Er Mah Gerd, Hitch Two.
A mysterious letter arrived at the Sol house on the first day of hitch 2. As I opened the letter, a curious list of our names was written under the extravagant gold letter head “Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry”. My heart raced as I read the words “We are pleased to inform the Wilderness Crew of their acceptance into Hogwarts”. Finally, the magical forces which brought the ten us of here to the desert were revealed.
We are magical, ERMAGERD!
After acquiring our owls, books, and wands, each crew member stepped up to the sorting hat.
For Maryanne, Pat, Anne, Tyler and Georgia, the hat chose Hurferperf, the house of the Badger. We Hurferperfs are known for loyalty and trustworthiness.
Gryffinder, house of the lion, claimed Rurik, Chris, Amelyne, and Josh. Witches and Wizards of this house are known for their chivalrous ways and daring actions.
In Reravernclurw, the house of the raven, Elisa and Evangelynn were placed- only the cleverest and most eccentric reside here.
The last house, Slurtherern, chose only one member on the Wilderness Crew. Matt, belonging to the house of the snake, accepted his house with pride and crept to the dungeon, where the house is located.
To celebrate our new found magical abilities, as well as Thanksgiving Day, the house of Sol hosted the DRC Thanksgiving Feast. Each crew- Desert, Sierra, Rands, and Jawbone brought a plate of their finest dish. Almond butter pie, two kinds of stuffing, fried turkeys, chocolate covered strawberries, a bunch of homemade bread and rolls, pumpkin pies, stretched across tables, counters, and our hearts. We gathered around the dirt encrusted camp tables and sat in camp chairs faded from the Mojave sun, enjoying each other’s company, our bounteous feast, and thoroughly satisfied bellies. For dessert and Josh’s birthday, the DRC filled the house with song.
The next day we awoke from of our food comas, and set out with our BLM contacts for public outreach. Splitting in pairs, each of the Wilderness crew members spent the day socializing with the muggles of the OHV community and distributing permits.
After outreach day, we finally set out to the mysterious, entrancing, magical world of Grass Valley Wilderness. We had discovered a few days prior that a dark force had destroyed a vast section of fence protecting the delicate wilderness from internal combustion powered muggle transports. We prepared for combat by remembering the sweet smells of pie, the warmth of the frying turkey, and the light hearted mood of Thanksgiving.S
The quest bestowed upon us: Restore the butchered fence, protect the wilderness, and stop the dark work of the Banditos from continuing to employ the dark arts against our fence.
In our 900 service hours we:
Restored 1 site, including 2 seperate incursions, using 31 vertical mulch plants and 4 lbs of seed.
Maintained/replaced 1214.77 meters of 4 strand wire fence.
