There are two many people and a cat in this bed!

I blinked and this session is half over.  The beautiful Arizona sunshine has been keeping me warm and with a smile on my face.  I spend my weekends biking about town with my beautiful housemates adventuring and dancing and yoga-ing and eating good food.  I live with three delightful friends (Adria, Snail, and Brendan) in a small apartment in the heart of Tucson.  Walking distance from anything I need.  Biking distance from anything I want.  Living the dream.

I am leading a Valley of the Sun conservation crew that I am not entirely sure does not have some sort of bad juju curse.  While myself and the office are based out of Tucson, my crew and work are based out of Phoenix.  I drive up to Phoenix every Monday at 4am and am back every Thursday by 10pm.  We have been working in Tonto National Forest in the Superstitions Wilderness for the last six weeks making the best out of poorly planned and long neglected trails of the most beautiful persuasion.  My initial crew of 7 were thrown in to big time rock work first thing and they passed the test of Bluff Springs Trail with flying colors.  By the time we moved on to JF Ranch three weeks later we were down to five crew members.  At JF my temporary co-leader Gabe dropped two rocks on his foot and was out for the count to urgent care to make sure his metatarsals weren't broken.  (Just severely bruised.)  Two more crew members were out last week due to personal and family issues.  Then another was taken to the emergency room to deal with a pre-existing condition.  I feel like every Monday my crew meets me at the ranger with terrible story after terrible story - family members dieing, car crashes, serious personal health issues, family issues, personal issues.  But as a crew, they are beautiful.  They work together like peanut butter and jelly with efficiency and respect and joy.  They are a wonderful crew and if we can just keep them together we can accomplish amazing things!

I have been offered and accepted a job leading a trail crew with the Maine Appalachian Trail Club for the summer!  I will be quickly heading east in May!