Down for the Count

My latest tour was an 8-day back out to Pioche working with the BLM to restore the Sage Grouse habitat. However, because it was so cold the tour before, the NCC sprang for a hotel! Well, motel rather. Going from the Mandarin Oriental to the Midway Motel was quite the shock. It took me a while to understand that I had to get up to turn out the light and that there was no TV in the bathroom!! Can you believe that?! ;) Even though the Midway Motel was no Mandarin, it was so lovely being able to get dressed in a heated room and know that at the end of the day, I could curl up in bed with a hot cup of tea and relax.


Unfortunately, I caught a cold mid-week and was bed ridden for two days. I was really happy that I got sick during this week in the motel, instead of being stuck in a cold tent. Those two days were spent sleeping and trying to get better. I must note how amazing my crew was! The guys were great! While they were out working, I'd receive texts asking how I was feeling and to get better soon - they didn't like being without a girl! While they were back at the motel, everyone knocked on the door and poked their head in to see if I needed anything. They brought me hot tea, dinner, chocolate and even went to the pharmacy to get me some medicine! The guys were amazing and I am so thankful for everything they did for me! Thanks guys!

We ended up having to leave a day early because the conditions were too bad to continue working. It was raining, snowing, extremely foggy and muddy. Our work site was about 30mins down a dirt road and once the rain hit, it was near impossible to get out of it. On our way out, we stopped to take this pretty cool crew photo:

So, it's Sunday and I am home already. It's weird, but I do have to work tomorrow still. Somehow they're going to find 8 hrs worth of work for 20 people to do at the office. I'll let you know just how mind numbing it was..

One thing that I am just SO excited about is going home for Christmas!!! I am flying out Tuesday night and get to CT on Wednesday morning. I cannot wait to see my family and friends! These past 8-days have dragged by in anticipation of my trip home. I honestly cannot wait to hug my family!! :) See you soon guys! Xoxo!

Burrr!

After our local desert clean up tour, we were sent back out to eastern Nevada near a tiny town called Pioche. Because a few different projects fell through last minute and this is an on going-project, the NCC sent us back out east. Not the typical work location for the winter months. This is the same project that I started with, the Ely BLM Sage Grouse Habitat Restoration, way back in August. We were sent out with another saw crew of 10 people to cut Junipers and Pinon Pines. I'm not really going to go into detail about the project. If you're interested or forgot, you can refer to some of my earlier posts.

This tour was pretty chilly. It seems I just cannot escape the cold and/or winter no matter where I go. I figured I'd be pretty safe in the desert - guess not. Most of our nights got down into the 20's. Every morning, my tent flap was frozen solid. The days got up into the 50's or so but just plummeted at night. I didn't really enjoy it at all. We had to huddle around the campfire each night before sprinting to our tents and jumping in our sleeping bags.
Since we were working and camping with another crew, pranks were bound to happen. It started when the other crew placed one of my crew members' tent in a tree! We didn't even get a chance to retaliate before they hit us again! They moved all of our kitchen stuff - food bins, dishes, stove - to the farthest tent. Later that night, we also found out that they had dug a hole under my supervisors tent so when he got in it, he sank. Pay back's a b*tch. :)

To get them back, we (mainly one unnamed member of the crew) proceeded to put dirt in their clean dish bin and then added water. Took all of their silverware and stuck them in the ground, unstaked all of their tents and hid them and took all of their camp chairs. After they returned to camp, a truce was declared. It was all in good fun and lightened the mood of a rather chilly tour.

So THAT's Vegas!

One of my best friends from Boston came out to visit me in early December. We used to live together when I lived there and she works for the luxurious hotel, Mandarin Oriental. She was able to get us an amazing room at the Las Vegas location for a great price and we lived it up! We saw Vegas how you're supposed to see it. ;) Technically being a local, I hadn't yet seen that side of Vegas. It was so wonderful to see her and get some seriously needed GIRL TIME in. She landed on Thursday night, right after I got back from a 4-day tour out near Pioche, NV. I was kind enough to shower before picking her up and we headed to the strip to check into our hotel. We decided to make that night a girls night in. We put on our robes and slippers, ate some chocolate and had some cocktails and caught up. Perfect way to start the weekend!


We walked most of the strip on Friday checking out the casinos and trying to sort out the scam artists and legit club employees. We were able to get ourselves on a few VIP Guest Lists to clubs, which allowed us free admission and free drinks. It really pays to be a girl in Vegas!


One of our friends from our old job happened to be in town as well. He has a few connections in Las Vegas so we were really able to live it up! We met up with him and his friend and spent most of the night in the club Tao, which is in the Venetian. We had free table service and pretty much unlimited anything! There was even a mini-fridge at our table filled with beer and waters. It was such a good time.

The next day we spent in bed, living the life. We got room service and much to my surprise, my parents treated me to a WONDERFUL spa appointment. It felt great after camping in 20 degree weather on frozen ground and sawing all week. Thanks again, Mom and Dad!! The hotel was amazing. The room was so high tech! (Todd, you would have had a blast with all the buttons!) There was a little touch screen on the night stand that controlled EVERYTHING in the room. I mean everything. You could open the curtains, change the temperature, call house keeping, control the TV, radio or iPod etc. We had a little trouble with the TV, since it was so high tech, and an IT guy came up to fix it immediately. He noticed our beers weren't being chilled so he brought us a mini-fridge! What service! There was even a TV in the mirror in the bathroom!


One of Andi's friends from high school lives out here so we met up with her for dinner out in Henderson. It was a lot of fun and she and her fiance joined us out later that night. That night we ended up meeting our friend out at Caesar's at a club called Pure. Here we were able to skip the line, cover charge and had a table and bottle service, too! It was a lot of fun but I think I like Tao more. We later walked over to O'Shea's. This place might be my favorite on the strip. 99 cent beers and had a good Irish feel to it. It was kind of like a cross between an Irish dive bar and casino.
On the last night before her flight out, we met up with two guy I used to work with at State Street. They were in town on vacation as well. It was good to see them and good to catch up. We had dinner at a local brewery and then I brought them to Freemont Street (the original Vegas strip) before their flights out. I had so much fun and am so glad Andi was able to make it out to visit!!

It's Been a While..

Many apologies for the delay in posts! It's been a crazy month or so, but I'll try to catch you up on my past tours and breaks.

After Thanksgiving break, we had a local 4-day tour. This was our first local tour which allowed us to go home every night and SHOWER! Being local was nice for that fact, but this tour was less than desirable. It was a desert clean-up tour. We went to the city limits, literally where the houses stopped and the desert started, and picked up trash. This time we worked with the local BLM and they had 4 massive dumpsters dropped at the site we were to clean up.

Most of my tours really don't relate to the general public, however, this one tied closely with them and it really gave me a different perspective on humanity as a whole. Use your imagination to think of something that might be dumped out in the desert...it was there. We came across everything from stuffed animals to drugs to sofas to porn. People just use the desert as their own landfill. It's not a lush, beautiful, wildlife filled environment but it still is an ecosystem that needs to be taken care of and not trashed. I was completely disgusted by how much trash is out there. Our project partner said he could station a group of 20 people out there every day for a year and not put a dent in it. It's appalling.


Art in trash?

The worst part, and the part that affected me the most, is all the plastic that is out there. After plastic sits in the desert for so long, it doesn't disintegrate, it just becomes fragile. When volunteers or workers go to pick it up it just breaks into hundreds of pieces become micro-trash, making it near impossible to collect all of it. Now, I know Nevada isn't on the coast, but you'd be surprised by how far litter can travel. These tiny pieces of plastic eventually end up in our beautiful oceans and contaminate the marine life and just add on to the pollution in the waters such as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It drives me nuts and I wish, so badly, that people would start becoming more conscious of how much plastic they're using in their every day lives and try to reduce it. A good place to start is to stop buying bottled water! Get yourself a good, sturdy, BPA free water bottle to refill. That's a huge step in itself. Do your part! Okay, rant over..

Another disturbing part about the desert clean-up was the animals I came across. :( I was warned and tried to mentally prepare myself for it, but I don't think any amount of exposure or mental preparation would allow me to handle what I saw. On the first day, I came across a pile of empty dog food bags. As they were picked up, it became clear to us that it was covering up a dog. Someone had dumped their dog in the desert. I don't know if the dog had died before being dumped or vice versa, but either way, NO ONE should just dump their dog! It hit me pretty hard because I started thinking about it's life and how it was once someone's pet. If you don't know dogs, well, they're the most unconditional animals! They'll love you no matter what. How could someone just drop their dog off in the cold lonely desert?! I'll never understand it. We also came across the carcuss of a horse that seemed to have been shot in the head numerous times. I think, seeing these two animals just deserted and killed out there, got to me the most since I started this job. I just don't understand how some people think that is okay to do. For this reason, I prefer the tours that really don't cross paths with humanity and just deal with nature.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of family, friends and amazing food! I know I did. Sorry about the delay in posting, however, because of the holiday, I really had no free time until now. First about my tour and then thanksgiving!

My last 8-day tour was in Corona, CA on the Lake Mathews Reserve, which is one of the 8 reserves under the same management. We were working for the Riverside County Habitat Conservation Agency (RCHCA). This huge portion of land, 12,000 acres if I remember correctly, was once used as a citrus grove and vineyard. There was a development halt in the late 80's because of a little rodent called the Stephen's Kangaroo Rat.


This rat was placed on the Endangered list in 1988 and therefore, in order to help protect its habitat, things were shut down. For a while, this land was in limbo because the BLM didn't want it for whatever reason and there was no other organization that would be able to manage the combined 22,000 acres of land. The RCHCA came about and decided to take this project on. Now, this land is closed off to the public while groups like the Nevada Conservation Corps, try to restore and clean it up with hopes in opening it as a park.

Since the place was so large and there was so much work to be done, 6 crews were sent to this site.

We had 60 people working on various projects all week, such as Burrowing Owl housing installation, native seeding, irrigation pipe removal, Tamarisk removal and fuel reduction/fire break installation. Because I am on a chainsaw crew, we mostly worked on the Tamarisk removal.
Before:

After:
It was a good tour and our contact, Brian Shomo, from the RCHCA was outstanding and really showed us how appreciative they were of our work. It really does make a world of difference to us, to hear positive feedback from our project partners. Especially when the conditions are less than desirable and we're out there working through it. This tour was also the first time I've come across a rattlesnake, black widow and tarantulas! Pretty cool!


Literally, right when I got back from tour I went straight to the airport to pick up my friend, Chan. Poor guy had to witness me immediately after 8-days of chainsawing. I wasn't a pretty site, I'll admit it. :) We spent a fun night on the strip before heading down to sunny San Diego for Thanksgiving. We have some friends living down there so we stayed with them. They had to work on Tuesday so Chan and I decided to head to Ocean Beach and walk the Sunset Cliffs. I so dearly miss the ocean so this was perfect! :)


On Thanksgiving there was a lot of cooking, watching football, playing football and talking about fantasy football (I gladly removed myself from the latter). It was great to see everyone again and our dinner was delicious!


My next tour is a local one, meaning I am not camping and am coming home every night. I think it'll be really interesting and hard to get used to. It's a desert clean-up tour and I am nervous about it, as crew's that have already done it, found numerous dead/killed dogs. :( Wish me luck!

They Can't All Be Winners...

What a tour that was. Where to start..

This was my first 8-day tour since moving down to Las Vegas and we were working in the Palm Springs, CA area. There were two parts to this tour, both equally mind numbing and mundane.

We were camping at this place called the Whitewater Preserve, which is managed by The Wildlands Conservancy. It covers about 2,850 acres and this canyon starts at the bottom of Mt. San Gorgonio (which is the highest peak in Southern CA) and catches rain water and snow run off and eventually leads to the Salton Sea. This water collection creates a steady white water river, which, in turn, supports a pretty robust wildlife corridor. This delicate riparian habitat supports many native species of plants and animals including the endangered Southwest Willow Flycatcher and Bell's Vireo.
There is a plant called Tamarisk, which is a Salt-Cedar, that is invasive to the area and is quite the water hog. It's root system is really incredible, often doubling or tripling that of the above ground portion of the plant. It spreads it's roots out and steals the water from the native species. Our job was to located this plant in the canyon, pull it up if it was small enough or cut it and spray it with a mild herbicide if it was not. Thrilling. So some of our days were spent wondering around this canyon in search of this plant.

The other days were spent playing a massive game of pick-up sticks. Some of the larger Tamarisk plants had been cut and piled up throughout the canyon about two years ago. Our other job was to create a line of people and pass these sticks up to the road to the put in a chipper. Again, thrilling.
Since we were running out of work to keep everyone busy, we relocated for a day to the Big Morongo Canyon Preserve. This preserve covers about 25,000 acres and is managed by the BLM. It is a lush area with a network of boardwalks running throughout it. When we first arrived, we met with our project partner to get an idea of what we'd be doing. Tamarisk eradication. The 8 of us loaded up with 4 chainsaws, 3 Dolmars (gas and bar oil containers) and started on a 20-minute hike further into the canyon in search of this Tamarisk. We get down there only to find out there is only 2-3 trees that need to be cut down. One saw, one sawyer and about 20-minutes would suffice. The rest of us headed back to the truck to await further instruction. The other project they came up with to keep us busy, was to trim the willows around the boardwalks. Needless to say, there was a lot of standing around and wondering what else we could do.
The worst part of this tour was the lack of organization. I don't know if it was the fault of our project partners or the NCC or a collaboration of both. Either way, it was a lot of sitting around with our thumbs up our... There were 4-crews assigned to this project. That's about 40 people on a project that 2o people could have done during a 4-day tour. I was highly disappointed with the lack of education and information provided to us, also. I learned very little on this tour and what I did learn, was seeked out and researched by me. To top it off, there was no cell phone service either!
Next tour is another 8-day in the Palm Springs area. I dearly hope it is not the same type of work or else my sanity might come into question.

On a positive note, there was a woman camping at the Whitewater Preserve who had a yellow lab. Every morning I got to play with him! He put a bright spot in my days of mindless, minion work..

Desert Tortoise

I was working out in the Mojave Desert this last tour in an area near Lake Mead called Callway Wash. Our project partner was the National Recreation Area (NRA) and our project was to repair damaged desert tortoise fence.


In 1990, the desert tortoise was placed on the threaten species list and from then on out has been protected under the Endangered Species Act, which came into place in 1973. They are found throughout the Mojave Desert and can reach up to about 16 inches long and live to be around 80-100 years old! They spend most of their time underground in the burrows to keep cool so it's rare to spot any. We had to go through a training and get "certified" to work in the desert tortoise habitat. They told us, if we came across one in immediate danger (i.e. crossing the road) to pick it up with one hand under it's butt and the other on it's shell. Apparently this handling maneuver keeps them from urinating, which could dehydrate them and if they cannot find water in time, may kill them. They can hold water for up to a year! Obviously, I was hoping I'd see one but I didn't. In fact, our project partner has been working there for 3 years and just recently saw his FIRST one.

During the construction of any roads in the NRA, the Fish and Wildlife Service added in the required building of a 2 ft wire fence to run along the edges. This fence is to prevent the desert tortoise from crossing the roads and getting hit by the traffic. The fence funnels the tortoises into the culverts that run underneath the road, allowing them almost the same free range. A few weeks ago the Las Vegas/Lake Mead area had some severe storms which created flash flooding. There was 10-15 foot wall of water than ran through this Callway Wash and it damaged numerous sections of this fence.


The work was split up between us having to dig the fence out and to actually having to replace and repair fence that was damaged too severely. Above is an example of a section of fencing that was just buried on one side and needed to be dug out. See below.


It was a fun tour and I really liked the work because, well, I actually had to use my brain. :) I liked constructing the fences and, of course, I loved shoveling! It's a good workout! I had heard some complaints from other crew members, but overall, I was satisfied with it. :)

We camped in a campground, which was pretty bad. It was an RV haven. I think we were the only tenters. It wasn't one of our best camping sites but we did have bathrooms which was nice, I'll admit that.

On a side note, I don't know if I mentioned this, but I am officially the only female on the crew. The other girl that was with me, decided she needed to leave the program. So then there was one. It's me and 8 other males. G'luck to me! This has become my get-away; No Boys Allowed! :-P

Address

For those of you that may want this, my new address until at least March is:


2700 Sierra Madre Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89102

Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge

I just returned from my first tour based out of Las Vegas. It was a 4-day tour which went by really fast since I have only been on 8-day tours so far. We were working in this 23,000 acre desert oasis in the Mojave Desert called Ash Meadows. First I'll tell you a little bit about the refuge and then I'll tell you about the work we did there.

Ash Meadows NWR was founded in 1984 so it is relatively new and it is mostly comprised of desert uplands and spring-fed wetlands. The really awesome thing about this place (besides the fact that there are wetlands in the middle of the Mojave Desert) is that it has the highest concentration of endemic species in the United States! It is home to at least 26 different endemic species! (Endemic meaning found here and no where else in the world). One of the coolest species, I think, is the endangered Devil's Hole pupfish, which I'll get more into in a bit.

Another aspect of this NWR that is amazing is the numerous hot springs that are scattered throughout the refuge. These springs are fed with fossil water which takes thousands of years to move through the compact ground. It is often forced to the surface which created the springs and seeps. The springs all average about 88-90 degrees in temperature and are crystal clear! The annual water flow usually holds steady around 10,000 gallons per minute! Here is a picture of the Fairbanks Spring (low quality is because this was taken on my phone):

This is an underwater picture I was able to take from the Kings Pool at Point of Rocks Springs. I asked permission from our project partner as to not disturb this delicate environment:


As I mentioned before, one of the most amazing endemic species they have is the Devil's Hole Pupfish. The entire species' population lives in this water filled cavern which is under crazy surveillance and protection:

You can see the little white dots at the bottom which are security cameras. This pupfish has been isolated here for 10,000-20,000 years. This cavern goes down about 55o feet, however, the pupfish feed and spawn on a small rock shelf near the surface. Because of intense construction and farming on Ash Meadows in the 70's the water levels of this cavern began to severely drop. This eventually lead the Supreme Court to designate 21,000 surrounding acres as essential habitat.
Bumper stickers were even created saying: "Save the Pupfish!" I kind of want one. :)

Now to the actual work we did on the refuge. In the 1960's, before the NWR was established, this land was farmed for peat. The Carson Slough was where rainwater and the "fossil water" was all collected. Different streams and waterways lead to here. This was drained and these waterways were redirected or blocked off in order to create the ideal farming conditions. The restoration that is now underway, is to bring these waterways back to their natural and historical directions and location.
As you can see, the banks of the waterway are pretty bare. Our job this tour was to replant some native grasses and trees. We planted a special type of Ash Tree, Salt Grass, Baltic Grass, Scratch Grass, Alkali Sacatone and Sedge Grass. It was fun learning each grass and eventually being able to recognize which was which. The Salt Grass and the Alkali Sacatone like the drier soil so we tended to plant them in the second row from the water, whereas the others thrived in the wet saturated soils.

We had some crazy storms while we were out there so the soil became really sticky and tricky to plant in but we managed. We even reached the point where the clay-like soil collected on our boots giving us about a 2-3 inch lift. It was a good workout though, adding a few pounds to our feet while we walked! :)


From left to right, Raul, Chris, Phil and Chris hard at work planting the native grasses.

It was an awesome tour and I had so much fun. It was a nice change up from sawing and am excited to see what other projects we'll be working on this "winter." ;)

Viva Las Vegas!

My previous tour was back to Pony Springs, which is about 2 hours or so from Ely, NV. This time we ran into some unexpected weather. We had rain, hail, wind, thunder and lightening for the first 3 or 4 days of tour. It was an experience, camping in the rain, that's for sure. Here is some of the hail around camp:

One bonus, however, to this crazy weather was the cool sights it created:



Despite the weather set backs, we were able to complete the project which felt great! We got to have Sunday to ourselves. I slept in until 6:30AM and didn't get out of my tent until 7:30AM!! Woohoo! I went on a short hike, read my book in the sun and even took a nap in my tent! It was a great way to end the tour. This was our last saw tour until the spring which was sad. I really grew to like it. It will be nice to vary it up a bit now, however.

Yesterday, I did the BORING 8-hour drive from Reno to my new home of Las Vegas. I'll be living here for the next 6-months. It'll be interesting to see how I take to this city. I have a nice 4-bedroom house though and am living with 4 other people. We even have a pomegranate tree in our back yard! :) I'll try to get some pictures posted of it soon.

As I mentioned before, I am done with saw tours for the winter. Down here I believe most of our tours will be trail building/maintenance, exotic species removal (which is a fancy name for pulling weeds) and working on Lake Mead. My tours will also be switching back and forth from 8-days and 4-days. So I think the variety of this winter will be fun and keep things interesting.

Tahoe Rim Trail

So my long time friend, Tommy and I decided we wanted to do some hiking this week. We were originally going to head down to Yosemite but our schedule's didn't coincide enough to allow us enough time to really explore. So instead, we decided to do a portion of the Tahoe Rim Trail. The TRT is a managed trail that goes all the way around Lake Tahoe. It is 165-miles in total and once you've completed it, you're in the 165-mile Club (and perhaps one day I will). We only had a day to hike so we focused on the Mt. Rose summit to Brockway, which is a 20-mile portion of the north east side of the lake. This segment also passes through Relay Peak, the highest point on the entire TRT, which rises up to an elevation of 10,338 ft.

The final ascent to the top of Relay Peak definitely made me realize how NOT in shape I am. :) It was a steep incline, in a short amount of distance rising about 1000 ft in elevation. I could also really notice the thinning of the air the higher we got. It was well worth it with 360 degree views like that (above) from the top. We took a short break, did some stretching and took in the views before we headed on our way. From this point we still had about 15 more miles of trail to cover.

Once we headed down the other side of the peak we came across absolutely stunning views of Lake Tahoe. I'd say this was my favorite part of the hike, for sure. They were just breath-taking. As everyone says, the pictures don't do it justice but here is an idea of what we saw:

After another hour or two we stopped for lunch. Tommy had made us some Spanish Tortilla! It was so delicious and full of the calories we needed to get down the mountain. It hit the spot and I cannot wait to have it again (or attempt making it myself). That gave us a wonderful boost of energy as we headed back down into the forest.

Once we got below the tree level again, we came across meadows and meadows of Mule's Ear. Of course, since it's early fall, they were not in bloom, however, their leaves were dried up and the sound of the wind blowing through them was pretty cool none the less.

The rest of the hike was smooth, stopping for water and snacks every now and then. We made it to Brockway a little after 5:00pm. We started hiking at 7:30am, so it took us about a good 10 hours or so. We planned the day perfectly and it was just an awesome, awesome hike. I'd recommend that route to anyone, anyday.


The following day, however, my body hated me and I ended up soaking in the hot tub for a good portion of it. :)

The Goings-On's of Living in the Woods 8-days at a Time.

I am back from another tour out in eastern Nevada. The project was the same with the BLM and the Sage Grouse Habitat Restoration. We encountered a few technical issues with our saws but the last few days we got a lot of work done. I do want to tell you a little bit about the actual experience of being out in the wilderness for 8-days at a time, however.

First things first. When one is out in the woods with no electricity, plumbing or shelter besides a tent and with 8 men (this past tour I was the only female) things can get a bit crude. You get a little rough around the edges. I mean, we're not in public so things are said that wouldn't normally be said and things are done in places things wouldn't normally be done. With those rare trips into town or with our return to civilization, we have to constantly remind ourselves we're back in public simply by saying, "public!" It takes some time to re-adjust.

Another thing I've learned to live with while out on tour, is what my crew has nicknamed the "Nevada Spice" which inevitably gets into EVERYTHING. Don't get me wrong, this isn't really a complaint, but when Ely, NV gets an average of about 4 inches of rain a year things tend to get a little dry and that lack of rain (again, not a complaint) creates a lot of DUST. Dust gets in your food, gets in your water, gets in your mouth, your hair, your tent, your sleeping bag, your "clean clothes," there is no avoiding it. You work in the dust, you go to sleep in the dust and you wake up in the dust. Ah, that Nevada Spice.

I am really enjoying this job a lot. I love being outdoors all the time, living in the woods, camping, the hard labor. I honestly am having a blast. BUT there is one thing I could live without. The WORST part of this job is climbing out of your warm sleeping bag at 6:30AM and getting into your very cold, very stiff, very unforgiving Carhartts. It is awful. I get so angry and cranky for about 2 minutes until they warm up (thankfully they're quick to warm up) then I have my coffee and all is right in the world. :)

For those of you who have questioned me and this whole "conservation by cutting down trees" thing, I'll have you know that guilt did accompany me on this tour. There was this beautiful Juniper that was relatively old compared to the rest of the ones we were taking down. It was gnarley and twisted and just beautiful. I did not want to take it down and I tried my very best to just leave that one, but what the project partner wants, the project partner gets. Ultimately, the tree had to be cut down (I didn't do it) but there was guilt and I gave it a good hug before hand.


This past tour has been our third trip near Ely, NV and there is this radio station, 92.7 KDSS, that has become part of our morning routine. Every weekday morning, while we're in our crew trucks heading to our work site, we put this station on and we begin our day with a CNN news update. This keeps us connected to the rest of the world (I thought this was a good idea at first but it gradually became more and more depressing :-/ ). We also get a weather update for this week, which for me, is an emotional roller coaster because during the day is gets up to about 80-85 but at night drops down to the low 30's. After that update, there is a commercial break followed by some version of the National Anthem. So patriotic. :) Then comes Karen. Oh Kare. She is this DJ that is amazing and now a standard for the NCC Saw Crew.

When we were leaving Ely last tour we requested a song and she immediately played it and gave us a shout out saying she appreciated what we're doing. It was pretty cool. This last tour we did the same thing - requested a Taylor Swift song for our supervisor Dan. Haha. After that we stopped by the studio and asked if we could meet her and we were able to! It was great to put a face to the DJ. She gave us some free stuff and we went on our way. When we were leaving, we were stopped at a stop light right outside the studio and she waved out the window. On the radio, she mentioned that she had a great group of people stop by from the NCC and dedicated "On The Road Again" by Willie Nelson because we told her we were heading back to Reno (which is a 7 hr drive). It was a great way to end the tour!

7-Day Weekend

So most of this week has been spent relaxing and settling into my apartment, running errands and such. I did manage to travel a little bit, however.

Tuesday I went to this little old western town called Virginia City, which is said to be a "Step Back in Time." And it really was. It was cool to see a bunch of old saloons (some were haunted!) and we even saw a shootout! We walked around, pet some donkeys, got some amazing pizza and fudge and stopped in a saloon to listen to this guy play some guitar. It was a fun day and good to see a little more of how the ol' West once was..


Thursday I ventured to the otherside of Mt. Rose to Lake Tahoe. First I went to Kings Beach, which charged $5 to park. Fail. Then I went to Sand Harbor which charged $12 to park. Fail. So I kept driving and came across two or three cars parked on the side of the road and a random trail head sign. Free parking and a trail that leads down to the lake. Success! I started hiking down a steep trail for about 20 mins. I was surrounded by tall pines! (sorry, don't know how to rotate pictures yet, haha)


I finally came down to this little secluded beach. It was gorgeous and much to my surprise, it was a nude beach! Woah! That was a shock, but you know what they say; When in Rome. ;) Pretty liberating, not going to lie. I had my first conversation with a naked man, too. Awkward!



After I left the beach, I was able to meet up with my long-time friend and neighbor from CT, Tommy. He is actually also doing an AmeriCorps term in Nevada, however, he is stationed in Lake Tahoe for the whole year. It was great to catch up with him, see a familiar face and hear about his program. G'luck Tommy! I'm sure we'll be seeing more of each other.

Today I drove North to Pyramid Lake, which is located on the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation, inhabitated by the Paiute tribe. It was incredibly beautiful! I was driving through the dry, desolate desert for about 45 minutes then out of no where comes this beautiful blue lake! After finding the correct dirt road turn off, I drove for about 8 miles and finally found Pyramid Rock.


My friend gave me his inner tube to use, so I floated around and explored Pyramid Rock for most of the day. It was completely relaxing and stunningly beautiful. I'd recommend stopping here if you're traveling on I-80. It's only about 30 mins off the highway, though you'd never know it once you're there.

So those were the highlights of my week off. I go back to work on Tuesday for another 8-day tour on the Eastern side of Nevada. I'm actually excited to get back out there. :)