Phoenix and Home

Well, after sad goodbye meal, some drinks and hugs I was all packed (took 4 hours) to leave the snow, mountains and pine trees of Flagstaff for the sun, sparse land, cactus's and palm trees of Phoenix. Two cabs, and a Greyhound bus later - I made it to the Hilton Garden Inn hotel in Phoenix. I got to my room, and lept on the king size bed like a crazy person. After 2 months of sleeping in a sleeping bag in either a tent, or on a crappy bunk bed - I was looking forward to bed that night. It's been great to simply relax and chill. I've wandered down to the Arizona State University and the town of Tempe but basically I've been catching up with an old friend...the TV. With two TV's and over 100 channels there's not been time to sleep much but there's always the plane ride home for that. Its now my last day and I'll be on my way soon. I will miss the U.S, and the people I've met here but now looking forward to Christmas back home. Thanks very much. Bye for now! xx

Final Project: River Verde Bank Stabilization...and More Snow in Flagstaff

So it was time to head out for my final project. All I knew was that it was based in Phoenix which meant warmer weather - thank the Lord!
After getting lost several times, we made it to the campsite (pretty nice, but only long drop toliets), packed lunch and headed to the work site. The worksite was a bank on the River Verde that runs through an Indian reservation: The Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. It was beautiful. Our job was to harvest some Willow branches from big Willows to replant along the bank to strengthen it. We were also to help with the Drainage system they were building and for which the community asked for, as well as make a little trail so they can walk down to the river. We had to attend a seminar on Cultural Sensitivty and take a test before we could work on the Indian ground, but once that was over we set about work - hunting for Willow branches of a certain length and height, before cutting, trimming, counting, tying up and placing in the river to keep the ends soaked. Then the drainage construction guys asked for help, so I offered to go but soon found the help they needed was watering dirt. It's so dry that what they dig up then falls back down, so we hooked up a water pump at the river and began spraying the surface. Then the foreman connected a massive hose, and handed it too me as he said it would be quicker. The moment I saw the mass of water travelling up the hose towards me I knew it was a mistake - out came the gush of water and the pressure sent me flying back (literally!). I couldn't get myself back up under the heavy water pressure, and ended up soaked. The end of that day saw me hooking up my tent washing line before dinner and bed, and that night we also had our first visit from the neighbourhood skunk. It got into one of the food crates which mean't that crate had to be completely discarded...my favorite bagel flavour included.

The next couple of days saw great weather, as we continued to chop off branches and process them for replanting. I liked the processing part best, though taking a saw to a tree and dragging it back through the forest was fun too. I was too busy to even think about spiders as I trudged my way through the trees, though someone did remind us about snakes. We have lunch by the river each day, and when not chopping williows, a couple of us would help out at the drainage site; staking fabric down, sowing grass and flower seeds, plus clearing up. The campsite was cool, though still a bit cold at night and long drop toliets are much to be desired. For one thing they are smelly. At night they look like an onimous black hole that you imagine a small goblin-like creature to dwell in, and by day the sight down there doesn't even bare thinking about. Plus, it really does smell. The skunk made its nightly visit but didn't get in to anymore crates.
The work was a lot more varied and the days flew by. We finished up with some people going across river to replant Willows, while we dug the trail down to the river. I didn't envy those going across the river - they had to go in their underwear and that water was freezing. Everything was going well BUT then the rain came. We abandoned work on Monday, and Monday night was hell. The wind made my tent crash in at the sides so each side were touching my ears, together with torrential rain and lightning too. I was worried about my little tent leaking but I had beforehand carefully contructed a small channel to take water away from the tent and that worked. However, at 12.30am I realised my tent had come out of the ground, so rainboots on (so useful), and headtorch - I ducked out, pushed the pegs back in and went searching in the night for big rocks to weigh them down. It was a hard task but when we finally emerged at 6am, it had paid off. Four people's tents had come down, and they had had to sleep in the truck. Luckily we found all the tents, though one got pretty stuck in a nearby bush. Back to work, and we had actually finished all the work they needed from us by noon and so headed to Scottsdale Mall for food and the cinema. I wanted to see Fantastic Mr Fox but was out-voted and had to see 2012 for a second time. The next day there was time to clear up before the people that put the project together for the Indian Community (The Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Department) treated us to an all-you-can-eat buffet at the Indian's casino. We couldn't believe our eyes. I was however, immediately drawn to the desserts as there was a make-your-own sundae...heaven! They even gave us a goody bag!

Back in Flagstaff, we discovered the rain storm we had in Phoenix was a snow storm in Flagstaff where 3 feet had fallen over night and a further one the next day. I had never seen so much snow. On went the rainboots (best buy) and out I went trudging around. I couldn't believe the massive piles of snow, you just wanted to jump in them. The ploughs were hard at work though and the roads were cleared pretty quickly, though there's still lots of slipping here and there. But its really pretty, and very Christmassy. Not sure I could take a lot of it though, I woke up this morning and the window was frozen...on the inside!






Well, that's my final project finished, now its time to pack up and clear out. Its really sad saying goodbye to the friends I've made and Flagstaff, which has been a lovely little home from home. But it's time to be off to a cosy Hilton hotel in Phoenix for a nice long hot bath (our hot water pipes have frozen at the house) before finally flying home for Christmas. Plane movies to look forward to so all good! x

Las Vegas!

Saturday saw my first snow in Flagstaff! I'd gone to the cinema and came out to snow. And the snow kept coming. By nightfall it had completely settled, which was fun for me as there was only two of us in the house and so it was an excuse to go crazy in the snow outside, in my new rainboots! They had already proved their usefulness. They were also useful the next day when I had to walk the snowy paths to the Greyhound to catch a bus to Las Vegas, where I was going for a couple of days. The bus ride was a bit hectic, especially in my lack of common sense I had decided to sit opposite the restroom - not a good idea at all. If you've ever sat opposite the toliet in a FGW Train to Reading or London you'll know what I mean. Also there was a kid continuously kickin' the back of my chair for 5 hours.

Staying the Stratosphere (it had a special offer and so much better than the Motel 6), it was lovely to have a bit of luxury, including cable TV and...a bath! In my infinite wisdom I decided to walk the Las Vegas Boulevard strip - not realising how long it actually was. But I was OK, stopping to take pictures, go inside the casinos, and the mall and other shops. It was great seeing all the famous casino hotels such as Caesar's Palace, The Venetician, New York New York, Excalibur, and teh MGM Grand.

It wasn't until I reached The Luxor at the far end that I ran into trouble. For luncg I had gone to the Earl of Sandwich and tried their hot Holiday Roast Turkey and Stuffing Sandwich with Cranberry sauce, which was alright. After that however, I went to the Coca-cola store and thought it rude not to have a drink in the store so bought a Cola Icee. That was probably my mistake. I don't know what in the drink my stomach didn't like, but it wanted it out. I had to make an agonizing slow walk to my hotel. What made it worse was I was walking behind a short man smoking a cigar, nearly the whole journey. I may have not have given a lot of the casino's my money but I did leave my stomach contents in a lot of their restrooms. It was hideous, but I eventually made it make to the safety of my hotel room where ironically I was feeling ok again as I had nothing left inside. That was a $8 wasted on a sandwich I wish I hadn't seen again. After a little rest and an electrolytes drink I made my way up the Stratosphere observation tower on the 108 & 109 floors for sunset. I had planned to go on one of the rides up there too but after my afternoon, I decided it was best not to risk an encore. I grabbed a slice of pizza and headed back out to the strip - this time taking the bus to the Luxor. It was great seeing all the casinos lit up at night, although a little distressing to see the lack of energy efficiency. I saw a great fountain show oustide the Bellagio, and the Volcano display outside the Mirage, and of course - a little flutter here and there. I lost everytime...mostly because I had no idea what I was doing. Even the slot machines were complicated - I'd spent a dollar before I even understood it. But nevermind... just the Greyhound bus ride back to Flagstaff left - another hideous journey, this time, it was the coughers and loud people with smelly food. In conclusion, loved Las Vegas and glad I got to see it, not sure if I'd go there again. Or if I did, I won't take the Greyhound and I probably won't eat or drink anything there neither!

Thanksgiving in Flagstaff!

After the small roadtrip, it was time for another project - this one would only be 3 days as Thankgiving was approaching and no one wanted to work that. I was to head back out to the familar Wupatki National Monument but this time on a different project - Pueblo Stabilization whereby we were to help with keeping the many Native American pueblo remains (dotted around the area) in an OK state. However, on arriving at the site no project partner was waiting for us and a phonecall later we learnt that nor would they be coming. The other Wupatki crew set to do some extra fencing work in the area were in the same situation. After cursing ACE's organisation skills, or lack thereof, we waited to hear what we were to do for the next three days. As it turned out, instead of working (as there was no work) we would become tourists instead. So we visited some of the bigger pueblo remains such as Wokoki, before crossing into the Navajo Indian Reservation lands - the biggest in the U.S. We parked near a fenced area and when asked why it was fenced off, "ATG" - our old fencing supervisor with the long hair, and beard, told us it was an old Navajo graveyard, which was fine until you realised that meant old Indian burial ground. ATG showed us a collection of petroglyphs (rock art) left by the ancient puebloans when they lived in the area in 700 AD. We saw rock engravings of people, supernatural creatures, animals and birds - they were amazing. ATG said no one apart from Navajo people, a few clued-up locals and park rangers knew of the collection and so ACE volunteers are perhaps the only internationals to ever see them - which was really humbling and so I thought I'd definitely get a picture of these - except on close inspection of my camara I'd left my SD card out. It was so typical, of all the projects to not have a camara on! By 4pm we were at the campsite, tents up and cooking beef buritos for dinner. The clear night and desert landscape meant the night was absolutely freezing - my little bag thermonmeter read at minus 4 at 5am when I got up. It was very hard to leave the sleeping bag!

The next day we visited Sunset Crater, the site of a volcanic eruption 1000 years ago. We had a little walk around the lava trail before heading up a nearby park fence line to do a tiny bit of work, basically looking for overhanging trees, snapped wire and fallen trees on the fence to repair at a later date. But it was really pretty surroundings. After venturing back up to Sunset Crater visitor centre to have a talk with a park ranger, we drove more into the Coconino National Forest area to walk up Strawberryhill Crater. I don't know why it was called this but nearby was Deadman Wash. When we asked why it was called Deadman Wash, ATG simply said because a man died in it. Apparently there's loads of places called something similar and at this one a man's horse got stuck so he had to shot it, then realising he was out the middle of no where with no horse he then shot himself. Makes sense.

That night was bloody freezing. I'd helped cooked Tuna Mac n' Cheese with a strange and suspicious cheese product that was bright yellow, felt like rubber and did not need to be refridgerated. But it turned out OK. I woke up several times that night, finding it colder and colder, and by 4.30am I'd given up trying to sleep altogether. When I got up, I found the water in my 2 litre and 1.5 litre water bottles had both frozen. Luckily having become accustomed to the freezing nights I'd taken to placing some things in the sleeping bag with me...my head torch, mp3 player, Nintendo DSi, alarm clock, work clothes for the next day, several tissues, and a small bottle of water - which stayed thankfully upfrozen so I wasn't completely without drinking water.

There was just time for a few more stops to see a few more pueblo remains and a sink hole, before making ourway back to Flagstaff. I couldn't be bothered to go to the crew dinner that night so instead some of us from Cedar House decided to make the night walk up to the Lowell Observatory just outside the downtown area. This was where Pluto was first discovered and they had a multimedia show for visitors as well as lots of telescopes set up to look through. I had a look at Jupiter and some of its moons, the Andromeda Galaxy which is 2.5million lights away or put another way - what I was looking at through the telescope was how our closest other galaxy looked 2.5 million years ago. Lastly I went to see their big telescope for a close up of the moon - that freaked me out the most! You could see so much detail - like craters and mountains (made from impacts that escape erosion as there's no rain or wind to act upon it). It was a really interesting place.

The next day was thanksgiving. Me and a few others (all Europeans) headed out to the local supermarket to pick up some food for making our own roast Thanksgiving dinner. With most people still on 8 day projects all the houses were pretty empty and so those in the other ACE house - Cisco house, were to come to ours for dinner, and we'd have dessert back at theirs - so there was a little pressure to make a good meal and enough of it. We decided to go for a big chicken instead of a small expensive turkey, however we then discovered its giblets were not in a convenient bag tucked inside - no they were attached inside, and so was the neck. Having done biology I decided I could tackle the chicken - but really I wanted to make sure everything was removed and cleaned thoroughly before basting. Soon our little chicken was stuffed and in the oven. It came with a great little invention - a pop up thermonmeter that's poked in the chicken and pops up when the chicken is done. Amazing. There was plenty of food and for once we had a TV so we watched some American Football, followed by Home Alone, and Uncle Buck. I was so happy to see a TV I could have cried...but I didn't as that would be a little weird.

Next on to Cisco House (a half hour walk in the cold night air - I was regreting the plan), they had put together 5 desserts including choloate brownies, a swedish chocolate cake, lemon pie, chocolate cream pie, cookies, with coolwhip and icecream. I was in heaven until 2 hours later when my stomach hated me.

Thanksgiving wouldn't be complete without shopping sales, and the day after thanksgiving is a tradition of sales, so much so that its called, "Black Friday" (- not sure why, really?!). But it sounded good so me and a housemate got up at 5.30am to get the bus to teh mall at 6am. It was crazy shopping before teh sun was up but there was so many people there that it didn't seem weird. It was an experience to embrace, plus I managed to get my Christmas shopping done, plus lots of goodies for myself - including designer rainboots to compensate for my melted boots no longer being waterproof. Very essential.

Roadtrip to the Grand Canyon!

After celebrating the end of the project and buying some superglue for my trainers, plus new socks in Wal-Mart, I was left with a couple of days before my next project. A group was heading to Grand Canyon and I decided it was now or never and so joined the two car convoy to the famous landmark. Cruising America's roads is crazy - the roads are long, stretching out as far as you can see, and you can drive along one for a half hour before actually passing another car. It was about a two hour drive to the Grand Canyon National Park. We were starving and looking for somewhere to eat. An old shack by the road selling handmade jewellery offered us beef jerky for $12, thinking better of this we waited and eventually found a food bar -that grilled cheese was worth the wait! After eatting we headed out to the main lookout at the South Rim by the watchtower before driving to random lookouts along the way to the trail we had decided to do.

The annoying thing about walking a trial at the Grand Canyon, is its all down-hill going and uphill on the return which meant we went further down than perhaps we should've as I was completely knackered by the time we made it back up - luckily it was in time to see the sunset on the rocky landscape which was beautiful. There was just time for a last food stop - this time some choclate pudding (basically chocolate mousse) before heading back to Flagstaff. It was fanstastic to finally see the Canyon in all it's grand-ness!

Project 3: Zion National Park, Utah

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!

Mount Elden

With another weekend free, it was time to find out what my next project was - Zion National Park: Fencing. I just hope it's not barb wire again. It's an eight day project so pretty long but it'll mean I'll have 5-6days off after it. With the weekend free it was time to get some food, a new pair of gloves (I cinged mine in the fire when I was a bit too eager to get my hands warm after washing up!) and figure what to do with my time off. On Sunday me and others from Team Wupatki set up to climb Mount Elden, one of the mountains surrounding Flagstaff. The journey started out ok as I'd packed my Power Bar but soon the up hill climb was starting to take it's toll and I wanted to simply collapse.

The trail was rated Strenuous, and yes it bloody was. The higher you got the harder it got, and when we reached a top, we realised we'd taken the wrong trail and gone up the wrong mountain and so had to climb higher to get to the right one. 3 hours later we sat down and ate lunch at the Mount Elden Lookout - 2,300 feet above Flagstaff. On top it was bloomin' windy of course but the view of Flagstaff and the surrounding area was breath-taking. So some would say it was worth it! ; )

Then it was time to make our way down again, which can actually be hard, it doesn't make you out of breath like going up does but it's bloody hard on the knees and when you're as uncoordinated as me you have to take your time. Slow and Steady wins the race, well, in my case not when the race but had me back in Flagstaff in one piece at least. Now that my limbs have forgotten the pain, I can say it was a good trek.