Grand Canyon Day 3: Service Project Day 1

Today we awoke at 6:30am and had non-instant oatmeal with toppings (apples, brown sugar, almonds, honey, ect) for breakfast. We met with Josh and Steve at 8am to be briefed for our day. We learned how to recognize and remove Sahara mustard.  The plants had small bumps on their leaves, fuzzy undersides to their leaves, a distinct smell, and the mature ones also had yellow flowers on stalks.  We were also reminded to always wear our PPG - personal protective gear - when using our geopick to remove Sahara mustard.  Then we split into two groups and conquered different areas.

My group walked from camp and walked along the road to the boat launch looking for Sahara mustard. Then we climbed a steep hill with lots of loose rocks, before looking for Sahara mustard near the ranger residences.  We were pretty 'unlucky' in the morning - which is depressing, but also very positive for the park.

Looking from camp towards Lee's Ferry (photo by Malika)

Such a pretty backdrop for our service project (photo by Andrea)

We stopped for lunch at 11:45am. Lunch was my deli sandwiches (roast beef, turkey, ham, cheddar, and Munster) with apples, chips, hummus, avocado. Everyone laid down to nap after lunch.

We worked on finding and removing more Sahara mustard from 1pm to 3:30pm. We had much more success after lunch - I removed probably 60 plants myself.  However, apparently we are finding many less than last year and are way under the 2000 plant daily estimate for our group. During our search, Tommy found some wire, and shaped it into a longhorn - pretty cool.

 Working to remove Sahara mustard

Sebastian remembering to drink water!

Then we left to hike the Lower Cathedral Wash at 4pm. It was a pretty neat hike though a canyon to the Colorado River. I enjoyed scrambling around in the canyon. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it, but it seemed to tire most of us out.  It wasn't as epic and difficult as Fern Canyon in Big Bend National Park, but it did push some people out of their comfort zone and was indeed beautiful and fun to explore.

Something about me loves exploring canyons...

Pepper easily made her way through Lower Cathedral Wash

Hiking through Lower Cathedral Wash (photo by Andrea)

Hiking through Lower Cathedral Wash (photo by Andrea)

Determining the best path in Lower Cathedral Wash

 At the end of the Lower Cathedral Wash trail, next to the Colorado River

Josh climbed up this crack, and two participants followed. :)

We arrived back at camp as the sun was setting, and I started my tortilla soup (black beans, corn, tomatoes, chicken broth, cream of chicken, avocado, cheese, and tortilla chips). I made a regular version, as well as a no-dairy and a vegetarian version. I also made celery and peanut butter snacks before dinner. All the guides helped me prepare the dinner, which was cool.

I'm still feeling sickly.  I'm more congested, but overall am doing better as long as I take the DayQuil or NyQuil.