A view into the valley from camp.
Having forgotten ice for our cooler during the last hitch, we find some snow at the end of a work day and bring what we can carry back to camp.
Our summer NCC crew, minus Young and Luke who took their remaining discretionary days before the NCC term ended. We're standing by completed tread (not pictured) in the Mount Rose Wilderness Area.
To lessen our weight burden when hiking miles to our camp location, the NCC managed to get us some pack horses to carry our food and kitchen supplies up the mountain. Unlike our food, we had to walk up the mountain.
The NCC crew meets the pack horses before parting ways up the mountain to our campsite.
After retrieving tools from our tool cache made during the previous hitch, crewmembers continue hiking up the mountain.
Dan, Dylan and Luke look into the valley towards Reno.
The early evening sun lights an alpine meadow in the Mount Rose Wilderness Area outside of Reno, NV. Mount Rose is the leftmost peak in this photo, at an elevation of 10,776 ft, the highest mountain by Reno and in Washoe County.
The crew begins a day of work on the Tahoe Rim Trail by Mount Rose. Snow is still present and several feet deep despite it being mid July. Reno is located in the valley visible in this photo.
Katie, a Harry Potter enthusiast, surprises us all by waking up in costume the morning of the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2. As we are in the middle of an eight-day hitch and she can't watch the movie until getting back to Reno, Katie is nonetheless excited about the day.
The crew works on building tread as part of the Tahoe Rim connection trail in the Mount Rose Wilderness Area.
Traditionally, towards the end of the hitch when we are done using our tools for the week, we perform tool maintenance. During an eight-day hitch like this one, multiple tool maintenance sessions are usually a good idea. Tool maintenance is also good for us mentally, as it makes the work day that much shorter. Depending on the tool, maintenance can include sharpening, metal treatment (with motor oil) and wood treatment (sanding and then linseed oil). Here, an NCC crewmember sharpens the edge of a polaski with a file.
Motor oil is rubbed on this mcleod to help protect it from rusting.
Luke puts a cover on this 8-foot perforated lance tooth crosscut saw.
The crew eating dinner together at the end of a work day in the Mount Rose Wilderness Area.
NCC crewmember tents in our designated camping area. While not normally so close to one another, the frightening prospect of bears coming by at night convinces us to set up our tents near each other.
Crewmembers hike items up to the campsite, located over four miles from where our trucks are parked with a gain in elevation the entire way. Here we take a short break on trails the NCC built just recently before hiking the remaining distance.
The crew watches as our crew leader, Phil, attempts to throw a rope around a branch in order to secure our bear hang. Due to the hiking distance from our trucks to our campsite, the idea of carrying a bear box up is out of the question. Instead, we hang our food from a tree. Setting up bear hangs can be very, very frustrating.
Phil secures the bear hang. The bags go up at night and up during the work day. Down for breakfast and down for dinner.
Crewmembers try to catch popcorn from a Jiffy Pop aluminum pan gone awry after dinner.
Hugo and Becky prepare meals in the kitchen.
I'm a Restoration Biologist at Joshua Tree National Park with the Great Basin Institute. I'm from Syracuse, NY where I went to school for Conservation Biology and Recreation Resource and Protected Area Management at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF).
I currently live in Boulder, CO:
Life is pretty cool. I try to document the life I observe with iNaturalist, a citizen science tool that allows users share and map observations of biodiversity across the globe.
Using crowd-sourced data available on iNaturalist, I've learned a lot about the phenological trends and distribution of flora in Joshua Tree NP, assisting with several of our monitoring projects. Come join!
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