Yarnell Memorial Trail: The Beginning

June 28th, 2013: Lightning ignites a wildfire near Yarnell, Arizona.  Two days later nineteen firefighters from the city of Prescott were overrun and killed attempting to contain the fire.  The Yarnell Hill fire proved to be the deadliest wildfire the state of Arizona had ever experienced and the greatest loss of firefighters in the line of duty this country had seen since September 11th.

Now, nearly three years after the incident, the American Conservation Experience is helping to build a memorial trail to commemorate the Granite Mountain Hotshots who lost their lives that day.  The trail itself is going to be the memorial with commemorative plaques for each member of the crew placed throughout the walk which leads to the site where the firefighters were trapped and eventually killed.

For this project ACE sent a total of three crews, roughly eight people each, to work on the trail at the same time. The crew that I was assigned to is the crew that will be doing most of the rock work for the project (at least in the beginning). This means we'll be building steps and retaining walls where the trail is too steep to be made only of dirt.  This first hitch involved a lot of training both in general trail building and rock work for our crew specifically.

The first staircase we built consisted of four steps, three anchors, a keystone, and a capstone.  The steps' functions are pretty self explanatory, those are the ones you step on.  The anchors are there to keep the staircase in its place.  Some staircases have anchors running along both sides but for these steps we were able to use the hillside to anchor our steps on one side.  The keystone goes at the bottom of the staircase and usually gets completely covered in dirt so you don't know it's there once it's in place. Its purpose is to keep the steps from sliding forward by acting as a sort of front anchor. The capstone is the stone that secures the keystone to the anchors. The two pictures above show the staircase with just one step plus anchors, keystone, and capstone (left) and the staircase once it was finished (right).  The whole thing took about four days for myself and two others to complete it.  It was tough work both mentally and physically but we learned a ton along the way. I love how tangible the results are with this kind of work.  That staircase isn't going anywhere for a hundred years and we could see our progress right in front of us as we worked.

As I suspected, the sights were quite beautiful for this project. The sunrise and sunset painted the entire sky blazing yellows, reds, and oranges.  Especially when there was light cloud cover.  The low dessert is its own interesting and unique ecosystem full of every type of prickly thing you can imagine.  Every night we fall asleep to the sound of javelinas and coyotes barking and yelping in the distance.  Looking in any direction you see shrubby desert in the foreground and hazy, blue mountains in the distance.  My friend from California tells me that the haze is actually smog from Phoenix but even so I think it completes the scene quite nicely.  It gives the mountains a mystical sort of fuzziness.  I see the milky way every night before I go to bed (often accompanied by a handful of shooting starts)  and Jupiter and Venus are there every morning when I wake up.  All in all it's quite a beautiful place to work/live in if I do say so myself.


I will be working on this project for the next few months. Hopefully our end date will be when the trail is finished but that entirely depends on how fast we can work.  Either way you can expect to see a lot more pictures of desert and steps because that will be my life until mid April.  As always thanks for reading. Catch'a next time!

Hitch #1: Le Grand Canyon Part Two

The sun rose steadily, bathing the Grand Canyon in its glow. Or at least I assume it did since I woke up in a warehouse with its only windows facing the buildings across the parking lot.  The morning routine was the same as the day before; rub the dust from my eyes, put on some layers, and walk to the next building over for a breakfast of cold cereal and milk.  Today was the day we were to hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon using the South Kaibab trail.  The walk would be seven miles long, descend 5,000 feet, and the plan was for it to take the entire day.  I couldn't wait to get started.  My dream ever since I started working in the outdoors was to get paid to go hiking and today it was finally going to happen, and in the Grand Canyon no less.

The sky was grey that morning while we shivered through the daily safety talk in the parking lot of the trail head.  Most of us had already attached our mini crampons but those that didn't were slipping and sliding on the ice that covered the parking lot.  As soon as we were finished I shouldered my pack and headed down the trail with the group of crew members more eager to get hiking.

The first mile or so was completely covered in snow and ice.  I was very glad they provided us with crampons and trekking poles because without the extra traction it would have been a much more dangerous hike.  I'd like to think that I've been to some pretty beautiful places in my time but I can say with absolute certainty that mid January on the South Kaibab trail was the most beautiful hike I've ever been on. "The Grand Canyon makes Zion look like Newark." I wrote in my journal later that night.  We started surrounded by brightly colored, layered rocks made even brighter by the white snow that had settled on every slightly flat surface.  Then we descended into what felt more like the canyon I was expecting, with sharp switchbacks cutting through sheer cliff faces of orange and brown.

After four and a half miles I reached a flat, shrub-covered plain.  We had instructions to wait here for the entire crew to arrive so I had some time to really take in the scenery.  It looked like a typical desert-scape except for the mountains of red rising in every direction.  And that's exactly what they looked like, mountains. Most of the rock formations near me were the typical temples, buttes, and side canyons from the post cards but looking farther into the distance you could see what honestly looked like snow capped peaks rising out of  bases made of red and black.  I felt like I had successfully seen what the Grand Canyon had to offer. Little did I know there was an entirely new world lying just beyond where I sat waiting to be explored.

The final layer of the Grand Canyon, home to the mighty Colorado River, is the oldest and by far the strangest. It is roughly two billion years old (half the age of the Earth itself) and has it's own totally unique aesthetic appeal.  One of the crew members put it right when he described it as Jurassic.  The layered walls that define most of the rest of the Canyon give way to solid rocks with vertical scars cut by erosion.  Shrubs grow on the sides of the canyon walls and the rocks give the appearance of slowly melting into the rusty Colorado beneath.

At the bottom of the Canyon is a village called Phantom Ranch.  There are cabins and a restaurant complete with gift shop and soda fountain.  The Canteen, as the restauraunt, is called opens every night for dinner at eight and fills up almost imediatly with warm bodies and conversations.  We of course stayed on a beach at the edge of the river near the mule pen.  As far as back country comforts go it was a paradise.  We had our own three burner stove, a space heater for the mornings, and the gentle hum of the river to help us fall asleep each night.  I couldn't have been happier with the accommodations.

The day after our hike was an easy work day (our hips were all pretty sore from the hike). We worked until lunch, clearing out our camp site (it hadn't been used since the '80s apparently) and building a walking path from the main trail to our tents.  It was fun to use my hands a bit and I got some practice moving big rocks into advantageous positions using a rock bar; essentially a big piece of solid metal with a triangular tip which when used correctly provides leverage.  Our project partner Jake, who had worked with the National Park Service for about a decade, decided that for the rest of the day our time would best be spent walking off our soreness so we went for a walk through Phantom Ranch and up to a viewpoint.  My legs felt infinitely better after our walk without packs which was lucky because every morning for the next few days we would have to hike two and a half miles and up 1,600ft to our work site.

Trail work in the Grand Canyon is unlike trail work in most places.  At least that's what they told me, this was my first time on a trails crew after all. The trails in the Canyon are not built for sustainability or low maintenance.  They get so much traffic from hikers and mules day after day after day that the park simply hires people every year to do their best to undo the damage done by the previous year. So that's exactly what we did.  Most of the damage to the trail was in the form of dirt loss. No one likes to walk on a trail full of potholes or made of exposed bedrock. The park service has devised an interesting and unique way to attempt to capture dirt that would otherwise be removed from the trail by erosion.  Running parallel to the trail is a drainage system with rock dams every twenty or so feet. These dams slow the flow of water in the drainage and capture dirt that would otherwise flow off the trail and be lost.  A lot of the work I did on the trail involved taking the dirt that had accumulated around these dams and putting it back on the trail.  We also harvested dirt from the surrounding area to spread over the trail.  Of course this wasn't always possible since the trail was often flanked by a rock wall on one side and a vertical drop off on the other.  The work was never particularly mentally stimulating which became frustrating for me at times but I especially enjoyed the physical labor and the hike to and from the work site.

Finally it was time to say goodbye to the Canyon.  We hiked out the same we we hiked in, enjoying all the amazing views in reverse.  By then my legs had become like steel and the hike up was nothing more than a pleasant day's stroll. Stimulating but peaceful. Overall I walked thirty five miles during my stay in the Grand Canyon ascending and descending a total of 9,800ft. At no point along the way did the view fail to exceed all of my expectations.  Any time I felt tired or demotivated a thirty second break to stop and look up was all I needed to freshen my spirits. I felt extremely fortunate for the opportunity to spend my first hitch in such a sublime environment and I can only hope that my future projects will be able to live up to the standards set by the Grand Canyon.

Thanks for reading! I leave tomorrow for yet another hitch, this one in the low desert near Yarnell, Arizona.  This one will be an eight day hitch instead of the nine I spent in the Canyon. See you all when I get back!

Hitch #1: Le Grand Canyon Part One

I fidgeted uneasily in my seat in the back of the van as I looked out the window.  The view had been gradually changing from shrubby desert to Ponderosa Pine forest, a sure sign that we were approaching the Grand Canyon from the south.  Those in the car who had spent time in the Canyon were being questioned extensively about how it compares to photos and what we can expect out of the next nine days of work.  Before this trip I had spent an afternoon at the north rim of the Grand Canyon but it was only a fleeting glimpse and I didn't get the chance to actually go down and see what was at the bottom like I would be doing on this trip.

We passed through the front gate, nodding to the rangers on duty, and were inside the park's boundaries.  There was about a foot and a half of snow on the ground and hanging in the trees all around us.  After taking a few wrong turns (this was our drivers first time working in the Canyon as well) we finally made it. The National Park Service bunk house.  We spoke with our project partner and learned that the plan was for us to stay here for a few days and shovel snow around the rim before descending into the Canyon for the rest of the trip.

We all stashed our gear in the bunk house (although a more fitting name for it would probably be  the warehouse) and got ready for our first day as professional snow removers.  After stretches and a quick safety talk we were on our way to the rim for real this time.  And it most certainly did not disappoint.

There was no way to get any work done for the first half hour because the entire crew scattered to take as many pictures as possible.  The only sensible thing to do was to take lunch, so we did.  Never before have I been so disappointed in my camera's abilities.  There was so much detailed beauty in every direction that it was impossible to not simply stand and stare.  I took what pictures I could and spent the rest of the lunch break just looking.  Attempting to absorb the Canyon as best I could through a painfully small number of eyes.

Finally it was time to get some work done and I was more than happy to oblige.  Being from New Jersey I've shoveled plenty of snow in my day but that didn't stop me from thoroughly enjoying the next few hours.  Here I wasn't just shoveling snow and breaking ice, I was doing my part to help others enjoy the beauty of the Grand Canyon just as I was.  It felt like such a direct way to do good that a smile was plastered onto my face for the entire afternoon.  

The next day was a full day of snow shoveling and ice clearing.  We got the chance to explore the views all along the rim.  Each time we pulled up to a new spot I was out of the van as quickly as I could so I could press myself against the railing and snap photos and panoramas.  The work was the same as the day before and so were my feelings of accomplishment and pride at doing work that I believed in.  There would be plenty of times this trip when my feelings of pride would be overwhelmed by frustration, irritation, and physical exhaustion but it would always find it's way back into my consciousness soon after those negative feelings passed.

For my next post I'll talk about my hike down to Phantom Ranch and the bottom of the Canyon.  I'll also get into the work I did down there maintaining the South Kaibab trail.  If you want to see all the pictures I took during my time in the Grand Canyon you can find them on my Facebook.

Blog Intro

Hello and welcome to my new blog cataloging my adventures with the American Conservation Experience.  I will be working with ACE for the next six months working on trails throughout the great state of Arizona.  The typical ACE schedule is to work eight days straight and then have six days off so you can expect a new post or two roughly every two weeks.  Who knows what exactly I'll end up writing about but I can promise now there will be beautiful sunset pictures, a bit of insight into what it takes to build and maintain a trail, and plenty of my seemingly endless ramblings.  So if any of that interests you you've come to the right place. I'll do my best to keep it as interesting as I can.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to sharing my experiences with you.