Wupatki Rhythms

My one chance to get out on project in the last month was a four day project to Wupatki National Monument, the site of an 800 year old pueblo in the volcanic fields around Flagstaff. The short drive, small group of five people and short days made for a very laid back hitch that felt more like a family camping trip. Anasazi and Sinagua people inhabited this area for about two hundred years after the eruption of Sunset Volcano in 1050 a.d. On a very interesting guided tour by one of the NPS Archaeologists we toured the site and learned that trade routes extended from this Northern Arizona location all the way down to South America, and included copper bells, live Macaws and the rubber balls used to play the popular South American ball games.

Our work was a continuation of an earlier ACE project. The previous crew had backfilled some of the excavated rooms in the Wupatki Pueblo to stabilize the walls, and we were shaping and tamping the dirt so that rain will drain properly in the upcoming monsoon season. This effort will keep water from pooling up in the ruins and damaging the walls. We used pressure sprayers to water the dirt, and then waited for it to dry to just the right consistency so we could tamp it into place.

Tamping a steeply angled backslope in a small room with an 8-10 lb tamper was challenging and monotonous, but we passed the time by getting into a rhythm as a group and "dancing with the tool" as the Hopi NPS guys advised us to do. The best moments were when the whole group was working in unison, singing and dancing in this sacred site. The project partners were awesome and it was great to get to know them and talk about their connection with this pueblo of their ancestors.

We camped nearby in the Coconino National Forest at a primitive site set up by one of the ACE supervisors. The volcanic sand and vegetation was unlike anything I'd seen before, and we spotted unexcavated dwellings and structures sitting peacefully among the scrub. Our chef, Junior, kept us well fed and entertained, introducing a game of tug-of-war that involved two people balanced on elevated platforms. When another ACE crew rolled in for a fencing project, we had a battle for crew supremacy late into the night, accompanied with drum rhythms banged out on the hand wash bucket and garbage can lid.

At the end of our short days, we rolled around to other impressive archeological and geological sites like Wukoki, Sunset Crater and The Citadel (pictured above); an unexcavated pueblo atop a hill that sits right next to a big sink hole. Seeing volcanic stones in the walls of the dwellings reminded me of man's connection to the land and made me realize that 1000 years ago, people were sweating and laboring and working together to move rocks. They would have been kick-ass conservation workers!

Weird and Beautiful: Lake Powell and Monument Valley

Lake Powell was a weird place, like something out of a sci-fi painting. I was in between being impressed by the scale of it and depressed by the ruination of a beautiful natural place by human intervention. The Mechanical Engineer and Environmentalist were pitted against each other and I'm pretty solidly on the side of nature now.


The landscapes in Southern Utah were stunning, especially this flower-studded moon dust field on the edge of Escalante National Monument. I had the good fortune to drive back and forth through this beautiful place a number of times as I shuttled everyone back and forth to hiking and camping spots in the one car we had that could handle the high clearance roads.


We stayed overnight at Monument valley on the Navajo Reservation, definitely a different feel than the national lands that I'm so used to. The signs were different, the rules were different and there were vendors at every viewpoint selling jewelry and food. We couldn't figure out where to camp the first night, accidentally set up in the wrong place and had to move along when a Navajo woman came by in a truck and chided us. Above are the "Mittens".

Rez Dogs and children were wandering around the place. Some of the homesteads had a really nice family feel. We met a bunch of great people just getting by in their ancestral home, including a very motivated high school student editing an essay on the Son of Sam. Southern Utah is a place that demands more exploration.

Whoever Is Reading Moby Dick...Your Tent Is F***ed

Gale force winds whipped across Mormon Flats this hitch, claiming 6 of our 11 tents...but nobody got it worse than poor Keith. As we worked on the trail, blissfully unaware of the destruction going on below us, our project partner hiked up to pass on the bad news. Of course the question on everybody's lips was, "Whose tent is it?". "Whoever is reading Moby Dick, your tent is f***ed." The 60 mph wind snapped the aluminum poles on three tents and destroyed the rain flies on three more, and with a storm coming in, the decision was to hike out and camp on the South Rim for the duration of the hitch.

The storm hit and dropped temperatures to around 20 deg F at night, in addition to dusting us with snow. NPS provided some sweet little Mountain Hardwear solo tents for those of us whose tents were destroyed on Mormon Flats, so we did alright.

Cold nights were softened with big campfires, and cold mornings meant trips to the Grand Canyon Cafe for breakfast burritos and fresh hot coffee! A tough hitch turned into something special as we soldiered through rough weather and treated ourselves to the perks of frontcountry camping.

After accomplishing some great work on the South Kaibab trail, including repairing an eroded Mule Bar at Cedar Ridge and covering all kinds of check steps, we were rewarded with a hike to view some hidden petroglyphs and a scramble down into a cave on the rim. This was the last hitch with all of the AmeriCorps members together and will go down for me as one of the toughest and most rewarding tours in the Canyon.

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.