Orientation

August 25^th, 2007

For the last week, the Nevada Conservation Corps (NCC) has kicked my ass, taken my name, and then made me do it all over again. I've never been so tired in my life. But at the same time, I don't think I've ever felt so good either. This week was orientation for one of the coolest jobs I've ever even pretended to have. Every morning we woke up at 5:30, had to have eaten breakfast (normally a bagel with cream cheese) and made lunch (sandwich [peanut butter and jelly anyone?], apple or orange, and some carrots) by 7 am. Now, this seems like a lot of time, but really, with 40 people crowding one table, trying to boil water on a propane camp stove, and everyone else trying to made breakfast and lunch, it gets a little hectic. Then again, everyone is so laid-back and helpful that honestly they'd make your food for you if you asked. A little exaggerated, but nevertheless, everyone that we work with is ridiculously awesome.

Starting Monday morning, at 4:30, my roommates and I woke up, made eggs, and then proceeded to leave the pan of egg leftovers in the sink to soak while we were gone. Did I mention how that was dumb? Yeah, most definitely was dumb. One of the other NCC'ers came over to pick us up, because he lives really close to the parking lot of the school where we meet, and he was feeling really nice. So there we were, packed up, ready to go at 5:30 in the morning. I was pumped to say the least. We got to the parking lot, and saw some other people (obviously NCC) but it was so early, and I'm not sure anyone was feeling very open to conversation or meeting people just yet. That was to come shortly enough. As our bosses started showing up, and the weather started to warm up (it gets cold in the valley), we started looking around a little more, and getting a feel for what was coming next. Once we got started, we made breakfast, lunch, and had a stuff check just to make sure we had all the essentials (sleeping bag, tent, pack, etc). After that it was time for school all over again! Woo! (That might be a little sarcastic) It was really hard to pay attention, even though it was interesting. We met everyone that was in charge and then got together with a another person in the NCC that we didn't already previously know, and got to know them, you know the old school icebreaker. We all went around and introduced our person to the rest of the group. It was cool to see everyone all together finally. We learned all sorts of stuff about the Great Basin Institute, NCC, and some of our “project partners” who are basically the people that we work for such as the Bureau of Land Management of Nevada, or the U.S. Fire Service, etc. Overall, it was great information, just a lot of it in a short time period. Finally we all packed up in the vans, and got on our way to a cabin up Mount Rose, which is at about 8,200 feet. Ohhhh boy, that was awesome for the ears. We got there, learned some more things, and then all of the sudden they say, ok, so... make dinner. Didn't tell us where anything was, or how to do it, just “make dinner”. Well, after about five minutes of scrambling to gather everyone together, a couple of us figured out it would be smart to separate the vegetarians from the meat eaters, and they were one group, and then we counted everyone else off into smaller groups. The commotion and the obvious confusion was disorienting, but I think overall we pulled it off really well. Even the bosses said so. Apparently they are used to people fighting about everything and not getting together as a group. We did not have this problem, it was nice. After that, it was nigh onto dark, and it was time to set up tents. As they pointed in a general direction, we all kind of split and found our packs so we could find a decent spot. Running down the hill, we all tried to get a piece of flat ground without “widowmakers” above us (which are pieces of dead material in trees that are hanging precariously.. scary) and set up our tents as fast as possible because we were losing light fast. After that, we had to trek back up the hill one more time to meet with one of our bosses who started asking about “pluses and deltas” basically how did the day go, and how can we make it better next time, etc. Then back down the hill to pass out.

Tuesday rolls around, and 5:30 is far earlier then I think I expected it to be. I was excited though, so thankfully I wasn't really tired, just kinda sore from sleeping on the ground. This day was all about learning first aid, so after making breakfast and packing lunch, we went off to learn about how to approach people who were hurt, and how to help them as best we could. There were a lot of technical terms, and lots of questions to make sure they weren't confused about where they were, and if they had hurt themselves beyond our help. Literally this lasted from 7am to 12:30 pm when we took lunch, then from 1 pm to 5:30 when we started dinner. That's a really long time and a lot of information to try and keep straight. Eric, the first aid teacher though, was really helpful and had us do situations and such to make sure we didn't just understand it, but also that we could physically do it. There was a lot of rolling people to check their backs for fractures or hurts, as well as making sure that they weren't unaware of other hurts. So it was really nice to do “roleplaying” to learn how to deal with delirious and irrational people, and what we are legally allowed to do and etc. That night, we had dinner, but this time it was a lot easier to figure out because we already had groups established and we knew where things were. Dinner's really simple sort of fare anyway, salad and pasta, or burritos, or chicken stir-fry with rice, that sort of stuff. Again, we all rolled down the hill to our beds in tents and passed out.

Wednesday, bright and early, 5:30 once more, and it was time to learn about chainsaws. Now, let's just say, I was not impressed with this idea (at first) and I was not happy about having to sit for hours learning about something that I never even wanted to touch. After being called out for falling asleep... twice, I did my best to keep it together and learn about face cuts, back cuts, and proper handling of a large mechanical object that could kill me. This went on from 7 am to 12:30. Thankfully, after two more hours of lectures we actually went outside and learned all the different parts of the chainsaw (a stihl of course, 440 and 361) and then we had to not only put it back together but also start it. Of course being the overachiever I am, and also being still quite scared of this monster of a rotating sword, I said I would go first on both counts. Minutes later I had completely taken apart the chain, bar, and all of the nuts that hold in the rotating part of the chain. Then I started that sucker up. Let's just say that I had to try really hard and not go into details of how long it took me to be able to start it. Granted it was running cold, but seriously folks, I'm pretty sure it was a full 5 minutes later. I didn't flood the engine though, and that is quite the blessing. My fear of chainsaws thus ended! I was stoked for the next day! I couldn't wait to actually use the thing. But still, at the end of the day, after everyone had completed their tasks, we were waterlogged with information. First they throw first aid in our face, and then a whole load of chain saw love. That night, the pluses and delta's list got quite a bit longer; on both sides. We were all having a great time, but we were tired of sitting for hours on end, and attempting to listen to the lectures. And once again, we rolled down the hill to our lovely hard as rock beds.

Thursday came upon us with bright sunshine and a lot of work to be done because this was the day we would actually play with chainsaws in the wild. We drove from our cabin to Spooner Lake, which just happens to pass by Lake Tahoe. This is where we get to the good part. Lake Tahoe is gorgeous. If you couldn't tell, that is the good part. There are no two ways around it, that lake is seriously the prettiest thing next to the water in the Bahama's, and I've only seen that in pictures. Unfortunately we had to pass by the lake so we could get to the site where we were to cut down trees. Now, I haven't really mentioned my inability to get over the elevation of everywhere I had been all week, so I would like to take a moment to mention it. I couldn't breathe. The End. It was completely outrageous. We walked up, maybe a quarter of a mile, and I barely made it up halfway. I would also like to mention that for the last 3 months I have lived in St. Louis and for the 4 years before that, under the sea, so I'm not really blaming myself too much. Nevertheless, it was very disconcerting to think I couldn't make it up a measly hill. Once we all got up there, we had what they in the NCC like to call a “safety meeting” which basically means, everyday we go through any possible problems that could occur in the field: heavy winds, recreationalists, other crew members, wearing proper safety equipment (hard hat, gloves, long sleeves, boots, etc.), widowmakers, etc. That took a good 20 minutes, and I will tell you why, we were all still scared/overly excited about the chainsaws. I think I fell somewhere in the middle of that. After the safety meeting, we got together with our crew supervisor or leader and took all of our equipment out to a site to learn how to make facecuts. Facecuts are basically an arrow into the wood, but at a special angle so that when you put a “backcut” in, the tree falls exactly where you wanted it to go based on the angle of your facecut. All very technical, and not as hard as it sounds. I didn't really want to be the first this time, so we let the only guy on our crew go first, Colton. Then Becky, then me. All of the other girls went after that, but none of them really wanted to use the saw anyway, so it wasn't really on their priority list. Colton, Becky and I were completely stoked. After everyone made a facecut, we climbed up the steepest hill the NCC could find to find a tree we were supposed to cut down. I stopped. A lot. But one of the crew leaders was way cool about it, and stopped to talk to me. Apparently he used to lead backcountry expeditions into really high mountains, so he knew all the tricks. He liked to share information, and I will cherish that info for quite some time to come. At least until I can breathe normally around here. Becky cut down the first real tree. She was a trooper and did all the right calls (such as: Facecut going in, downhill, or backcut going in, or FALLING!) and the tree fell just where she wanted. All in all, I think it took about 10-15 minutes. Then I got to go. This whole time we were being certified and thus had to follow all the right procedures and all that jazz to make sure they realize that we knew what we were doing and wouldn't screw around. So I did all the right things, checked where the tree would fall, made sure there weren't any snags in the way, and made sure I had escape routes in case the worst occurred and the tree fell backwards (totally possible). I was totally prepared and totally excited. I put in my facecut, did my yell, and it was darn near to perfect. I had a few mishaps with the slanted cut, but overall, good to go. I go to put in my backcut and all is well, until my leader says “Ho ho! Stop there, far enough!” Like a good student, I stop immediately and assume he knows what's up and that I should definitely stop. The backcut is smiling a little, which means that it could fall at any minute, especially if a good wind picks up. Of course, this does not happen, and thus I had to throw in a wedge to help it along. So in goes a wedge, and out comes the axe to shove said wedge in as far as I can get it to go. Now, normally, 2 minutes later the tree should be on the ground. This is not possible when it comes to me, and my tree defiantly stays standing while I literally wail on it and the wedge so that it will fall. There is a bad joke that becoming a sawyer for the NCC changes people, cussing, smoking, drinking (not on the job), and other such habits. I will never smoke as long as no one is forcing me, so I've only got on route to go... cussing. Let's just say that I let this tree have it. After 10 minutes of using an axe to battering ram a wedge into the backcut of this tree, I couldn't take it anymore and started using the most foul language I could think of (which is pretty inventive I might add). Bad jokes, bad language and 5 more minutes of attempting to get this tree down, and it finally fell. Never had a victory felt so sweet, and never had I earned a nickname so easily. Henceforth I have been known as 'sailor', and I have been asked by two different sawyers to join their crew if for no other reason then entertainment value. After I cut down my tree, and a while it took, we all got together with the rest of the crews that were felling, and we all talked about our massive successes and such. As it turns out, my roommate Stephanie and I both kept our facecuts and we decided then and there that they would decorate our bed stand. After about 30 minutes of saw cleaning, shooting the crap with our leaders and each other, we headed out to get pizza and meet an affiliate of a local news channel for our swearing in. We were on top of a mountain at about 8,300 feet and there we were made true Americorps and NCC members. It was spectacular. That night, we all kind of hung around after it got dark because we realized that the next day was the last day we would all be together as a big group and we were all having way too much fun to leave that behind. Two guitars found their way out, and quite a few headlamps as well. After a rousing rendition of nothing in particular, we all once again went to bed and passed out knowing that the next day we would learn about trail maintenance and building.

Friday, tired, busted, and ready to roll, we head back to the same mountain where we were sworn in, and one of the crew leaders, Roland, teaches us about all of the different hand tools that we use as a trail crew. McLeods, pick-matics, double jacks, shovels, and rocks bars just to name a few. After listening to yet again another few hours of lecture they take us out on a trail in our crews and we learn about the different ways to build a trail in order to make it look as natural as possible as well as functional and sustainable. Once we got up to the top, we were at about 9,000 feet. We were looking out at Carson City (which is south of Reno) and there were 3 parasailers having a go in the crazy wind. It was way cool. Done with learning for the day we headed back down the mountain where some of the crews were waiting, and we joined in until the last crew showed themselves. After that we loaded back into the van and headed to Reno where we would have one last talk with our supervisor before Monday morning when we would depart for our first real spike, or tour, out into the wilderness.

Since I've already managed to make this far more long winded then I meant to, I'm going to leave off here and the next post will be about my first spike in Southern/Northern Tahoe.