Wow it has been a very long time! I keep logging on and planning on posting and then getting distracted by my slow computer, so my bad. The last 2 months have been a pretty great experience, I started leadership training with 11 other future crew leaders who
are all the coolest people ever. It's awesome hanging out with people
who are super motivated and eager to learn and with a leader who really
cares about our improvements and wants to help us as much as she can. Now I only have about one more month of training and then I will be getting my own crew for the summer. I was placed in Ely, Nevada for the summer where I will be working with just one other crew and most likely camping for free on our off time. I was not expecting that but living in small town Nevada should be an interesting experience. Peace out Vegas. Oh and any ideas for activities to do in an old western mountain town on my free time would be greatly appreciated.
Last week my parentals came out to visit me and it was nice to be reunited and to show them around a place that they had never been. We ended up getting tired of the Vegas thing and went to Zion National Park in Utah for 2 nights. We did a couple awesome hikes, one of which led to a small canyon with a waterfall at the end and river flowing through it. In order to see the waterfall we had to go through several pools of at least waist deep water (which was 45 ish degrees). We finally decided to go all in after getting whipped by my mother throwing a stick at my leg in her effort to help, and her falling in before she was ready (KARMA). It was pretty amazing to see the geology of this place and how much the water of the flooding river created the canyons. The next morning we did the hike called Angel's Landing where I found out that both of my parents are extremely afraid of heights. In their defense something like 8 people died on this hike and it is a little scary. The last night we came back to Vegas and explored around here and then my mom lost some money gambling and was forced to deal with her addiction. After what felt like weeks of them being here (jk) they finally went home and left me on my lonesome again, but it was awesome having them here.
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| Freezing pools leading to waterfall at the end of Subway Canyon |
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| Zion | |
Since the end of my time here is nearing I have been looking for new jobs, and the idea of not getting to go out
into the middle of the wilderness everyday and camp more often than not sounds very depressing. For as much as I hate the dry heat, and lack of trees and grass in Southern Nevada I feel tied to it. Something here is pulling me back to the wild and to our ancestors and won't let me go. I am drawn to the West and intrigued by it too much to leave yet and I think finding the beauty in things that are not immediately beautiful to the eyes has taught me so much. We
were driving for hours down a dirt road into the middle of the desert last week and I was reminded of how incredible the openness and vastness
is out here is. It is amazingly easy to disappear from society and when you do how
connected you feel with everything that is part of the earth. Also everyone should read
this amazing
Wilderness Letter from Wallace Stegner... so good!
http://wilderness.org/bios/former-council-members/wallace-stegner.
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| La Jolla, California |
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| San Diego, which of course in Germany means a whale's vagina |
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| It decided to snow/hail during chainsaw training |
