Follow Me Through The Wilderness: Step 14: Sun, Rain, Vomit, Needles and Sleep

The good times keep on rolling....but not without the bad.
7am departure once more on Wednesday February 17th. Although not without some slight changes. A fencing project which left on Monday for Lake Mead took our normal van, which left us with a Toyota Tundra which towed the trailer with our gear and carried 6 people as well as a 1995 Mercury Grand Marquis (the Boat) which also carried 6 people. Upon departure, our supervisor for some reason picked me to drive The Boat to the canyon. While everyone else was jealous and surely wondering what I had done to earn the honor of driving this luxurious vehicle, I knew it must have been because ACE heard how good I was at driving vans and rental vehicles to and from meets. In addition I assumed that I was probably the most experienced driver for someone having never owned a car out of the group so why should they not have picked me?
After handing me the keys they then inform me it has some issues. Like, it needs to warm up a lot to to lift up and engage the air suspension. Well hell if I know what "a lot" means when it is 15 degrees outside and how do I know when the rear end has lifted enough? So I used my best judgment and after 10 minutes I told my crew of foreigners to hop in so we could take off. I start backing out of the driveway and don't realize there is a big curb and fly off it bottoming out the air suspension, which does not lift up again. Uh oh. The car is still running so off we go to meet up with the tundra which is picking up supplies.
We arrive at the supply house and I inform my supervisor of the suspension issues. She is concerned, but with little other options she asks if I think I can get us to Grand Canyon. I tell her with me behind the wheel there is no doubt in my mind we shall be fine. So off we go for another Grand adventure in the Canyon.

On the way I get a chance to familiarize myself with our new crew members whom are volunteers from other countries. We have from Sweden, Tobias and Love (pronounced Loova). From Germany there is Moritz and from Scotland Michael. All 4 were handpicked from the 50 current volunteers as the most hardened and capable of handling the rigors of Grand Canyon work. And they looked it. All are well built European mountain men eager to move some big stones, such as atlas stones from the worlds strongest man competition. For example we get to camp and on the 1st work day when asked who wants to hike up 4 miles to the rock crusher Tobias answers in his thick and rough Swedish accent, "i vill crush stones." When we explain it is a machine that did it he was very disappointed that he would not be crushing the stones with his bare hands. But alas, all enjoyed the work tremendously and I have not seen harder working people than Swedes. Moritz and Michael worked hard, but their ceaseless joking often interfered. On day 2 Moritz learned the American phrase "to cock-block." While he struggled at first to use it correctly, he finally seemed to get the idea while it was raining on day 4 making work difficult when he exclaimed, "the rain is cock-blocking my work!" We were all very proud of him. We played cards endlessly at night after work. They loved crazy 8's, and bullshit and especially Egyptian Rat Screw which I taught them.

The Work
So yeah, the trip was a huge success in the fact that we learned a lot in the way of dry stone work (although with the rain it was often very wet and muddy stone work). We got a lot done crushing stones and laying crush along certain sections of trail, building rip-rap cobbled ramps on the steep switchbacks, and building retaining liners out of huge stones. Each day, one of the interns would take a turn being taught how to create rip-rap. This was fascinating, but extremely time consuming, physically demanding work and certainly tested your patience. On the first work day I did not learn the rip-rap, but rather spent all day rolling the huge stones we would be using for liner rocks down the hillside. I'm not sure if there is a job in the world that is more fun than rolling boulders down the side of Grand Canyon. On the final 2 work days that I was not learning rip-rap or rolling boulders down the canyon-side I was installing liner rocks which was also very enjoyable, but frustrating in the mud and rain. For the mathematically inclined you may notice I have now listed all the days I worked, but they only add up to 4, while there should be 6 on an 8 day hitch. While the most reasonable explanation for this is laziness, it is not the case...

Not for the faint of heart
On Sunday, the 4th work day, all started normally. Ate a tasty oatmeal, raisin, granola mixture for breakfast. Got my stretch on. Had a nice morning hike to the work-site which was being deluged with rain/sleet and began installing liner rocks. However, about this time I started work I noticed something was not right inside me. My stomach was churning and I felt weak, and we all know I never feel weak. Yet I continued to work until our first break. I had zero appetite or thirst for water. Not good. Then just at the end of break it hits me and I scramble quickly up the hillside to a sheltered spot before being tormented with diarrhea. Being determined to finish out my section of liner I focus on getting to lunch which I do successfully, but get very little work accomplished. I finally go to my supervisor and explain the situation. We discuss, and finally agree that I shall go back to camp and rest the remainder of the day so I shall be good to go the next day. By the time I get back to camp it is nearly 2. I have had little food or water since breakfast and have had 3 bouts of diarrhea. I try and stomach a slice of bread and water, but 10 minutes later I am vomiting. The vomit/diarrhea 1-2 punch continues to knock me down until 5:00pm when they return from work. Expecting to find me all better my supervisor is not pleased to see me bedridden as I am. She tries to get me to have gatorade against my pleas that it will make me vomit. I concede to have some, and then she concedes that I was right when I vomit 5 minutes later. At this juncture she goes to the ranger station and they tell her to bring me right away. So she does, and I go. The backcountry ranger on duty I find out is extremely experienced and a trained paramedic so at least I feel I am in good hands. After explaining my symptoms throughout the day they take my vitals and it is discovered I have a body temperature of 93.2 degrees. Not what any of us wanted to hear. The ranger then informs me that she is going to give me an IV. She goes about getting this ready with her assistant at which point I tell her I am somewhat extremely terrified of needles. She assures me not to worry and there is no one better than her. She looks at my veins and exclaims how wonderfully big they are and how easy it this will be. She begins and I look away. Quickly I realize something is amiss as something I assumed should have taken very little time with my "wonderful big veins" is taking a bit too long. I look down and see she is having issues sticking it because my "wonderfully big veins" have wonderfully thick walls and there is a wonderfully powerful valve that she is stuck on. I start to pass out at this and upon coming back to my senses realize I have begun vomiting and the assistant has been forced to run and get me a bucket. Luckily the drama is finally over. They shoot me up with IV fluid and nausea and diarrhea drugs and they put me to sleep.
The next morning feeling better, but completely exhausted, my temperature is back up to 97 degrees, and I am able to stomach some food and water. Over the next 2 days I just slept and prepared to be ready to hike out Wednesday. Based off the fact that 3 other of my crew members came down with similar but not as severe of symptoms following my illness the ranger surmised it was a contagious viral infection that I got. Although how and where I picked it up will never be known.

I am now back in Flagstaff feeling almost 100% again and ready to enjoy my days off before going back to the canyon next Tuesday for hopefully a more healthy adventure.
Pictures. Here are a couple but check out the whole album for more. You will notice a series of pictures from a storm. Probably the most incredible weather yet. Simply spectacular. Little waterfalls popping up everywhere and you will see one large one that appeared across the canyon.