Circle Time

That's right, during our 17 day training, we spent a lot of time in circles. We talked about PPE and LNT; we talked about swinging tools and sharpening tools and not hurting ourselves with tools and what to do when we hurt ourselves with tools; we talked about talking to people and feeding ourselves and cleaning up after feeding ourselves; and then we talked about restoring illegal trails and about driving on legal ones. It was a busy training.

We wore closed toe shoes in the kitchen, long pants when washing dishes or making tea, boots when working, gloves when handling tools, hardhats when swinging tools, and full riot gear when working outreach. Ok, not quite, but there were a lot of rules.


It is difficult to live in such a structured environment and with so many people after growing used to living alone.

And actually training was kinda fun. It was nice getting to meet people from all of the crews (there are 6). We played a lot of games and made a lot of music. The stars were awesome and we slept out under them every night.

Camp

On one off day a group of us went on a hike in Surprise Canyon and that was awesome. It was about 45 minutes away but the ecology of the area was starkly different. We hiked up a stream bed which was flowing with water, and there were many green plants in the area. The canyon walls rose steeply on each side, in short it was awesome.

Surprise Canyon

On another off day we went for a hike up above the canyon where we were camping, and that was pretty cool too.

And now we have 6 days off so I am headed up to Yosemite tomorrow morning to do some hiking.

On to California

This begins what I expect to become a series of blogs from a new adventure. I am spending the next 8 months on a SCA Desert Restoration Crew out of Ridgecrest California. As one person said, Ridgecrest is a great place from which to go places.

Downtown Ridgecrest

Most of my first week here has been full of getting things ready for the year. Lots of sorting through gear, repackaging our bulk food order, and going through the obligatory trainings such as defensive driving, policies, and risk management. While the work itself hasn't been terribly thrilling, it gave us a chance to meet our crew members. So far, so good--though admittedly I probably wouldn't post it here.

A rock in the Rands

The highlight of the week came yesterday, on one of our day's off, when a bunch of us went for a hike up nearby Owens Peak (8400 ft). It is in the southern Sierras and just outside of town, though getting to the trail head took about an hour and a half on winding mountain roads. The vegetation changed quickly as we headed into the mountains; Joshua trees started appearing, became plentiful and then disappeared during the drive. By the time we started hiking there was a bunch of scrub oak and pitch pine. The views from the top were awesome. On one said we could see down into a dry, dusty valley and Ridgecrest, and on the other we looked into the Sierras.

Something smells like burning

Next it is off to training with all of the other crews for the next two weeks.