Hitch #3

My third hitch began Wednesday July 2. From the beginning I knew the next 10 days would be quite different from our previous work. Our crew, along with "Mountain" crew, took a 9 hour drive to Oak Creek Canyon outside Flagstaff, Arizona. Wednesday night we camped in Mesa Verde National Park, before continuing on to Arizona in the morning.

We spent the next 6 days stacking sandbags throughout different properties and businesses in the canyon. Due to a fire last month the area is highly susceptible to flash flooding. The soil is unable to soak in the majority of the rain and instead it sheets downhill, in most cases directly towards houses. And being the start of monsoon season, we had to finish the sandbag walls quickly.

During our time we had two large and fast moving afternoon monsoons, both creating hail, lightning, and flash flooding. These afternoons we had to stop work early and evacuate the canyon. Due to these storms we were able to witness our work in progress. We could go back the next day and see where our sandbag wall had diverted water away from homes.

The appreciation from the community and our project partners was amazing. Being able to see the people who live in the area we were working to protect made all the hard work worth every minute. And we did work very hard. We moved about 30,000 sandbags in 8 days, with 15 people for all but the last 2 days.

We left on Wednesday July 9 before lunch to begin our drive back to Salida. That afternoon we had the opportunity to visit Grand Canyon National Park. I could hardly fathom the enormity of it, even while standing on the edge looking out. Watching the sunset over the northern Arizona desert was also an incredible site. During our time our two crews bonded and worked as one. It was great to see how another crew functions and the leadership styles, while making some amazing new friends.

Our break between this hitch and our next is being cut short by two days for more chainsaw training. We will being working with saws on Wednesday July 16. This is what each of the members of our crew was brought here to do. I'm looking forward to the new challenges ahead of us.