My week in Coronado

Coronado National Forest is in Sierra Vista, AZ, which is just south of Tucson. It was about a 6 hour drive down and we stopped at the In-N-Out Burger for lunch (yay!). Our crew (8 people) met our project manager and park ranger, Chris, and he led us up the mountain (7000 ft) to our campsite. This was a front country project, which meant that we were staying at an established camp ground and our work site wasn't too far away, and we even had toilets! Anyways, the drive up the mountain probably took about 45 minutes. In a big van with a trailer on the back, it was a little shaky! But we made it just fine with the van only over heating a little bit.


Because the drive was so long, we didn't work on the first day. We got to camp around 3:00 pm, and went over safety rules and set up our tents . A few of my crew members decided to sleep with no tent at all. We hung out for the rest of the evening, made hamburgers for dinner, and just chatted by the fire. Chris camped with us all week, and he even brought his dog Squeaky! She was found near death at the border and Chris took her in and trained her. She's an awesome dog who looks just like the Mexican dogs my sister Steph has! She is trained in search and rescue, finding drugs, doing doggy tricks, and sniffing out smugglers and illegal immigrants (she'll freeze with her ears down). She will also carry packs up the mountain. She only barks when something is wrong, and she even scouted our campsite and peed around it to prevent other animals from joining us. She LOVED to be cuddled and pet, and would just jump in your lap if you let her, and could also sense emotional stress. She was definitely awesome to have!


The first night Chris filled us in on some important details of the mountain we were on. Just on the other side was basically the border to Mexico. That meant that there is a lot of illegal immigration traffic, including smugglers. We were warned to first report any trash we found with Spanish writing to him. He also mentioned that if we found trash with Arabic writing then it was ESPECIALLY important to report it to him (and then we'd see the place flooded with feds, YIKES!) Chris warned us that if we saw anyone on the trail with burlap sacks or anything like that, to act stupid and not panic, wait until they were long gone and immediately call him. He stressed the same in case we ran into some AK-47's as well...


Our campfire discussion the first night was definitely colorful. Here's the run down:
- Chris saved an immigrant who was near death once. Has also found a corpse...
- Loren (crew member, from Arizona) is part Navajo and grew up on a reservation. He talked about finding human remains and how he can't touch them (evil spirits, ya know?)
- Belinda (crew member, from California) is a botanist and we bonded over our interest in photography. Both of us were already taking a bunch of pictures.
- Keean (crew leader, from Pennsylvania) brought out his guitar and played some tunes.
- Mike (crew member, from California) talk about some spooky experiences at a camp that was at an old tuberculosis hospital.
-Erin (crew member, Illinois) rode her bike the length of the Pacific coast.
- Other crew members, Ryan-Florida, and Mariah-Idaho
- Chris heard a single engine plane that was flying too high (would have needed oxygen). But he concluded it was probably a drone (smuggling, ya know?)
- Talked about Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead!
- Bed time at 10:00 pm, although that was the latest we stayed up all week!


Day 2:
I basically didn't sleep well the whole week I kept having dreams I was digging, or my arms kept falling asleep, so it was annoying! I was never too tired during the day though, which was good. We woke up each day at 6:00 am to Keean playing a wooden flute or guitar and singing. It was almost too soothing some days! Right before heading to work we would do our safety circle, which consists of each of us saying a safety rule to remember, then we do a question of the day that each person answers and picks a stretch for.


The first day we started by hiking up to our trail with our tools (picks, rock bars, rock hammers, shovels, loppers) which took about 30 minutes, with one really steep, rocky, slope at the beginning. We began by clearing some small brush and shrubs form the trail. Then we worked on widening it slightly and creating an out slope. An out slope basically means that the outside edge of the trail is lower than the inside so that water can run off of it. A lot of what we did dealt with water flow, making it easier for the water to flow so it doesn't destroy the trail. We built a couple drains which would catch the water coming from higher ground, and prevent it from continuing down the trail. A birm is a dirt structure that helps block the waters path and will lead it off the mountain in the drain. We also wanted to make sure that while we were working on the trail we avoided making false critical edges, which basically means what looks like the edge of the trail is actually a loose pile of dirt. This is a hazard to hikers and horses who could step on the false edge and fall.


Spaghetti and meatballs for dinner!


Day 3:
Valentines Day! Not that I remembered, I had already lost track of time at this point. I usually had cereal for breakfast each day, and Keean would even heat up water to put in our hand washing station since it would be chilly in the morning (we had no running water).


On this day we finished up some drains, and then Mike and I began work on what is called a check dam or check step. These structures are rocks that are placed in the ground that water will flow over and deposit sediment to avoid sediment build up farther down the trail. We took 4 decent sized rock and dug holes in the trail to place the rocks up right. The holes were about a foot or so deep, and pretty narrow because the rocks needed to fit in snug. To insure that the rocks stayed in place, we filled any gaps with crush, which is pieces of smaller rocks you smash in to help the rocks stabilize. We then covered it with some dirt so only the top few inches of the rocks were showing.


Quesadilla night! Chris got us some awesome roasted peppers to use as well, and some great salsa verde.


Day 4:
Built more check dams, and also began moving back down the trail doing our work, which meant our hike gets shorter each day. Saw 2 horseback riders (one guy was packing heat!), and a scorpion (tiny little thing). One idea that we had to keep in mind all week while we were doing this work was to make sure it looked like we were never there. That meant not leaving piles of dirt or rocks on the side of the trail, and getting them farther up or down the mountain. It wasn't a difficult concept, but it was something I had not thought of before.


Keean and I began work on a different rock structure that acted as a path across the trail because the tread was deep and uneven from a pipe that was put in the ground. We placed 3 decent sized rocks in a line on one side of the pipe, and 2 larger ones on the other side. We then took out part of a tree to widen the trail so that people would use the structure we just built. Because Arizona is so dry, you can't just fill hold with dirt because it won't stay in place. The pipe that was placed in the ground was probably covered up with dirt at one point, but the dirt has since been washed away. The pipe was originally meant to bring water down the mountain, but that can't be done anyway because there is arsenic in the mountain water (due to the old mines I think).


Jambalaya night!


Day 5:
More check dams. More trail clearing


Potatoes with corn and "sad" brisket night! The "brisket" was actually canned cubed beef, which when cooked and made with BBQ sauce is kinda like brisket. Still pretty good though!


Day 6:
More check dams. Clearing trail of rocks (there are SO MANY ROCKS). Chris found a really cool crystal and gave it to me because we were talking about them the other day. Found an empty gallon jug of water with SPANISH WRITING ON IT! Chris thought it was probably fairly recent, and most likely a "scout". Keean sang more songs at the camp fire with his guitar.


Burrito night!


Day 7:
We finished our work!!! We got everything done around 2:00 pm. We spent the rest of the afternoon hiking to the top of the mountain we were on, Carr Peak. Elevation-9200 ft (our campsite was at 7000 ft), 2.1 or so mile trail, 1.5 hours to hike it. AWESOME view! Definitely a hard hike though. We hung out at the top for a bit, then made our way back down the mountain in about an hour. When we got back to camp we started packing up our things!


West Indies beans and rice for dinner!


Day 8:
Pack up our tent, pack up the food and supplies and tools, left at 7:00 am! Squeaky was sad to see us leave and hopped in our van while we were trying to leave :(. We got back to Flagstaff around 3:00 pm and de-rigged, which means putting the tools back, putting away food, cleaning dishes, cleaning the cars, things like that. There were about 4 other crews who were also back and doing the same things, so it was a little crowded at the office.


When we were done we went back to our houses, cleaned up, then met up for a crew dinner at a Thai place in town. After Thai we went to The Green Room, which is a cool bar in town. Wednesday nights (the day most crews get back from a hitch) is 25 cent night from 8-9 pm, so that's where you can find most ACEr's ;). We also went to a hotel/bar called the Monte Vista, which had some character and was fun as well.


Final Thoughts:
Over all it was a super AWESOME first hitch. The crew got along great and we had a lot of fun working together. So many people in ACE are so intelligent and cool to talk to, and at times makes me feel like I have some studying to do! But you know what they say, if you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room! Our project manager was thorough and made sure we had everything we needed (he also brought the dog, so yeah). Our crew leader was a great teacher and really patient the whole time.


The only part of my body that was really sore were my fingers from holding the tools so much. It was difficult to find places to pee on the trail sometimes because the area was a little sparse lol. Taking wipe "showers" isn't that bad either, and I found that bringing more than one pair of pants and more than one shirt to work in is pointless. Dirt is dirt and it gets EVERY WHERE! Being dirty and smelly here is definitely widely accepted and I am going to embrace it as much as possible when on a project. Working with rocks is difficult, but rewarding at the same time. It's very satisfying when you finally get the rock to do what you want, but it is also very frustrating when the rock breaks in half on you and you have to go find a new one. The work we did on this trail will probably last about 20 years, which is really cool to think about! Being in the mountains for a week and doing this kind of hard labor was exciting, and even spiritual at times. When it was quiet I could close my eyes and feel like I was the only person around for miles. That makes a person feel very small! But I loved it!