Gather ‘round gentlefolk and I’ll spin you a yarn about the night a winter wonderland deposited itself in Jawbone. Not only this, but the Boners were out in the field from day 1 to day 10, a first, on this our tenth hitch. As unlikely as these two oddities occurring may seem, the simple truth is that they did. So sit a spell, put your feet up, let me run my fingers through your hair, enjoy a firm good-job buttslap, and take it all in.
Hitch began without Amelyne and Emily, as the latter was recuperating from an arduous journey back from Yucca Valley. She was delivering our dear friend Montana to the Wildcorps house and as such needed an evening for grieving. We dispatched with four incursions our first couple days of work as we got back into a groove that was slightly disrupted with the previous house hitch. Darren came for a site visit as we tackled an exciting hill-climb that required the use of our old friend erosion control.
Here is where the tale begins to turn a little odd. The evening before Darren was set to leave brought some of those gale force winds that we hadn’t had in a while. The temperature dropped and we snuggled into sleeping bags to escape the cold. When we awoke there was snow everywhere. After breakfast it was suggested to wait for the snow to melt before embarking on our journey to work. The extra couple of hours spent waiting did not pass idly. I think Andy was giving serious consideration to a lemon flavored snowcone business, or something. That evening brought more excitement as Rands came to visit for the next day’s archaeology talk. While other crews’ visits brought about our naked shows of intimidation, we instead presented Rands with a dead cow, a gesture which was much appreciated I am sure.
The archaeology talk the following day was insightful as Ashley and Steve provided both crews with information about how the area has been used by people previous to us. The evening found us graced by the irrepressible Steve. After all these months he felt compelled to enjoy our company even further by sleeping over. Carly and Steve were taught the finer points of Euchre by Emily as games of all kinds were abound within the whitewall. Given the middle portion of this hitch, the end came as unspectacularly as the beginning. Holes were dug, veg was collected, you know, the good stuff.
For the hitch we completed 9 incursions, totaling 1340 meters squared, a solid work total that I would hang my hat on any day. We’re looking forward to next hitch’s LNT training and exploring in Joshua Tree. Until then, you’ll know where to find us, just beyond that double rainbow.
-Nico
