ASB Owens Valley The Volunteering Begins
We woke up super early to pack our lunches before heading out to our work site in the Alabama Hills. In true tourist fashion, before getting to work we all lined up for a group photo commemorating our start of work and the productivity that was to ensue…
This is a cool landscape shot. Does it look like Afghanistan? Compare:
Now, if at this point you are thinking, “Wow! That sounds really fun! How can I learn to vertical mulch?” you are in luck. I have put together a series of instructional pictures that will teach you how.
Step 2: Strike the ground with your Polaski to break up the soil. Note that if you actually look like this you will get tired really fast. It’s better to just skip step 1, kneel down and strike the soil, but this looks a lot cooler.
After a little while of vertical mulching we got lazy and decided to do some exploring. Mike told us that there was a natural arch about a five minute walk away so we took a break to check it out.
Look! It’s a rock donut! Evidently these things form by the wind carrying dust and dirt particles that strike the rock and wear it away. Over time, some will develop a depression in the center which will eventually turn into an arch like this one. And… when there are tourists around, these arches will spontaneously become populated with people! :O
This picture was really uncomfortable to take. Looks pretty weird too. The cave was about 8 ft. in diameter so, as you can see, it could fit quite a few people inside. There was another one right next to it that wasn’t completely hollowed out so it wasn’t as fun to take pictures in.
Note: not everything you see in pictures is real.
This used to be a lake. Now it’s a field?
Yay! This is a lake.
After taking a tour of the lake we stopped by an old Mining (and now Ghost) town called Keeler. It literally seemed like only 20 people lived there. Sorry I don’t have any pictures, check the other blog for that. Then we headed back to the hostel, grabbed some pizza and slept!
