Hitch 12 (11/10/2010 - 11/19/2010)

Hitch 12:
Hitch Leader: David Nestor

Piedras Blanca’s, The final frontier. Well, the final frontier for the SCA 2010 Wild Corps. I can think of no better place to finish six months than this calm and beautiful light house. For the past two weeks we have been staying in bunk houses provided by the BLM on the Piedras Blanca’s point. This is easily one of the most incredible places we have stayed. In the mornings we stretch in the light rising over the mountains to our east. Working all day in the pacific sun and watching Seals, Sea Otters, Dolphins, and many other amazing sea creatures that move all around the light house. In the evenings we have been treated to some of the most spectacular sun sets you can find.
The Crew Worked on invasive plant removal and restoring a site where buildings once stood and are now being brought back to their natural beauty. The work and days seemed to slip by and now our time as a crew is almost over. This is our last hitch and it is the end of this Wild Corps’s six months together. We finished with gusto removing 82,700 square feet of invasive plants and prepping 16,587 square feet of ground for seeding. On the last day we slowly walked across the area we had worked so hard on and spread native seeds that will start growing in a matter of weeks.
We were also lucky enough to spend time with some people that make our work possible. On our last few days we where visited by Chris Sparks the Trail Corps Program Manager, who works very hard to make programs like this possible. With him came Mark Conley who is the BLM’s California Wilderness/NCLS Program manager. Mark is also responsible for making a trail crews and opportunities like the Wild Corps possible. It was a great opportunity for us to all get together and talk face to face about the season, program, and our experiences.
From Piedras Blanca’s the Wild Corps will be dispersing. Megan will be taking the truck and trailer back to Boise to do all the work that comes after our field time . Emily is flying home to Connecticut to be taken on a mystery vacation by her mother. Leah is headed home to Marietta Ohio for a short time before it’s off to school again to finish her degree. Erik will be slowly winding his way to Texas and eventually moving to New York. Chris is flying back to upstate New York with plenty of snowboarding and travel in the immediate future. David plans on traveling for a few weeks before landing back in Michigan.
The past six months have been some of the most amazing. We met up in Seattle as total strangers. From there we trained in the rain and mud, sat for hours in silence around camp fires, roamed the streets of major cities, completed a lot of very hard work, and ate a lot of food both good and bad. The best part is that we did it all together and built a community that allowed us all to learn and grow. Thank you SCA. Thank you BLM. Thank you Wild Corps 2010.