Spring Break 2015: Day 5

Today we woke up at 5:50am since we needed to pack up camp and still be at Best Friends Animal Society by 9am.  We had granola bars and apples for breakfast.  The general idea seems to be that granola bars and apples are quicker than instant oatmeal, but if we are still going to heat water and do a French press for coffee, I don't think instant oatmeal would really take any longer...

Cole realized that he had lost his phone, potentially while running and playing Frisbee the night before, so we swept our camp site after packing up and found nothing.  He eventually found it packed in his tent in the evening.

We arrived at Best Friends about 30 minutes early, so we visited their gift shop.  I bought a cat tee-shirt for myself, and a Dog Town tee-shirt for my parents.  Then we headed off to Dog Town for our morning of service at one of the puppy buildings.  Apparently they get a lot of homeless puppies from the nearby Najavo communities.

In the puppy area, we first received a quick introduction and then we deep-cleaned the indoor and outdoor dog runs.  Once we had set all the runs back up, we each got to take a puppy out for a walk.  I had made it clear that I'm not too comfortable around dogs, so they gave me a puppy to walk by itself plus a volunteer to accompany me on the walk.  My puppy was fine - it completely ignored me and just pulled me down the trail behind it.  However, I do not see what everyone else loved about the puppies - yes, they are cute, but they are also rather annoying and tiresome.

We had our (vegetarian) lunch of hummus, olives, lettuce, peppers, avocados, and pitas on the patio at the Village.  After lunch we went to an older part of Dog Town and worked for what seemed like forever cleaning up outdoor dog runs and weeding along the perimeters of these runs.  The heat and back-breaking labour made this a particularly hard three hours.

Once we were finally done weeding and cleaning, we finished our time at Best Friends with a tour of the pig and horse area.  This was not originally part of our schedule, but one of the participants was really persistent in asking about seeing the horses, so Best Friends was able to make it happen.  We first walked along the horse section.  Apparently many of the horses at Best Friends were abused by their previous owners, so they are now being retrained using a less controlling and intimidating technique.  Then we were shown a few different types of pigs, and I was actually really impressed with the pigs.  They are smarter and more loving than I had ever imagined to be possible.

We finally left Best Friends for our drive to Zion National Park around 4:30pm. When we arrived, there was no space left at either of the Zion National Park camp grounds (and we had not reserved any sites since this trip was thrown together at the last minute when we opted not to visit Mission: Wolf due to the weather), so we camped at the Quality Inn camp ground in Springdale for $105 a night.  However, our group was very excited about the 6 minute shower this price included for each of us.

Most people showered while Tommy, Cole, and I cooked Thanksgiving dinner (mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberries) plus fajita chicken. After eating dinner and cleaning up, I prepared breakfast and lunch for Thursday, called JT, showered for 12 minutes (since Emily gave me an extra token she had purchased but did not use), and then finally went to sleep at 11.

Our site at Ponderosa Grove

Puppies at Best Friends (photo by Tommy Vinyard)

 Finally at Zion! (photo by Tommy Vinyard)

Spring Break 2015: Day 4

I woke up at 6:50am, and was the first to get up.  As such, I started water boiling and hash-browns browning. The breakfast was really good, and the proportions were spot on (4 people/ bag plus 4 people/sausage).  Hash browns and sausage really is becoming one of my favorite camping meals.

We arrived at Best Friends Animal Society at 9am as scheduled. We were greeted, and then we watched two orientation videos: one overall and one on volunteering in Dog Town (the dog area). After the orientation, we drove over to the Wild Friends area and took tours of both the Wild Friends area and the Birds area.  In both areas, the animals had spacious, well thought-out enclosures and the tours were led by people who work directly with the animals and are hence very familiar with them.  Wild Friends contained the animals that come to Best Friends but do not fit into any other area - some examples were ducks, chicken, and birds of prey.  The Birds area contained everything from parrots to owls.  I learned that parrots are actually really smart, but I also learned about how parrot mills (like dog mills) are really resulting in many homeless animals. All of these animals were at Best Friends because either (1) they could not thrive in the wild or (2) it would be illegal to release them into the wild. 

Best Friends Animal Society is really huge, but also nicely ran. They seem to be doing great work, although I do wonder if they are spending too much time/resources on sick animals when this money could perhaps be better spend to help more adoptable animals. Their motto is "save them all", but maybe it should actually be "save as many as possible" or "home as many as possible".

Best Friends does not allow staff or guests to eat meat products on site, so we quickly and secretly ate our deli sandwiches at some picnic tables near the visitor center. We had lots of leftover meat, cheese, and bread and not enough avocado.  But this did make me wonder why it is okay for the animals at Best Friends to eat meat, but not the humans?  It seems like a really strange double standard.

After lunch we went to an event with the other four schools volunteering at Best Friends. They were all staying for more days than us (most 5 days, it seemed). We had an intro with candy, social with the other schools, snack time, information about intern-ships, and then a presentation from a vet about the harms of puppy mills. It was all nicely done, and you could tell they were trying to make sure we had a good experience. We finished around 3:30pm, went to the grocery store to get ice, and then arrived back at camp by 4:45pm.

I took off on a hike near camp as soon as we got back. I headed back towards the main road and then into the sand dunes. I did not go too far, but it was really pretty and peaceful. And very close to camp! The sand was very fine-grained, and the dunes and surrounding mountains and plateaus were awesome. I even had cell service on the top of one dune and got to call JT. It was great to get away from the group for a bit and have some alone time.

I headed back to camp around 6pm as we were supposed to be starting dinner around 6:15pm.  However, for some reason we did not actually start dinner until 7:45pm.  Dinner consisted of grilled fajita beef, quinoa, and grilled veggies. We were originally going to also cook fajita chicken, but Emily and Tommy decided it would take too long.  This was sad for me, since the chicken was really the only part of the meal I was planning on eating (since I do not like quinoa or beef, and the vegetables went really quick).  I made myself a grilled cheese sandwich and ate a granola bar.

A couple set up at the camp site next to us tonight, and the camp seemed full. A group of three cars painted with 'just married' was the last to arrive. Our group did seem to enjoy just chilling at camp, as they slack-lined, played Frisbee, danced, and did yoga before dinner and we played three games of Resistance after dinner.

A chicken at Best Friends who had once been someone's pet (photo by Tommy Vinyard)

A well-trained bird on the bird tour

This is a bonded group of parrots

An owl who has been in 'hospice' for 5 years now with cancer (photo by Tommy Vinyard)

The view of the canyon from the Village at Best Friends

A trail head sign for my hike into the sand dunes

A trail head sign for my hike into the sand dunes

The pink sand dunes near Ponderosa Grove camp ground

The pink sand dunes near Ponderosa Grove camp ground

The pink sand dunes near Ponderosa Grove camp ground

 The pink sand dunes near Ponderosa Grove camp ground

Grand Canyon Day 5: Service Project Day 3

Note: This post reflects my memories of this day.  The original post remained in the 'publishing' state for 6 days, until it finally disappeared.  Hence, I'm rewriting this post one week later.

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.

Grand Canyon Day 4: Service Project Day 2

Today we awoke at 6:50am after a windy, cool night.  I awoke many times coughing or extremely congested. Poor Emily (my tent mate).

For breakfast we had toasted bagels with butter, peanut butter, and cream cheese.  Then we drove down to Lee's Ferry and searched for Sahara mustard for about 3 hours. We found a good bit of trash, and saw a decent bit of native mustard, but found no Sahara mustard. We also saw multiple groups setting up rafts for 2-4 week Grand Canyon trips.

We headed back to camp for lunch at 11am, as we were supposed to have an interpretive talk at noon. We ate tortillas with hummus, tuna, pepper jack cheese, and leftover ham and roast beef.  I could only stomach one roll-up with ham and cheese.  After lunch a bunch of us laid down and napped. I'm feeling pretty sickly and drained today (worse than the previous days).

Apparently the person who was supposed to give our noon talk was delayed when her plane couldn't take off due to wind, so we just went down to the Lonely Dell Ranch to explore.  I was really dragging during the 1 mile self-guided tour.

Orchard at Lonely Dell Ranch

 The Paria River, by Lonely Dell Ranch

We got back in the cars and went to remove more Sahara mustard. We walked by the river for a bit, where we were thrilled to find 2 Sahara mustard plants.  Then we got to a beach, where we napped, got in the cold Colorado River, and played Ultimate Frisbee.  I stayed in the water the longest - it felt good and I'm glad I got in, but now everything is so sandy. It was relaxing to sit on the beach for a while and just chill.

Hunting for Sahara Mustard in a small wash

 Beach at Lee's Ferry

Once we returned to camp, Josh noted how helpful having 17 other people out here helping him grid and remove really is.  Apparently he is the only Grand Canyon front-country invasive species person.  He also noted that it really is a victory when we grid an area and find no Sahara mustard.

We made a quick trip to the gas station convenience store tonight. Most people got lots of snacks and ice cream.  Everything was pretty overpriced.  I got a little bag of Cheese-its and a Marble Canyon hiking tee-shirt.

We made potato and garbanzo bean soup for dinner.  The soup seemed like it would not be tasty for a while, but eventually we added enough spices for it to actually be pretty good.

It seems like it will be another cold, windy night - probably worse than the previous night.  We'll see how it goes.

In general, everyone seems tired but happy and relaxed tonight.  Today was a pretty cool day.

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.