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Published: October 13th 2009
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So here i am back in Flagstaff after another fun filled week at the Wupatki. Much better overall experience there this week but at the same time i'm glad i am going somewhere different next time around. Most of the crew members were the same and we had the same supervisor so not many new faces or names to get used to and i felt as though the time at camp was a lot better than last week.
Day one had the usual early start: wake up at 6, have breakfast and head off to Cedar house to load up the van and then an hours journey to the camp site at Wupatki. This week we set up camp as soon as we arrived which meant starting and finishing work later but allowed us to get on with cooking as soon as the day's work was finished. Nothing too exciting in terms of the work on the first day, just de-fencing, taking down the old fence ready for the new stuff to be put into place over the rest of the week.
More of the same on the morning of day two except this time in the rain,
which was a first for me at Wupatki. The work was easy enough if a little boring so i was glad to be called to be called over to help with the new fence. This involved stretching wire between the T-posts i helped put in place last week. By the end of the day the was another 1/4 mile of new fencing completed.
Bit of a mixed bag of jobs on day three. I started out by digging the holes for a new A-brace, a feature of the fence that combats the downwards pull exerted on the wire in steep areas. This took up half the morning before i was sent back over to the new section of the fence to clip the new wire to the T-posts. In the afternoon me and 4 others had to take over hauling duties from the crew that had been carrying all week upto that point. Thankfully there was a new access point at the other end of the fence line so not only was the hike in shorter, it was also far less treacherous than the route everyone had been using the week before. Another good night of banter back
at camp and i was again on cooking duties, 3 out of 6 nights and no one has complained so far!
Day four and things were very different from the last day of project last week. Two people from each crew were assigned to clean out the food containers and utensils, sort the food to determine what has to be thrown away and what could be used for another project and do the check list to make sure the cook set was all still there. I started the day by doing this but it seems as though last day syndrome set in for some people because we were pulled out of the cleaning to go do some more hauling cement bags and rolls of barbed wire, tiring stuff indeed but the morning went quickly and then it was time to head home. Before the usual meal out, this time with less people and to a Mexican restaurant in town, i had time to check the project schedule for next week and was very happy to have been placed on grand canyon north rim parashant historic preservation. No idea what this involves, but its in a new location with
new crew members and an 8 day project so all change which can't be bad.
The project is Wednesday-Wednesday which means i had more days off after getting back from Wupatki on Friday. Me and some lads from the apartments made the most of our time off on Sunday by hiring a car for the day and heading south to spend the day in the stunning area around Sedona. Lots of laughs and lots of amazing pictures as well as hiking about 8 miles in total before coming back to Flagstaff. Not sure what we are doing after this coming project but with 6 days off we have the time to go further afield and for longer. So all in all a very exciting few weeks coming up and of course one unanswered question on everyone's mind out here: How big
is a large?
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David Kemp
non-member comment
Wow
Looking good son! Its so cold now we are back in the UK, mother has put the heating on!!