Hitch three finally took us to Grass Valley, that far off, Mars like landscape we’d been gawking at for the last two hitches. As we crested the rolling hills we were greeted by Dr. Seuss tress (commonly known as Joshua trees) and cautious kit foxes. Once again we camped in a gorgeous spot, with awesome sunrises.
We kicked off our work with more fence monitoring. This time on the western boundary of Grass Valley, this also happens to border an Airforce gunnery range, for a large portion of the boundary. The rugged barbed wire fence was plastered with faded Keep Out: live ammunition signs. The hope is to one day link up a fence of our own with the gunnery range fence to keep illegal OHVs out of wilderness. However, this project is a little ways down the road so for now we installed signs to designate the wilderness boundary. In total we pounded thirteen signs in the ground, while lugging our 40 lbs carsonite pounder fourteen miles.
Our second task required us to head back to good old Golden Valley. We installed yet another carsonite sign and spruced up a trampled restoration site. Having monitored many incursions last hitch it was nice to break out the tools and get our hands dirty at this hitch’s three final restoration sites. Luckily one of our sites was nestled amongst some gigantic creosote, which made one of our favorite activities, building massive creosotes, easy. The last two days of hitch were rather challenging due to cold and windy weather conditions. Collecting vertical mulch was especially taxing. Carrying large amounts of vertical mulch would act as a sail, nearly sending crew members soaring over ridgelines. Weather aside our restoration sites looked excellent!
Peace from the Mojave (where Mylar balloons go to die),
The Golden Valley Crew
