Today we awoke at 6:30am, ate non-instant oatmeal for breakfast, and reported for our final morning of invasive Sahara mustard removal at 8am. Josh started the day by telling us some facts about the Grand Canyon - including facts about invasive plant removal, national park jobs, and visitors.
Two people went with Josh, while the rest of us went with Steve. Steve's group searched along the road leading from the campground to the landfill, and then we walked along a wash leading from the landfill back to camp. We found a few plants along the road, and found some truly massive plants in the wash. We took a short break in the wash near the landfill - it was a pretty area to just rest and chill. Many people ended up taking a short nap in the sun. Once we reached the campground, we searched every site and removed a good bit of Sahara mustard from the campground.
Leaving the campground in search of Sahara Mustard. I can almost hear the chants of 'Kill the Mustard'
Many rested in the wash leading back to camp...
...while Dan took the opprotunity to climb high above us!
Then we had lunch, which was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Emily started toasting the sandwiches, which led me to make a grilled cheese out of the remaining deli cheese. So good! It was at this point that we realized that grilled cheeses might be a good lunch (or dinner) idea for the future.
After lunch we drove over to the river launch at Lee's Ferry, and started our afternoon hike up the Spencer Trail. The trail was about 1.75 miles to the top, where we were rewarded with amazing views in all directions. I hiked up in the back of the pack. Tommy stayed with me, and interestingly enough all the guides ended up reaching the top last! I felt like I was out of breath the entire way up.
Once we were at the top, we all explored for a while and took lots of pictures. I found a ledge to relax on that looked upriver towards Lake Powell. The climb up was tiring, but the view at the top was certainly worth it. I could have stayed at the top for much longer than we did - I'm not sure why everyone was in a hurry to get down.
View downriver from the top of Spencer Trail.
View upriver from the top of Spencer Trail.
Group picture at the top of Spencer Trail (photo by Andrea)
I walked down near the end of the pack, walking with Emily for the first part but walking most of the hike alone. It was a good time to think and reflect, while also focusing on footing to be sure I didn't fall off the cliff at points. There were a few sketchy points, where the trail was either really narrow on a cliff or a small rock-slide had made the trail a bit unstable - but I never felt like it was really unsafe.
Once we all reached the bottom, we drove back to camp. There was some debate among with guides about whether we should drive into Marble Canyon and eat or eat the planned stir-fry meal. We eventually decided to eat the stir-fry meal as planned.
Josh had us all gather together before we began cooking the meal. He gave us Oreos and Steve presented us each with a NPS volunteer sticker and a Vegetation Crew bandanna. Apparently one of Steve's friends had designed the bandanna a few years earlier, just as the Grand Canyon vegetation crew was starting to actually go 'below the rim' in the canyon. It was a pretty nice presentation by both of them. Then we filled out evaluation forms for the NPS volunteer experience.
Overall, I was happy with our volunteer experience. I expected that we would work longer hours, and likely find more prevalent Sahara mustard. But apparently due to the weather this past winter, Josh thinks that perhaps the Sahara mustard will not really begin to appear in Lee's Ferry for another couple weeks. But the other option is that volunteer work like ours is actually starting to put a dent in the amount of Sahara mustard that is appearing. Although I had planned to work longer hours, I was happy that we did get so much time to relax and do neat things (like hiking Cathedral wash on Monday, relaxing at the beach and seeing Lonely Dell ranch on Tuesday, and climbing Spencer Trail on Wednesday). Especially considering it was our Spring Break, this seemed reasonable and certainly helped morale. As I said in my evaluation, I will consider doing this trip again if UT RecSports offers it next year.
Dinner actually ended up being really delicious - Sebastian made two excellent sauces to go with the vegetables (one spicy and one sweet).
Despite wanting to hang out with everyone after dinner, I instead decided to just clean up the dishes and camp and then head to bed. Being sick is no fun, as it forces you to cherish your sleep over getting to know everyone better. Apparently the other guides talked with Josh and Steve after I went to sleep about hikes to do in the Grand Canyon.
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