Canyons, Caves and Canines

Hey all,

I hope everyone is well up there. Oh yah, it would be nice if people left a comment from time to time... its becoming lonely writing to outer space with no feedback (thanks).

We found out there was a cave nearby our last work location and we thought one day when we finished up early that we'd check it out. Both of us weren't really sure what we were getting into... i.e. was it a wimpy cave or the real thing. Anyways, turns our it is the real thing. Called the Lava River Cave it is 3/4 of a mile long and quite large inside the cave. The first fifteen feet have ice and it is freezing inside the cave. We went pretty far along the cave and it was really cool and we wanna bring our drums there next time for the full experience.





Last week Lou and I were evacuated from our location (which we luckily were leaving anyways) because of a rampant forest fire just a few miles from where we were at. We got out okay and then decided to take a few days and go up to the Grand Canyon for a visit. It is only about an hours drive from here and we brought our tent trailer and camped on forest service land just outside of the park (feeling like lucky bastards for camping for free while every other tourist seemed to be doling out way too much for hotels). Our first day we went to the IMAX center and got our tickets then went on a good several hour hike in the canyon along the Kaibab Trail. We went probably around 6 miles or so, not sure, but dropped about 1000 feet. It was a very hot day and the air is very dry in the canyon. Anyways, check out some of the cool shots we took along the hike.

(you can spot me on the left hand side of the trail down there... i'm wearing a blue shirt. )
(hot and tired but happy)

After our hike we went back to the tent trailer for dinner and then decided to head to Desert View point which is about a 45 min drive. We went there for sunset and it was absolutely amazing and worth it. After lingering with the tourists for awhile as the sun creeped away, we decided to go to one of the deserted viewpoints (tourists don't venture far from the main lookouts) and we brought our new hand drums. We hung out at the rim playing our djembes for awhile and it was pure magic.




The next day we took the free shuttles around and went from location to location taking pics and took in another beautiful sunset. We quite enjoyed our adventure there and are thinking we might try and camp at the bottom later on in the year. It is quite a hike down and back (though our co-workers did it in one day which is highly recommended not to).



We went back to our new work location which is Sycamore Canyon, the second largest Canyon in Arizona. It is a beautiful area but it is harder work for various reasons (more trees, more species of trees, graveyards of downed trees from forest fires) and therefore harder to make really good coin. We have a week and half down here before a new location though which will be nice. We took a day off a few days ago and went down to Sedona which is absolutely stunningly beautiful. It is red rocks, canyon, arches, and a really nice river surrounded by oaks and sycamore trees. We are probably going to go camping there in a few days. We went swimming in the river and i was the happiest little water baby that there ever was. The heat has been really dragging my energy levels down and water provides such rejuvenation.

The other update in our life is something we don't know if it will work out but we are trying to foster a dog. We both really want to adopt a dog and I fell in love with a blue heeler 1 yr old male in sedona last week. We visit the humane society on every day off we have it seems and it is harder and harder to say no. We both know our reality though and that there is no way a dog would survive in Malaysia, so we found a non-profit called Paw Placements which places dogs with foster homes for as long as the people decide to and provides all the food, crates, toys and vet costs. It saves the dogs from having to live in the humane society until they find "forever" homes and also helps out the human society when they are over crowded. We have a perfect job right now for a dog and having a dog come to work with me would really ease my mind of working alone all day. Although we have radios, spending all day alone out there can be unsettling when there are bears, rattlesnakes and almost 1.5-2 hrs away from the hospital. It would also be nice to provide a high energy dog such as a border collie, blue heeler or lab x with the opportunity to walk/ run around all day outside. Anyways, not to jinx it but I"ll keep you posted. We talked to the paw placements people today at petsmart and sent in our application. They said they will contact us soon and see if they can find a good match.

Anyways,

Love you all and looking forward already to being back in BC by November.

Ohhhh herrrroo,
(Me saying : "oh herrro".
P.s. I've worn that same outfit everyday that I have worked down here... let's just say you wouldn't want to smell that shirt at this point. The summer isn't over yet though, and much stench has yet to be added)


Life is going really great down here. I do miss everyone a lot and I felt a little bit like I had the rug snagged from under my feet because I barely got to see anyone, but I know that I'll be back before I know it. It is really hot and really dry, though to people who live here it is probably neither of those things. For us west coasters though who often don't venture far from the ocean, Arizona is as dry as it gets. I think living down a dirt road in the middle of the South Kaibab National Forest likely might have something to do with it, oh and spending most of my time outside. Nonetheless, a really dry throat and nose and skin can't deter me from thoroughly enjoying this work. Bloody booger nuggets on the other hand are becoming a bit of a hassle haha.

Work is good and some days are better than others aka. some days I have a lot of steep hiking while others it is as flat as a pancake. Some days a plot could have 5 live trees and 5 dead trees, and the next plot could have 30 trees and 40 dead. It all really depends.
(Me measuring a tree height using a clinometer)
(Ally coring a tree to count the rings and determine the age)
(counting the tree rings to determine the age)

For a budding forester this work really is the bees knees. I now have a complete set of all my own forestry equipment (except a ridiculously expensive laser) to use all this nifty forestry equipment, measure tree heights, dbh (diameter at breast height), check for tree damages, navigate with compass and GPS, core trees, set up fixed radius plots... and I have no boss! I also get to work alone which really has its advantages because I rely solely on myself to make money and do not rely on anyone else (and do not suffer from other ppl's mess ups). I think it is going to be hard going back to a job where I have someone to report to. I feel pretty lucky to be running my own show and I'm not even done my degree yet. Most of the guys working this job are older (later 20's or early 30's and have been doing forestry work for years).
(artistic photo of the day: Ally in the compass mirror)
But it is really rewarding and enjoyable to spend all day alone hiking outside measuring trees... I quite enjoy that I can walk to work and that my office is in the middle of pure ponderosa pine forest.

We're really enjoying living in the tent trailer and most nights we play drum, make a nice dinner, drink tea, read and go to bed early. It is quite lovely. We have also developed a healthy obsession with the game Yahtzee which is soon to morph into an obsession with Scrabble. Board games are all the rage in tent trailers. We will be moving down to a canyon area pretty soon and we're hoping to travel up to the Grand Canyon but neither of us really want to take time off just yet. It seems like every day off we have an endless list of things in town we need to take care of so once that list is more manageable I think we'll take off up north.
(Lou relaxing in the shade under the awning of our tent trailer)
(a typical burned area in South Kaibab).

That is all for now. We are off to the post office (a favorite location in Flagstaff to visit) and then possibly to the pound. We keep visiting the pound (even though we both know we can't get a dog and we take out the poor lil guys for a walk around the side yard. It seems to fulfill our desires for a dog for about a week).

Love you guys and hope everything is well.
Missing the ocean a lot down here so everyone better be lapping around in the shallows for me.

Peace and love

ally