Arizona ACE, Epilogue

We got back from Lake Mead today and we're headed to Colorado Friday.  It was another great hitch.  Just like last time, we were putting in barbed wire fence and camping right near the lake.  Unlike last time, we ran over a 12 foot Joshua Tree with our truck.  Variety is the very spice of life.  Time to pack!

Our time in Arizona has been pretty spectacular. Ever since we got here, I was reminded of an old Louis L’Amour book that my college roommate Hans loaned me.  So I read another one last week.  Here are some pictures from our time in Arizona, all captioned with quotes from “Kilkenny” by Louis L’Amour.  Louis is way more eloquent than I am. And badass.

((ARCHES NATIONAL PARK))

To the high valleys then, came a lone rider, a man who rode with the caution born of riding long on strange trails in a land untamed and restless with danger

It was a desolate land, a jumbled heap of uptilted, broken ledges, enormous basins, knife-like, serrated ridges and toppling towers of sandstone.  The sun climbed and grew hot, weirdly eroded sandstone danced like demons in the heat-waved air

((HITCH 1: HACK CANYON))

Although he appreciated the towns and the comforts they offered, he had grown accustomed to living in the wilds and could do it.

It was slow, bitterly hard work, but he enjoyed it.  There was no sight or sound of anything man had done but what he did with his own hands.

All three were unshaven and had obviously been riding hard and long for they had that lean, hungry look of men off the trail.

((GRAND CANYON))

His face went white and he felt his breath go out of him.  Swiftly he glanced right and left.  On either side were the broken but unscalable walls of the canyon and behind him for more than a mile were the same canyon walls.

The scene was shocking in its majesty, breathtaking in its power

((HITCHES 2 & 3: LAKE MEAD))

He got to his feet, running his fingers through his dark hair which was all awry.  He must look like hell.  Needing a shave, tired, red-eyed and hair all on end.  He wondered aloud, how could a woman ever love such a man?

“Trouble?” The fellow looked up through eyes squinted with pain.  “I got trouble.”

Yes. Here he would stop. Here he would cease being the restless drifter he had become, a man fleeing from a reputation, fleeing from the reputation of a killer.  But in this place he would stay, and he would find peace... if they let him

Arizona ACE, Week 6

Carnage. Absolute carnage. 

That’s how our British friend Adam described his trip to Las Vegas a few weeks back.  This weekend was Spring Break for Americorps, so a bunch of us (12 americorps-ers, from 3 different teams + 8 of our European friends from ACE) went to Vegas for some carnage of our own.  

We also took a day trip to the Hoover dam for a dam tour and some dam pictures.  All in all, a dam good weekend.

In other news, we found out what our next (and last (!!!)) Americorps project is going to be.  And we got another winner.  We’ll be returning to Colorado, this time a few miles outside of Denver: to Boulder.  The work is going to be conservation (like our current AZ project), so building trails and working outside.  For the first half of the project, we’ll be living and working in Boulder.  The second half, we’ll be camping and working week-long stints all around Colorado.  I’m not entirely sure what to expect from next round, but I’m really excited to be in Colorado for the summer.  Lots of sun, concerts, baseball games, and hiking.  Up until that starts, we’ve got one last hitch, once again at Lake Mead doing fencing. 

Then it’s time to make like a tree and leaf. 

Time to make like a ball and bounce.    

Time to make like a banana and split.
Time to make like a baby and head out.
Okay, I'm done now...
...

...Time to make like a bowel and move.  

Arizona ACE, Week 5

Well, we made it through the budget cuts!  I think.  They passed a budget for the rest of the year, and we didn’t get sent home yet, so that’s good news.  Right? The $38.5 billion that was cut hit other programs, so Americorps is safe for the rest of the year.  The EPA took a big hit, which will show all those snobby trees and plants. Your free ride stops here, environment.

Anyway, with our jobs secure, we returned to work. This time we were doing fencing at Lake Mead (which is the lake that the Hoover Dam holds back).  It was a vastly different experience than our time in Hack Canyon.  We stayed at a campground (with showers! And water!) and our group was much bigger (37 people instead of 14).  The first few days, we did mostly hauling; carrying t-posts, cement, and wire to the fence. 2 miles through the desert.

The goal was to build a big barbed wire fence to keep out cattle, but I have no idea what kind of cow would ever want to live here.  Most of the green out there was cacti and the temperature was in the 80’s and 90’s the whole week.  Also, there were plenty of these guys around:

The back half of the week, four of us were put in charge of running the pionjar (pronounced: poon-jar).  The pionjar is a gas-powered jack-hammer and we needed it to drill holes for the t-posts into rocky sections.  The first two days, the pionjars we brought out to the rocks didn’t work, so we did a lot more repairs and struggling against the pull-cord than we did actual drilling.  By the end of the week, our 37 man crew had pounded posts along 2.5 miles of fence and strung wire a mile and a half.  We, meanwhile, had drilled 22 holes. Or about 150 yards.  Accomplishments!

One more hitch with ACE (likely an encore at Lake Mead) and then our time in Arizona is over.  That means that our Americorps year is almost ¾ finished. I’m starting to hear the fat lady.  She’s warming up for her aria.

Arizona ACE, Week 4

No new budget news, but we did make a trip the Grand Canyon this Sunday/Monday and it deserved its own update.  We're on break from ACE until Wednesday, and we lucked into a reservation at Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the canyon for Sunday night (some combination of snowy weather at the top and fears of the park shutting down during the budget drama).

We hiked down South Kaibab trail (6.3 miles) on Sunday.  We took alot of pictures, so I'll let the them do the talking:

Monday, we hiked back up Bright Angel trail (9.5 miles).  With an elevation change of almost a mile, Monday was a beast of a hike.

There's more pictures from our hike and our time in Arizona here. 

Fingers crossed for Americorps during the budget cuts this Thursday!

Arizona ACE, Week 3

What a weird week.  We dodged a bullet (federal shutdown) but we dodged our way into a bear cave (big budget cuts). And we’re wearing a meat suit.  And an “I hate bears” t-shirt. If Americorps is to exist at all by this Friday, we better hope the bear is hibernating.  (This metaphor got weird.)

The threat of a government shutdown came and went on Friday.  Americorps is a federally funded program, making me one of the 800,000 employees who would have been furloughed (put on unpaid leave).  Congress came to an agreement with less than an hour left before the current budget extension was set to expire.  By that point we had packed all our things here in Flagstaff and made plans for a return trip to Denver.  (A furlough would have meant staying in the dorms with no pay and nothing to do. Spendover! Super fun!)

Friday’s extension carries our funding through Thursday, but another $38 billion is set to be slashed, and it is entirely possible that Americorps will get cut.  I guess it’s nice to have avoided furlough, but getting fired by my country would suck worse.  Do I get a pink slip or is it star-spangled? 

C’mon Christracker, cheer up.

At this point, we have no control over what happens this coming week.  They tell us we’re going on hitch to do fencing Wednesday, but at this point, who knows.  Our last hitch got cancelled because of looming budget concerns, and even if we still have jobs come Thursday, this hitch could be canceled for money reasons too.

Anyway... Enough of that sad-sack eeyore budget bullshit. Here’s some pretty postcards!

Thanks to Patrick and Anna from Water 7 for this one.  It’s Clinton’s cat, just hardballin’ the press.

This one comes from Nick Ptacek up in Seattle

Also, I got this one from my Aunt Barb for my birthday.

Hey Tea Party: what up

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!