Back from Bryce!
So, as the title says, I'm back from an exhausting but satisfying week in Bryce Canyon!
It all started at 6:45 AM Wednesday morning, when I left our house as one of the last people to go on project. The first project day consisted of driving, driving, and... more driving! Ultimately, after 7 hours in a cramped van we got to our designated campground. I'd expected a bare-basic place in the middle of nowhere, but we were actually camping right in the middle of all the other tourists with their tents and RV's! Bonus points of course for having a toilet and small store nearby!
So, the next day we got up at 6 to go working. Well, first falling back (semi) asleep again in the van, because our working site was an hour away from the campground, over dirt roads. Once there, it was time to carry all of the tools and supplies up on the hill, which was good for about 100 metres of elevation. Imagine carrying 45 kilograms of general bulky stuff on your shoulders that far uphill... Everyone got pretty exhausted from that! The general elevation is also close to 3000 metres above sea level, so it took some getting used to.
The work itself carried on through the week, consisting of cleaning up the previous fence, preparing the ground for a new stretch, and placing that new stretch. Because of our remote location, and the fact that we didn't use any power tools, we only managed to place about a quarter-mile of fence.
My boots and arms also got a few cuts from the old barbed wire lying around, but luckily no major incidents happened because we were all focussed on safety.
You might wonder why we were building a fence that far uphill, and which will most probably get washed away again the next year. Well, the official work order says it is to prevent cows from getting into Bryce Canyon National Park through the border with Dixie National Forest, but as soon as we got to the top of the hill, we thought this to be non-sense. There were almost vertical cliffs for as far as you could see! No cow would ever survive that... So, they probably just needed to burn through their alotted budget, to make sure that they'll receive the same amount next year. Anyways, we didn't worry too much, 'cause we had fun doing it.
Also a lot of fun was the cooking on project. Because we are working hard during the days, we need to replenish our energy by eating throughout the day. During the day, this means regular intake of fluids to prevent dehydration, and eating salty snacks throughout the day. My favorite was definitely the trail mix with raisins, peanuts, cashews, various other salted nuts, and M&M's! In the evening, we all took turns cooking on a propane camping stove, with prearranged food which we took with us from the ACE office. Since we were 12, we split up in 4 cooking teams of 3 persons, so you'd only have to work 1 night out of 4 (cooking team does the cooking and the cleanup). I've been on duty for... wait for it... burger night and chili night! The burgers were pretty well done (thanks Ash!), and we made some homemade fries to go with them. It's certainly an experience, cooking fries in a saucepan filled with oil, on a gas stove, using unpeeled potatoes. But, all's well that ends well.
Chili-mac night was more towards the end of our project, which means that all the food for it was in cans or vacuum wrapping. For those like me, who are not really accustomed to mexican food, eating chili results in a very windy day afterwards...
On our previous-to-final day, it started thunderstorming so hard that we had to gather all our tools and equipment in a hurry, and get back down to the van. Result: a very dirty van, and six people, including me, who had to push the van with trailer because it got stuck in the mud! Please, ACE, get us FWD vehicles next time... Another consequence was that we couldn't return to our assigned worksite the day afterwards (last-whole-day, or assholeday in common ACE language), because we were afraid to get completely stuck. So our fantastic crewleader, Pete, decided to go do something else: Fence-scouting! We went to the complete other side of the national park, and started walking along the fenceline to check it for damage, and carry out small repairs while we were there. It was a nice change in work for the last day.
Of course, something had to happen. Towards 2PM, some very very dark grey clouds started to appear, and they were moving in our general direction. Getting a little bit concerned, Pete decided to start walking down a wash (emergency water canal), in order to find the road on which we drove in. Literally five minutes after we found the road and got out of the wash, somebody yelled 'GET COVER!', and mere seconds later, a massive amount of hail started falling from the sky, followed by a frickin' downpour with accompanying thunder and lightning. The scariest part was that we had a bolt of lightning strike a good 100m from our cover position...
Anyway, we've all come back in one piece, had an amazing crew dinner wednesday night (I love BBQ!) followed by a night in the bar which had drinks at 25ct during happy hour. Life can be good!
For my off-days, I haven't planned anything yet, but I'll see where I can go and what I can do. There's still some amazing stuff to see in Flagstaff, and I think I'll go out and climb Mt. Humphries one of these days, the highest peak in Arizona!
'Till the next time,
Steven