Desert Bloom

Spring hit the canyon last hitch and we got to see the flowers blooming right in front of our eyes. Between the flowers, rocks, rainbows and skies it was an awesome display of color, especially set against the red-brown canvas of dirt.

(Flowers and rainbows on the last day.)

We camped up at Mormon Flats near Skeleton Point, more than halfway out of the canyon and right next to a cliff, so our views were the best ever.

(Looking back at our tents on the cliff's edge)

The rom-tec (portable composting toilet) was perched overlooking the Tonto and inner gorge, and has to be in the running for most beautiful bathroom in the world.

(A toilet with a view)

We worked with NPS and CREC to continue our cyclic maintenance up the South Kaibab, putting lots of crushed and dirt on the eroded checks. It looked really nice when we finished and got rave reviews from the hikers, but it’s just a big band-aid that will get torn up by the mules. The long term goal is to armor larger portions of the trail to stand up to the beating of daily mule trains. We got to work with the mule wranglers a bit which was a special treat. Harkening back to the old school trail work, we loaded up mules with dirt to transport down to a particularly hard hit section of trail just below Skeleton.

(Buckets of dirt ready to load onto the mules)

Other notable events included two of our co-workers hiking down for an overnight visit and packing along some Rocky Road ice cream. After 5 days working under blank skies with no running water it was about the best thing we could ask for.

(The only man fast enough to hike ice cream into the Grand Canyon)

A condor soared over camp during lunch one day, and our CREC bird expert spotted a pair of Peregrine Falcons with a nest on the cliffs below our rom-tec. Foot traffic continues to increase, sometimes to the point of frustration. The hikers are enthusiastic and supportive, but trying to work in the gaps between them can feel futile. Among the countless questions we receive, my favorite was probably “why are you guys so dirty?” Well, because I move dirt all day and don’t shower.

I never know what the weather’s going to do since I don’t check before I go out on hitch. By the ninth day in the back country it’s really anybody’s guess what might happen, so it’s always fun to make sailor predictions based on the wind and sky. My predictions are pretty much always wrong, so not surprisingly I was caught unawares by a pretty good downpour that started during stretch circle on our last day.

(Ominous skies, the weather swept in over the south rim and had us running for the trailhead)

Of course I chose that day to be as “Dad-core” as possible, with my shorts, tucked in tee, moccasins and makeshift shoelace headband. With a hi-ho the wind and hail stung us on the hike out, but also brought some beautiful rainbows and provided great motivation to get to the trailhead. While we waited for the mules to bring up our coolers we crashed the “El Tovar” hotel to drink bottomless cups of coffee out of silver carafes. The hostess suggested that my friend Jeff change seats for a better view of the canyon, but Jeff was more concerned about getting his breakfast steak with a side of bacon.

Next hitch could be our last on the South Kaibab. Our crew will probably start working from the North Rim as soon as the roads open, doing cyclic on the North Kaibab. It’s rumored that we’ll have a sweet yurt to operate out of, and the extra 1000 ft of elevation should keep the temperatures manageable during the hot summer season. Meanwhile, it’s time for some camping during my off days…I know, it’s a sickness.

(CREC, ACE and NPS working productively and living harmoniously together.)

Phoenix Retreat

I've had about 10 days off since last project since they're rotating me back onto the Canyon schedule. Most of that time has been dedicated to the leadership group I'm involved with, planning events for a national celebration of community service in Flag and service projects for a conference in July. We had a retreat in Phoenix to make plans for these events, and as always it was a great chance to carouse with friends. In between meetings etc. we got to tour the Arizona capital, eat for free in the government employee cafeteria (it's about what you would imagine), relax poolside at our comp'd hotel and catch an opening week Diamondbacks game. Our contact in the governor's office (by day) is the t-shirt cannon guy for the D-backs (by night), so he got us free tickets and hit us with a bunch of free shirts too. We made some sweet signs at the poster station located inside the stadium...probably the best idea in baseball since they started letting us take food in.

(Leadership team at the D-Backs game with handmade signs designed to get us free shirts)

After the Diamondbacks slaughtered the Pirates 8-1 (including a grand slam) there was a big fireworks show and a couple of us drove north of Phoenix to Cave Creek Recreation Area to camp for the night. The next day we made it up to Camp Verde and just scratched the surface of all the amazing wilderness there on the edge of the Mogollon Rim.

(Looking off the Mogollon Rim near Rd. 216)

(Backcountry "BALT" Bacon, Avocado, Lettuce & Tomato)

Future trips to that area will hopefully include the Crawdad Festival in June and canoeing down the Verde River. Off to the canyon tomorrow for a 9 day hitch. I've talked with our director about staying on to become a crew leader and got a good response, so hopefully I'll be in Arizona for a while yet!

Wilderness First Aid

We're now WFA certified after our two day course with the Red Cross. The class was a lot of fun, especially because it was all my PDM buddies and this one cool old guy named Jim taking it. We immobilized necks, made lots of judgement calls and hauled each other around the building using beam carries, pack carries, fireman carries and clothing drags. The wilderness bent to it was really interesting and our instructor did a great job of tolerating all our random questions. I think if anybody gets hurt around all us gung-ho first aiders it's going to be quite a show.

(100% satisfaction guarantee for any wilderness rescue)

Montezuma's Well

Had a change of scenery this tour, doing a 4 day hitch at Montezuma's Well National Monument near Sedona. The project was installing an irrigation system to support the replanting of a fallow field with native species. The water will come from Montezuma's well and support the plants for 4 years while they get established, at which point they should be able to survive on their own.

(the west field, hopefully this is not what it will look like in 10 years)

Our job was to connect 1/4" tubing to the 1/2" tubing snaking through the field, providing the last step for water to reach the plants. There were a lot of finger blistering tiny connections to make, first out of the 1/2", then into a tee junction and finally into the emitters, which hung inside the wire cage.

(1/4" tube coming out of 1/2" tube. Tubes are woven into the wire cage and emitters hang just above the ground on both sides of the little plant)

Our crew busted out some fine work and probably could have finished the project a day early if all the supplies had been in place. It was frustrating to have information trickling in about the correct way to hook up the tubes, and we had to redo a lot of the work from day 1 because we didn't just have a comprehensive orientation at the beginning. Since we finished the work so quickly, our project partner let us visit Montezuma's Castle and Montezuma's Well; two very cool sites with lots of pueblos built 1000 years ago.

(looking across Montezuma's well, ancient dwellings in the background)

(The water exits the well through a 300 ft cave and pops out into this nice little aqueduct, built 1000 years ago and still going strong. The well supports several endemic species including a water scorpion and a leech found nowhere else in the world, but no gill fish because of low oxygen levels. The water is always 74 deg)

We camped at a random pullout in National Forest, and it treated us pretty well, minus the hicks who heckled us from their 4x4s as they roared past in the middle of the night. Nothing stolen and no confrontations, so that's good enough for me. We had some delicious meals and it only rained at night. The days were beautiful and sometimes it just felt like we were all on a stroll through the park as we checked and rechecked all of our connectors. I'll be down in Phoenix later this week for a retreat, and then it's back to the Canyon on April 13th.