Hitch 9 was an exciting hitch for the Jawbone Crew. Most importantly we are now once again a full crew. Carolyn and Kevin join the Jawboners for the remainder of the season and we could not be more excited. By Day 6 we were already in a groove and it felt like they have been here a lot longer than half of a hitch. Jawbone itself should be renamed the “In Crowd” as we now consist of: Amelyne, Madeline, Carolyn, Erin, Kevin, Garth and Matt (some name changes may be in order). The addition of more “ins” has already made calling someone the right name infinitely harder. Pre Hitch and preparation for LNT training went smoothly and led us to a very early morning out into Jawbone. With the Golden Valley crew in tow to refresh our memories on how to fence and a visit from our BLM contact Steve Gomez we completed a fence around the PCT, on perhaps the windiest corridor ever. We were so lucky that Golden Valley and Steve were around when we “pulled a Jawbone”, reasserting that Steve is the best BLM contact ever as he not only brings us treats but also lifts our trailer when it falls off a jack. During dinner we were joined by our final member Kevin all the way from Wisconsin. The next day we were back to our old routine, however we again had to hike about 30 minutes to an incursion to see that it already had been restored by Friends of Jawbone, so we hiked back. Carolyn and Kevin soon learned the joys of vertical mulching as we worked on 2 new incursions and touched up an old one.
We were soon back in town to do our post hitch work and prepare to go down to Joshua Tree National Park for LNT training. During our stay in Yucca Valley we wrote our “Jawbone Manifesto”, became LNT trainers with Darren and Jamie leading the way and celebrated a birthday. All in all an eventful hitch with many changes to the JB crew, setting up for an excellent end of the season!
