Thank You for a Wonderful Hitch
The Moon is a Piece of Me
“ THE MOON – she is bursting at the seams with moon goodness and moon fat and moon golden fire and over her Golden Eternal angels sprinkle imaginary flowers – She is Lord and Master Lesbian King of all blue and purple survey of her ink kingdom.”
– Jack Kerouac
As an SCA Desert Restoration Corps member I began to form a relationship with the sky after spending what seem to be endless days and nights in the Mojave Desert wilderness. The sun brings us the beginning of a new day. The sun brings us energy. The sun brings us warmth. As we work beneath the rays of the sun to restore the desert we call home the rest of the desert inhabitants are resting, as if waiting for some kind of miracle: the moon.
The moon, like the sun, breaks into the desert void, but in a much different way. Every night she progresses to a different phase of herself as she makes her journey around the Earth. As she shines, her moon beams fill the air with electricity, almost magical. Everything and anything she touches seems to change for the better. The plants take the chance to breathe, a few critters might come out to celebrate the break in the heat.
We arrived to the Mojave Desert at the time of a new cycle, the New Moon. Some may say coincidence, but I believe it is fate, that it means something. The moon was destined to be our companion, friend, guide, and muse. We all came to the Mojave Desert in search of something, to create something great. To change. Who could imagine a greater teacher to help us along the way than the Moon? Every day the Moon changes with grace, an attribute needed to live in desert wilderness.
Our hitch definitely tested our ability to improvise, adapt, and overcome. Not a single day was like the other. We arrived at our camp in the Southeastern corner of Grass Valley Wilderness just as the sun was setting. The moon was in her waxing gibbous phase, providing some light to help us create our small home for the week. In 5 days we traveled from the southern boundary of Grass Valley to the northern boundary, restored an incursion (an unlawful off-highway vehicle path into designated Wilderness) that required us to pack in a mile to access, and monitored the effectiveness of 16 old restoration sites. However, the remainder of our work could only be done efficiently if we moved camp. So, on day 6 we packed up and traveled north. We set up our new camp at the same site we stayed during our first week with DRC. It was a new moon during our first stay in Grass Valley and when we arrived this time around it was full. We have come full circle.
We have completed our first cycle.
I am very proud of our crew. We traveled to every portion of the Grass Valley Wilderness boundary, restored two incursions, assessed 24 sites for effectiveness, and set up and broke down camp twice. When we spent the first few days in Grass Valley 2 months ago, none of us had ever imagined that we would be able to conquer the challenges that were thrown at us this hitch. Rory, Maryanne, Anne, and Josh, we have journeyed together around Grass Valley as the Moon does the Earth, with grace, creating beauty to all that it touches.
Thank you for a wonderful hitch.
