.  I was afraid to tell people of my plans not only because I thought they might not agree with them, but mostly because I was terrified that if I didn't actually do it I would be one of those people who have so many plans but no intention of doing them.  I've read about people on their deathbeds and their biggest regret was not having the courage to do that one thing they always wanted to do.  That is so devastating to me and I really hope that the rest of my life and everyone else we can figure out how to be brave enough to take risks and never settle for being content.

It's weird how quickly you get used to living a new kind of life and stop appreciating the newness of it.  I have been here a little over a month and as amazing as much of the scenery is, it has become so natural in my day to day life.  Driving through the desert and mountains to get just about anywhere feels so normal.  It doesn't even feel like there's another option then sleeping on a thermarest instead of a bed and camping half of the week.  I try and remind myself what I was doing a year ago, and that if I stumbled across even the tiniest peak of a mountain in the midwest  would look so insane and I would be in awe.  I want to feel in awe that way everywhere I go and with everything I do.

This was a weird week because of the whole government shutdown shenanigans.  Monday my crew went out to the Lake Mead National Recreation Area and spent the day putting in signs and  searching for huge rocks then moving them around with a rock basket to block off motor vehicles from restoration areas.  This was the first time I've actually worked in a desert and it was super hot.  The place we camped was really beautiful though.  We stayed on a low flat area but were surrounded by rolling hills and mountains less than 100 feet away.  Since we figured we'd only be camping one night my whole crew was lazy and ended up cowboy camping.  I got to watch the sunset from my sleeping bag and wake up all night to the amazing view of the stars and milky way over the mountains.  Also to the fear of a tarantula crawling over my face or a big horned sheep stampeding me.  Luckily neither of those fears were turned out to be necessary.

Tuesday morning we woke up to find out that the government was shut down and since we were working with the Bureau of Land Management  and they were closing we could no longer work on that project.  Almost every partner that we work with has been forced to stop working so our only option for projects is in the Spring Mountains with the forest service.  We all went back to the field station and got out early to go home and sleep under a roof in the middle of the week.  Weird! Wednesday all 6 of the crews went out to the Spring Mountains to work on some more trail building, woo.  It ended up being fun camping with everyone and having a bonfire in the 40 degree weather. I won't go on about how angry I am at the government but there were actually barricades blocking a gravel roadside parking spot next to a trail head, and rangers were being paid to block off another trail.  RIDICULOUSNESS I TELL YOU.  

Here is an awesome video you must watch of what we'll be doing at chainsaw training next week...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdJicpjitMM

This is Living

This might be a long one since it's been a while, sorry!

The last few weeks I find myself questioning less and less about why I am here and what I am doing.  Even driving down the streets of Vegas is starting to seem less dreadful than it was when I first got here.  I am still amazed that I get to explore Nevada and camp all while working and I can't believe that I actually get to do something so cool as my job.  These last two hitches have been the best so far, mostly because of the people and relationships developing.  My crew didn't mesh very well in the beginning because we are all such completely different people but everyone is starting to grow on me.  The cool thing about this program is that almost everyone is from a different state so there are so many interesting people but we all have this same thing in common, which is awesome. (I definitely still have times when everyone here annoys me and I miss my friends at home though.)
One guy in my crew is 40 years old and ended up stuck working a finance job that he hated because it was what he was supposed to do and he could never find a way out.  He finally decided to leave and do something with his life that meant more than making money.  Almost every day he talks about how happy he is to be here and finally hang out with people who share his interests and ideas of life, its so great.  Before going to sleep I will often here him shout "This is living!" and I can't help but smile. 

My last hitch we went to Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge which is a wetland, and the first hitch I've had outside of the Spring Mountains.  On one edge of the refuge is private land with rogue cattle so apparently the ranchers don't care much about where the cows go and they have been pushing the fence down and getting into the refuge.  This is bigger problem than it seems because they eat a lot of plants (which

I can't remember the name of) that this endangered southwestern willow flycatcher needs to survive.  The wetland is very important for migratory birds like the flycatcher since there is such little water in Southern Nevada.  That might sound boring but it is really cool to know that what you are doing is actually serving a purpose and that keeping these cattle in has such a long chain of effects. 

So in order to stop the problem of them escaping the refuge needs to put in a new stronger fence, and since the fence was basically straight through a muddy marsh with cat tails and thick grasses taller than me we had to cut a 6 foot path on both sides of it.  I didn't think this would be hard but try wearing giant waders with a heavy brush cutter strapped to your body and walking through what looks like grass but is actually mud with holes pulling you in up to your thighs.  It was super difficult yet the most fun I've had at work so far.  The best part was that our project partner actually worked with us everyday and taught us a lot about the area.  Most of the time they just show you where to go and that's it, but she ate dinner with us and the forest rangers even came and thanked us, which is a great feeling.  Especially since they all had bets that we wouldn't be able to complete it. 

Feeling like I was on an expedition and exploring new areas that even the rangers didn't know what to do about is really exciting and makes me love this job.  I can't get over h
ow amazingly grueling but rewarding this was, even being covered in battle wounds from sweating waders.  I also have to mention that one of the male cows (steer?) recently died so there were bones all over the ranchers side of the fence, which was really sweet!  There was a full skull and even a large piece of perfectly intact rawhide.  Okay I might be too excited about last week so I will stop talking about it!

   

Hitch Numero Uno!

This week I had my first real hitch of the year.  It was 4 days long and we went to the Spring Mountains to work on a trail called in the Middle Kyle Canyon.  We had to get a key to open the gate since we would be camping in an area that's not open to the public, so it was really cool knowing that we were the only people around.  Here's where I slept every night... pretty freakin sweet.

We had to hike a mile or so from camp to get to the trail we were working on everyday which was a nice morning wake up.  The trail was already created by a machine but there are huge berms on the side (piles of rocks and things) so the water gets trapped.  So we basically had to get rid of the berm, build a better back slope and tear out all of the trees and stubs in the path.  It was reallyyy hard work.  By the end of the hitch everyone was covered in dirt, sweat, scratches and blisters.  But it was a lot of fun!  Every time it was getting harder I just looked around and remembered where I was.  There were 10 of us working everyday (2 crews) and by the end of the trip guess how many miles of trail we finished?  0.3.  I was surprised that it was so little but apparently for the amount of time we spent working that is pretty good.  Of course it rained every day at about 2:30 exactly but Wednesday was the only day we had to take a 2 hour lightning break.  I'm starting to get a little suspicious about the so called dryness and lack of rain here.  The mountain weather is pretty dang cool though and I have about a trillion cloud pictures from the last few days. 

Other than working we'd get back to camp at 6ish, cook a delicious dinner, hang out for a little and then go to bed by 8:30.  It's funny how okay everyone is with just passing out after dinner and somehow 9 hours of sleep a night still isn't enough... I didn't think I'd start going to bed that early until at least retirement.  We got back Friday evening but normally we work Monday through Thursday and then have Thursday night through Sunday off, I CAN'T WAIT.

This weekend we only had 2 days off (a regular weekend just doesn't cut it for me) because of memorial day last week.  Since one of my roommates is on an 8 day hitch this week it was just my other roommate Jake and I home so we decided to go hiking on this Gold Strike Trail which is filled with hot springs and leads to the Colorado river right next to the Hoover dam.  This was one of the coolest places I've ever been, I was literally in awe the entire time.  A lot of the trail was so hard we had to climb down boulders and there was a rope tied on so you had to levy yourself up/down.  I'm covered in bruises.  There was this rocky peninsula that you had to walk through the water to get to so we decided to camp out there. There were rocks to jump from and giant fish and hot water splirting out of these colorful cliffs, it was so cool.  Unfortunately I was dumb enough to try and cowboy camp since setting my tent up sounded like a lot of work, and it ended raining the whole night.  Probably the worst sleep I've ever had especially since I kept waking up hearing animals scurrying around me and thinking of an escape plan for when a mountain lion approached.  Luckily I didn't have to put that plan into action because it was a bad one. I don't know what picture to add since none of them really show how beautiful it was but that's the rocky thing I camped on!  Oh and I just got a phone call from a guy saying that he found this message in a bottle that I threw into the river yesterday.  I'm so excited, I didn't think anyone would find it or call me to return it as I requested... maybe it's a sign that he's my soulmate?

Orientation Mon

This blogging thing is a lot of work, but I'm determined to keep up with it!  Since I've gotten here it's been pretty crazy and I felt like I was becoming bipolar or something being super happy one minute and then sad and lonely the next.  I didn't expect it to feel so weird but I guess moving to a location that you have only ever seen in movies will do that to ya.  Luckily my roommates are really cool and once we started doing things together it wasn't so bad.  We spend most of our time at home sprawled out on the floor since we have no furniture and murdering mini cockroaches so I think that's  progress.

Last Monday I finally started work but it was mostly involved hanging around, eating a lot, and learning about the wildlife in the desert.  We found out our crews at our field station, got an overview of the week and then went up to the mountains where we camped until Friday.  The first few days we listened to a lot of speakers from organizations that we will be partnering with this year discuss the types of projects we'll be doing with them.  We'll be doing a lot of trail building so we spent some time learning the physics behind how we build them and why.

Thursday the plan was to have a full work day of building trails but we ended up only working for probably an hour or 2.  We drove in trucks a little ways down the mountain to where we'd be working and then we had to hike in a mile or so with all of our tools.  We had barely started working when it started to lightning at which point we were told to drop our tools and disperse, sit down, and wait 45 minutes after the last lightning until we could resume work.  There's even a lightning pose for when you actually feel your hairs rise where you crouch in a squatting position with your heals touching and your hands on your knees.  Eventually it started pouring and after a while we heard a weird noise and then saw the head of a flash flood! It was pretty cool.  Of course it was going through a ditch at the bottom of the hill the went along part of the path we had to walk on to get back to the trucks.  The crew leaders decided that we couldn't work in these conditions anyways so once the lightning stopped we hopped through the flash flood and then walked straight back to the road instead of following the path.  When we were almost all the way back to the trucks there was a lightning strike super close so everyone dropped there tools and had to run the rest of the way back.  I live for this kind of stuff so it was exciting!

Other than that we spent a day learning wilderness wildlife training (which is pretty scary to thing about all the horrible things that can happen out there).  And we spent a lot of time cooking/eating.  I was expecting something along the lines of loaves of bread and occasionally some undercooked rice for dinner each night but it turns out we'll be eating better than I normally would at home.  We made pita pizza, pesto pasta, and falafal while camping whattt.  So that basically sums up my orientation week!  It was really fun but I can tell it will definitely be tough.


The cool thing about Las Vegas as that as much as being in the city kind of sucks you can do just about anything by only driving a matter of hours.  Yesterday my roommates and I went to see the Hoover Dam and then we drove through this abandoned town and went cliff jumping in Lake Mead!  Whenever I'm wondering what I'm doing here I look around and remember I'm in this amazing location surrounded by mountains and crazy landscapes and getting paid to go camping.  Woohoo!

2 Days Away!

Hello ya'll!  If anyone read my last blog I'm going to try to make this one much better, even with my horrible writing skills... I will overcome them.  (off to a good start, eh?) 

Tomorrow I am leaving on my road trip to Nevada where I will be doing conservation work for the Nevada Conservation Corps in Las Vegas.  I will also be stripping on the side.  Just kidding.  The work requires either going camping for 4 days with 3 days off, or 8 days with 6 days off.  Sounds pretty cool.  I'm leaving for Iowa City tomorrow, Denver Wednesday and finally, if all goes according to plan, Vegas on Thursday!  I decided to make this road trip alone even though my loving bffff Al said she would go with me.  It feels like something I just need to do on my own and I'm pretty excited to finally be on the road.  Hopefully policemen and fellow drivers don't exist in the West so the drive will go by faster.  I'll try and keep this updated and I'll be Googling long, intellegent words to sound smarter in future posts.