My Cabin

Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, I went to my cabin, and let me tell you- it is awesome!I went there on Tuesday and only spent one night. I'm going to go out for a whole five day stint tomorrow.

Who would have believed that in the 21st century, when I can sit in front of the computer and write this blog to you all- which will reach anywhere around the world the second I hit "post", pictures included, that in this same reality I can go out and survive for 5 days without electricity and running water?

I have a hand pump outside and I have to carry my water in a bucket to the filter in my kitchen before I can use it.

I have a propane stove and oven- but once it gets cold- I'll probably do all of my cooking on the wood stove- that I need to cut firewood for...

The propane refrigerator is not working yet- I'll have to fiddle with that. But don't you worry- this cabin comes with a complete set of tools and a tool shack. My outhouse

has a great view of the cliffs of the canyon (yeah, I keep the door open. It's one of the perks of being alone in the wilderness), and at night I cook and eat to the light of candles. GOT TO LOVE IT!

I can't wait to go out again.

Down canyon from my cabin is a site called painted cave. It's pretty cool, as you can see.

So this is my new home, and for now- I am really excited about going and spending some time out there.
I took the long way out on Wednesday. Dale picked me up outside of the western boundary of the park (opposite side of HQ). That meant hiking a long trail that is no longer used very often. After you leave the park boundary you still have about 4 miles in National forest land. As I was walking out, dealing with a whole bunch of fallen trees on the trail (The ones in the park I cleared, when I crossed the boundary out to forest land I just started jumping over them), I could see the sky darkening, and a thick layer of black clouds approach. No one likes to get caught in the rain, and I was already late to my rendezvous with Dale (fallen Junipers really put up a fight when approached with an axe), so I started walking really fast. I got to the "pumis mines trail head" quite short of breath- but it was well worth it. Three minutes later the skies opened up and it started pouring. Rain and hale dropped like it was being poured from buckets. Since we were all the way around on the other side of the park and most of the way back was through forest dirt roads- it took about 40 minutes to get back- and it was pouring the entire time. When Dale dropped me off we had another surprise- The creek that runs through the main canyon had over flooded from all the rain and was washing over the small concrete bridges. Apparently a very rare thing. We all ran out to see the flood- which lasted about an hour.

The next morning was supposed to be my day off. At 11am, as I was having a late breakfast, Brian (another law enforcement ranger), and John Mack (head of resource division) came knocking on my door. "We need someone to patrol the main canyon trail to see if they can re-open it to the public, after closing it due to flood. So I packed up and went on a three hour hike, during which I was glad to see that all the small double-log bridges were washed away. It was like nature sneezing away all those man made restraints on it. Like a dog shaking water off from his fur. Some parts of the trail were washed away- but you could still hike it. Anywhere you needed to cross the creek- you could still do it by jumping on a few rocks. I was also surprised to see at least four small bull-snakes just warming up in the sun. I guess the flood washed them out of their normal hiding places. Another species was out of it's element: the fish that I found lying on the trail. The flood brought them there and then settled down and left them high and dry on the high ground. Took photos of all the fallen trees and washed out bridges, along with GPS locations- put them all in a report for the rangers, and went on to enjoy what was left of my day off. In the evening Bree was nice enough to drive me over to the library and the grocery store.

Today, on my second day off, Bree and I headed to the post office in Los Alamos and then went hiking to a hot (luke warm actually) spring. A lovely little spot in the Jemez Mountains- about 40 minutes away from the park. The sky was threatening rain again so there was no-one else on the trail. The spring flows out into a little pool (assisted just a little bit by a man-made dam to deepen it). Had a great time, though the water wasn't really hot. Later today Dale had me over for dinner at his house in White Rock. There was a Zydeco concert in the park and we went over after dinner. Not a bad weekend (Thursday and Friday- but who cares). Tomorrow I head out to my cabin, and besides the beginning of a new month it's also the beginning of hunting season. No hunting is allowed in the parkalthough there will be a lot of hunting going on in the national forest land all around us. I'm definitely going to be wearing my orange vest this week.

Weekend activities

Had a weekend. A real weekend. You know, the kind of weekend you wait for all week, just so you could do nothing important and kick into that chill pace of things.

I don't think I've had a real weekend like this in a very long time. Between working at mike's place, on weekends, and having to study- on weekends, it really has been a while since I had a good quiet weekend.
I guess you got the point.

Got up Thursday morning and went out to clear some fallen trees off of the trail up-canyon in Frijoles (That's the canyon the visitor's center is on). Hacked away at 2 and a half trees but had to be back at HQ by 11:00 because they were having a staff meeting and wanted to introduce all the new people. It was pretty interesting, because other than the introductions and the usual stuff that goes on at any staff meeting ANYWHERE, they also showed us a few items that were going to go on display once they finished remodeling the museum (that's only supposed to start next year). So we got a sneak at next years display. The some beautiful pieces of art and different traditional tools made by artists from the surrounding pueblos. The were very nice, but I think this does raise in interesting question- should the museum be presenting items from the pueblos that claim the people that lived here were their ancestors, or should it be presenting artifacts that were found here, as unimpressive as they might be?

After the meeting a goodbye lunch was put together for Lorel, the maintenance secretary. She got a promotion in Rocky Mountain National Park. The BBQ wagon was pulled out and burgers were spread out. No shortage of food. Hungry interns like myself don't give up on opportunities like these... I was stuffed.

The only notable event from the rest of that day was that Dale and I went up to one of the large storage buildings (snow plow garage, I think) to move a small rattle snake they found in one of the corners. Picked it up with a hook made out of a golf club and put it in a bucket. Then carried it out side and let it go. Really uneventful afternoon. At 5pm my weekend started.
I read a little, I cooked some dinner, and then I grabbed my camera and Joined Bri and Moli who were doing the effects for the night walk. I won't ruin the surprise by explaining why a night walk at Bandelier needs "effects", but I will say that going on the night walk is a very special experience. Well recommended- if you ever find yourself around this area on a Thursday night during the season. The three of us hung around after the walk was over and took some pictures of the Ruins and the cliffs in the dark. Friday was truly a day of nothingness. I woke up late, I spent a few good hours E-mailing, I went over to the park library and checked out a couple of books, I took a nap... I almost was called to go on a search- but the wife of the missing person found him exactly were he was supposed to be right as I was putting my backpack on. Later on I cooked some dinner and carried up to Virginia's place, at the other end of park headquarters. Virginia works for fee collection (stands at the entrance station- most of the time). She is relatively new at the park and when she came none of the regular apartments were available- so they put her up in the old "Superintendent's house". The park superintendent hasn't lived in the park for quite a few years. They just get a house in White rock or in Los Alamos, but the house that used to belong to the superintendent is still being used. It is a hug house with a living room designed for entertaining guests. Wooden floors and a fire place. Too bad it's at dark the end of the housing area, and has only one girl living in it. She theoretically has a roommate, but she's only around a couple days a week. Plus she only has the stuff the fit in the back of her pickup when she came down from Seattle- so you can imagine how empty the house looks. A lot like the opening scene of oh-so-many horror movies.

Had rice and stir fried chicken, which I cooked, and fine root beer that she bought. Sounds like a fair deal to me since Virginia turned out to be quite a root beer connoisseur, and she buys some fancy aged root beer.

Saturday morning stated early with a load of laundry, and then Bri picked me up to go to the Farmer's Market in Santa Fe. Considering the lack of taste that the vegetables in the grocery stores have around here, I understand why Americans would want to go to the Farmer's Market. But for someone that grew up on food from the REAL market- a market that's open 6 days a week instead of just on Saturday, and is CHEAPER than the grocery store- I'm sorry, the price and wrinkled pepper were just not for me. It was a fun experience- colorful and friendly, but like a tourist attraction would be. I would take the shouting in SHOOK HACARMEL over this any day of the week.

Then we went for a late breakfast at a deli type place- and I had some awesome pancake with blueberries. Even got to take some home. We had other things to do- go to a book store, buy some stuff at target, got to a grocery store... but we just did it at our own pace, with no hurry and with good conversation and laughs. Weather was great and the music in the car just seemed to fit (Did I just write that???). On our way back we talked about movies and realized that neither of us had seen the Borune Ultimatum, so after we unloaded the car we headed out to Los Alamos and caught the 4pm show. Liked it a lot.

As we were driving home again, we decided the sky was too good, and stopped at the fire tower to take pictures of the sunset. We ended up staying there and taking pictures if the moon too. Not to worry- we had leftovers from my stir fried chicken and half a bottle of wine to keep us company while we waited.

Tuesday morning

Hey everyone,

I'm stuck in the office waiting for one of the rangers to give me a ride to one of the trail heads, so I might as well use this opportunity to explain a little bit about where I am and what I'm doing.

Bandelier National Monument is a little bit north of Santa Fe (about 45 minutes). The nearest town is Los Alamos which takes about 20 minutes from park headquarters.
Basically, the park is laid on the southern slope of what used to be a huge volcano, that one day exploded and turned into the "Valles Caldera" (http://www.vallescaldera.gov/). When this volcano exploded, and during various eruptions, this whole area got covered with volcanic rock and ash- and that's what makes up the rock and soil of the park. The park is set along three parallel canyons that run down form the rim of the Caldera (what used to be a mountain), all the way to the Rio Grande River- Southern border of the park. During the 13th and 14th century, native american tribes built their homes along the cliffs of the canyons and on the flat mesas between the canyons. The park was established to preserve these archaeological sites (according to some of the archaeologists that I've spoken to- hundreds of small sites), and the wildlife in the area. The visitor's center is down in the middle of the eastern canyon- Frijoles Canyon, and most people just come for the day to visit the excavated archaeological sites along that one canyon and maybe to take "Falls trail" that runs down from the visitor's center towards the Rio Grande. Some people, however, go hiking, and camping, in the two other canyons- Alamo and Capulin. There are no roads that cross the park. One road goes down to the visitors center- but not further. In order to get to most of the campgrounds and to many of the trail heads you have to drive out of the park and around- along state highways and through National Forest land- and that's where I come in. In order to patrol the farther areas of the park a ranger would have to either hike all day or drive around and leave his car at a trail head (at the end of a dirt road in middle of the forest) and still hike some. So, a cabin was built in the farthest canyon from headquarters- Capulin Canyon. The rangers used to ride in on horses and spend up to two weeks at a time there. Now, with cut backs, that job has fallen on volunteers or interns. Interns like me. Oh, and the horses are gone too. This cabin is also used by crews that are doing all kinds of field work in the wilderness areas of the park- Archaeological surveys, fire studies and trail maintenance. I haven't been out to my soon-to-be home. The rangers are a little short on staff, so they don't have anyone to take me out there and show me all the ins and outs of the place. In the mean time they're having me do day hikes, patrolling trails and backcountry (not necessarily on trails) areas. These are places that I can either get to on foot from the visitor's center, or they can drop me off at the trail head.

How does it look?
Well... it ain't no desert. It's pretty high in elevation (6000 feet at the visitor's center, at the bottom of a canyon). The mesas are pretty dry and have Juniper and Pinion pine growing on them, but the draught is not doing to well for these trees and a lot of the Pinions are dead or dying. There are also Panderosa Pines (tall TALL trees)growing there. The canyons are just lush forests of Panderosa and all the smaller plants that follow. At higher parts of the park, close to the rim of the caldera, on what used to be the slopes of the mountain, there are lots of Panderosa and also a lot of Aspen trees. A big fire in 2000 killed huge areas of trees along the upper parts of the park, so there are a lot of dead trees hanging around and they tend to fall and block trails- all the time.

Animals...

Rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, a few skunks. Wild turkeys, Turkey volunteers, Ravens and a lot of birds I can't recognize. Rattle snakes (mainly in grassy areas) and bull snakes (not poisonous) and a lot of tiny lizards. Deer (mule deer, mainly) and Elk (only saw them from a distance). Coyotes, Bears (black bears) and mountain lions. I didn't see any mountain lions, and probably won't the entire time I'm here, but you see the signs all around- droppings, tracks and here and there a carcass of an animal that was hunted, partially eaten and hidden away for a later meal. On my second day here we had to move a dead baby deer away from the trail so the lion wouldn't come to close to the people walking. Chances are the mountain lion was already done with it because it was already stinking- that's how we found it.
The bears are pretty good about not coming close to people- I guess they haven't learned to associate people with food yet- like in other places, but especially during this season, when food is getting hard to find, they stroll down into the canyon (where most visitors are) and come looking for insects and fruit along the creek. When that happens the rangers just try and scare them away- that's what I did the other day- I guess I was so scary the bear ran up a tree.
Until I go out to my cabin I get to ride around with Dale, my supervisor, (Very cool guy-19 years in the park) in the ranger car, and pretty much do what he does- so it's been pretty interesting.

That's me at the top of Cerro Grande- the highest point in the park.

Other than that I've been cooking some good food and sharing meals with my two neighbors- Tori (maintenance, used to be a poker dealer for 15 years) and Shanon ("hidden treasures" project, I think, does restoration on the excavated buildings and on the CCC buildings we all live in).
Oh, and let's not forget the "Ultimate Frisbee" game last week. I didn't think I had any trouble with the elevation until 5 minutes into the game and breathing started requiring some serious effort. Effort and pain. But that was on my third day here and I've done a lot of hiking since. Next time we play, I'll kick some butt.

My new home

How do you get from Santa Fe to Bandelier?
Well, I spent two days at the hostel trying to figure out the best way. My possition officialy only started on Wednesday, which meant that I needed to be there by Tuesday night, but since I had nothing exciting to do in Santa Fe I decided to head there a day early. I almost got a ride from a couple of girls that were headed up to Taos, but that fell through on the morning of the trip. The other option was to use a bus that runs about 6 times a day from the lab in Los Alamos to Santa Fe and back. It's meant for commuters so the first three runs are at ungodly hours of the morning, and then it only runs again at 2pm, 3pm and 4.
So I had the morning to sit in the sun and read, and the afternoon to cook some lunch (the leftover stirfried chicken from two days before mixed with tomato sauce and nuttles- not bad).
Loaded my backpack and headed for the bus station- about a 15 minute walk from the hostel.
At 2:15 a clean, air conditioned, empty bus picked me up and about an hour later, after driving through a few narrow streets in Santa Fe, and stopping at a couple of Indian Casinos on the highway, the driver let off at an intersection outside of LA (Los Alamos) saying- "this is the closest I can get you to Bandeleir, and probably the best place for you to try and hitch...
After driving around with Dale for the past days I know that across the road from where the driver let me off is a the entrance to the "Tsankawi loop trail", a detached piece of the park that the rangers check on a daily basis- at least twice a day. But I didn't know that, so I crossed the intersection towards Bandelier, picked a wide spot at the side of the road and stuck my thumb out. I was going to give it an hour (it was 3:15 pm at this point), and if by then I wasn't picked up, I would start walking towards Los Alamos (where the bus turned to). My only real fear was getting caught I a thunder storm- This is after experiencing the Monsoon season in Santa Fe.
There was plenty of traffic on the road, but no-one seemed to be in the mood for picking up hitchhikers. Took about 25 minutes (Can't complain too much) for a large Buick to stop and for a young, college aged, guy to say "I headed towards White Rock. Is that any help for you?" White rock is on the way, so I hopped in. It only took about 5 and a half minutes of conversation for him to offer to take me all the way to Bandalier (20 minutes out of his way, round trip). Funny how things just work out, when you are in no hurry at all. My ride dropped me off at the entrance to the park and I loaded my backpack and walked over to the booth. A couple of days later I got to Mindi. She is sweet and friendly, plays great Frisbee and bakes awesome granola bars, but when I showed up on foot at her booth and said "Hi, I'm Yoash, I'm the new backcountry SCA", she took two quick steps back and very suspiciously picked up the radio and shot out "I have a guy here who says he's the new backcountry SCA. Anyone know anything about this?" Luckily Dale was on shift and I overheard his voice come on the radio saying "Yeah, I'm not far from you, I'll be there in a few minutes to pick him up". I think Mindi was more happy to see dale (Law Enforcement ranger with a gun) than I was. Dale seemed only a little surprised to see me when he drove me down to park headquarters at the bottom of Frijoles Canyon. "Well, I'm not sure your accommodations are ready, we will check it out now. If not, you are welcome to spend the night at our place". When Dale interviewed me, over the phone, a while back, he said that I'll be spending five days a week in the cabin in the backcountry, and for my two days off, there will be a bed for me at park headquarters. Well, the "bed" turned out to be a small apartment with a full kitchen, bathroom/toilet. This whole bunch of buildings were built by the CCC and are historic buildings.

Not bad for my first day, Hah.

Santa Fe

Hey Everyone,

I know, I still owe you the story of my travels from NY to DC, the hang in DC and my time in West Virginia. I also need to fill in on my trip from Pittsburgh to Santa Fe, or as I like to call it- "The GreyHound chronicles". Nevertheless, for now we'll just skip straight to Santa Fe.

Arrived in Santa Fe at 10pm on Friday. When I asked about a cheap campground around- all I got from the GreyHound dude (and I do mean DUDE) was a slow shake of his head to the beat of whatever MTV clip he was watching instead of trying to give me directions.
So I found myself walking at night through the main drag of Santa Fe- and let me tell you- it didn't seem very friendly.
Stopped at a gas station and bought a loaf of bread and some peanut butter. You can't really go bad with peanut butter, now can you? The woman at the station was nice enough to direct me towards the motel area of town. After a bit of a walk, I found myself at 10:45pm checked into a motel, watching a bad western on a fuzzy TV, and having my dinner of PB sandwiches.

Morning brought sunshine to Santa Fe and the bluest sky I've ever seen.

As I learned from my last visit to the US, the best place to start in a new town is on the Internet in the public library. The motel guy pointed me at it and away I went. On my way over I passed a guy on the street and asked for directions. He said he was on his way over there himself. We started talking and he mentioned a music festival that was going on in town, a little bit about himself and his work and the fact that there was a hostel I could stay in for 15$ (instead of the 45$ I paid for the motel and was complaining bitterly about). I wonder why the Greyhound guy didn't tell me about it...
After I told him what I was doing in Santa Fe and that I was looking for a way to get out to the park on Tuesday gave his phone number and told me that if I didn't find a better ride, he'll be happy to drive me up there- since his sister lives not far from the park.
I didn't end up using the offer, but when I tried calling him to thank him anyway- the number was out of service. Weired. I do thank him for the offer anyway.
I got to the library and left a very general E-mail for Dale (the ranger I am working under), saying that I was in town and asking if he wanted me to come in early since I'm already here. Also tried calling him- but only got the voicemail.
Since there was nothing else to do I headed towards the hostel. I had a quiet day in mind, a shower and some reading, walking around at night and getting to know the town.

The hostel turned out to be a cool spot. Nice and friendly people, big kitchen and pretty well stocked, and a bus stop right in front.
After dropping off my backpack and relaxing for a while I started talking to Karen from Denmark. She's been in town for over a week and got a job in a small french style cafe'. She had traveled the US with a friend and wanted to stick around in one place for a while. She offered to show me around Santa Fe, and I promised to cook dinner in return. I grabbed my Camera and we went out to the bus stop. After waiting for the bus for a while, and missing it because Karen had to run back in (Nature called at the wrong time, I guess), and catching the next bus we landed in the Plaza in the middle of Santa Fe.
It's a pretty neat town. It's all very touristy and fixed up, but it's fixed up to look like what it might have looked like, if that makes any sense.

A lot of Jewelry stores, selling "authentic" Indian craft, a few fancy cafes and bars and a couple of really impressive churches. The churches date back to the Spanish influence in this region.
As we were walking around we stumbled upon this police car, and Karen couldn't resist but to go over and ask the cop where he would sit someone he arrested. He told her they have to call another car to come and get the suspect.

Karen also showed me the Gallery area of town. A lot of artists work in Santa Fe and the town has a whole bunch a galleries. Only problem was it was getting late and they were all closed. Some of them do have some artwork outside, though.


Just when Karen said- "well, that's pretty much all there is to show around here" it started raining. At first it was kind of a drizzle, so we kept on walking towards the grocery store (we had thoughts about stir fried chicken), but suddenly it turned into a full out thunder storm, with heavy drops and lightning and all. Apparently this is the monsoon season in New Mexico.

The storm lasted about half an hour, and then the sun came out again. This pattern repeated itself three days in a row. It would be pretty hot and dry all day, at around 5-6 pm, it would rain for about half an hour and a nice warm evening would ease itself in. I could get used to that.
All that was necessary was the rainbow, and since we were both getting pretty hungry- the stirfried chicken.

Got to the grocery store, bought the chicken. Went back to the hostel and cooked. Dinner was served and leftovers were kept.

An English opening

Well , just a quick run of things-

Flew to London. Noisy ElAl flight, but not too bad. Got to Charley and Steve's place and had a good night sleep. Woke up the next day and took the underground into the City. Did a bit of walking along the river (Thames) and visited an old Power plant that was turned into an art Museum- Pretty cool. Went down to Covent Garden, grabbed a sandwich and sat down to watch a really bad street performer. Then took a boat...

Wait a minute, the bad street performer is worth another sentence or two. This guy was soooo bad it was almost addictive. Imagine a French madman with a really bad accent getting tied up in a strait jacket and chains while screaming and moaning in mid ecstasy. The preparation for what we were constantly informed was going to be an AMAZING escape act, lasted for 20 minutes, during which, the two poor teenagers the madman had selected from the horrified audience to tie him up, were attempting the complicated maneuver of holding the chain in one hand, hiding there faces in shame with the other, and following the ridiculous instructions of the madman which included sentences like "get it tight between my legs". A man in a straight jacket trying to point, literally point, where he wants the guys holding the chains to go, belongs in a straight jacket, I always say. One of the guys had a look on his face of "I hope none of my friends will walk by" and the other simply had a frown that read- "Am I the only one that thinks this guy just likes to be tied by young boys?".

As horrific as the whole scene was, Charley and I found ourselves not able walk away and kept saying to each other- "this couldn't be real, he's faking the bad act to create the atmosphere for some amazing trick. Just a couple more seconds... here we go..."
Well, he didn't do anything notable except for a whole new batch of sexually implying moans and screams. If you really must know- yes, he escaped. None of us did.

The guy after him was alright- walking a slack-rope and juggling "The swords of destiny", but he didn't leave as much of an impression.
Walking the streets London, for someone that is used to driving on the right ("right" as in "correct", not just as the opposite of "left") side of the road, has it's dangers. You either get hit by a car or you sprain your neck from frantically looking from side to side whenever you reach a crossing. Good thing I had Charley with me to stop me from stepping in front of moving traffic, even though I think that by the end of the day some of my cross-walk paranoia rubbed off to her and she started shaking her head too at every cross walk.

We took a boat up the Thames, all the way to Greenwich. Good way to chill out on a day with good weather in London. We climbed up the hill, and behind the "Royal observatory" we found a mysteriously large bronze cone with a window cut at the top. "The largest single-piece bronze structure in the world"- or so said the sign. We were both very impressed, but had no idea what purpose it serves. I don't remember which of us suggested that it could be used to break the world record for largest number of men peeing on the same single-piece bronze structure. You could even put it on a sign.
Got home, had a quick bite and went out for some drinks at a lovely bar on the water.
Indian Food for dinner and a good night sleep.
Next Morning Charley put me on the train and away I went.
Great couple of days!
Oh, and Charley, Thanks for the great weather.