Weed Warriors

Bill and I signed up to go out on a weeding expedition this morning. The National Monument Service has lots of programs and this is one of them. We thought it would be interesting and a chance to see Indian Canyon. We arrived at 8:00 am with long pants and shirts sleeves ready to work. There were four other volunteers and the park leader. She took us up the canyon then distributed black plastic bags and helped us identify the dreaded Sierra Mustard and a grass similar to our prairie foxtail. We then weeded for three hours!

Visitors to the pass would stop and question our behaviour but then congratulate us for our hard work. That and free Gatoraide kept us going. The other intrepid volunteers are the complete team who have been at work for four years. Our first thought was the impossibility of the task but one of the women assured me that this was the first trip into this canyon and that the other locations are now almost weed-free and easy to maintain.

We became intimate with the thorns of the mesquite bush and I had one tiny little fire ant give me a sample of their work. One of the other volunteers was flapping and jumping when she encountered them - they are up your sleeves and pant legs before you know it. My vicious little guy got me while on a walk so I had the opportunity of experiencing the amazing slow heat and pain of one bite without wanting to run crazily down the path to the river.

Bill didn't complain once, was bleeding from mesquite thorns, carried more than his share of garbage bags full of weeds down the winding path to the parking lot, and gave the whole experience a 6! Our only issue was the lack of promised gloves and the resulting thorns we are still picking out of our fingers....