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.
People jump from boulders into Lake Tahoe, the largest alpine lake in North America. Its surface elevation is 6,225 ft. For comparison back at home, Syracuse, NY has an elevation of 380 ft. Lake Tahoe is also the United States' second deepest lake, the first being Crater Lake, OR.
Visitors at Sand Harbor, on the east coast of Lake Tahoe.
NCC crewmember Trent Lieber jumps into Lake Tahoe.
Beach-goers play in Lake Tahoe in the early evening.
NCC crewmembers in Lake Tahoe. The Sierra Nevada mountain range is the background. The mountains encapsulate the lake. The highest peak in the mountains immediately surrounding Lake Tahoe is Freel Peak at an elevation of 10,891 ft.
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.
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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