Flashback Friday!
(This happened way before the Zion story did. this was my first week in Nevada)
Training week in the Spring Mountains outside Vegas had a lot of 'what did I sign up for' thoughts too it. We were told to meet for training at the Mojave Office outside Vegas. It was small and seemed to be primarily used for desert tortoise internship..things. I don't know exactly other than they tracked the tortoises, that wasn't my project. Anyway, we were told to pack for camping with rain gear and layers, and we all also packed expecting to be in the desert the whole time. After the first day of powerpoints telling us we can't try to get other crewmates to worship the sun or drink alcohol with our logo showing, we were immediately shipped off to a campsite at 6,000 ft altitude in the Spring Mountains for the rest of our training.
It seemed fine at first, no cooler than a fine autumn day in Michigan, but I quickly learned that nothing could stop the unrelenting icy wind blowing through my tent and useless sleeping bag. Over the week my tent collapsed on me several times and often I would just leave it. I got no sleep all week and broke down several times. Trying to hide it from my crewmates, I often found myself wandering on paths further up into the mountains to be alone and to try and figure out why I was having such a hard time. At 19, I was the youngest there, but I refused to let age be a factor as it's never stopped me before.
We, the Great Basin Crew, had our training with the Las Vegas crew. In total, we started with eleven people on the crews and at the end of training, three people had quit. By the end of the summer, two more would join and quit the Vegas crew, but they had a tough gig and had to deal with the butterfly people so I don't really blame them.
After training week, our employer set up our crew with a nice hotel for one night so that we could shower and have a provided breakfast before finding our own way on the weekend. I woke up there at six am and snuck out of my room into the deserted hallway so I wouldn't disturb the others with my crying. All I could wonder was what was wrong with me? why was I having a hard time? Part of me knew I wasn't at home with the forests so dry and full of dead trees that it seemed as if I was walking through groves of driftwood. Someone from the Vegas crew found me in the hallway and gave me small comfort in that hey, I was still there wasn't I?
Many of my answers came later that day when the crew decided to hop over to Arizona to cool off in the Colorado river on our first day off. Seeing the water made me inexplicably happy and I raced in, ignoring the painful cobbles on my feet and with out thinking I dived in. The water shocked me, it felt colder than Superior. I broke the surface with a gasp to see that everyone on shore was quiet and staring at me, if I had cared to notice before I would have seen that everyone there only dared to go ankle deep into the icy water. A boom box played somewhere- the only thing filling the silence until I laughed and said, "Oh yeah! I'm from Michigan baby!"
That's when I realized that I really am from Michigan, I love my lush forests and ever present water. One of my crew mates had scoffed at the people who had quit, saying that it was hard labor in the desert, what did they expect?! That had always stung me as I hadn't known what to expect myself. I knew deserts were hot and dry, but had really only seen pictures, I never imagined I would have such difficulty adjusting to such a harsh environment. I could do all the required 5 miles a day with a 35 lb pack no problem in Michigan, it was just too bad that I had no mountains to practice on.
What was that saying? I think it was, "How can a fish who's only ever know the current of his own stream ever imagine the vastness of the ocean?"
Update: I found the full quote, "If a fish lives his whole life in this river, does he know the river's destiny? No! Only that it runs on and on, out of his control. He may follow where it flows, but he cannot see the end. He can not imagine the ocean," (Jeong Jeong). A little more dramatic than what I was going for but I guess I followed my stream and couldn't imagine the desert until I got there.
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| Beautiful views and my bloody useless tent |
After training week, our employer set up our crew with a nice hotel for one night so that we could shower and have a provided breakfast before finding our own way on the weekend. I woke up there at six am and snuck out of my room into the deserted hallway so I wouldn't disturb the others with my crying. All I could wonder was what was wrong with me? why was I having a hard time? Part of me knew I wasn't at home with the forests so dry and full of dead trees that it seemed as if I was walking through groves of driftwood. Someone from the Vegas crew found me in the hallway and gave me small comfort in that hey, I was still there wasn't I?
Many of my answers came later that day when the crew decided to hop over to Arizona to cool off in the Colorado river on our first day off. Seeing the water made me inexplicably happy and I raced in, ignoring the painful cobbles on my feet and with out thinking I dived in. The water shocked me, it felt colder than Superior. I broke the surface with a gasp to see that everyone on shore was quiet and staring at me, if I had cared to notice before I would have seen that everyone there only dared to go ankle deep into the icy water. A boom box played somewhere- the only thing filling the silence until I laughed and said, "Oh yeah! I'm from Michigan baby!"
That's when I realized that I really am from Michigan, I love my lush forests and ever present water. One of my crew mates had scoffed at the people who had quit, saying that it was hard labor in the desert, what did they expect?! That had always stung me as I hadn't known what to expect myself. I knew deserts were hot and dry, but had really only seen pictures, I never imagined I would have such difficulty adjusting to such a harsh environment. I could do all the required 5 miles a day with a 35 lb pack no problem in Michigan, it was just too bad that I had no mountains to practice on.
What was that saying? I think it was, "How can a fish who's only ever know the current of his own stream ever imagine the vastness of the ocean?"
Update: I found the full quote, "If a fish lives his whole life in this river, does he know the river's destiny? No! Only that it runs on and on, out of his control. He may follow where it flows, but he cannot see the end. He can not imagine the ocean," (Jeong Jeong). A little more dramatic than what I was going for but I guess I followed my stream and couldn't imagine the desert until I got there.
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