Volunteering Part Deux

After spending a couple weeks in the nursery, we are becoming more self sufficient in terms of assigning tasks. Although Ash is very patient with us, I’m sure he’s thankful for this. We also began working with Lynette, another volunteer who is here from Albuquerque for a couple weeks much the same way we are. She’s been a wonderful companion in the greenhouse and the field, and has some inspiring travel stories! The four of us ventured out into the field again, but this time we were after more elusive and exciting prey… pine cones and acorns. This may seem mundane, but the real winners had to be picked from high in the tree. This made the whole ordeal fun and challenging. Here’s the proof…

We saw this sign in Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the canyon. The Re-Veg group has been hard at work everywhere!

One of our maintenance projects was to build some frames to hold up the tipsy pots. Seems that desert plants have deep roots, most of the pots we worked with were very tall and skinny.

Collecting acorns from Gambel Oak trees. Hard hats required.

Quality Pinyon Pine cones were hard to come by, squirrels had ransacked most of them. Why couldn't they be more sensitive to the needs of the Re-Veg group?

Dirt stirring - we are now experts.

Rim to Canyon to Rim

We struggle with words to describe it and pictures surely don’t do it justice … we hiked from the South Rim down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back up again. Amazing!! It was tough, but I’m not sure that we stopped smiling. It was so special to be able to share the experience with each other. From the moment we stepped off the rim, we were already dreaming of a return hike down to the canyon … and we just secured another permit for our one year anniversary. The descent is about 4,000 feet over ~7 miles and gains about 30 degrees. It felt like we crossed ecosystems, from desert mountains into a lush and hot tropical environment. One we reached the canyon, we spent the afternoon staying cool and soaking in the stream (little fish nibbling our toes), slept in our tent next to the stream (hot, hot, hot!!), and started the return hike about an hour before sunrise in an effort to beat the heat.

Our first view of the Colorado heading down the South Kaibab trail!

Another shot taken while heading down the South Kaibab trail. The trail goes around the right hand side of the base of this rock formation.

Finally at the bottom, this is the mighty Colorado.

Swimming the Colorado is forbidden, and looks awfully scary anyways. However, Phantom Creek was a great place for us to cool off after the hike.

Just after a swim in the creek next to some mule deer. The nearly tropical setting at the bottom of the canyon offers some exciting and unexpected scenery.

Writing postcards by flashlight

Heading back up the Bright Angel trail

Mule trains were quite frequent on the Bright Angel trail



Its harder than it looks!! Waiting for the bus after the climb

Volunteering

Volunteering turned out to be all that we had hoped! The project is restoring natural vegetation and we’re happy to be able to help. We’re working with a group called the “Re-Veg” team … as in re-vegetation. Ash has been our guide. He recently graduated with a degree in Environmental Sciences, but he is largely self-taught in plant biology and we find him to be brilliant and dedicated. We spent the first days transplanting. That is … as plants grown from seed outgrow their containers, we laboriously (and delicately) replant them in larger containers. There is enough replanting, watering and reorganizing to last the rest of the year.

Angie sporting "Target Volunteers" t-shirt

First, mix soil with puffed volcanic ash, fertilizer and a wee-bit of H2O

Gentle with the seedlings!


Whallah ... Re-potted yellow campher seedling!

We transferred 250 in one day ... that's enough yellow campher for all of Hermitt Road restoration in 2010!

Cacti

To shake things up a bit, today we ventured out into the “field” to collect the seeds/spores. It’s pretty cool to see the full lifespan of the plants. The Re-Veg team will care for the plants for years in their container pots and then for two years after they are planted in the ground. We look at the park with a different lens after seeing all of the work that goes into the “Planting a Good Idea” signs throughout the park.

Look close ... you can actually see the pollen on this bee!

Jake in the "field" collecting seeds/spores

Jake & Ash collecting seed/spores

Hiking in the Grand Canyon

Wow! What a breath-taking spectacular view! We’re having the time of our lives! It’s an incredibly newlywed adventure. Hiking down towards the canyon has been our highlight. The heat and altitude are intense, so we’ve been sticking to shorter hikes. This upcoming weekend we have a camping permit to hike to the bottom!

Ang & Jake Hiking

Jake contemplating life on a rock

The View

Breathtaking!

Mule Deer

Mountain Goats

Flagstaff

Our first glimpse of the mountains, or foothills, perhaps was when we were approaching Flagstaff. We were so excited to be getting close to the mountains after our tremendously flat drive! Flagstaff is a beautiful town with great views and some fun hiking and biking. We were looking forward to staying here after the recommendation from Casey – Thank you! Being the first trip with the camper, we were also pretty excited about seeing our beloved Prowler with a mountain in the background! All that work we did to fix up the old girl was really paying off!

Jake & Angie biking in Flagstaff AZ

The Prowler


Angie mountain biking

The Drive…

We made our way out here just about as quickly as we could, sleeping at rest stops and Wal-marts. Initially we had talked about taking our time and not doing any marathon drives, but as the day approached we both realized that we were far too excited for that. For the sake of our Jeep, we did the majority of the driving (or tried to) at night and in the early morning. One of our best ideas so far (if I do say so) at this point as to take out part of the back seat so that we had a little more room to lay down in the back. This way we were able to take turns driving and sleeping. In this manner we crossed the country at an average speed of about 45 mph. Our claim to fame? …we did this all with an old Jeep, an older camper, and still passed exactly one car (yes, singular) in 1700 miles.

Once we reached Amarillo, Texas, we had to get out and take a few minutes to look around. After traveling through Oklahoma and Kansas we were seeing the first variations in the landscape (mild hills) since southern Minnesota.

The Drive

TX Reststop ... variations in landscape!

First glimpse of mountains

Critters

One of the most exciting parts was the different critters that we’ve encountered on the trip. Along with the canyon, they were certainly able to stop us in our tracks at least once a day. Some were docile, and really didn’t seem to pay any attention to us like the elk and mule deer. Others like the Rock Squirrels have lost their fear of humans, and subsist nearly entirely on handouts. They come out the wood work when you eat outside and beg for handouts. The list below captures all the sightings we have had, but we still don’t have a picture for all of them.

Western Blue bird

Hummingbird

Jay

Mule Deer

Elk
Ringtail cat
Rock Squirrel
Javalina (Wild pig) - Yes they're in there, we were warned not to get too close!

Mules

Tarantula

Tarantula Wasp

Canyon Bats

Raccoons

Cottontail Rabbit

Black Raven

Coyote

Lizards

Geckos

Grand Canyon Rattlesnake

Phantom Creek Fish

Plants

With Ash’s patient repetition of plant names and descriptions, we are also now beginning to recognize plants by their proper names! Here is a selection of some of the plants we worked with. Not all the pictures are here, but we'll try to get most of them!

Hoary Tansy Aster (transplanted first, purple flower, collected white spores)

Camphor Weed (transplanted second, yellow flowers in flats)

Pinyon Pine (pine cones)

Gambel Oak (acorns)

Globe Mallow (pretty peach-ish flower, rare)

Brickle Bush (baggie we left behind, real scraggly one)

Jameson's Buckwheat (clumps of yellow/red flower)

Snow Berry (aqua blue/green plants)

Agave (century plant, sends up stalk w/seeds every 20-40 years and dies)

Yucca (similar looking w/threads on spines, doesn’t shoot up stalk)

Prickly Pear Cactus (circular, with purple fruit)

Jumping Cholla (finger looking, dangerous, mean!)

Rocky Mountain Junipers (trees Jake likes with purple berries)

Crypto Crust

Mistletoe (parasite on Juniper trees)