Nomads land

Never in my life did I imagine I would ever be living in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ever. And even now living here, I am trying to figure out how one avoids the city of sin and maintain their dignity throughout the year, not ending up in some brothel or itching for a slot machine everytime I might drive by those sweet sweet lights.
This week I think I've done quite a fantastic job of doing just that.
Many don't know this, and honestly neither did I until I sat through A meeting on what exactly it is that we do at my job, but Nevada has more mountain ranges than any other state in the U.S. Impressive right? Considering Nevada is something like 95% desert.

The Desert is also something I never pictured quite accurately, and I would like to thank Hollywood for that.

So Tuesday was my day of rest, but Wednesday, two friends and I headed out to Red Rock Canyons. Red rocks is a state park full of trails and climbing areas.
When we entered the park we were given a map. Haven not been there before we decided to just pick one. The trail we chose, Turtle Head Trail, was about a 3.5 mile round trip at a difficult rating. Difficult ratings would probably be described as a trail you might have to "Boulder" a bit, or somewhat steep.

So while the trail itself was not that long, it was somewhat steep, and towards the end of it we found ourselves having lost the trail and made our own "social path", which is ironic considering our job entails demantleing social paths at state and national parks in this area. We also didn't quite make it to the exact destination because of that, and I didn't want to get so lost, or climb so steep that we couldn't get down or find our way back, and we got started late, and with most climbs you should definately start before 1 pm. Especially in a desert setting, because the sun can be cruel.


So I'm pretty content with the first hike. We are probably going to try an even harder trail next time.
I am trying to get on summer "Saw Crew" for my job, so for that I'm going to need to be in great physical condition with the steep hills I will have to climb should I get on said saw crew.

These small wonders

I just got back from an eight day trip to Lake Tahoe for the first official week of work.
Today I have just been relishing in how amazing the job I have is, and how awesome the people I am meeting are.
This picture I took mid week in South Lake Tahoe on the Nevada side.
What was pretty incredible I got to work in, or drive by areas like this. The average elevation we worked at was about 7000 feet. So the training is also great.

We camped on a ground site called Camp Richard on the California side. Right across the street from a beach site and a bar that plays all of the NFL and Baseball games. Every night we had the option of going to the docs and watching the stars, or going down to see the Salmon fishery and wildlife reserve. It was pretty incredible. My camera was not on me so I couldn't take pictures but wish I could have.

I got a much better picture of what it was exactly that we were going to be doing. Trail work yes, but what kind of trail work? What exactly were the conditions under which we were going to be working? What days would we be on and which would we be off?
This week we decomishoned a few illegal trails. The first of which was a pretty stellar mountain bike trail. Which involves taking apart all of the jumps or boroughs that may have occured in the process of creating the bike trail.
In the first case we had to take apart a bunch of jumps, that to me looked like they created for a great youtube video. Really insane jumps at that. Unfortunately it also seemed like a bunch of fifteen year olds may have infact created this trail on account of the type of wood they used which was all wood that was rotten from the inside out.

Aside from taking the trail apart you also have to complete a process of naturalizing to steer people away from the trail and allow for vegetation to be seeded and eventually grow, weather that be transplanting seeds or live plants from one area to another. And this also requires turning the ground over and keeping it soft enough to allow that vegetation proper nutrients.

So alot of the job involves decomishioning those trails, creating and cutting new trail, transferring native specie plants, some desert clean up, building fences.
And we work in crews of about 10 people on different projects. I am really enjoying hanging out with and getting to know the people in my crew.

I am also enjoying getting to learn how to work with bigger tools and how to build and destroy trails and gaining more comfortability and understanding about this kind of work. Being out doors is really giving me a better perspective on some things and is helping me build my own personal confidence and becoming more physically fit and active. I really look forward to this next year!