Giraffe Moonlighting

The last two weeks have very possibly been the craziest of my life. When work is normal my crew, Work Crew Sierra, works in the South country and hikes all of the trails to see what needs maintenance. Mostly we have a rough idea of things that need to be worked on and otherwise just fix sign posts, p-to-b's, sections of trail that are washed out or have fallen logs on them, and campsites that have any issues. We climb a lot of mountains. My crew calls me Mom. (It's oddly endearing) We were gifted a most excellent shack to post up at when we have the opportunity to be at PJ, the campsite that houses our tool cache. I need to take a picture of the shack! The first night at PJ we slept on the porch and listened to country and had a camp feast potluck of deep dish pizza and fajitas with our neighbors. (They live in a cabin equipped with a gas stove and most importantly the ability to make hot chocolate.) Most of the time we camp out at different sites and come back to PJ when we need more food or different tools. We don't have to wake up at 4:15 now that training is over. ::does a dance::

Shooting a Civil War replica gun at Black Mountain during a lunch break in the back country

Mt Phillips

Big Red Mountain

Not pictured: the 6 person cuddle puddle that happens when we all cram inside to sleep

Black Mountain

I took this picture especially for Wiggles

Work wasn't normal for very long because our work crew jumped into a phone booth, emerged wearing underwear on our heads (that's what I hear really cool super heroes do), and quickly became evac help for a fire that broke out just south of the park. We ran up to an interpretive homesteading camp to see if they needed any help and ended up herding a bunch of baby goats, their moms, and 2 mules several miles down a trail to be driven out in a trailer. This feat earned us the title of 'work crew Noah's Ark' for a few days around base camp. Seriously guys. baby goats are probably one of the most adorable things.

The next few days after that were a blur. to summarize in small phrases: a search and rescue that had a happy ending, lightning storms, a visit to base camp and a visit away from base camp that might or might not have involved a beer or two, experiencing true grief and loss in the form of a missing pair of wool socks, and then a short relocation to a central country camp to help the conservationists with the huge influx of troops that were relocated from the south country. It was a weird change of pace to be working directly with the scouts, but neat to see what the park is really about and who it's maintained for. I ended up being relocated to a camp with some people that I get along really well with so the three days there were a ton of fun, a lot of camp spaghetti which ended up being unexpectedly delicious, and a lot of really cool conversations about art with a friend in my work crew that is a sculpture major.

Our team was reunited at base camp for our days off, so a work crew day at the hot springs was mandated for day one of our 3 day vacation. The next day a group of us decided to hike Mt Wheeler, which somehow slowly evolved into "lets leave tonight and hike it at midnight so we can watch the sun rise from the top." After getting very lost just trying to find the right town to start the hike in, and then getting more lost trying to find the trail head in the middle of the night, we started at about 3:30 am and made it up to a ridgeline deliriously tired and goofy and watched the sunrise from that vantage point and took a very cold nap. We made the summit early in the morning and hung out for a while to enjoy the view from the tallest peak in New Mexico. At the top we met a kid from Oklahoma traveling around and hiking the area by himself for a while. We also met a couple in their 60's that had thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail 4 years ago. I bogged them down with questions about the AT and hiking with their dog and pretty much decided that I want to be them when I grow up. Hiking up so early ended up being a great idea because we missed the rush to the summit of about 15 other groups of hikers that decided to climb Wheeler that day. It was nice to talk to other hikers and pet all of their dogs (everyone had dogs!) but it was even nicer to be headed down when they were headed up so we didn't end up in any trail traffic.

view from Mt Wheeler

Snow on Wheeler!

Today I've been at base camp with a handful of other conservation employees to be taught how to use chainsaws. Im not going to lie, I'm kind of stoked to cut down a tree. Chainsaws are fun as hell, as i discovered today practicing on a stump nailed to a piece of plywood. I'm going to try and write more letters on this next run, so be expecting some snail mail if I got your address before I left. :)  or if i didn't, feel free to send it to me. I've been practicing my coloring book and doodling skills and I must say you will probably all want to hang anything I mail you over the mantle if not have it tattooed somewhere on your person.





As the sun sets the
sky dims and illuminates
in shadows and shapes
of spruce needles
which look like black frost
patterns on bruised glass
matte and colored with
the sound of chatter and
the clinking silverware of
the stream. the earth
becomes a study of shapes
and sounds and
how much sitting in a cafe
feels like sitting by a
stream in a valley-
squint your eyes and
see the trembling aspen fingers
of lovers or the
stoic pine stance of
students,
the jittered chipmunk rush of entrepreneurs
the wild rose smell of tea
and the earth dirt smell of coffee.
when we're sitting 'round with
no fire we sound like humans
on a porch and smell like
sweat and tobacco-
with flames we are wolves
ember hearted and howling

I loved you, Guinevere

         My hands are sore and covered in blisters, my feet are sore, I have crazy bruises all over my legs, and I'm fairly certain that if anyone saw my arms they would think I was mauled by something very angry. That being said, my trek was awesome! It was a grueling and intense 6 days of building trails, digging holes for posts and for poops, hiking, and building sweet rock walls with the entire conservation department, not just work crew. 

         The first four days consisted of waking up at 4:15 am to our foreman singing at the top of his lungs or meowing like a cat. It's freezing cold at 4:15 am. We all stayed in tents in a meadow. A morning is as follows: Get dressed super fast, walk half a mile down to a camp with a kitchen where we eat pastries and bagels and drink coffee. Run up to the stockade where our tool cache is, which is a big log fort tree house basically. Then we hike up the trail and pick our spots and start working on whatever task for the day we have. Lunch consists of squeeze cheese or honey peanut butter and crackers and lots of energy bars. Dinner is cooked for us down at the camp we have breakfast at. We eat those poor guys out of house and home. I've been eating upwards of 5 to 6 thousand calories a day, and drink about 5 or 6 liters of water a day. 

I wish I helped build this.

The entire conservation crew is awesome. we built a mile of trail and 5 rock walls in four days. I ended up in a crew with the 5 guys that I get along really well with, so I have a feeling that it will be a good summer. I just hope I can keep up. I'm the only girl on work crew because the one other girl quit, which means when people introduce me they go "This is Amanda, she's the only girl on

work crew and she's a bad-ass!" This is terrifying because I haven't actually gone out on a job yet, so I have a lot to live up to. I did well in training which earned me this little notoriety, but I have a feeling that it was just a small taste of what is to come. Being the only girl on work crew also means that I spend 9 days at a time out with a bunch of bros, so when I come back to base camp I immediately seek out my female cons friends and do lady things. (most of them are 'ists', which stands for 'conservationists'. they teach kids about different things out in the back country.) WC is notoriously stinky and crazy and fun and crass so during parents week we aren't allowed on base camp, or so I've been told. 

The Great Wall of Philmont

I was testing out what it would be like to be a poop before the toilet went on top of the hole we dug for camp poos

The toilets that go on top of these holes are called "pilot to bombers" because its a two seater and they face away from each other. Not pictured is my crew trying to put the toilet on me before I could get out of the hole. I escaped in the nick of time.

The trail we were building was a new path to the point that we took our staff picture at last week, which is the little peak? protrusion? below called the Tooth of Time. Aptly named because it looks like a tooth! The original trail up it is a very intense steep climb through a boulder-filled canyon which is awesome but not ideal for some younger crews or folks new to hiking.

The Tooth of Time

I can't get enough of the views here. A storm was a-brewin!

The good thing about waking up so early is seeing the sunrise over the mesa.

We came back down to base camp from training/trail building a few days ago and have have a wonderful and much appreciated 3 days off. Yesterday a group of us visited Taos, which is a cool little hippie town. It makes me feel like I've got a little piece of Austin near me. We visited this awesome hot spring in a canyon and just soaked for several hours because we're all sore from training. Afterwards pizza ensued.

Nature's hot tub

Mad props to the kid that drew this and gave it to the pizza joint we ate at.

A co-worker of mine said something kind of profound while we were driving back from Taos. It made quote of the day, which I am still attempting to keep a log of.

"Look at our world, guys. It's beautiful."