Unlimited Sunshine

Another hitch in the Grand Canyon flew by, with 9 days of unlimited sunshine. I don't think we had a drop of precipitation, a nice break from last hitch's wild weather.

(drying off after the hike up to the worksite)

We camped with CREC (another work crew) at tip-off with the giant orange dome tent again. That place really felt like home this time and it was a joy to wake up there every morning.

(morning stretch circle on the tonto)

We tackled one of the most challenging sections of the trail this time, the switchbacks right in the meat of the red and whites, and I'd say we did a damn fine job. Everybody worked really hard, especially our amazing volunteers. I don't think I heard a single complaint from any of them the entire hitch, which is really unbelievable. They made this one really special.

(South Kaibab, finished trail in the foreground, unmaintained trail around the switchback)

CREC had one of their education specialists come down to give a presentation on primitive survival techniques, and he showed us how to make fire using the bow and drill technique. They were gracious enough to let us try our hand at it, so I got to whittle my fireboard and drill out of yucca wood and I got a fire going my first try! It's really interesting, the hot ash from the drill and board creates a little pile that coalesces into a burning coal right in front of your eyes. Then it's like a little baby that you have to nudge into a tinder ball and nurture until it blossoms into a flame right in your hands.

("Mowgli, teach me how to make fire!", yucca wood drill and board with animal bone spindle)

NPS hooked us up again with some awesome equipment, this time including an elevated fire pit, so we actually got to build a real campfire in the Grand Canyon...something you just can't do if you're not a work crew. It was a once in a lifetime experience, roasting marshmallows over the open flame on the Tonto Plateau, stars shining above. I'm so grateful for that experience.

(Fire in the Canyon, with requisite Swiss Miss)

We were mandated to take a bath one time during the hitch, so we took turns hiking in pairs down to the river after a half day of work. I went with my boy Matches after four days of hard work and had an amazing cold dip in the Colorado, right on the Boat Beach at Phantom Ranch. Then we sent some postcards and caught an interpretive talk about the Kolb brothers under the Sycamore tree. On the way back up to a wonderful dinner, we got caught in traffic behind a big horn sheep for about 15 minutes. It just kept walking up the trail ahead of us, dawdling around and snorting at us. After Patches took 100 pictures of it, we were done with the creature so I snorted at it. It froze, peed on the trail and then took off, so I think I won the territorial battle.

(The creature, blocking our path to food)

The last day I made another trip down to Phantom for a swim in Bright Angel Creek, which has warmed up considerably since January. Those hikes up to camp at dusk, clean, full of sunshine and with no pack are the best, and arriving to a freshly prepared dinner is the icing on the cake. We'll be heading to Montezuma's Well National Monument on Tuesday for a four day hitch, and then probably back to the Canyon after that to start working on the upper half of the South Kaibab. Life is good.

(too much energy on day 1)

San Diego...En Fuego

We work hard for 9 days moving rocks and dirt, and then we work hard for 5 days having as much fun as is humanly possible. This time off me, Jeff, Stephanie and Alison jetted for Joshua Tree and San Diego and reformatted people's brains with our unadulterated joy. I liked the photo essay of last post, hopefully you did too because here comes another one...


ok, note, the rest of this post is going to be scrambled, I've got 15 minutes before I have to leave the library. Ready, go



I put up these to pictures to illustrate why Jeff is on Night Team and Stephanie is on Day Team with me. The balance of the times and places where our crew's brains work best is probably the most beautiful thing about our friendship.


Cousins in San Diego! What lovely people. I loved all their stories and it was so great to see them at the beach BBQ.

Jeff, inspecting the coals on our last night beach BBQ. Me and Alison picked up lots of fresh produce while we made friends in Whole Foods. Grilled Portabello mushrooms and Black Pepper Steak Kabobs with Gouda cheese just about made me lose it on the beach. So delicious.
The girls capturing bright moments during our lives in marvelous times. We played frisbee and fought off homeless couples who wanted to make out next to the heat of our fire.

We kept having conferences before we went out to party, and we kept coming to the conclusion that if we partied hard enough, the problems would resolve themselves. Consequently we slept both nights in San Diego in Jeff's Toyota Corolla. The first night was a magical bonding experience, and the second night we were like, are we sleeping in this damn car again? The first night was red wine, Mos Def and motivational speeches, followed by 3 hours of dancing at Tiki Bar to a great live band and an hour wrestling and swimming in the Pacific Ocean to cap the night. I don't have any good pictures of us at the St. Patty's day parade the next day, but I'm sure there are lots of them out there on other people's cameras. One float had a live band playing "What do you do with a drunken sailor" on repeat, and we went crazy, dancing alongside it at full tilt until we collapsed 1.5 miles later. The guys on the float ended up being from the band at the Tiki Bar the night before and told us to jump on. I felt sick for an hour after that insanity, like I was going to throw up from the exhaustion of dancing. They offered us beer on the float, but we both turned it down and asked if they had any water...no dice.

Joshua Tree, remember we're reverse chronological again, sorry guys. The cholla garden.

Steph and Jeff reach the top of Ryan Mountain, a hulking 5,000 ft. peak that was "Strenuous" to reach and takes 3 hours round trip. Scratch that, we did it in 1 hour. OK, so we're kind of egotistical about our fitness now. We all have our shortcomings. Our bellies are full of delicious Mexican food, a common theme on our trip.


Alison found a nice relaxing spot on the awesome boulders above our campsite at Indian Cove in Joshua Tree. This place is like a giant playground, with massive granite boulders strewn everywhere. The climbing is fantastic. We spent 3 hours bouldering and scrambling all over this place. We accidentally flushed out two Western Screech Owls as we nearly descended on top of them, and it was beautiful to see them flying below us in broad daylight, even if we felt bad for "disturbing the wildlife". On our final descent, Alison and I did some technical bouldering. The real climbers whose camp we were above commended us on our "epic scramble" which made me feel good.

Who is that man?!? I need to go back to J-tree.

Shout out to the amazing crew on this trip. We collapsed into the car at night, exhausted from dancing, and then had dance parties in the street the next morning. Stephanie won a dance competition at the St. Patty's day parade. Jeff finished the "El Jefe" 32 oz margarita and then hiked to the top of a mountain. We all got free CDs from "Tornado Magnet" (the album...double wide) for dancing as hard as they were playing. We slept less than 4 hours a night and lived on happiness, friendship and music. We made strangers smile and then made them our friends. This was a damn special trip with some damn special people. 10% condition, 90% response. Survival mathematics.

Advanced Camping Techniques at Tip-Off

Having a goooood time, everyday (mos def knows what he's talking about). Great hitch in the Grand Canyon, for the first time we camped up at Tip Off, right above the inner gorge. NPS set us up with a sweet work camp, complete with BBQ, Master Blaster, tables, dishes, handwash station and the coup de grace...a $6,000 Everest expedition tent to use as our Mess Hall and living room. There was some crazy wind and weather some days, a few tents were almost ripped off of their stakes, but no losses fortunately. We had a couple days of snow, which made for some real cold work and also some really great appreciation for the sunny days. I finally have my own camera with working batteries, so let's turn this into a photo tour. Of course they loaded in reverse chronological order, but this is just going to have to be quick and dirty since I ship out to the Canyon tomorrow morning.

Eating lunch in a cave on the Red and Whites while the snow storm rages outside. I was cold this day, but also incredibly thankful for this shelter.


Crazy snow and rain made these moments unbelievable. Patrick's tent, complete with dust shield (aka log) is in the foreground. This is the tip-off work camp.

One day we hiked up to work on the "Old Miner's Trail" instead of the regular route up the South Kaibab. It was an awesome scramble on vague singletrack. The route is real, meaning it's not "off trail", but it definitely didn't show up on any map I saw. Props to NPS trail crew for letting us do amazing things like this. This is looking down the trail over the bones of a dead mule that was kicked down here 2 years ago by NPS.

Oh yeah, Everest dome tent, grill with propane, bomber NPS super bulky sleeping pads and nobody else allowed to camp here but us. What more could you want?

Looking down the trail from Skeleton Point at the beginning of the red and whites. The rock crusher has been deemed a health hazard because of the dust it creates, so we're dirting the crushed that we've already lain down. This is probably the prettiest and softest section of trail in the entire canyon. Don't be lulled into a false sense of security, Danger Ahead!
Traffic went up considerably on this hitch. Poor Jeff is dying inside because he can't go 110% with all of the hikers clogging up the trail.

Our first day hiking down we went to Phantom, thinking we'd be staying there the whole hitch. Turns out we were relocated due to a lack of campsites, but luckily we got a blissful afternoon in at the secret beach.

In San Diego I drew the Otter Card from a Tarot deck. Here I am being an otter, running "Cut Foot" Rapid at Phantom. This is my first time down since pioneering the run the hitch before. Didn't cut my foot this time, but my coworker did, so I'm happy with the name.

Other highlights:

• Post work hikes on the Tonto with Jeff, Alison, Stephanie (San Diego crew) and other volunteers. Jeff and I took a rainy day hike and sheltered under a natural overhang for a while, watching it pour down.
• I entertained my first guests in the canyon (btw, I can host you at our work camp for free if you're in the area...pretty sweet)
• Telling an improved story in the Thunder Dome about the adventures of Rugged American Boy and Tiny Bavarian Girl...loosely based on my coworkers.
• Doing dishes with the "Manwich" cooking team (me, Jeff and Patrick).
• Singing "Oo-de-lally" and the "Mr. Bucket" Theme song along with just about every other song I know at the work site...also listening to Alison sing, old "one take" is a real talent.
  

All hitch we got stoked for our trip to Joshua Tree and San Diego. I'm going to squash the suspense and just say that the trip delivered. Check it out in the next post.

Canyons, Conference Rooms and San Diego

Another great hitch in the canyon, for the first time with volunteers, foreign and domestic. Four PDM members and I headed down with 5 volunteers and two staffers to get back to work on rip-rapping the South Kaibab and improving the tread with crushed limestone. We battled wild weather swings from hail, to freezing rain to sunshine and beautiful rainbows arcing across the canyon walls.

(stormy weather in the canyon, taken at skeleton point)

(hail and freezing rain made sunshine and rainbows that much sweeter, taken from skeleton point)

The volunteers were unfazed, hiking 3.5 miles up to work every single day, something it took me a couple of weeks to get used to. NPS was awesome as always, providing great leadership and comradery. A stomach bug terrorized a few of our workers towards the end of the hitch, but our supervisor and others really stepped up to care for them and make sure they had the strength to get out of the Canyon come Wednesday. Inclement weather and these unfortunate events provided the rest of us the opportunity to take a day hike up to Ribbon Falls; an experience that I don't think any of us will ever forget.

(behind ribbon falls, the falling water is forming some huge stalagmite that is all covered in moss)

(wait for it...)

(...bam! What a beautiful place)

I had to leave 1 day early to attend a leadership training in Prescott, and while I was looking forward to it, I felt strange leaving my friends behind while they battled this virus. The hike out was my hardest yet, as the recent rain had turned long sections of the trail into a mud pit. Plus, I had decided to work a half day in addition to hiking out. The section up to skeleton point felt great since the ground was hard and frozen in the morning, but after collecting rocks for 2.5 hours and eating lunch, the sun was out and the trail was a soggy mess. For each step I took up the trail I slid backwards, until I put on my crampons to gain purchase in the goo.

(I wish the trail looked this good when I was hiking out, taken on the way back from Ribbon Falls on the North Kaibab trail)

Tired but happy up at the top I took part in my ritual food binge at the Grand Canyon Market and caught a shuttle back to Flag after a nap. Arriving late, I had the good fortune to see my other roommates for a couple hours before they headed out on their next hitch in the San Pablo Mountains (southern Arizona). Collapsing into bed around 11:30pm, it was time to get up and go to Prescott way too soon.

The leadership training was a great experience. I got to meet 15 people from across Arizona that are dedicated to service in a wide variety of different ways. Some work with people with disabilities, others with children or the environment, and everybody's making a difference in people's lives. We spent 3 intense days and 2 crazy nights planning conferences and events that will promote awareness of service opportunities in Arizona for people of all ages. Sitting in a conference room for 12 hours a day when you're used to living in the Grand Canyon and moving rocks for a living was a trying experience, but we got a ton done and formed an amazing bond through this intense "work hard, play hard" experience. I feel blessed to have met all these great people and to have the opportunity to work with them over the next 5 months.

Back in Flag Friday at 7pm, it was time for recovery, but I couldn't escape one more great night out on the town. My roommate's mom was visiting so we all took her out to the Wine Loft and played Balderdash for a couple hours before cutting it up at Mia's. Finally, I got my rest in as I bummed around the apartment and Flag for a couple days, being more productive than I thought I'd be and sleeping less than I intended. Somehow it was still relaxing. Tomorrow, it's back in the Canyon for 8 days, and after that we're piling into my friend's car for a 5 day trip to San Diego (March 11-15). Beaches, bars, camping, music and Mexican food are on the hit list...we're going to keep it classy.

Grand Canyon and Tuscon!

A quick post before I go to a meeting, then back to the Canyon tomorrow morning for 8 days. The last hitch (Feb 2nd to 10th) was great. Coming off one day's rest after San Diego we soldiered out for another 8 days of cyclic trail maintenance and tread upgrading with the National Parks Service. Building up from almost 16 days straight working hard and living outside, I had a nice little groove going on, but my body was definitely tired. I split time between working up the S. Kaibab trail from Phantom Ranch on cyclic maintenance and making the 4 mile trek up to Skeleton point (over halfway out of the canyon) to gather rocks and crush them to improve the tread going down into the red and whites.

(the rock crusher and 8 tons of rocks that we hauled in)

We collected 2-3 tons of rock from the surrounding terrain and brought it to the gasoline powered rock crusher to make a bunch of beautiful limestone crushed for the trail. I used my time after work to go on some great hikes, including an hour long sprint up Clear Creek trail, and a nice 2 hr walk up the North Kaibab on Super Bowl Sunday. Believe it or not, they piped the Super Bowl Game into the canyon using an internet connection and held a nice party in the Phantom Ranch Bunkhouse. As much as I love watching football, I couldn't stand the thought of seeing a television commercial after so many days out in nature, so I opted for the hike followed by Swiss Miss and adventure whimsy over a nice topo map of the Grand Canyon. Luckily, I had a few coworkers that wanted to do the same, and we had a good time. Some nice wildlife experiences this hitch included a close up encounter with a bighorn who was chilling on the side of the trail, and a fly-by from a Condor during lunch at Skeleton point (9 ft. wing span!).

(wildlife sighting on the walk up to skeleton point)

Post work was time for refreshing dips in Bright Angel creek, a fad that caught on with a few brave souls and made camp smell a little better. All that heavy lifting, hiking and clean living had me feeling beat-up but pure. Our hike out went great, as I chatted away with Alison for 4 hours straight up to the top.

(a dip in Bright Angel Creek)

After the requisite trip to the Green Room (25 cent drinks on Wednesday night) and a recovery day in Flag, Jeff and I headed off for a trip to Tuscon, AZ. Some of his family friends gave us a home base while we took advantage of our 6 days off. Highlights included hiking to the top of Wasson Peak in Saguaro NP, camping in Coronado National Forest (beautiful spot!) and making lots of friends with our positive vibes in the city. Fire dancers, friendly bartenders and a great live performance from "Clam Tostada" at Sky Bar on 4th street got us started off right and we never looked back. Fueled by delicious mexican food and the complementary natures of our minds (I made plans for daytime, Jeff took care of the evening hours), I'd say we had about as much fun in Tuscon as two people can have in 4 days.

I need to sign off now to attend a meeting. I'll be out of touch through Feb. 24th in the canyon, and then I will be attending a two day orientation training in Prescott, AZ. Never a dull moment!

A Full Moon Over Ramona

For the last 7 days, we got off work just as the moon rose over the mountains of Ramona, CA.


We were coming back from days of brushing; removing plants and shrubs from the trail corridor on a new national forest service trail. The whole area east of Ramona burned 5 years ago, and as we dug out agave, yucca and sage, we found burned root-balls from the previous generation of flora. The area has filled in with a variety of chest-high desert scrub and a passerby wouldn’t guess at the recent fire; the scars that are really visible are the fall-line trails that hikers and bikers cut as they continued to use the fragile land. As suburbia fades into federal land, 5000 foot peaks hide creeks and waterfalls that are running at record levels after the recent rainstorms. Residents head out from their palm-treed estates every day with dogs, bikes and friends to explore the space, and they all gravitate to the same community trails. There are a lot of problems with fall-line trails (straight down the mountain); they’re steep, slippery, dangerous, tiring, not fun to walk on, but most importantly they become drainages during rain storms and erode like crazy. The compacted soil supports no vegetation, and canyons as deep as my waist run right down the center of these paths. So, the national forest service designed and staked out a new trail that our crews will devote 17,000 man hours to build over the next year.

(Cedar Creek Falls, where our trail leads to)

We had two days of training with our program director right off the bat and had a chance to cut new tread while learning about the principles of good trail-building. Our trail is out-sloped at a 5% grade and never descends at more than half the gradient of the cross-slope. This keeps the water flowing across the trail, not down it, and is an important part of building a sustainable trail. Our lessons were laid out in the work of the previous crew, which had built 150 ft of new trail right before the rainstorms hit San Diego. The parts that were built correctly survived unscathed, while the tiniest error was highlighted by the formation of a mini-canyon. We did some survey work using a clinometer (to read grades) and practiced staking out our own trails in groups which we then critiqued. After training, one member of our crew headed to Phoenix to try and win a grant for solar panels on our main office, and the rest of us laid into the task of clearing two miles of trail corridor.

The work was straightforward and tiring. We spent 10 hour work days swinging pick-mattocks, pulaskis and shovels at everything in our way and then shuttling the debris down-slope to tuck it into the landscape. At times I felt like the destroyer, razing the landscape while small woodland creatures took flight from my blade. A baby bunny huddled shaking in one of my brush piles for 10 minutes, too scared to move, and I barely spared a thumb sized rodent as I twisted out of a swing half way. I turned up a scorpion and another crew member discovered a small diamondback rattler as he reached to pull up a bush. We were all on lookout for the highly toxic Jerusalem cricket, which took a nip out of my coworker’s wrist. Amidst the carnage, the positive effects of the new trail stood out. Once our trail is finished, the fall-line trails will be re-vegetated and the whole area will be healthier, more beautiful and more sustainable.

Surprisingly, (to me, though probably not to anybody who has attended a home-owner’s meeting) there is some contention in the neighborhood over the new trail. There has been local press about the project, and feelings run the gamut from supportive, to indifferent, to opposed. Since our campsite was located on the side of a road by the trailhead, less than 50 yards from the nearest homes and property lines, anybody who wanted to come visit us could and did. On our second night, an angry, drunk old man, who we named Mordecai, drove his truck into our campsite and insisted that we leave. “Y’all don’t have a f***ing permit! Y’all are f***ing liars!” Our supervisor went to handle it while we all enjoyed the entertainment from the comfort of our tents. He threatened to call the cops on us (which he did), so our supervisor called the cops on him (it was the same cop) and relayed the man’s license plate number. Not to be outdone, Mordecai recited our license plate number out loud to no one in particular (“now I got your f***ing license plate!”), and unleashed his anger on a helpless MSR dromedary, kicking it into a ditch and then hurling it against the side of our trailer. Realizing that his bluff had been called and the cops were on their way, Mordecai jumped into his truck and ran over another dromedary as he high-tailed it out of there. Our super talked with the cop, who ran the plate, and the next day a forest service rep was over at Mordecai’s place to confirm our good word. Friday night at 4am, some friendly So-Cal stoners rolled in and tried to pry open our gear trailer “to see if anybody was inside”, totally oblivious to the fact that they were surrounded by 20 tents filled with sleeping trail-workers. Our supervisor scared the shit out of them by materializing out of the dark yelling “What the f*** are you doing?!?” and then amiably moved them on their way. Most people who came through our camp were just walking their dogs or getting on the trailhead, and everybody we met on the trail was friendly. We brushed 7900 ft of trail in three days, which now awaits a bulldozer to cut the tread and backslope and crews to put in switchbacks and armored drainages.

Right as the work days wound down were some of the best times. The sun cooled and threw pink light on the granite peaks as the moon rose orange behind us. Muscles relaxed and sweat cooled on the walk back to camp, and tools rocked lazily in our arms. The roar of the propane stove meant food was on the way, and food chests were raided by people too hungry to wait. Knives click-clicked on cutting boards while onions hissed, and people relaxed like only hard-working people can. Then, it was the sloshing of soapy water on dishes and the frenetic tak-a-tak stirring of hot cocoa in big plastic cups. Red embers shone from the fringes of camp as someone smoked the day’s last cigarette, and people laughed too loud as they careened through their swiss-miss sugar rush. Finally, everybody drifted off to their tents to sleep amidst the chorus of zippers, snoring and padded feet, under the light of the full moon. (pictures coming later...I'm off to the Grand Canyon for 8 days tomorrow)

Flagstaff Blizzard!...Life inside a Snow Ball

Well, the storm delivered. I would say there were 3-4 feet of snow total, possibly more. It snowed continuously from Wednesday night through Saturday morning and succeeded in driving me and my 6 roommates crazy. The library closed along with a fair number of other businesses; I even heard that a bookstore collapsed under the weight of the snow. We had no option but to watch countless episodes of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and soldier our way to vacant bars to stretch our stipends on weekday drink specials. Poor and idle, I survived the storm on a 5 lb bag of Idaho Spuds that I bought from Safeway for $1.29, fried in butter and covered in salsa. Other than oatmeal, it’s pretty much all I ate. Our rigorous and healthy canyon lifestyles were blown to pieces as we wallowed in our own filth and drank the nights away in despair at our captivity. As we anxiously awaited our return to action, the storm kept pushing back our project date, from Wednesday, to Sunday, to Monday, extending our epoch of sloth and indolence to 12 days. The sun remained hidden behind a swath of clouds for days on end and the streets were overrun by pedestrians and hapless vehicles. Alternate freezing rain and snow, accompanied by reported gusts of 60 mph buried Flagstaff in a tempest of biblical proportions! I blame this guy.


Bright spots included building a snow fort and having a snow pant dance party outside our apartment, walking in the winter wonderland and when the sun came out, the storm was over and we got on with our damn lives.