I'm finally all caught up! My most recent project was in Dixie National Forest, the Pine Valley ranger district. I was super excited to get put on this project because I have never been to Utah! I was on a crew with Nora, Dale, Jamie, Noah, who were in Prescott with me, and Neil who was in Sedona with me. We also had a guy named Cal as our crew leader, and another guy Wyatt. Wyatt and Cal were already in Utah, so those of us that were not were driven up on Tuesday. ACE has a house in Utah that's actually really cute looking and it's in a town called Hurricane (pronounced Hurri-kin lol). I was told we might be staying in Utah for our off days, but still forgot things like soap lol. The other people I was with were not told anything and were not prepared at all to stay longer than our project time. I was also told that this project was going to be up to 10 miles of hiking a day! Which was making me kind of nervous, but it turned out to not be that much at all!
We left for Pine Valley on Wednesday morning with Jason, a Utah ACE manager. He helped us take some cubies of water and personal gear up because we did not have a trailer. Dixie wasn't that far from Hurricane so we arrived around 10:00 and were able to work most of the day. We were working on 2 trails that met in the middle, basically forming a big loop. We started right at the trail head of the first trail and began working our way up. The objective was to open the corridor, which meant we were cutting bushes and trees that were in the trail, or a few feet off the trail. Both trails we were on were definitely a little old and had not been maintained in a while because the brush was thick! We had 2 chainsaws (Wyatt and Cal were the sawyers) and 1 brush cutter, which was a lot like a weed wacker lol. There were some straps that you wore with the brush cutter so you could clip it to your waist as opposed to totally carrying it while you hiked which was nice. I used it the first day, and it was pretty fun! The rest of the days I was lopping (cutting the bushes and things with loppers) and swamping (following behind a sawyer and throwing what they cut off the trail).
The hike to the work site every day was probably the hardest hike I've done so far. We work through close to a mile everyday, so each day the hike got longer. It was literally uphill both ways because we would hike up this mountain sides, then hike back down, and have to hike back up at the end of the day. A few days we got one mile of work done, and were hiking up and down several times! The hike during the day while we were working wasn't hard though because you move so slowly when you're swamping or lopping. No matter where you were on the trail though you had an amazing view! It was either the mountain behind you or canyons and mesas in front of you in the distance!
While we were working we ran into a few creeks which was an awesome break for our day! It would get pretty toasty during the day, so when we saw a creek we would dip our bandanas and heads in it! There were a few that had some little waterfalls you could bend down and get to. At one creek Dale walked up it a little bit and found 2 waterfalls that flowed into each other! One was about 4 feet off the ground and we just stood and dipped our heads in it. The other was up and you had to climb a little bit to see it. The rocks were pretty slick though otherwise we would have tried to hop on up and into the little pool that fed into the lower waterfall. The water so cold too and would actually take my breath away!
The unfortunate thing about the area we were working in though was that we had to watch out for ticks! No one got bit though, which is good! There were also a lot of bees where we were camped, and there was a literally a Bee Tree that was thing huge, old ponderosa that was hollow on the inside and home to a bunch of honey bees. There was a little trail leading to it right from our campsite. It had also survived a few fires and lightning strikes! The highest points on the tree were its branches because the very top was burnt off by lightning. There were also a lot of turkeys around and we were always hearing them! A few birds were pretty annoying at night too and would start chirping at 8:30 every night, almost non stop lol. There were a few nights we had fires, but because Utah is an hour ahead it didn't start getting dark until around 8:30, so some of us would stay up until it was dark because it was weird to go to bed when it was so light out!
This project my tent zipper broke so I couldn't close my tent all the way, which wasn't as much of an issue as I thought it would be. Surprisingly, little critters did not find their way into my tent! One of my water bottles also started leaking which stunk! Remember how I said we also didn't have a trailer for stuff? No one came to help us pack up and leave on Wednesday when we were done so we had to find a way to get all our food boxes, tools, and personal gear into the van, otherwise Cal would have to make 2 trips. We managed though and were able to consolidate a lot of stuff, but it was still a tight squeeze!
When we got back to Hurricane my crew hung out for awhile before attempting to shower because there is only one shower in the house and there was another crew of 10 people. We hung out across the street in the grass. It feels like the perfect summer weather in Utah, it's absolutely beautiful! We ended up deciding to do what Nora likes to call "stink and drink" where we go out to our crew dinner without showering or changing, so we did that! Well tried to, its hard to find a drink in Utah! And you have to order food with your beer, its weird lol. After we ate we went back to the house and later that night we were hanging out in a small barn corral of a tractor museum that was next door. We aren't allowed to drink on ACE property, but the museum allows us to use the barn. It was nice to have a place to just hang out and chill outside of the house since there aren't any bars around lol.
I'm heading back to Dixie on the same trails next week for 4 days. It's going to be a back country project which will be my first! I'll also be with Cal, Wyatt, and Noah, along with a new guy named Kyle who I haven't met yet. The 2 trails are about 10 miles long total, and we went in about 3 miles on each trail, so there are a few miles left to do in the middle where the trails meet, so I will be doing the same work. Because it's back country we have to hike in all our food, tools, and gear, as opposed to just driving up to a campsite. This will be another one with no bathrooms! For those of you wondering, when there aren't bathrooms the proper way to do your business is to dig a hole (cat hole) about 8 inches deep. It's all apart of Leave No Trace. And for those of you REALLY curious, sometimes when there's no toilet paper people use rocks. Yeah, that's a real thing haha. Anyways, I don't know where I'll be for the last 4 days of this project. It's my LAST PROJECT! I can't believe it's already here! Here's hoping it's a great one (and I know it will be :) ).
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Prescott National Forest
Pronounced "Pres-kit". This was my first time in Prescott, but there have been a lot of crews on this trail this year, so for some people it was already their 2nd, 3rd, or 4th time, which kind of stinks, even though it is a really pretty place! All week we were unable to have fires at night though because it was very windy! We had a few people's tents blow away during the day lol.
This particular project had 2 crews with 8 people each. I was on a crew with this girl Alex, and a few guys named Dale, Johnny, Noah, Jacob (an American citizen from Denmark), and Lionel who I have worked with before. Our crew leader was a guy named John as well, and on the other crew there was another Jon and Noah, and a Nora and an Ally (a crew leader I had in Sedona). Lots of similar sounds going on this week! The other crew also had a few guys I had worked with before, but there were a lot of new people I was looking forward to getting to know. Because we couldn't have fires at night, we actually backed up our trailers to one another and basically made one big kitchen and put a huge tarp over it to block some wind. It was a tight squeeze when everyone was under there, but still a great bonding experience! This was also another project with no toilets, but lots of great bushes and rocks!
The work we were doing in Prescott this week was just building a lot of check steps. Check steps and water bars prevent water from carrying sediment further down the trail, and the sediment will be deposited before the check step and help build up the tread on the trail. The first 2 days I was working with a girl named Nora on a particularly large check step that was incredibly frustrating. It was a lot of chiseling and adjusting with rock bars to make sure the rocks had good points of contact.
The hike out to the work site was a couple miles and took about an hour, and after Nora and I finished I was moved further down the trail, basically to the ending point which was 3 miles out. Myself and a few others worked for a couple days doing a couple more check steps. This location was sweet though because we were right by the little stream. If you walked down the hill and up the steam (which was just damp sand) you reached an area that actually had some nice little pools, so I would spend my lunch breaks with my feet in the water! Finding a place to pee in Prescott was also pretty cool because you would go on an adventure climbing up this boulders and then have a view of Granite Mountain, which was very cool looking! Going to the bathroom is definitely a great excuse for going on mini adventures during the work day!
Although the work we were doing was the same (check steps) Prescott looked super cool with all the boulders balancing on each other like someone just dumped them out of a bag. Some big boulders looked like you could just tap them and they'd tip! We were also in an area that had burned and it reminded me of the Lion King lol. It was a pretty open looking area with lots of creepy dead trees, but really pretty, purple flowers, and awesome rocks! The hike was difficult in a couple areas, but probably the prettiest hike I have done so far. You could also see Humphrey's Peak (Flagstaff) from our trail!
This particular project had 2 crews with 8 people each. I was on a crew with this girl Alex, and a few guys named Dale, Johnny, Noah, Jacob (an American citizen from Denmark), and Lionel who I have worked with before. Our crew leader was a guy named John as well, and on the other crew there was another Jon and Noah, and a Nora and an Ally (a crew leader I had in Sedona). Lots of similar sounds going on this week! The other crew also had a few guys I had worked with before, but there were a lot of new people I was looking forward to getting to know. Because we couldn't have fires at night, we actually backed up our trailers to one another and basically made one big kitchen and put a huge tarp over it to block some wind. It was a tight squeeze when everyone was under there, but still a great bonding experience! This was also another project with no toilets, but lots of great bushes and rocks!
The work we were doing in Prescott this week was just building a lot of check steps. Check steps and water bars prevent water from carrying sediment further down the trail, and the sediment will be deposited before the check step and help build up the tread on the trail. The first 2 days I was working with a girl named Nora on a particularly large check step that was incredibly frustrating. It was a lot of chiseling and adjusting with rock bars to make sure the rocks had good points of contact.
The hike out to the work site was a couple miles and took about an hour, and after Nora and I finished I was moved further down the trail, basically to the ending point which was 3 miles out. Myself and a few others worked for a couple days doing a couple more check steps. This location was sweet though because we were right by the little stream. If you walked down the hill and up the steam (which was just damp sand) you reached an area that actually had some nice little pools, so I would spend my lunch breaks with my feet in the water! Finding a place to pee in Prescott was also pretty cool because you would go on an adventure climbing up this boulders and then have a view of Granite Mountain, which was very cool looking! Going to the bathroom is definitely a great excuse for going on mini adventures during the work day!
Although the work we were doing was the same (check steps) Prescott looked super cool with all the boulders balancing on each other like someone just dumped them out of a bag. Some big boulders looked like you could just tap them and they'd tip! We were also in an area that had burned and it reminded me of the Lion King lol. It was a pretty open looking area with lots of creepy dead trees, but really pretty, purple flowers, and awesome rocks! The hike was difficult in a couple areas, but probably the prettiest hike I have done so far. You could also see Humphrey's Peak (Flagstaff) from our trail!
Tonto #3- Pleasant Valley
This was my 3rd project in Tonto National Forest, and it was another 5 day fencing project. The area looked a lot like the Tonto Payson area I was in 2 weeks before. There are a lot of Ponderosa pines (which smell like vanilla!) and it was a little chilly at night. My crew leader was a guy named Matt who greeted us with donuts when he picked us up! I was also working with Lissy, Mike, and Ryan who I had previously worked with. Our campsite was actually very close to our work site again (you could see our tents and it was actually faster to walk lol). We would drive to work everyday because a few people used the van to transport logs to the worksite (to be used as a brace). This was also my first project that did not have any facilities at all (meaning no toilets). You get used to peeing outside real quick though, and eventually it just becomes preferable to a toilet anyways haha!
The purpose of our project this week was to construct and repair a fence around a plot of land being used to study cattle grazing. This plot had been set aside since the 30's, but when we arrived the fence was down, and the land looked a lot like the land that had not been fenced in at all. It was just a square plot about a 1/4 mile long and it was all basically flat.
The first day of work we just started to take down the old fence and any posts that were bent. Because we were only working for 5 days, the days were hours long. We would get up at 7:00 (instead of 6:00) and work until 4:30 (instead of 3:30). So each afternoon we had some time to just chill and hang out and there was no rush to get dinner started. Ryan actually brought a chess set and baseball gloves that we used a couple times.
Each day at work we would basically wrap up the old wire, lay out new wire, and stretch the wire tight. Before we could actually start rolling out wires we needed to get a couple braces in. We used juniper logs that some people cut down to create an "H" brace. The posts were dug deep into the ground, and then a post was placed between 2 others (making the "H" shape) and we then took wire and wrapped it in an "X" fashion around the posts. When that is finished you have to take fencing pliers and twist the wires in the middle to make sure there is a lot of tension and they stay tight. That process can get difficult because it was start getting tough to twist the wires! We made 3 "H" braces total and used a large ponderosa as another brace at the corner of the fence. After the wire is stretched and clipped in, we put in stays, which are like long, twisted bobby pins that make sure the fence moves as one unit, and not 4 separate wires. There were also a few points a long the fence that were not on flat ground, so to ensure that the posts didn't pop out of the ground when the wires were stretched, we placed "dead men" at the low points. A dead man is a rock or log that is tied with wire to the fence and hangs just off the ground. This is so some of the tension is placed downward as opposed to pulling up on the fence (and pulling the posts out of the ground).
We were actually able to finish our work by Wednesday (we got there Monday). So our project manager had us make a couple more "H" braces at another location to prepare for a fence to be put up. Our project manager was named Gary and came to visit us a couple time with eggs from his own chickens! It was pretty convenient actually because one of our meals for the week didn't get packed, so we were able find some random food to cook with the eggs Gary gave us!
When we finished our work on Thursday doing the extra braces for Gary, we tried to drive to Valentine canyon just to see it. We hit a road block though in the form of a large ponderosa blocking the road. This of course was no problem for a crew that had chainsaws already, so one of the girls, Rachel, got all her gear on and chopped up the tree. Once we cleared the road of the stumps we kept driving. However, we reached a gate a little ways down that was locked and decided to cut our losses and go back to camp.
Around the fire at night we would play 20 questions, even though it always ended up being a lot more than 20 questions lol. Matt also brought a speaker and it was really nice having music to listen to during dinner and dishes and hanging around the fire.
The purpose of our project this week was to construct and repair a fence around a plot of land being used to study cattle grazing. This plot had been set aside since the 30's, but when we arrived the fence was down, and the land looked a lot like the land that had not been fenced in at all. It was just a square plot about a 1/4 mile long and it was all basically flat.
The first day of work we just started to take down the old fence and any posts that were bent. Because we were only working for 5 days, the days were hours long. We would get up at 7:00 (instead of 6:00) and work until 4:30 (instead of 3:30). So each afternoon we had some time to just chill and hang out and there was no rush to get dinner started. Ryan actually brought a chess set and baseball gloves that we used a couple times.
Each day at work we would basically wrap up the old wire, lay out new wire, and stretch the wire tight. Before we could actually start rolling out wires we needed to get a couple braces in. We used juniper logs that some people cut down to create an "H" brace. The posts were dug deep into the ground, and then a post was placed between 2 others (making the "H" shape) and we then took wire and wrapped it in an "X" fashion around the posts. When that is finished you have to take fencing pliers and twist the wires in the middle to make sure there is a lot of tension and they stay tight. That process can get difficult because it was start getting tough to twist the wires! We made 3 "H" braces total and used a large ponderosa as another brace at the corner of the fence. After the wire is stretched and clipped in, we put in stays, which are like long, twisted bobby pins that make sure the fence moves as one unit, and not 4 separate wires. There were also a few points a long the fence that were not on flat ground, so to ensure that the posts didn't pop out of the ground when the wires were stretched, we placed "dead men" at the low points. A dead man is a rock or log that is tied with wire to the fence and hangs just off the ground. This is so some of the tension is placed downward as opposed to pulling up on the fence (and pulling the posts out of the ground).
We were actually able to finish our work by Wednesday (we got there Monday). So our project manager had us make a couple more "H" braces at another location to prepare for a fence to be put up. Our project manager was named Gary and came to visit us a couple time with eggs from his own chickens! It was pretty convenient actually because one of our meals for the week didn't get packed, so we were able find some random food to cook with the eggs Gary gave us!
When we finished our work on Thursday doing the extra braces for Gary, we tried to drive to Valentine canyon just to see it. We hit a road block though in the form of a large ponderosa blocking the road. This of course was no problem for a crew that had chainsaws already, so one of the girls, Rachel, got all her gear on and chopped up the tree. Once we cleared the road of the stumps we kept driving. However, we reached a gate a little ways down that was locked and decided to cut our losses and go back to camp.
Around the fire at night we would play 20 questions, even though it always ended up being a lot more than 20 questions lol. Matt also brought a speaker and it was really nice having music to listen to during dinner and dishes and hanging around the fire.
Saturday, April 5, 2014
Tonto #2: Cave Creek Ranger District
For my next project I was in Tonto again, but in the Cave Creek Ranger District which is in the Sonoran Desert. Instead of pines and forest we had prickly pears and sand. The work we were doing this week was actually fencing, which I was really excited to learn about. My crew leader was an older gentleman named John Donovan (or just John Don). He's been a back country ranger and other things of the like in Arizona for quite some time, so he was super knowledgeable! It was fun working with him because he was very much a teacher and liked to explain the tasks or talk about the wildlife around us (which we saw a lot of!) I also worked with Lissy and Kerri, who were on my crew the week before, and a few new people named Cassey, Ryan, Roland, and Jirius.
Traveling to our project location was also kind of interesting because it turns out that the town of Cave Creek is basically a rich retirement community. We were seeing Porsches and Mercedes and Maseratis all over the place (and we were in out 1990's suburban lol). The drive from Cave Creek to our campsite ended up being about an hour of driving on a dirt road though the mountains. At one point we started to hear some funky noises, which was making us nervous, but it ended up being nothing!
When we reached our campsite we found that it was actually an old ranger station that was no longer in use. There were 2 buildings, one being a house and the other was more like a large shed. The house was locked so we couldn't sleep in it. There was a bit of a yard that was over grown and had a fire pit and a picnic table, where we put our kitchen. Some of us put our tents near the "driveway" of the house, while a few of the boys that were with us camped in the wash which was right next to the house. The wash was mostly dry, but there was some water that was flowing close to camp and we used it to put our fires out at night.
The first day of actual work we woke up and could hear cattle and yelling in the distance. John Don suggested that we run up the road to watch the cowboys and cattle, so we did! It was probably about a quarter mile up the road that we ran into the cowboys and watched them gather up their cattle. I think that the ranch nearby had a broken fence so the cattle often got away. After watching the little show we did out safety circle and stretching, then headed back to camp to start our day.
Our work site was actually really close to our campsite- just up a short but steep hill. The fence we were working on was going to be a quarter mile long total. We had to take out the fence that was there which was burned because the posts were logs. We were using all new barbed and smooth wire, so that meant that we had to roll up the old barbed wire into circles so we could transport it back down the hill (4 lines of barbed wire, each a 1/4 mile long, meant A LOT of spools of rusty barbed wire to move). Carrying the spools of barbed wire down the hill was a lot more tricky than it sounds. Some of the wire would come loose and attach itself to your pant legs- which happened to me a couple time and it wasn't fun.
When we began to put up the new fence we had to carry all our supplies to the work site. There were several roles of barbed and smooth wire that one guy carried up with a cache hauler (each spool weighs about 80 lbs I think). We also had to bring up 3 large metal posts (to create a brace so we can stretch wire), and 30 bundles of metal T-posts (5 posts in a bundle, not sure how much they weighed, but they were uncomfortable to carry and a tad heavy). Bringing the T-posts to the work site was definitely the biggest challenge of the hitch. The hill we had to walk up wasn't long, but it was steep and a bit slippery with all the dirt. Once we got up the hill though we had to start placing the bundles near the fence line. We would put our bundle about 50 feet ahead of the previous bundle, which meant each trip we made we had farther and farther to walk with these posts. We had to do it this way as well because of the way we needed to lay out the posts (in accordance with the brace which was at the beginning of the fence line). It wasn't exactly motivating to know that the job was getting longer each time, but it was only a quarter mile, and although it was hilly, it could have been a lot worse!
Putting up a fence itself is actually pretty simple. It basically involves lining up T-posts (metal posts with notches), pounding them into the ground, then stretching the wire across the posts and clipping it in, then putting in metal stays. Before any of the posts can go in though we had to create an "A" brace with the larger posts we brought up the hill. These were placed into hold about 3 feet deep and 3 feet wide. We began to dig with a pick and shovel but very quickly hit bedrock. In order to speed up the process we brought a pionjar up the hill to get through the rock. A pionjar is a lot like a jack hammer. It was cool to use, but was also like 80 lbs so it took a lot out of you when you used it! When the holes were dug though we were able to put the posts in and fill them with concrete so we could start attaching wire to the posts.The tricky part of this project that was that we were in a hilly spot, which meant when you stretched the wire it would be on the ground at the tops of the hills, and way over our heads at the bottom of the hills. It just took a little maneuvering and we were able to figure it out.
Some other stuff we did during this project was brushing the fence line, which meant that we were getting rid of bushes or cacti that were near the fence. Kerri and I took turns destroying this huge prickly pear cactus with a pick. It's always fun taking some aggression out, but this time it kind of stunk because little needles would fly everywhere and get stuck in our gloves. We did find a ton of lizards as we were doing this, and a few horny toads. I also ran into a fat, black widow, and Lissy saw a diamond back as well!
This project was pretty cool and fun, and it was nice to do something other than trail work, which was all I had done so far. So if anyone needs a barbed wire fence put up, just give me a call!
Traveling to our project location was also kind of interesting because it turns out that the town of Cave Creek is basically a rich retirement community. We were seeing Porsches and Mercedes and Maseratis all over the place (and we were in out 1990's suburban lol). The drive from Cave Creek to our campsite ended up being about an hour of driving on a dirt road though the mountains. At one point we started to hear some funky noises, which was making us nervous, but it ended up being nothing!
When we reached our campsite we found that it was actually an old ranger station that was no longer in use. There were 2 buildings, one being a house and the other was more like a large shed. The house was locked so we couldn't sleep in it. There was a bit of a yard that was over grown and had a fire pit and a picnic table, where we put our kitchen. Some of us put our tents near the "driveway" of the house, while a few of the boys that were with us camped in the wash which was right next to the house. The wash was mostly dry, but there was some water that was flowing close to camp and we used it to put our fires out at night.
The first day of actual work we woke up and could hear cattle and yelling in the distance. John Don suggested that we run up the road to watch the cowboys and cattle, so we did! It was probably about a quarter mile up the road that we ran into the cowboys and watched them gather up their cattle. I think that the ranch nearby had a broken fence so the cattle often got away. After watching the little show we did out safety circle and stretching, then headed back to camp to start our day.
Our work site was actually really close to our campsite- just up a short but steep hill. The fence we were working on was going to be a quarter mile long total. We had to take out the fence that was there which was burned because the posts were logs. We were using all new barbed and smooth wire, so that meant that we had to roll up the old barbed wire into circles so we could transport it back down the hill (4 lines of barbed wire, each a 1/4 mile long, meant A LOT of spools of rusty barbed wire to move). Carrying the spools of barbed wire down the hill was a lot more tricky than it sounds. Some of the wire would come loose and attach itself to your pant legs- which happened to me a couple time and it wasn't fun.
When we began to put up the new fence we had to carry all our supplies to the work site. There were several roles of barbed and smooth wire that one guy carried up with a cache hauler (each spool weighs about 80 lbs I think). We also had to bring up 3 large metal posts (to create a brace so we can stretch wire), and 30 bundles of metal T-posts (5 posts in a bundle, not sure how much they weighed, but they were uncomfortable to carry and a tad heavy). Bringing the T-posts to the work site was definitely the biggest challenge of the hitch. The hill we had to walk up wasn't long, but it was steep and a bit slippery with all the dirt. Once we got up the hill though we had to start placing the bundles near the fence line. We would put our bundle about 50 feet ahead of the previous bundle, which meant each trip we made we had farther and farther to walk with these posts. We had to do it this way as well because of the way we needed to lay out the posts (in accordance with the brace which was at the beginning of the fence line). It wasn't exactly motivating to know that the job was getting longer each time, but it was only a quarter mile, and although it was hilly, it could have been a lot worse!
Putting up a fence itself is actually pretty simple. It basically involves lining up T-posts (metal posts with notches), pounding them into the ground, then stretching the wire across the posts and clipping it in, then putting in metal stays. Before any of the posts can go in though we had to create an "A" brace with the larger posts we brought up the hill. These were placed into hold about 3 feet deep and 3 feet wide. We began to dig with a pick and shovel but very quickly hit bedrock. In order to speed up the process we brought a pionjar up the hill to get through the rock. A pionjar is a lot like a jack hammer. It was cool to use, but was also like 80 lbs so it took a lot out of you when you used it! When the holes were dug though we were able to put the posts in and fill them with concrete so we could start attaching wire to the posts.The tricky part of this project that was that we were in a hilly spot, which meant when you stretched the wire it would be on the ground at the tops of the hills, and way over our heads at the bottom of the hills. It just took a little maneuvering and we were able to figure it out.
Some other stuff we did during this project was brushing the fence line, which meant that we were getting rid of bushes or cacti that were near the fence. Kerri and I took turns destroying this huge prickly pear cactus with a pick. It's always fun taking some aggression out, but this time it kind of stunk because little needles would fly everywhere and get stuck in our gloves. We did find a ton of lizards as we were doing this, and a few horny toads. I also ran into a fat, black widow, and Lissy saw a diamond back as well!
This project was pretty cool and fun, and it was nice to do something other than trail work, which was all I had done so far. So if anyone needs a barbed wire fence put up, just give me a call!
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Tonto #1: Payson Ranger District
For the second part of my second hitch I was moved to a different crew that was placed in Tonto. Originally I was supposed to spend 4 days in Sedona, have 2 off days in Flagstaff, then go back to Sedona for 4 more days. On Saturday after my first 4 days I found out that I had to leave for Tonto the next day to join the other crew. I was picked up at 7:00 am on Sunday by a guy named Joe and we made our way to Payson. During the ride I actually found out that Joe was a math teacher in New York before he decided to come to ACE, and he's been here for about a year. It was pretty nice to talk about teacher things with someone again!
The drive to Payson isn't long at all, but this particular day the weather wasn't quite ideal, so it took a little longer than it normally would. There was a ton of fog and some snow that we ran into, which definitely caused some problems once we actually got to the camp site. We were in a suburban so I wasn't too concerned about the road we were driving on to the campsite. It was all uphill and the mud was already like the consistency of clay because it had snowed the night before! We were just outside the campsite when the suburban started to slide off to the side and eventually straight into the ditch on the side of the road. We were lucky that we were close to the camp so we didn't have to walk much farther!
We decided that we were going to meet the crew who were already at work on the trail, and wait until the end of the day to try and get the car out. We got some snacks and water together and started to hike to meet everyone. It was about an hour long hike with a long, muddy, uphill section right in the beginning. Needless to say the pounds of mud caked onto our boots did nothing to make the hike easier. Once we were on the actual trail though there was no more of the clay mud, and it turned into regular mud and a lot of snow!
Tonto National Forest actually spans a huge part of Arizona, and is one of the largest national forests in the country. This just basically means that the landscape can change dramatically depending where in the forest you are. The Payson Ranger District actually looks like a forest and is full of pines (some places are called forests but don't quite resemble them haha). Last week I was in Coconino National Forest in Sedona, so making the transition from sunny, red, Sedona to snowy, cold, forest was interesting.
When we finally met up with the crew I found that I was working with a couple guys that were on my first crew, Ryan and Loren. My crew leader was named Marlon, and the other people on the crew were Kerri, who lives in my house with me, Amy, Sam, Mike, and Lissy. This was originally an 8 person crew, but I made it 9, which meant just a little less food to go around.
After a long, cold, wet, first day of work we hiked back to camp to try and get the suburban out of the ditch it was in. We tried to collect rocks and branches to place behind and in front of the suburban to see if it could be driven out either way. We basically succeeded in getting the suburban even more stuck in the ditch to the point where getting in the driver side door wasn't an option because it was right up against the side of the ditch. We gave up trying to get the suburban out and instead called Jordan, who works in the office of ACE. He said he was going to come out first thing in the morning to assist us.
The next morning we waited around for Jordan for a bit before we went to work. He showed up a little after 7:00 and we began work trying get the car out. He drove a diesel Ford Excursion up, but the road was so messy that he didn't bother making it all the way up to us. Instead he had brought a grip hoist which is used to moving big rocks. Depending on the size, grip hoists can be used to move up to 5,000 pounds, maybe more. What we did was find a large tree to use as a brace and attached the grip hoist to the tree, and attached the rope to the car. There's a lever on the grip hoist that you use that is supposed to slowly move whatever object its hooked up to forward. As you can imagine it becomes a difficult task regardless of levers, to move such a large object :). A few guys were doing it and really had to get their bodies into it. Unfortunately the shear pins on the device broke. The shear pins are the fail safe mechanism that prevents the user from actually hoisting anything that nearing the maximum that the device is made for. This meant that the grip hoist was useless now, until we got new shear pins.
When Jordan tried to move the excursion up to try out a different method, the Excursion he was in also slipped into the ditch on the side of the road. This made for a comical morning because everything that could go wrong was definitely going wrong. Luckily the ditch that Jordan was in wasn't as deep as the one that Joe got stuck in. We went back to our original plan of placing a ton of rocks in the ditch so Jordan could reverse out of the ditch and back onto the road. We were able to do this successfully, and at which point called it a day for the suburban and just began our hike to work. When we got back at the end of the day we found the suburban was gone, so Jordan and Joe were able to get some shear pins and successfully use the grip hoist. Not, of course, without leaving the muddy road in total shambles.
The work we were doing in Tonto was basically just making drains, which I did a lot of in Coronado. There is really nothing exciting to say about it because it's just moving a lot of dirt around to allow water to easily run off the side of the trail and prevent erosion. Other work we did was brushing, which meant getting rid of branches and such that were kind of protruding into the trail. We worked our way all the way up the trail and to the rim. The "rim" is actually Mogollon Rim, which is HUGE! Here's a little information about it:
http://paysonrimcountry.com/Mountain-Recreation/Natural-Landmarks/Mogollon-Rim
It's actually pretty cool, but the spot we were at didn't have particularly awesome views or anything, but it was still neat to work there.
The last night that we were camping we decided to try and get the van out because the road was still muddy, and we didn't want to be stuck in the morning. The van was parked on an angle already, so we knew it was going to be a challenge. Just as we suspected, we were not able to drive our van out. We had several people trying to push the van up the hill, but it only started to slide sideways. It was at that moment that we realized we really should have tried to get the van out when we had the grip hoist the other day. We started to brainstorm how we were going to accomplish this task because no one wanted to stay an extra day.
The campground we were at was actually a boy scout camp and we found large sheets of plywood like wood that we "borrowed" to put under the van. It took 6 sheets of this wood to place strategically around the van so that it would drive over them. Unlike the first attempt, this method worked wonderfully, and there was no problem at all getting van to drive up the little incline it was on. The one issue that did arise was that one sheet of wood we used splintered. So in order to hide the evidence we broke it to pieces and used it as fire wood. Our fire was MASSIVE that night! It was also really funny watching the boys go crazy jumping on the wood to break it into smaller pieces.
The drive to Payson isn't long at all, but this particular day the weather wasn't quite ideal, so it took a little longer than it normally would. There was a ton of fog and some snow that we ran into, which definitely caused some problems once we actually got to the camp site. We were in a suburban so I wasn't too concerned about the road we were driving on to the campsite. It was all uphill and the mud was already like the consistency of clay because it had snowed the night before! We were just outside the campsite when the suburban started to slide off to the side and eventually straight into the ditch on the side of the road. We were lucky that we were close to the camp so we didn't have to walk much farther!
We decided that we were going to meet the crew who were already at work on the trail, and wait until the end of the day to try and get the car out. We got some snacks and water together and started to hike to meet everyone. It was about an hour long hike with a long, muddy, uphill section right in the beginning. Needless to say the pounds of mud caked onto our boots did nothing to make the hike easier. Once we were on the actual trail though there was no more of the clay mud, and it turned into regular mud and a lot of snow!
Tonto National Forest actually spans a huge part of Arizona, and is one of the largest national forests in the country. This just basically means that the landscape can change dramatically depending where in the forest you are. The Payson Ranger District actually looks like a forest and is full of pines (some places are called forests but don't quite resemble them haha). Last week I was in Coconino National Forest in Sedona, so making the transition from sunny, red, Sedona to snowy, cold, forest was interesting.
When we finally met up with the crew I found that I was working with a couple guys that were on my first crew, Ryan and Loren. My crew leader was named Marlon, and the other people on the crew were Kerri, who lives in my house with me, Amy, Sam, Mike, and Lissy. This was originally an 8 person crew, but I made it 9, which meant just a little less food to go around.
After a long, cold, wet, first day of work we hiked back to camp to try and get the suburban out of the ditch it was in. We tried to collect rocks and branches to place behind and in front of the suburban to see if it could be driven out either way. We basically succeeded in getting the suburban even more stuck in the ditch to the point where getting in the driver side door wasn't an option because it was right up against the side of the ditch. We gave up trying to get the suburban out and instead called Jordan, who works in the office of ACE. He said he was going to come out first thing in the morning to assist us.
The next morning we waited around for Jordan for a bit before we went to work. He showed up a little after 7:00 and we began work trying get the car out. He drove a diesel Ford Excursion up, but the road was so messy that he didn't bother making it all the way up to us. Instead he had brought a grip hoist which is used to moving big rocks. Depending on the size, grip hoists can be used to move up to 5,000 pounds, maybe more. What we did was find a large tree to use as a brace and attached the grip hoist to the tree, and attached the rope to the car. There's a lever on the grip hoist that you use that is supposed to slowly move whatever object its hooked up to forward. As you can imagine it becomes a difficult task regardless of levers, to move such a large object :). A few guys were doing it and really had to get their bodies into it. Unfortunately the shear pins on the device broke. The shear pins are the fail safe mechanism that prevents the user from actually hoisting anything that nearing the maximum that the device is made for. This meant that the grip hoist was useless now, until we got new shear pins.
When Jordan tried to move the excursion up to try out a different method, the Excursion he was in also slipped into the ditch on the side of the road. This made for a comical morning because everything that could go wrong was definitely going wrong. Luckily the ditch that Jordan was in wasn't as deep as the one that Joe got stuck in. We went back to our original plan of placing a ton of rocks in the ditch so Jordan could reverse out of the ditch and back onto the road. We were able to do this successfully, and at which point called it a day for the suburban and just began our hike to work. When we got back at the end of the day we found the suburban was gone, so Jordan and Joe were able to get some shear pins and successfully use the grip hoist. Not, of course, without leaving the muddy road in total shambles.
The work we were doing in Tonto was basically just making drains, which I did a lot of in Coronado. There is really nothing exciting to say about it because it's just moving a lot of dirt around to allow water to easily run off the side of the trail and prevent erosion. Other work we did was brushing, which meant getting rid of branches and such that were kind of protruding into the trail. We worked our way all the way up the trail and to the rim. The "rim" is actually Mogollon Rim, which is HUGE! Here's a little information about it:
http://paysonrimcountry.com/Mountain-Recreation/Natural-Landmarks/Mogollon-Rim
It's actually pretty cool, but the spot we were at didn't have particularly awesome views or anything, but it was still neat to work there.
The last night that we were camping we decided to try and get the van out because the road was still muddy, and we didn't want to be stuck in the morning. The van was parked on an angle already, so we knew it was going to be a challenge. Just as we suspected, we were not able to drive our van out. We had several people trying to push the van up the hill, but it only started to slide sideways. It was at that moment that we realized we really should have tried to get the van out when we had the grip hoist the other day. We started to brainstorm how we were going to accomplish this task because no one wanted to stay an extra day.
The campground we were at was actually a boy scout camp and we found large sheets of plywood like wood that we "borrowed" to put under the van. It took 6 sheets of this wood to place strategically around the van so that it would drive over them. Unlike the first attempt, this method worked wonderfully, and there was no problem at all getting van to drive up the little incline it was on. The one issue that did arise was that one sheet of wood we used splintered. So in order to hide the evidence we broke it to pieces and used it as fire wood. Our fire was MASSIVE that night! It was also really funny watching the boys go crazy jumping on the wood to break it into smaller pieces.
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