Lindsay's Las Vegas Adventure: NCC Orientation

I just got back yesterday from our week of orientation for the Nevada Conservation Corps. It was quite an eventful and exciting week. We got a lot of new information thrown at us and got to experience right away how plans can constantly and quickly change in a program like this. The first change of plans occurred on the first day when we got to the field station prepared for a week of camping and they told us that instead of going into the mountains and setting up camp like we were expecting, we would be holding the first day of orientation at the field station and going to the mountains the next day because of flash flood warnings in the area we were supposed to be going. So we sat and listened to lots of powerpoint presentations the first day, and then came back the second day to load up and head to the campsite. Then, right as we were leaving, the van I was in broke down, so we had to instead load into several trucks to complete the journey. We finally arrived at Camp Foxtail, a girl scout camp in the Spring Mountains, a little late and continued with the orientation activities.

While at the camp, we continued to get more information thrown at us about various things and then had our first experience with setting up camp and cooking dinner. I was surprised at how good our meals ended up being. I guess I was expecting that we would be cooking with primitive resources over a campfire, but it turns out we have propane camp stoves and a full set of pots and pans, so we can make almost anything we could cook in a normal kitchen. The first night we had pesto pasta with veggies and chicken, and one of the nights we even have falafel, which I was excited about. I was also pumped to try out my new tent, which is a nice Marmot one that I got at REI for $60 off. It's smaller than I anticipated (it's a two person but feels like 2 people would be really smooshed in there) but it's perfect for me and my bags to fit in, and it worked well to protect me from the rain.

Another change of plans happened during the 3rd and 4th days when we were out in the field learning how to build trails. I was not expecting it to rain much in the desert, but it stormed both days. The rule during storms when we're in the field is that if we see lightning we have to stop working, spread out from each other and sit in safe places, and wait until we haven't seen lightning for 45 minutes. This happened once the first day, so our trail building time we interrupted, and then the second day it happened several times, and the last time it happened it started pouring so we were all sitting there getting soaked while we waited for the lightning to pass. Once it did, all of the rain caused a flash flood that was between us and where our trucks were, so instead of going back to work the supervisors decided to have us leave the site before the flash flooding got worse and trapped us there overnight. It was pretty crazy getting all 30 of us over the stream the flash flood had created and back to the trucks, which were about a mile away, and then it started to storm again during the walk back so we had to leave the tools and just get back to the trucks as quickly as possible. I was completely soaked by this point because I hadn't thought it was going to be that bad and had put my rain coat on way too late to do any good, but luckily I had dry clothes back in my tent that I was able to change into. So it was quite an exciting day, and gave us a good look at some things we can expect in the field during the year (although the rainy season is almost over, thank goodness).

Another new experience for me was the altitude. The camp we were at was about 8,000 feet above sea level, and having lived at sea level for the past year that was a big change for me. I'm pretty sure it was the highest altitude I had ever been at. Just walking up the hill from the bathroom building back to our campsite left me winded every time, but luckily that was the only side effect I had from the elevation. I was also surprised how much colder it was up that high. In the city, it's still hot enough to wear shorts and up there I had on several layers to stay warm a lot of the time. I was warned that it would be cold, but actually experiencing it made me realize people weren't exaggerating.

In general it was a good week, and it seems like it's going to be a good year. I've met lots of cool people, and I like my crew. We're split into 6 crews, which each have 4 members and 1 crew supervisor. We'll be working in these crews for about 6 months, and then depending on certain factors the crews could get rearranged, and then they will definitely be rearranged next summer because we have the option of either staying in Vegas or moving to Reno or Ely. I'm pretty sure I will move to one of the other locations because I don't think I could survive a whole summer living in a city as hot as Las Vegas.

To finish off this post, here are some pictures from the week. Next week, starting on Tuesday, I have an 8-day project at Great Basin National Park so I will be off the grid for a while, but I will try to write about that project when I get back. It will be exciting because it's our first real project as a crew, and we'll be gone for several days longer than we were this time. Crossing my fingers we don't have to deal with too much more rain!