Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Thorns


As I write this, I'm trying out a new location to write from. It's 8:30pm and while the team is in the hot springs, I'm in my tent. I can tell I'm getting comfortable with my surroundings because I'm sleeping without socks tonight. I'm listening to the coyotes in the near distance, call to one another from across the sands. They sound smaller and younger than the packs I've heard in Vermont from my Aunt's porch.

I'm nervous that there are scorpions hibernating under each of our tents since the rain fell.

A roadrunner, the first I've ever seen, followed me around the work site with a family of wild rabbits. I still need a name for my new road running friend. I tried to catch him (and I say "him" because I saw his little pecker… okay, bad bird joke) but my teammate, Nick reminded me of Wild E Coyote's unsuccessful attempts. 

The bobcats are cool to spot but mountain lions scare me. Ranger Mark says that they are always watching.

We have a fire pit and a propane grill to cook on. We eat a lot of granola, snack bars, trail mix and lately, chocolate covered coffee beans! We only make things that we can cook on the grill, like the quesadillas, burgers and dogs and tonight we made a really good chili. One big pot thrown right on the grill. We want to start using the fire pit soon!

Today, my team split up into  a couple groups and worked on different projects. By doing so, we all maintained a positive attitude, the day flew by and we got the perfect amount of work done. I planted 30 cacti and 1 tree! When you're digging cactus holes all day, you have a lot of time to think. We've got about 10 or more trees to plant tomorrow and already started digging massive holes for them to dwell. Another day of pulling thorns out of my hands and body lies ahead.

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