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Hello, all family, friends and well-wishers this is client J and the boys coming to you fresh off another B2B adventure. This week we visited Bryce Canyon National Park and partnered with the Grand Canyon Trust to do invasive plant removal in Utah.
The Grand Canyon Trust is a non-profit group that advocates for the Colorado Plateau. So what does that mean exactly (don’t worry we didn’t know either)? Essentially the trust works with the National Park Service, various Native American groups, Ecologists, Botanists, Lawyers and of course volunteers like us to ensure the longevity Colorado Plateau, a wide spanning area that includes the Grand Canyon. The Plateau begins in New Mexico travels across Arizona up into southern Utah, then back across into Colorado. The trust uses its resources in a variety of ways, such as the stopping of coal and uranium mining, fracking and the construction of gondola/ mega resort in the middle of the Grand Canyon and sacred Native American land. All of which greatly affect the culture, the landscape and the air and water quality of the Grand Canyon. Any of these could leave the plateau a drastically different place for our children and many generations to come. Kelly our Grand Canyon Professional, organized this trip so B2B could give back to the area we all love and play so hard in over our time at B2B.
Our trip began with 6am wakeup call and a 7am departure headed out Utah way. For our first day, we were headed to Bryce canyon, which is about five and a half hours north of flagstaff. Over the course of the trip cards were played, much needed sleep was had and the vans will never be the same but all and all a very enjoyable trip. After we arrived at Red Canyon Campground in Dixie National forest, we set up our tents and prepared and epic dinner of snout and homemade mac and cheese. After dinner, our very own client L shared his experience of strength and hope in our AA meeting. 
With the induction of some new guys the card culture here at B2B is stronger than ever, I counted 4 separate games going on simultaneously before bed……love it! The following morning we packed up camp and headed to Bryce Canyon to hike the Fairyland Loop, an 8-mile trail that travels through the land of orange, red and pink Hoodoos with a whopping 2,500ft of elevation gain. The Canyon, which is mostly composed of limestone (ancient sea beds) that has been weathered and eroded by a freeze thaw cycle that forms the tall spires known as Hoodoos. Needless to say everyone was stoked by the scenery. It was incredible! After the hike we stopped in town to celebrate the birth of client B with ice cream before piling back into the vans to travel another 2 hours to Fish Lake Recreation Area, the site of our service project with the Grand Canyon Trust. Fish Lake is the largest natural lake in Utah.
Upon arrival we met up with Lisa, our project coordinator, Serana who works with Native American Services at the Trust and Mark an ecologist that heads the Utah forest program branch of the Trust. After introductions and setting up camp, including a full outdoor kitchen the trust brought (we would be eating very well for the next week), we learned that we would be traveling to a nearby 15-acre plot that is home to a world-famous Pando Aspen Clone. Our goal for this project was to seek and destroy an invasive plant called Hounds Tongue.
While I have to admit none of us seemed too thrilled about picking weeds for a week, I have to confess we all ended up having a blast! I guess if you give 13 guys and Kelly (who’s one of the guys anyway) something to compete and trash talk over, not only will work get done but an enjoyable time will be had by all as well! The first day we worked for 8 hours, then retired back to camp for another great meal and a dip into Fish Lake that provided the opportunity for a round of water volleyball (we love volleyball here at B2B). Afterwards we broke up into groups for an AA meeting then promptly headed to bed.
Mark our client botanist took a couple of us around the Pando Aspen Clone site to take pictures of various plants to attempt to recreate pictures taken from the same locations over the past three years for site posterity. We worked a half-day, about 4-5 hours and after the dust settled not only had we spanned the whole 15-acre plot, we had picked over 8,000 Hounds Tongue from the Pando Aspen Clone area. The war on invasive plants had not yet been won. We still had to travel another 2 hours to our next site to battle the next invasive species, the Musk Thistle.
After another van ride, which I’m pretty sure all of us slept through (doing battle takes it out of ya), we arrived at Miller Flat Campground in Lake Canyon Recreation Area. About an hour and a half south of Salt Lake City, this area was stunning! Imagine a perfectly flat lush football field on top of a mountain with picturesque views 360 degrees around. Beautiful is hardly descriptive enough for this area. We all quickly agreed that it was the coolest campsite any of us had experienced both at B2B or in our personal adventures before coming here. We setup our tents and the mobile kitchen, then immediately began recreating. We had enough room to play frisbee, baseball and still erect a makeshift volleyball net….. yeah that’s right, a homemade back country volleyball net, eat your heart out MacGyver. After a couple of games a few of us helped Lisa cook an amazing spaghetti Dinner, like we had been all week. Our very own birthday boy, client B shared his story with us around the fire.
The next morning, we hopped in the van and rode to our next battleground, The Left Fork of Huntington Creek. The area was gorgeous and filled with lush vegetation. Mark pointed out all the various species including some Nebraska Sedge, which we aptly started calling client L. There were rolling hills and mountains as far as the eye could see. We would primarily be working in and around the trail just above a stream that flowed through our entire worksite. The Musk Thistle didn’t know what hit it, we moved through the site ferociously until it was lunchtime.
After lunch we ran into another steward of the area who was also named Mark. Mark works for the National Forest Service and explained to us the delicate balance of working with advocacy groups like the Trust and ranchers that also wanted to use the public lands for grazing their livestock. He recalled one story were after kicking a rancher off the land for going outside his designated grazing area and within a week he had a senator, and several community and business leaders knocking at his front door to advocate for the rancher. This resulted in a net loss of over $500,000 in business for the company. This really put into perspective how important our work was to the area.
We continued onward but were called off shortly thereafter as inclement weather rapidly moved in on us. Ominous black clouds, roaring thunder and electric lightning filled our ears and the sky. For safety we retreated back to camp where we held an AA meeting in our vans (a first for me) and when the weather passed played volleyball and had another great meal before retiring to bed. The next morning, we headed back out to the site and proceeded to wreck the Musk Thistle for the next 5-6 hours, by the end we had cleared 3,700 Musk Thistle from the work site and a fair amount of Hounds Tongue, just for good measure. The war was over and we emerged victorious! After the spoils of war were shared we embarked on an amazing 4 mile hike through a canyon that followed the creek. The hike literally took us through two mountains with flowing rapids running through the middle, surrounded by trees and vegetation on all sides, it looked like something out of Nat Geo. I had never experienced anything like it!
As our trip was coming to its conclusion, I got the sense that while most of us had been dreading this trip, now we didn’t want it to end. As we soaked up the all the time we had left at our campsite we played volleyball, cards and talked around the fire. We helped make our final supper, some burgers that were made from Kane Ranch, a project site the Trust oversees. It was fantastic!
While it had been one of the longest trips in B2B history, I feel I can speak for everyone here that it had also been one of the most rewarding. I can’t thank the outdoor staff and the Trust enough for exposing us to this wonderful experience.
After we said our goodbyes, we packed up the van and started the 8 hour drive back to Flagstaff. If I thought the vans were bad before imagine them now stained by work and filled with 14 people that hadn’t showered in a week! Derig is going to be fun…..
Thanks again to everyone who made this possible and from the boys at B2B, we love you and will see you again next letter and don’t forget to Stay Stoked!!!!!