After spending yesterday trying to settle into our "new" digs...if one can call a 1970's FEMA trailer "new", we went off to Brown Canyon with many of the volunteers to do a little trail work. The trail in the canyon had supposedly been mowed or trimmed, but there was still lots of brush along the trail that needed to be cut down. Here in Arizona, this means thorns. The idea is to make it a bit less prickly for hikers.
Unfortunately, much of the trail had not been trimmed and we were not allowed to use weed whackers without the fire staff present. I think they are still a little cautious after the canyon burned in 2017. But we cut out lots of small mesquite bushes that were sprouting in the middle of the trail anyway. It was a somewhat bloody undertaking. Being about 80° meant that everyone was wearing short sleeves and the thorns found skin.
While five of us were doing maintenance, there was another group on the trail training for the guided hikes. Brown Canyon is the only closed section of the refuge and is only accessible via guided hikes which happen weekly during the winter. There were four volunteers who were new to the canyon and who are going to lead the hikes this year. We have done them in the past, but only when the people who normally did it were unavailable. But our schedule this year and the fact that they have several volunteers doing them will probably mean any hikes we do in the canyon will be on our own.
It was a fairly long and strenuous day coming after a long and strenuous trip out here and we are beat.
Tomorrow it is off to the quail facility for the first day of our "real" assignments.
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