This hitch was the last. Refuges have been inventoried- no sign left unmarked and no glaring erosion issues overlooked. Data is ready, well, nearly ready, to be sent to Federal Highways. And all of us interns are heaving big signs of relief—well, sighs of relief tempered with groans of the soon-to-be unemployed.
Anyhow, this last hitch was titled: Go big! And then go home. Going big was not a challenge. Xuan and I landed in Albuquerque, NM and were scheduled to work our way through New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. This hitch we hit the ground running. We touched down in Albuquerque and picked up our rental. Then we went grocery shopping at a lovely food co-op in the city and headed out of town and straight to our first refuge: Sevilleta NWR. This hitch was all 2.5-ing. We got a bit ahead in our work schedule so the past few months most crews have been re-visiting refuges to hike all of their trails, not just the ones refuge managers suspected had new additions. There was only a short trail on Sevilleta and so we were able to get into the town of Truth or Consequences at a decent hour to check in to our fantastic room at Riverbend Hot Springs Inn. T or C is a hot springs town on the Rio Grande. It has a cool feel to it- lots of artist galleries, health food shops, and, of course, hot springs. The Riverbend place had rooms in refurbished mobile homes. It sounds kind of weird, but it was very cool. And the hot pools on the Rio Grande were sublime. We felt a bit like we were on a vacation.
We stayed in T or C for a few days while we worked nearby at Bosque del Apache NWR.
 |
| Bosque del Apache NWR |
 |
| Hiking at Bosque del Apache |
We (me and Xuan, my coworker) decided we would work really long days so we could maximize our free time. So we were able to take a day to go bouldering at Hueco Tanks state park in Texas and had time to explore Santa Fe and Taos. We got some snow and shivers up at the Taos ski area, some excellent Mexican food near Santa Fe (tableside guacamole service!) and some good snowy walks in Carson National Forest.
 |
| Snowman in Taos |
 |
| It sparkled |
 |
| Earthship house outside of Taos |
 |
| Hueco Tanks State Park... success! |
 |
| Palo Duro State Park |
 |
| "The Grand Canyon of Texas" |
Unfortunately our time in New Mexico had to end and we headed east into northern Texas. We stayed the night in Palo Duro State Park or “The Grand Canyon of Texas” and experienced the town of Amarillo, TX. I will not be back.
From there we drove and drove until we reached the Wichita Mountains in Oklahoma. . I wasn’t expecting to like Oklahoma too much, but it was actually a pretty cool place. I noticed that it seemed like in every small town we passed though all the houses were very neat and well-kept. Much more so than most towns in the south. We started at Wichita Mountains NWR, which is a very cool place. The mountains, well, “mountains” rise up from the flat landscape impressively. It’s like this: ________/^\/^\/^\______. Apparently the mountains used to be a playground for the rich and famous. And they nearly decimated the wild animal population. This refuge is a success story. It is now once again home to wild herds of Bison, Elk, and Longhorn. We met up with one beefy bison on a trail- we gave him plenty of room. I got to have a longhorn burger thanks to the other employee staying in the bunkhouse. The bunkhouse itself was interesting- it was cobblestone, the historic style of the area, cobbled of stones collected in the mountains. When we pulled up there was this giant Bison hide lying out to dry.
 |
| Texas |
After Wichita Mountains we drove to Oklahoma City for groceries. While we were there we checked out the climbing gym and ate Vietnamese food in Little Saigon. Our next stop was Tishmingo NWR. There was only about a mile of trail to walk, but we spent an extra day there to catch up on data work. We were also invited to a Partner’s luncheon. We accepted and spent lunch with about 70 men and about three women… and a lot of tasty southern foods- fried fish donated by the fishermen in the group, hush puppies, French fried potatoes, baked beans, chili, hot dogs, pie, pudding, and other great looking dishes that I couldn’t fit into my stomach.
Approaching our last week now we drove to Arkansas and spent a few nights at Hot Springs National Park. we didn’t go into any hot springs (they’re all privatized) but we hiked a bit and went into Little Rock one day. We worked at Felsenthal NWR in southern AR and then dipped into northern Louisiana for Black Bayou Lake NWR. Then, even though we put it off as long as possible, we crossed the state line into Mississippi. We were visiting refuges to re-walk all the trails two guys had covered earlier in the year with a bad Trimble (means possibly inaccurate data). From what these guys told us, Mississippi was a big muddy mosquito pit. So we didn’t have high hopes. But I think we hit it at a better time of year- not so much mud and some rather pretty fall colors. And only about three mosquitoes. Of course the Mississippi mud that was still there did catch us- we, well, I got the van stuck as we drove one of the ATV trails. After an hour of fruitlessly jamming branches under the tires in attempts to get some traction we had to text someone at the Boise office and have them call the refuge manager, since the cell phone reception wasn’t good enough for us to get out a call. The refuge manager arrive about an hour later and pulled us out. We didn’t drive anymore trails that day. And Mississippi Mud ice cream with now be a new experience for me.
 |
| Stuck in the mud |
 |
| Cypress trees in Mississippi |
 |
| Fall colors |
 |
| Tirelessly working away |
 |
| The little nook in our room |
We spent our last few days at a lovely B&B just south of Jackson. There we worked tirelessly on cleaning up data and making sure everything is 100% ready to go.
We returned to Boise on Saturday and it felt like we barely unpacked before we had to pack up again and head back to the airport for one final trip. We spent four days in West Virginia at the National Conservation Training Center meeting refuge folks, making a movie (well, a training-type video), and inventorying their trails in the driving, cold West Virginia rain. But that’s another story for another time.
 |
| Taking up space in the airport |
Back in Boise now. The job officially ends tomorrow and most people head home on Tuesday. I’m so ready for this to be over. What just happened?! That’s what I’ll be figuring out these coming months. For now I am happy to be officially renting an apartment in Boise. Now every day I will put my shoes by the same door and put my head down to sleep on the same bed every night. It’s going to be great.
