Hitch 2: Duck Creek Basin

Another great week working at Duck Creek Basin and camping at Timber Creek Campground in the Humboldt-Toiyobe National Forest.  Out Pinyon-Juniper reduction project is helping to restore sagebrush habitat and also creates a fire break.  Our project sponsor is the Eastern Nevada Landscape Coalition.  

Olivia holding a baby pinyon tree we pulled up.  She is holding it at the above-below ground point.  Long taproot!

Lunch tree on our last day.  Trees that had crowned were left standing.

Lots of large anthills like this one.  So far I haven't been bitten, but they often form around the trunks of the trees we are cutting

Felling a small tree.

Our crew and our partner crew pose on our final day after we load the trucks.

Red Canyon Mountain Biking

I stopped by Red Canyon in the Dixie National Forest on the way back to Ely from Bryce Canyon to do some mountain biking.  

Another biker on the trail ahead of me.  I seem to have inspired him to get out his camera.

What's wrong with this picture?  I don't think that's what clipless pedals are supposed to do . . .

Luckily I had my first aid kit.

View from the trail.

100 meters after Shoe #1 blows up, Shoe #2 felt left out.  Time to restock the first aid kit.

Bryce Canyon National Park

I decided to go to Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah for this break.  I was able nab a spot in the park campground for a few nights.  While I was there, the Annual Astronomy Festival was going on.  I went to several interesting talks on the myths behind the constellations and how to use a Planosphere. Dr. Amy Sayle, a planetarium educator lead these presentations.  It turns out that Dr. Sayle works for the Morehead Planetarium at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where I went to college.  One of my friends actually works for her at the Planetarium.

New Mammal Sightings: Pronghorn Antelope (I saw this briefly from the shuttle bus), Mule Deer

View from the rim.

Another view from the rim.  I have dozens of these . . .

On "The World's Best 3 Mile HIke" down into the canyon.

I watched 2 of these lizards on the trail for at least 10 minutes.  They would skitter around one another and every few minutes one would make a lunge at the other, but the other would always have scrambled away.

Fairyland Point

Along the Rim Trail, one side provides near constant overlooks into Bryce Canyon, but the other side often appears as this.  Beautiful but overshadowed by the canyon.

Hitch 1: Duck Creek Basin Pinyon-Juniper Removal

We had a great first hitch!

The week started out very cold.  It was snowing when we arrived at our campsite and pitched out tents.  By the time we got to the worksite, it had turned to a cold rain, which sounds miserable but was actually fine.  Sawing is hot work, so the cold was not an issue.

Our campsite.

Road in front of our campsite.

Lots of interesting plants in the area.

View from campground

 There was wildlife to be seen.  We saw several deer from the truck as we drove from the campsite to the worksite.  I also saw a female sage grouse.  Insect activity went from non-existent to swarms of flies and mosquitoes after the first mild night.

Female sage grouse.

Cows at our worksite.  They were not at all wary of chainsaws.

A day's worth of gear to haul: chainsaw, chaps, 4 liters of water, lunch, raingear, dolmar (the gas and oil container), and sawbag with tools.

I was impressed with how hardworking my crew was.  Working 8 ten-hour days in a row is no easy feat.

On a break.

Posing with gear.  NOT about to saw through the gas can.  The ground seen here has already been cleared of juniper and pinyon.

The foreground has been cleared, but you can see the edge of the treeline where we were working.

Break: Lake Tahoe

We had a three day break for Memorial Day.  A group of us decided to go see Lake Tahoe before we headed east across Nevada.

Lake Tahoe from Zephyr Cove, Nevada

Cascade Lake in the foreground and Lake Tahoe in the background, California; from the Cascade Falls trail.

Me near the end of the Cascade Falls trail

Since it was Memorial Day weekend and we didn't have a reservation for a campsite, we asked a ranger for advice and camped along the Tahoe Time Trail.

Our campsite, with Heather on the left.

Where we should have camped.  10 minutes further up the trail.  Called "Big Meadow."

Big Meadow

The drive from Reno to Ely, NV on Route 50.  Very few other cars.  Passed through  two towns in 200 miles, each with one gas station.

Not a highway to take if you want to be around other people.

Nevada Conservation Corps Orientation

Orientation week was packed with activity.  Monday and Tuesday we were trained in Wilderness First Aid and learned more about the background of Great Basin Institute, which administers the Nevada Conservation Corps.  Wednesday we spent the whole day learning about proper chainsaw operation in a classroom, and Thursday and Friday were spent at Galena Creek Park practicing in the field.

During this week we all camped at Davis Creek Park.  I was glad to have brought such warm clothing because it was quite chilly at night.

I got the meet the three other members of my team, Olivia, Eric, and Ryan, and our supervisor, Michelle.  We are the Eastern Nevada Roving Chainsaw Crew.  We'll be based out of Ely, Nevada for the rest of the summer.

Our worksite, where the prescription is for clearing dead down trees and doing some thinning.

Flowers at out worksite.

Burn pile we made.  Later another crew will come by to do the burn.

Me with the stump of the first tree I felled.  It has already been stumped, bucked, and hauled away.

Flowers at the worksite.

A species of mistletoe.  Many of the trees we removed were heavily infested.

State Taglines

On the trip from North Carolina to Nevada, I drove through XX states.  On the interstate, the welcome signs for each state often include a tagline.  Here is what I saw:

Virginia: "Open for Business"
West Virginia: "Wild and Wonderful"
Kentucky: "Unbridled Spirit" and also "Birthplace of Abraham Lincoln"
Indiana: "Crossroads of America" and also "Lincoln's Boyhood Home"
Illinois: "Land of Lincoln"
Missouri: none on their sign, but according to Wikipedia is "The Show-Me State"
Iowa: "Fields of Opportunity"
Nebraska: "Nebraska . . . the Good Life"
Wyoming: "Forever West"
Utah: "Life Elevated"
Nevada: we missed this one because we crossed over at an exit, but it's probably "The Silver State"

Notice the Lincoln theme.  Reminds me of the North Carolina : First in Flight :: Ohio : Birthplace of Aviation
That's on both their licence plates and state quarters.