Hitch 5

Mother nature was determined to keep us in town for an extra day or two at the beginning of this hitch. Ridgecrest got several inches of snow on January first and second. Although it was a winter wonderland outside for those of us who made it home on the second, it was a nightmare to travel in. We decided to delay going out for a night because of the weather and the fact that one of our teammates was stuck somewhere between here in LA due to road closures. But by noon of pre-hitch, Rands was all back together again. We kicked off the hitch with a little environmental education, this time learning the science and techniques of bread-baking by making some loaves and rolls together.
Again delayed by weather (this time fog), we delayed setting out for the Rands Mountains early on day 2. Instead, Natalie gave us a lesson in vehicle recovery, which hopefully we will never need to do. Finally, we set out as the fog lifted.
This hitch offered a bit more variety of work due to the weather and a few surprises thrown our way. After restoring a long, flat incursion for a day, the team hoped to move on to a corner cut and a hill climb. However, a flat tire and lots of snow on the ground, making it difficult to see what needed to be done, forced us to reconsider. Instead, Natalie and Sophia went into town to change the tire out, and the rest of the team drove to the closed areas of the Rands to monitor and repair fence cuts. Later in the afternoon, after a route inventory and finishing up some data, everyone was back to good ole restoration.
We finished up the hitch working on three incursions over two days, and had some company to help us. Steve, our BLM contact, helped out for an afternoon, and Darren, the DRC program manager, came out and worked and camped with us for a few days. The work went quickly, the weather was fantastic, and despite all the bumps in the road at the start of hitch, it ended wonderfully. To finish up in the field, we added onto a massive rock wall at the top of an incursion from hitch 2, did a little raking, had some tea and toast (and a little more information about bread for environmental ed), and went for a hike into the closed area of the Rands Mountains.

Work totals:
Incursions completed: 7
Fence monitored: 14 miles
Fence repairs: 3
Linear meters restored: 604
Area restored: 1158 m2
Number of vertical mulch bushes: 60
Number of seed pits: 59
People hours: 486