Obisidan Knife

I've wanted to make a knife or spear point for a long time. Until a couple days ago I never made a point longer than a few inches. The first problem was to get a long enough piece of rock to work with. I started by knocking a long thin spall off a roundish nodule. From there I knocked piece after piece off making very few mistakes for once. I took a few pictures on the way to the finished product because I was afraid I would mess it up.

I switched to pressure flaking a little sooner than I should have. I could control the accuracy of the flakes I pushed off so much easier than when striking the rock. The problem is that the flakes I took off weren't as long and thick as when striking. I was too afraid to ruin the piece with a misplaced strike though so I picked up the ishi stick. The consequence was a thicker, duller blade than I hoped for. Near the tip it's probably a 2/1 or 3/1 width to thickness ratio. That makes it good for stabbing things but not so good for slicing. By the way, I don't plan to do either with this guy so don't worry. The finished point ended up being about 4 1/2 inches long.



After finishing the point, I selected an antler from my stash. I sawed of the tines at a nice wide spot. I put the antler in boiling water to soften up the inside of the antler. After taking it out it was pretty easy to scrape out the inside with some metal tools. I also filed down a groove in the sides since the rock was wider than the antler. When fitted together the blade fit about 1 1/4 inches into the antler handle. Ideally it would've been a little deeper into the handle, but I was satisfied with it.



After whipping up a batch of pitch as I discussed in my last post, I poured it into the antler handle. At the same time I heated up the blade over the Jesus candle so that the knife would have holy powers. I then jammed the blade into the handle.

As the pitch overflowed I molded it around all sides of the blade and handle. As the pitch cooled it became very easy to mold. Below is a close up of the finished product showing the black pitch.



The picture below shows you the overall size of the knife. The blade is now approximately 3 inches long. The blade feels very secure inside the handle.

Pitch - "Survival Epoxy"

Last November when doing trail work in the lower Sierra Nevada's I happened upon a tree that was gushing out sap. The picture below shows just a portion of the sap that was running. I took the opportunity to collect as much as I could. After finishing with this tree I found a few more trees that had pretty good quantities. I suspect the dry air in the region leads to more limbs cracking then most places.



I collected the sap to make pitch which can be used for many projects. Anytime you need to adhere one object to another, pitch can be used. I hadn't had a need for it until today when I hafted an obsidian blade into a deer antler handle. That will be the topic of my next post. To make pitch you mix equal parts sap and a hardening agent. Charcoal, white ash and powdered egg or mollusk shells are examples of hardening agents. I chose to use charcoal from the remains of my pottery fire.

First I rigged up a contraption to melt down the sap. The bottom of a beverage can rests on two wood blocks sitting over a candle. I put tape on the wood so the can wouldn't slip around. The small candle provided plenty of heat to soften up the sap.



Next I added a small amount of hard sap to the can.



After a few minutes it melted into a viscous liquid. I pulled out as much debris as I could to make it more pure. The more junk in there the more crumbly the final product will be.



Meanwhile I used a nice ergonomic grinding stone I found on another trip to powder up charcoal.



Then I mixed an equal amount of charcoal powder into the liquid sap.



Finally, after using it on my obsidian knife which I'll discuss in my next post, I took the remaining pitch and molded it on a stick for later use. All that needs to be done next time is to hold the pitch stick over a flame for a second to turn it to liquid.

Primitive Pottery and Cooking

Back in late November my crew mate Rosy and I gathered clay from a canyon on one of our day hikes. The clay had washed down through the middle of the canyon. Clay particles, being lighter than sand and dirt, settled on top then dried and cracked. When we gathered it we simply brushed off sand from the bottom of the piece. No purification was necessary.

After gathering the dry clay we put it in a bucket and broke it up into small pieces. We then added water to liquefy it. The clay sat in the bucket (with lid on) until about 2 1/2 weeks ago when we finally decided to use it.

Pure clay pieces gathered from the canyon.


The first thing we needed to do was figure out how much temper material to put into the clay. We used sand from the yard as temper material. Temper is added to the clay to prevent shrinkage when drying and thermal shock when exposed to fire. To figure this out I experimented with different percentages of temper using instructions from practicalprimitive.com. In the picture below, the five disks in the upper left corner each have a different percentage of temper from 0%-40%. After air drying them for several days it turned out that they all seemed good. None cracked (too little temper) or crumbled (too much temper).

It wasn't as easy making pots as I hoped. The toughest part for me was adding new coils of clay to a pot and getting it to adhere without squeezing so much that I made the pot too thin. All the creations pictured have 0% temper (which is best for holding water) except the one at bottom center. It was about 20% tempered. My hope was to make it into a cooking vessel. Inside it are beads and a three-legged (one leg fell off) turtle pendant I made. At bottom left is a combination plate/pot lid that I cracked by accident during the drying phase. At top center is a pipe that Kevin made. At top right is Rosy's teapot. The bottom right pot Rosy made using another bowl as a mold.



I meant to add some designs to my creations by pressing leaves on them but I missed that part of the drying phase overnight. I used a spoon to burnish them the best I could which aligned the clay particles making it shiny and better for holding water. After a day of drying some of the pots had small cracks in them. I used leftover clay to patch up mine. It is recommended to dry pots at least a couple days and preferably two weeks. Knowing that the climate is so dry here we probably could have gotten away with 2 days if we wanted. Instead we waited till we got back from our next hitch giving them about two weeks to dry.

From everything I heard and read about firing pots I had the impression that the chances of pots cracking or blowing off chunks during firing was really good so I fully expected to walk away with nothing but the experience. On the firing day there was pretty gusty wind which was bad since sudden changes of temperature (thermal shock) cause cracking and shattering. To counteract this, we set up a wind block as seen in the pictures.

To start we set the pots by the fire to warm them up. Over the course of an hour we gradually moved them closer and rotated them. The goal was to drive out the remaining atmospheric moisture. Heating too fast can cause moisture in the pot to boil which causes shattering.



After the pots were warmed up and dried, we raked the fire out into a ring and put the pots in the middle where the fire had been. For the next three hours we gradually moved the ring of fire in closer until it was totally on top of the pots.

Here you can see how the pots changed color during firing.

I dropped a piece of glass in the fire to test the temperature. Supposedly if you can melt glass then it is hot enough for clay. Unfortunately it melted on a few of the pots. Near the end of the four hours we added a lot of small wood to spike the heat up. Then we let the fire die naturally.



The following day we checked the pots. To our satisfaction none had shattered. All of them had some amount of cracking which isn't surprising given they cracked during the air drying phase. Despite a few hairline cracks, my little cup held water. My cooking vessel dripped water from the bottom, but I was able to cook up a couple eggs in it. It appears the eggs plugged up the cracks too because it now holds water. Overall it was a great success.



While we waited for the fire to die we took the opportunity to cook some meat on the coals. No need for a grill, oven or pan. The coals flake right off.



I also experimented with cooking ash cakes. I mixed flour, cornmeal, raisins and sunflower seeds together with water to make patties. I threw them onto the white ash and a few minutes later they were ready to eat. For more information about how to make them check out the ash cakes article at practicalprimitive.com.

The Body Hollow

Every since reading Practical Primitive's article about the body hollow shelter, I've wanted to build one. Sitting in the backyard one day not long ago I gazed upon the large pile of tree branches given to us by our neighbor. Then I glanced at the yard composed of sand. The words "build a shelter" popped into my head.

In the desert of the southwest there are few trees. Those that are around don't have leaves suitable to build a shelter like the debris hut. So one way to make a shelter is to dig and make it underground. The body hollow is basically half underground and half above ground.

For excellent instructions on how to build one, go to the link in the first paragraph. It has a great series of pictures. I won't try to recreate that here, but I'll tell you my experience.

I used a shovel to dig out the trench. My neighbor thought I was digging a grave until I explained what I was doing. Since the soil was pretty soft and I didn't have to dig very deep, this didn't take too long. The trench is the length of my body.



I filled the trench about half full with debris (leaves, needles and other detritus), then laid sticks across the trench. After that I started adding more debris on top. I made a little A-frame at the entrance to make it easier to crawl into.



I scrounged around every corner of the property to find debris. I even crossed the street to a vacant property and stole a binful of leaves. I laid sticks on top to keep them from blowing away. In front of the entrance is a ball of pine needles to plug up the doorway after crawling in.



The shelter should really have another foot of debris on top of it but I just didn't have the resources for that without opening a leaf raking business. If I could have I would also have filled the inside up so that I'd have to burrow in. I tried to sleep in it two nights. Both nights I made it through about 3 hours before bailing. The first night it was 47 degrees when I crawled out. Inside the shelter I was a little cold, but I could have toughed it out if I had to. It was definitely warmer than 47. At least the bedding was comfortable to sleep on.

Since I don't plan to gather more debris, I'm going to wait till the weather gets warmer before I try again. I think I could do mid-50s. If I were to do it again I'd probably try to lower the roof over my legs to make less air space for my body to have to heat up.

Spring Time in the Mojave

How lucky I am to be interning in the Mojave this year. Weeks ago I heard that do to the relatively copious amount of rain this winter that the flower bloom should be the greatest in 5 or more years. My crew and I got to experience the bloom for 5 days of hiking last week. I took pictures of many of the 30-40 flower species I saw.

Hairy Sand Verbena


A type of Phacelia


Various flowers including a few types of primrose and Hairy Sand Verbena


Desert Dandelion


Yellow Cups


Purple Mat and Cooper Goldflower



On one of our hikes I came across these awesomely huge yucca plants that I'd never seen before.

Giant Nolina (approximately 12 feet tall)


Giant Nolina



The hibernating creatures have also started to emerge from hiding. I also almost stepped on a snake while hiking. He was out sunning himself and didn't notice me. It wasn't a rattlesnake thankfully. It was just a little guy that I haven't identified. It's definitely an exciting time in the desert!

Hitch #10: Pacific Crest Trail Monitoring

For our 10th hitch my crew was tasked with monitoring/inventorying the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). We split into two teams to cut the amount of trail to monitor into two 47 miles sections. Rosy and I volunteered for the southern section which was supposed to be tougher because of the lack of water sources, the heat and the numerous OHV (off-highway vehicle) intrusions on the trail. That left Miz, Monika and Kevin for the northern section. The plan was to meet at a spring in between the two starting points in 5 days.

A map I made of Rosy's and my trip using the GPS data we collected. I plotted the OHV intrusions (yellow dots) to give you and idea of how bad a problem it is.


Our packs were heavy because we had to carry water for two and a half days for drinking and cooking. Our first guaranteed water was 22 miles from the start. Adding more weight was the extra gear we had to take to perform the monitoring including the GPS device with extra batteries and charging equipment, a heavy two way radio and a thick pack of paper to take notes on. To add even more weight we had to carry a sizable first aid kit and water filter. Our saving grace was that after 32 miles we crossed a major highway where we left our truck with half our water, food and gear. The other crew had to carry everything from the start although they split gear between three people and didn't have to carry as much water since there were more water sources.

The first day we met at the field office and talked with the BLM folk about the mission. After all the discussion, planning and driving we made it to the trailhead at about 2:30pm. We got in about 5 miles that afternoon which was nice because that day didn't count towards our 5 days. We realized that night that neither of us knew how to work our stove very well. Either that or the pump was broken. We never got it to work during the trip. We opted to make a small cooking fire instead which worked well. We also realized that our radio didn't work so we wouldn't be able to communicate for our 6pm check-in with the other team.

The next day we headed from the valley into the hills. It wasn't long before we were stopping every 50-100 meters to collect data on an OHV intrusion. You can see in the map above the mass of yellow dots between the first two camp sites. It was really ridiculous how many there were. If we were really to mark every one we would have stopped even more frequently.

Dirtbikers tearing up a whole new area! They are considered the greatest threat to the Desert if not all wilderness areas in the US.


It was often a challenge to stay on the PCT because OHVers had made it indistinguishable from their trails in many places. We came to a small hill that had a route on either side and one going straight over. Since there was no route marker we choose the right path which ended up being the wrong route. After awhile we discovered this and found our way back to the trail.

Also in this area there were many trail washouts. The trail was completely gone due to erosion. Most washouts occurred in a sandy section where it is nearly impossible to maintain a trail. It was not easy walking through these with heavy packs.

One of the 23 washouts we hiked through and documented. The whole trail is sloped with no horizontal surface to walk on and in the middle you can't even see signs of a trail anymore.


Near the end of the day we approached a higher elevation (>5000 ft) area and came across our first snow. Since we got to it late in the day it was soft and we sunk in most steps we took.

Rosy knee deep


Fortunately, we were able to find a pretty nice clearing to set up camp. As we were running low on water we improvised and melted snow for our cooking water and a little to drink as well.

Night 2 camp site


The following day we started out in the higher elevation pine forest with hopes that we'd seen the last of the OHV intrusions. At this point we had entered the radius of the burn area from the August 07 fire. Unfortunately the OHV intrusions didn't cease. As it turns out OHVers like to destroy forests as well as deserts!

Many OHV intrusions and burned up signs combined for a very hard to find trail. At one point we found ourselves at a dead end looking down a very steep slope and we knew at that point we weren't on the trail anymore. We looked out into the distance and saw that the trail was actually about 300 meters away on the next ridge. We decided to stop taking line data at that point until we were back on the trail. In the map above you can see the break in the red line between night 2 and 3.

In the afternoon we descended out of the mountains and into an extremely windy valley where there were hundreds of wind turbines. Here we arrived at our first water source. Originally we had planned to camp there but we got there early and since it was cold and windy, sitting around camp wouldn't be fun. We hiked on into the wind. It was about 4pm although the cloud cover made it seem like dusk when we found a refuge from the wind. We camped in a perfect ditch/wash with a large thicket for a wind block and firewood.

The morning we had a short 5 mile hike to highway 58 where our vehicle was stashed. Unfortunately our GPS battery died so didn't get data for that stretch. We made it to the truck before 10 AM and gorged ourselves on extra food we had stashed there. Since we only had 16 more miles to the rendezvous point and two days to get there we decided to take the rest of the day off. We spent the night at a county park in the mountains where we had a hell of a time starting a fire. The wood was so damp from the snow melt that it took us three tries to get one going even with the stove gas. Even then we had to constantly fan it to keep it going. Thankfully we only needed to bring water to a boil for the meal we ate.

The next morning we drove back to 58 and started the last leg of our journey. After a 1 mile flat section the next 6 miles were uphill. Eventually the trail leveled off as we hiked along a ridge. At one point on the trail we came across some interesting tracks. They were about 3 inches long and wide. I saw no claw marks present so I determined that they were Mountain Lion tracks. I didn't take the time to take a really good picture, but maybe you can see a track in the picture below.

A Mountain Lion track?


The next day we hiked 5 miles to the rendezvous point arriving early at about 10 AM. The original plan was for us all to hike 16 miles back to our vehicle at 58 the following morning. We arrived early hoping that the other team would be there too so we could knock off some miles making the final day less than 16 miles.

When we got to the meeting point it was a relief to see their camp set up. After all we hadn't communicated with them as planned for 5 days since our radio didn't work. They were however no where to be found. We sat around all day waiting for them. We were a little upset that they blew our chance to cut our 16 mile day down to 10 or 12.

When they finally came back we heard their interesting story. It turns out that 20 miles into their trip they were in such deep snow that they routinely lost the trail and had wet, cold feet all day. The final straw was when they woke up and there boots and socks were frozen stiff. They had to start a fire to thaw them out. They bailed on the assignment and hitchhiked to their truck. The beautiful part was that their truck was parked a quarter mile up the road from the rendezvous point so we didn't have to hike the 16 miles to our truck at all.

We drove out and I ate 4 Arby's roast beef sandwiches.

The End

My Cunning* Moccasins

I finished my new pair of moccasins yesterday. They feel great. They feel like thick socks in a way. I customized them to my feet. There's no need to break them in! Three of my crew mates are still working on theirs. We pooled money to buy the materials so we could get a better deal. The materials cost about $25 but there is lots of extra material left over.

I based my pattern on the second one on this webpage: NativeTech. Each moccasin comprises four pieces of leather plus one leather lace. I used buffalo leather for the sole which is about twice as thick as the golden colored deer leather that makes up the rest (upper, cuff, tongue).



Thick buffalo leather for the sole makes the moccasin more durable and comfortable especially in the desert where there exist more prickily plants. Since it is less flexible and more expensive than deer leather I didn't use if for the whole moccasin.

I purposely made the sole piece wrap up off the ground both to protect my feet, but more importantly to protect the stitching. I hope the stitching will last longer since it shouldn't be touching the ground much. The thread is actually artificial thread used for making bowstring so I'm not too worried about it. Another advantage of this design is that when the sole wears out I can replace it without having to make a whole new pair of mocassins. I already cut up a back up pair of soles for this purpose.

As shown in the pattern on the NativeTech page, the edge of the upper piece is folded over before it is stitched to the sole. The thread goes through the upper piece twice before attaching to the sole. This makes for a sturdier connection. In the picture below you can see this.

This picture makes it look like I have a clown shoe on.


For the lacing, I cut a long thin strip of leather. I chose to have the mocassins lace up like shoes. The lace zig-zags through the tongue piece and pulls the cuff piece tight. I like this style because no lacing has to wrap around the back of my heel or leg. My first pair of mocassins had a lacing that wrapped around my achiles tendon which was awkward for movement.

While I'm not thrilled about the golden yellow color (I was hoping it would be colored more like the sole), I am pleased with the design, fit and comfort. I plan to try them out in the field soon.

*Inside joke: When playing our homemade game of Apples to Apples, my green card was "cunning" to which "moccasins" was my best option.

Hitch #8: North Algodones Dunes

The work we did on this hitch was water monitoring again so I wasn't going to post about it, but it was kinda awesome because we spent one day in sand dunes.

It was one of my favorite days of hiking because the weather was warm enough to go shirtless and shoeless. The sand felt so nice on my feet. Another cool thing about the dunes is how easy it is to track animals there. One rabbit we spooked left a pretty amazing trail with a distance of 10 feet or more between one set of tracks. The most common things we saw were beetles that left a trail that looked like a bicycle track.



Rosy and I spent a lot of time playing around in the dunes. Some were 25 feet or more tall. I liked to jump off them knowing that I'd have a soft landing.



It was cool to finally experience the type of ecosystem so often thought of when the word "desert" comes to mind.

Calling the rain

Today I hope to finish my new moccassins which I will post about next.

Activities Since December

It's been awhile since my last post. I've been on two more hitches since then and tomorrow I will start my next one near Yuma, CA. I also got to spend two full weeks back in Muncie, IN for winter break. While there I got to do some bow shooting with my brother, cousin and her husband. We found an old basketball and used it to do moving target shooting. It was fun.

While there I also continued tanning the deer hide I started back in March of last year. After saturating the skin in egg yolk for a day I began to dry it. First I rang it out to get as much moisture out as possible. In the picture below I'm stretching the skin as it dries out.

Stretching the skin



The skin has to be stretched until it is completely dry so that it does not become stiff. To speed the drying process I used a fan to blow hot air from the space heater onto the skin.

The skin ended up drying too fast and became stiff in parts. I bagged it up and took it back to California. While back here in California I soaked the skin and did the drying and stretching process again. This time the skin was mostly softer but still somewhat stiff in areas.

I haven't decided if I will soak and dry it for a third time or just smoke it.

The skin starting to dry


A bunch of the SCA folks spent a day and night in Joshua Tree National Park last week. We had a good time rock climbing. Below is a montage of one of the cooler boulders I climbed. The following day a few of us drove and hiked to a hot spring in the San Bernadino National Forest. It was beautiful soaking in a natural hot tub in the desert next to a creek.

Climbing montage


I've started working on a few other projects I hope to post about in the future. For one project Rosy and I collected clay and hope to fire some pots in our backyard. Four of us are also going to make moccasins soon. We received a nice piece of buffalo skin in the mail today for the soles.

Hitch #4: Santa Rosa Mountains

For our 4th hitch our goal was to locate and document natural water sources in the Santa Rosa Mountains. We were given aerial maps with approximate spring locations marked on them. In addition our GPS device had those approximate locations loaded in the navigation feature. Basically each day we walked up a different canyon using our GPS device to locate one or more possible water sources.

In each case finding the spot marked in the GPS device meant leaving the relatively easy terrain of the canyon and path finding up the canyon walls. Some situations were more difficult than others. Our first canyon was pretty rough. After hiking up the canyon about 3 miles our teams split into two groups so we could attempt to document groups of water sources in two different areas.

The farther group of water sources was another 3+ miles away and it was already past noon so we knew fading sunlight was going to be a problem. We decided that Kevin and Rosy would jog to the water sources with minimal supplies and I would following up at a slower pace with extra gear.

They jogged off with one liter of water, the GPS unit, a layer of warm clothes and few emergency supplies. I followed with all my stuff and extra water. Our plan was for them to mark where they left the canyon floor. Using that point I would then attempt to intercept them on their return from the water sources.

It was fun for me to track them through hard packed sand of the canyon floor. Unfortunately I was concentrating on it so hard that I missed their sign. To complicate things I found tracks that kept going that must have been someone else's. I followed those tracks until I lost those as well.

After wandering around a little I realized how inadequate the aerial map was in my situation. I pretty much had no idea how I would intercept them. I headed back to where we left their packs to meet them. I waited for about three hours as the sun went down and it got cold. I was pretty worried because I thought they should be back sooner and I knew they didn't have much water.

I finally started walking back up the canyon to see if I could find them. After 30 minutes of walking I saw their headlamps rounding the bend. It was a relief, but it wasn't over because we still had 3 miles to walk in the dark. It was a long day but we made it back safely.

That was our most intense day by far. The rest of the hitch was interesting as well. Kevin and Miz both had to leave the field with injuries after the second night so Rosy, Monika and I hiked the rest of the canyons with help from a BLM employee one of the days.

Left to right: Rosy, me, Monika


Climbing a dry waterfall in search of water.


It rained all day for one of our hikes. Luckily it wasn't too cold because each of us got wet, despite having waterproof gear on. We hiked into a canyon as far as we could go and came across a pretty cool oasis. There was no standing water despite the lushness.


Faulty waterproof jacket


Tomorrow we leave to do more water monitoring near Needles. It actually snowed at my house today. I didn't know that could happen in the desert. Hopefully we don't get rain on this trip... or snow!

Baskets Galore

In my free time during the last month I've been working on three different types of basket. It's been especially enjoyable to work on them because I've been teaching Rosy how to make them and we've been working together.

In gathering the material I've been very opportunistic. Some of the material I brought home from hitches we've worked on. Others I've gathered in town. Since almost all the material is from live plants, I've also had the opportunity to practice caretaking. I try not to take the best piece, but the one that being removed, makes the environment better.

The first basket of the three I contructed from pine needles. It's my first pine needle basket. I gathered the needles from the Northern Red Pine tree in my front yard. The basket consists of a coil of pine needles bundled together with thread. I suppose if I wanted the basket to be composed completely of primitive material I could have used yucca fibers instead of thread. These pine needles were very dry and brittle so I had to use green needles at the start where more bending was required.

The basket before I started taking the coil vertical

I wove together the second basket from yucca leaves that we cut during our second hitch. The leaves pointed out over the trail and needed to be trimmed back. Since we only cut them back as far as needed, the longest pieces were only about 18 inches long. We had a lot of them though so I played around and came up with this small basket in about an hour. It is my first woven basket. This type of yucca is very dry, thin and stiff and not ideal for basketry or cordage even after soaking in water.

My last basket is a melon basket. This is the third I've made of this style. The material for this one came from many species and locations. The wood rings comprising the handle and rim are scrub oak from hitch two. The darker colored yucca near the sides of the basket is the same as in the basket above. One wooden spoke is from an unknown tree in my back yard and the other came from sycamore gathered on a hike in Riverside, CA. The roots making up the God's Eye lashing on the sides were pulled during hitch three. Finally the yucca making up the middle of the basket came from the hills by home. I'm pleased with the basket's balance. It sits without leaning like my previous baskets of this style.

Here you can see the God's Eye lashing.

Hitch #3: Piedras Blancas Lighthouse

It would be hard to find back to back hitches that could be as opposite as these last two.

Hitch 2
Elevation: 5000 ft.
Climate: dry, desert
Work: strenuous - hauling heavy rocks
Accommodations: tent/sleeping bag

Hitch 3
Elevation: sea level
Climate: humid, ocean
Work: easy - pulling plants/roots, raking dirt
Accommodations: beach house with the first bed I've slept in in two months

Fortunately, our location for hitch three had equally as beautiful scenery as hitch two. After all we stayed in a beach house on a peninsula with a lighthouse. How many houses have you stayed in where walking out both the front and back door gives you a view of the ocean? Have you ever had elephant seals living on the beach 40 yards from your bedroom window? It was awesome.

On top of Piedras Blancas lighthouse looking north.


The lighthouse and surrounding area is currently undergoing restoration to become a historical site open for the public. For a history about the site including invasive plant removal and native plant restoration check out this BLM site. Our job was to create parts of a developed trail accessible to wheel chairs. This basically means that the trail can only be so steep and required flat rest areas.

Our work was made easier because Jim, the caretaker and lighthouse keeper, already marked out the trail for us. We also had the use of mechanized vehicles to get and spread the decomposed granite as well as level the trail.

We ate good meals and watched a movie each night. It was pretty cushy. Next hitch we'll be backpacking again in the Santa Rosa mountains where it might snow. Yikes!

Piedras Blancas lighthouse viewed from the coast (I enhanced the purple sky using software)


One of the Piedras Blancas ("white rocks") at the tip of the peninsula. It is typically covered with hundreds of pelicans and other birds as well as seals and sea otters.


This is a portion of the trail we worked on. It was covered in the woolly yarrow plant you see on each side. In the distance is the house we stayed in.


Young elephant seals on the beach close to the house. The adults that are closer to 14-16 ft. long won't be around till December.

Hitch #2: Walker Pass

My crew and I worked on our second and third hitches without returning home in between which explains why I haven't posted in so long. Our second hitch lasted 8 days. It was our first backpacking trip. Luckily we had mule packers haul in water, food and other tools. We still had to pack in some tools as you can see in the picture below.

Here we unleashed our war cry as we began our 5 mile hike up to base camp. The rock bar I'm brandishing like King Leonidas of Sparta weighed over 10 lbs.


We set up a base camp where we were given special permission to have a fire. This was very nice because the nights were cold, windy and dark by 6pm or so. The fire gave us the ability to stay up till 8pm or later instead heading to the tent early. One night we even made S'mores for Kevin's birthday.

A lady named Suzanne (green hat) who volunteers on the PCT came and helped us for a few days.


Our project was to repair sections of the Pacific Crest Trail. Many volunteers help repair and maintain the trail during the year, but we were given this particular section because of the terrain. It is simply a cliff in many parts and difficult to work on. Many parts of the trail were eroding and collapsing and needed a rock wall for support.

To build a rock retaining wall we first dug out the trail until we had a solid platform to lay a foundation of large rocks. The ideal situation is when the platform is solid stone, but half the time we had to just make a platform out of the soil and hope that it would stand up to erosion.

All the stones we used were gathered from the immediate area along the trail, uphill or even downhill. As you can imagine it wasn't easy to find many large, rectangular shaped stones and then move them to the site. Each stone we laid had to fit snugly with no wobbling next to or on top of other stones since we were not using any kind of mortar.

After building up a wall we filled the trail side in with smaller crushed rocks. Then we piled the dirt back on the trail to finish it off.

Rosy, Miz and I worked on two projects. The before and after pictures are shown below.



This project took the three of us five days to complete. It is a 7 meter stretch of trail. What a relief it was to finish that sucka!



One of the best parts of the day for me was lunch time. We were privileged to have a beautiful view the whole time we were working, but during lunch I had time to relax and enjoy it.

In the valley in the distance is the town of Ridgecrest where two other crews are stationed.

Hitch #1: Surprise Canyon Monitoring and Chris Wicht Camp Cleanup

Sunday we returned from our first hitch. We were located in Panamint Valley with the lower half of Death Valley National Park to the north and east and China Lake Naval Weapons Center to the south and west. I actually got a picture of some kind of fighter jet flying by very low to the ground.

We camped in the valley and the weather was amazing. While sunny during the day, we spent most of our day time at higher elevation in Surprise Canyon where it was cooler. At night it was warm enough to sleep with my bag unzipped. Two out of four nights I awoke to sounds of a wild burro. One was grunting pretty loudly close to my tent. I looked at the tracks and it looked like the burro had laid down for awhile. Unfortunately I didn't feel like getting up to take a picture of it that night and none returned the following nights.

Our second day we hiked from the Chris Wicht camp nearly five miles up the canyon and back. We gained about 4000 feet in elevation. The hike was pretty strenuous because the trail isn't maintained. On our way up we often had to bushwhack our way through brush and often came to dead ends from which we had to backtrack. We even ended up high on the mountain a couple of times. It made for a very adventurous hike.



The coolest thing about the hike was that almost the whole time we were following a stream. There were at least two springs that fed it. It was refreshing to have flowing water in the middle of the desert. It was also nice to see familiar flora like cottonwoods, willows and cattails.

Here you can see the band of lush vegetation encompassing the stream.


I guess the coolest part really is that we were paid to go on a beautiful day hike. Our job was to identify and GPS map invasive tamarisk, flora and fauna, splits in the trail, cut vegetation and large debris (trash). It was a fun task because it forced me to be aware of my surroundings. I spotted tamarisk three times.

The remaining days were focused on cleaning up the Chris Wicht camp. The area was used for mining in the past. Then in the early 1900's, a dutch man named Chris Wicht made a pretty nice home in the canyon. He entertained many and had a pool for swimming which was a pretty big deal in the desert. The land was passed down through family. Last year an accidental fire burned up the camp and all the junk there.

This gives you an idea of what the camp looks like. There were eight or more busted up vehicles on the property.


Our job was to lead a group of volunteers in a one day cleanup. There was an interesting mix of OHV users who want the canyon open for OHV use and more environmentally minded people who want to keep it closed to vehicles. Everyone got along well and lots was accomplished. We filled two giant dumpsters with metal and had lots of metal and trash remaining.

Before and after pics of one of the many junk laden areas

Tomorrow we start preparations for our next hitch. I believe we'll be doing trail work southwest of our location for hitch 1.

Wildcorps Training

October 9th my crew started training. It took place in the wilderness of the Mojave National Preserve. Our camp was very remote. The closest hospital was a two hour drive away. The picture below gives you an idea of the remoteness.

Camp from afar looking southwest


The facilities consisted of a covered picnic area, a water well and two pit toilets. Because water is scarce in the desert, there was no water for bathing. I washed my face once but that was it for 10 days.

Looking east


Being so far from civilization had its advantages too. I've never seen so many stars at night as I did there. An advantage of little rainfall is being able to sleep out under the stars nine nights in a row without much worry. To be safe we had tents to store our gear and hide in if rain did fall.

No rain didn't mean no clouds though and camping in a valley meant sunrise came late and sunset came early. Consequently we never missed one.

Sunrise looking southeast


Sunset looking west.


Our training consisted of community building, Leave No Trace ethics, tool safety/sharpening, desert restoration and a four day Wilderness Advanced First Aid (WAFA) course. Desert restoration in a broad sense is camouflaging illegal roads created by OHVers (Off Highway Vehicles) so that nature has a chance to be restored over time.

There are many techniques used and it is as much an art form as it is manual labor. One of the major limitations is not being able to plant live vegetation. The chance of survival of a transplanted piece of vegetation in the desert ecosystem is slim.

Some areas are easier to disguise than others. The pictures below show what one of our groups did during training. Obviously it still looks like a road, but hopefully it looks less obvious and appealing. Rocks and vegetation provide shade that promote growth of new plants.

Restoration Before Pic


Restoration After Pic


I should mention that my crew of five differs from the other four crews that were at training. They will specialize in desert restoration for the duration of the eight months. My crew will be performing desert restoration on one or maybe two hitches. The rest of the time we will be doing a grab bag of projects which you can read about in the future.

The WAFA course was pretty cool. The course was a mix between lecture and scenarios. The scenarios were exciting because they used Halloween make up to make it more realist. My favorite was dealing with a patient with a spurting artery in the lower arm. The person had a pump and sprayed out fake blood until we applied pressure and wrapped it.

We also had a night scenario where a camp stove blew up. One person had inhalation burns and died despite our best efforts. The other person didn't speak English and had boiling water burn the top layer of skin off her hands. It was pretty realist.

Meeting the rest of the interns and leaders was cool. Everyone got along great. Besides training we often played hacky sack, speedball (sorta like ultimate frisbee) and frisbee. At nights there was usually music playing going on. Unfortunately we didn't have a fire to huddle around. The mornings and nights were cold and windy; the days warm, but never hot.

After training, we had four days off. Everyone got along so well that close to all the interns came to Yucca Valley and partied at the other crew house in town. My crew mate and I made the long walk home that night and on the way took some pictures of which I made a collage. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I shaved my beard into a handle bar mustache for fun and to go along with my redneck look. I've since shaved it off.

Horsin' around after our crew party (Text in bottom right picture says, "Warning! Do not lean, sit, crawl, or stand on, or deface horse.)


The two days following the party was the Joshua Tree Roots Music Festival which most attended. Many of us got in free for volunteering which was nice since the cost was $40 for one day. My shift was from 10:30am - 1:30am Saturday night, but a wicked sandstorm blew around 8pm so I didn't man my post. It worked out great because the show went on anyway. Despite not being "all about" that kind of music I really enjoyed the free concert. I also received a free t-shirt for volunteering.

Tomorrow we head north for our first real project. I'll tell more about it when I get back.