(no subject)
North:
So, on Friday, I waited until noon (just in case EAGLE member and potential driving companion Isaiah showed up) before beginning my trek northwards. I drove and drove and drove, and amazingly, after gassing up just once, I was in San Francisco! After crossing the bay bridge, I was unfortunately in the wrong lane, ended up going south on the 101, and took a much more roundabout route to my sister’s place, but still arrived only shortly after my predicted arrival time of 7pm. We ate at a vegetarian Chinese place called Shangri-la, and then my sister opened her birthday presents, and we all went to bed.
On Saturday, I took my sister (Christina) to see Point Reyes National Seashore (where I once worked, which is just north of San Francisco, and which my sister had never been to, after almost 2 years of living in the city. Her husband just started a job at Office Max, and needed to work that day. We drove up along the coast, admiring the scenic vistas, and pointing out the invasive plants along the way. In the park, my sister saw her first lighthouse up close (my third, I think), saw where I once lived, viewed Tule Elk from quite close, and took lots of pictures. We also got pastries from the bovine bakery in Point Reyes Station. As we were driving out, we picked up a hitchhiker. I don’t remember her name, but she’s driven several people into the park, but was running out of gas, so they parked well before their destination, and headed out on foot, thinking that their destination, pierce point was only a mile or two further down the road. She got to pierce point ranch (beginning of a 3+ mile hike) with her group after hiking what must have been about 7 miles from her car. Needless to say, she was tired and wanted to get the car taken care of before it got dark. Shortly after turning back, we picked her up, and drove her back to her car, gave directions to the nearest gas station (~40 minutes away in Point Reyes Station), and followed her there to make sure she didn’t empty out before she made it. We came back, almost got lost driving to the 101, hit traffic, and were still only about 20 minutes late picking up Scott (her husband) from work. That night, we ate left overs, played scrabble (I won, amazingly!), ordered pizza at 11pm, and went to sleep after eating.
Sunday morning, I woke up before everyone else, and, not quite knowing what to do with myself, packed, and did all the dishes from the previous days that had piled in the sink. The dish cleaning made just enough unidentifiable noise that my sister got up to investigate (she had suspicions that I might be frying eggs, and was hungry). We talked for awhile about things, and our voices wakened Scott. We talked, and they showed me the computer games they are currently addicted to (it’s one of the things they do together), and then I needed to leave. I continued northwards from the 101 to the 80 to the 505 (?) to the 5, and after gassing up just once in Palo Cedro, I was in Redding. My sister had given me a book to read, and I stopped at a subway for a late lunch (~3pm) and attempted to read. Between the other customers and the country music blaring away, I was entirely unable to get into it, so I continued on. I hung out at the park (Whiskeytown National Recreation Area; http://www.nps.gov/whis/) for many hours, driving to several places that I remembered, and got a good look around, and then once night fell, drove back to the visitor center parking lot, and went to sleep.
The next morning (Monday), I started work at 7am. We (My coworker, Pam, and I) were almost immediately checked into our new housing (not far from the Carr Powerhouse; Pam wasn’t impressed with the housing, for some reason, and will be looking for a place in town), and hour or two later started work proper. We were immediately tasked to supervise a CCC (California Conservation Corps; http://www.ccc.ca.gov/) crew doing exotic removal. It was complicated not only by the fact that there were two species (Black Mustard and Yellow Star Thistle) being treated with two very different herbicides (Roundup and Milestone), but in addition to foliar spraying, they were also weed whacking the plants, to be later stump sprayed. On top of this, Pam is relatively new to invasive plant work, didn’t know the species well, and spent much of the time tasked to taking pictures. I taught Pam to mix herbicides (there is some method to it), and now she’s a pro. Somehow, everything worked out, and the job was done. It was a Very long and chaotic first day.
Note: we also had an absent third roommate (Katie), who illegally has a very much not-absent cat. I like cats, and this one especially.
Tuesday: I got up, made a peanut butter sandwich, and promptly lost it somehow. During the day, I found and lost that sandwich three times, and, since it was lost until well after lunch time, I didn’t end up eating it that day. We worked with the CCC folks down at the NEED camp, which is absolutely equivalent to whatever camp you went to in 6th grade. The Need camp is right along lower clear creek, which WAS heavily infested with Scotch Broom. Using foliar (2%) and cut-stump (20%) concentrations of Garlon 4, we completely cleared out two Scotch Broom sites, as well as a number of Mullein/Bull Thistle sites along the Need Camp road. The very first site was expected to take at least a day and a half, and we finished it and much much more with time to spare. When we got back to the office, we mixed more herbicide for Wednesday, got our housing and employment paperwork (mostly) filled out, and met our roommate (while still at work). Katie is a Fire Archeologist, who scouts out places before burns and looks for signs of anything of archeological interest (since a burn can destroy artifacts, as well as make dating very difficult). Incidentally, Katie was also in San Francisco (with her parents from Illinois) while I was there…. Small world, sorta. Tomorrow is the last day that the kitty, named O’Reilly, will be living with up. She’s going to a new home, in Chico, to live with one of Katie’s friends.
Wednesday consisted of working with the CCC crew along old 299 (the part that is not under the lake). We treated a very large patch of French broom, that extended from the lake’s edge, up a hillside, through an old burn area, and into thick manzanita brambles. There was poison oak everywhere, but I think I mostly managed to avoid it. As usual, my job included scouting the area, and ensuring that all the plants get hit. We worked there until ~ 1pm, and then went to a 299 turnoff. We then broke into two groups, with a few people doing Mullein removal along the reservoir bank while I worked with the ones using powertools to remove Himalayan Blackberry from around a native Walnut tree, and to better open up the access road. The CCC kids (they are adults, really) kind of scare me when wielding chainsaws; they actually cut decently enough, but they completely ignore safety precautions! They don’t use their chain breaks, and leave the saw running while they walk, they don’t even wear gloves when sawing! I think it’s insane.
O’reilly is gone, and the house feels emptier without her. It’s important to have a companion…
Thursday went smoothly enough; while surveying around Old 299 yesterday, we found a big patch of broom which today we spent several hours eradicating. The site was crazy thick with dead (and living) manzanita, so we needed to carve paths through the site in order to treat it. It’s hard to believe how different the site looks now. There was an amazing amount of Poison Oak, and I know I was in contact with it. I tecnued, but I’m still not confidant that I’ll avoid great itching this time around… I already have a touch of PO emerging on my leg…
Anyways, we went to another site afterwards, called funderberg (sp?) flat, which Is a staging area for the maintenance guys, and which, being terribly disturbed, is covered with weeds. We flattened everything, and at lunchtime, the C’s left us for good. I rather enjoyed working with them. I can see their absence leading to ma major change in group dynamics, since now all our attention (aside from killing those pesky invasives) will be turned upon each other. We’ll see what happens.
Continuing, once they were gone, we hiked down to a known patch of star thistle nearby to check things out, and then went back to the office. While Rob uploaded data, Pam and I reorganized our equipment, mixed herbicide, and got a leaky sprayer working again. At the end of the day, we got free cake, because one of the fire guys was having a birthday. It was a good way to end the day. Every day should end with cake.
On Friday, we did relatively little; we signed onto our computers with out new gov’m’nt usernames, uploaded photos, completed timesheets, went over wims data collection protocol, and then took some assessment points out in the field. We also collected, GPSed and took pictures of a rare sedge that Rob found in the field. In the morning Pam had moved out of park housing, and since Katie is in Florida (and the cat now lives in Chico), I have the house to myself. It’s kindof nice, but also a bit lonely; While I do need my space, and tend to interact with others less than is the norm, I do like having people around…
Above: view out my front portch.