With my weekend off I went on a road trip to Sedona, a small town south of Flagstaff best known for its red rock formations - most with ridculous names like "Coffee Pot", "Chimney Stack", and "Snoopy". The town was very touristy which meant we could easily hop on to a tourist bus to catch the sights before a small hike to one of the famous vortexes. The vortexes discovered at several different sites in Sedona are said to be metaphysical and offer spiritual healing and the power of insight. I sat on top of a rock at such a vortex but alas no powerful insight hit me and so crestfallen, I headed back down to Earth.A couple of days later I was sat in a truck for 6 hours on my way to Utah, for my next project. This was to be my first 8-day project and we were off to Zion National Park. The journey did provide me with an encounter with some local Hillbillies! We were at a gas station stop when they rickety old truck (that you could tell was once painted blue) pulled up, on the front seat meant for a max of 3 people, were at least 5 and they just about had a complete set of teeth between them. I wanted to keep looking at them like they were a museum exhibition as they were so sterotypical but that was rude so I instead tried to look anywhere but at them which was really hard.
Zion National Park is beautiful, with the rocky mountains capturing the sun as it sits low in teh sky and the yellow fall leaves, and creeks running through - finally it was time to go snap-happy. After the journey tehre was time for a hike and so we headed up to the infamous Angel's Landing. It was a hell-ish steep walk and the last 0.5 mile is scrambling up a rock edge with only a chain to keep you safe but it was great for the views, but I was more interested in taking pictures of the sweet little chipmunks scurrying about. They're so cute!We had set up camp but had to move when we got back from the hike and so had to put up our tents in the dark which was not much fun when your name is Carla, and you're using a big rock to hammer in the pegs held in your hand. But it was totally worth the throbing thumb as the new campsite was a real campsite with benches and a fire pit and.....bathrooms! I had never been so happy to see a fluching toliet in my life, so much so that for 4 days after I still hadn't noticed the spiders lurking around them. The first night was mild, but then we had rain and my tent leaked a bit, and then the mountain we were working on had snow so the rest of the week got cooler and cooler.
The work itself was bloody hard. We were taking down some fencing around the edges of the park for when the heavy snow starts to arrive. This meant a lot of carrying, clipping, cutting, and more carrying, before lack of energy drove me to just drag the damn things along the snow. The problem with taking fencing down is that the further you go along the fence the further you have to carry the wrapped fencing back. We devised a chain that got longer and longer as the week went on, so you spent a lot of time alone in the snow to play with the snow and think about the possible eyes watching you as we were in Mountain Lion country but I never saw one. The fencing was so heavy, I tried so many ways to carry it, sometimes under my arm, or on my hip, and if I could lift it - then on my back but when you're carrying it for about a half a mile, whatever way its carried is going to kill you, what with the barbs, and the slippy snow that then turns in to slushy mud - there was never much hope for me. I remember carrying a load of fencing at one point and yanked it up on to my back, the barbs managed to grip something and I thought 'this is great - its not slipping' - only later I would discover I'd dug the barbs through my two layers and into my skin. When we weren't cutting down and carrying fencing we were working in a yard with great view of the mountains to prepare the old fencing for recycling - Though a little frustrating, I liked this part best as there was little carrying.
The nights around the camp fire were great fun, even when I put my boots near the fire to dry and the melted, or when I put my socks there too and they burnt right through. The was an old ACE supervisor that would show up in the evenings and tell us old ACE stories or set us annoying riddles, and even had chocolate cake to accompany the usual marshmallows - but the end of the week came as a bit of a relief - mostly for my aching limbs and the mass of bruising I had sustained. Plus unwashed hair after 8 days is not great - thanks god for bandanas.I can honestly say I will never look at fencing the same way again, and if I see barbed wire ever again - it will be too soon!
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