Arizona ACE, Weeks 1 & 2

Hello from Arizona! Thank you all very much for your kind birthday wishes.  I had a scenic 24^th birthday in Hack Canyon.

In basketball terms, my Jordan year (23) was great and I hope that my Kobe year (24) will be almost as good. Maybe 5/6 as good?  And Derek Fisher will be there?

We’re back in Flagstaff now, but we spent our first eight days north of the Grand Canyon in a “little” feeder canyon called Hack Canyon.  (“Little” is in comparison to the other canyons in northern Arizona, despite 1700 ft rock walls on every horizon.  The big boys are 4000 ft deep) 

We started each day at 7 AM, leaving our campsite and hiking along the bottom of the canyon to the stretch of trail that we were working on.

As we worked farther down the trail, the hikes got longer, and by the end of the hitch we were hiking half the day (about 11 miles roundtrip).  The actual work was pretty fun too. Most of the trail had already been cleared, so we were doing maintenance to make it easier to hike. (Or, you could say that the trailblazers did a shitty job, if you would like another NBA reference).  The last bit of the week we cleared cactus and yucca from the trail, but mostly we built cairns. Cairns are basically rock piles that delineate the trail and they look like this:

2 feet wide, 3 feet tall, with a little rock flourish at the top.  We built 74 of these things along the five miles of trail.  You collect the biggest, flattest rocks that you can find, and piece them together so the whole thing is stable.    

In between hitches, we get six days in flagstaff, where we shower, use our phones, get binge-y, and go through granola bar withdrawls.  Also this “weekend” we went south a few miles to hike near Sedona. Here are a couple pictures from our hike along wet beaver creek.

On Wednesday, we head back into the backcountry.  This time, we might be at Lake Mead laying fence.  Or not. ACE has been very tightlipped about our next project.  Regardless, more soon!

Arizona ACE, Prologue

Time for a quick update before we head out into the desert!  I hear the wi-fi in the Grand Canyon is a little spotty.

The last few weeks have been full of roadtrips and van time.  First from New Orleans to Denver, then Denver to Flagstaff.  I’m used to our travel taking us through Texas so the drive between Denver and Flagstaff was a real treat.  Central Texas is about is about as scenic as …well… Central Texas.  I think the truth is about the same as hyperbole here.  This time around, we stayed in Moab Utah, which is only a mile or two from Arches National Park.

As I mentioned a little while back, our next project will be in Northern Arizona, working for ACE (American Conservation Experience).  We got into Flagstaff earlier today and tomorrow we’re driving to the Arizona Strip for our first work project.  We’ll be working in Hack Canyon, which is here:

Supposedly it’s very pretty.  The work will be intense- moving rocks, building trails, laying fence- and we’ll be insulated from pretty much everything.  Nine days of sleeping in tents and pooping in the ground!  We start tomorrow, so next week I should have some pictures.  Of the tents and canyons and stuff.  Not the poop.

Onward! To the Desert!