Jawbone, at last!
On our second hitch we finally made it to Jawbone, but not before a stop at the BLM Field Office in Ridgecrest for an orientation session. The BLM folks filled our heads with very interesting facts of the area we will be working in, desert dos and don’ts, and what to and what not to take from the desert. We also feasted on pizza the BLM employees so thoughtfully provided. After we ate and gave our thanks, we were on our way to prepare for our first real taste of Jawbone and learn what it really takes to restore an incursion.
After all preparations were in order, we set out. We set up camp at a familiar site that we became acquainted with during our first five days of the DRC. The site offers spectacular views of sunrises over the El Paso Mountains, and a great hole in a rock wall that provides much enjoyment trying to throw a rock in. The crew is excited that we will be able to enjoy this site for a few hitches to come. When we were not throwing rocks in holes or looking at beautiful sunrises, we did what we do best, restore incursions. We completed 6 incursions totaling 2385 sq meters and 403 vertical mulch and seed pits. In the process, we learned that there is no such thing as too much veg, linearity needs to be avoided, and color is key. For our first restoration, we all felt great about the work we accomplished.
Other life lessons this hitch: we learned that beans always need to be soaked and certain medications can cause you to be vulnerable to sun rays and will lead to sun-burned lips, which require makeshift head wraps of gauze to support a pad that will serve as lip protection from the sun.
This hitch also had a night full of informative and interesting information on stars at the Star Party we attended at Red Rock State Park. There we met Ted, who not only had a wealth of knowledge about astrophysics, but also had a killer telescope that we looked through while he talked of stars and planets and galaxies. Really cool stuff! Oh yeah, on the way back to camp we were fortunate enough to lend a helping hand to a few gentlemen who happened to get their truck stuck on LA2. Apparently, they were trying to pull a U-turn in the road to find a bird they claimed to have hit, and went a little too far off the side of the road. This wasn’t anything our Dodge 2500 Super Duty Turbo Diesel work truck couldn’t handle! We pulled them back on the road and went to back to camp, laughing and commenting on their level of sobriety.
After the experiences of hitch 2, we feel ready for some more of Jawbone and the harsh, windy weather the winter months will hopefully bring.
- Josh
