Southwest Field Studies 2005 Field Reports

Previous Years

January 9th, 2005 Phiffer Camp, Little Rock AR

After our first day of driving away from Earlham we are staying at Phiffer Camp, an academic as well as experiential learning environment for at risk youth in the Little Rock area. We met Sanford Toilette, the caretaker and original founder of the camp, who explained to us the reasons for Phiffer camp, and gave us insight into many cultural issues of the southern colored community. Some of our group accompanied Sanford to church on Sunday morning and met the pastor and his family. Then we got a car tour of Little Rock, and lots of background information on Central High school, where colored people first attended an all white school. After that we attended a graduation ceremony for third and fourth graders having just graduated from the camp Phiffer program. Thereafter we had some free time to go for walks and study the natural history of the area, as well as its flora and fauna. Later after discussion we slept in the cabins on real beds for the last time before our desert adventure started.

January 13th, 2005 Big Bend National Park/Lajitas, Below the Saddle

After having several days of logistics, lectures from Big Bend National Park officials and lessons on desert survival, (hee hee) we were finally ready to start out first backcountry hike. Backpacks were packed and ready, all looking trim and professional after the "how to pack a backpack" lesson from Andrew. We each carried six liters of water, personal gear, and food for a week, as well as climbing gear for rappelling Bruja Canyon. Everyone was looking forward to hiking, and we had just gotten started when after about twenty minutes the leaders called us together to search for camp. Ahh man, we had just gotten into hiking!! Oh well, more time for Great Survival Skills In The Desert 101.

January 15, 2005 Big Bend National Park/Tanaja Rana

We have a layover day at the Tanaja. It is great to have time to sit and watch the mountains in the evenings. We can see Mexico, and the surrounding Rio Grande area from the cliff that we camped near. There is something about these mountains that fills you up, heart, mind and soul, to ponder. Our group has our first community check-in, and then time to go to the canyon and get water. We spend a fair amount of time exploring, going deeper and deeper into the canyon until we come to a drop-off with a tanaja at the bottom. Siri and Andrew fill up water in the drums, which turns out to be quite a funny situation because the nozzle comes open in Andrews bag, and there is water everywhere (insert: much howling and distress on Andrews part). For dinner we have cal zones for the first time backcountry, thanks to Ruth's ingenious cooking. Andrea makes scrambled brownies for desert, and although we attempt to eat them all its fairly impossible.

January 18th 2005 Big Bend National Park/Head of Bruja Canyon

Its up bright and early before the sun rises to get packed out for the canyoneering. The night before we met Peter Masiyo, from Voyager Outward Bound, who came to help us with the canyon. So this morning we are all fumbling around in the dark to get gear ready and waterproofed. The leaders tell us what gear needs to be accessible at the top of our packs (Damn, there is just not enough room at the top, I think I need a spacer). We all stand around and wait to see what the weather is like, because overnight it has been a little cloudy, and we have to be real careful in the canyon. So we wait, and wait some more, looking at the clouds and the chances of get slimmer and slimmer. Finally we circle up and have a group discussion about the matter, and the leaders tell us that we will not be going down the canyon. Sad. But it's ok, because they do a really good job of explaining the risks, and getting us to understand. We are a little disappointed, but are still going to repel down the Notch with all our stuff! It's quite an adventure. Peter and Andrew set up the repel, and we go bouncing and jouncing along this rope down the cliff with our packs on. No major mishaps, Steph creates an alternate route down and Tom almost gets stabbed to death by a Spanish Dagger plant. But everyone survives with only a couple bruised knuckles and ripped pants. After that we explore the mouth of the canyon and get water. We found the matatas where Native Americans used to grind their flour, and we jump up and around all the huge boulders. Getting to good water is an adventure. We have to go up the birth canal, instead of down, which proves to be quite a trick. Fortunately a couple people squeeze through and we fill the water drums for the next camp. After we leave the mouth we hike across the gypsum flats to where our camp will be. On the way someone steps on a lizards, and its tail comes off. Andrew catches the lizard with much shrieking and excitement from certain parties. Camp that night is on soft sand. The gyps um sparkles as the sun goes down.

January 20th 2005 Big Bend National Park/ Chisos Basin

Today is our off day, woohaaaa. No one is really that excited, because we are all still sleeping in. Last night we went to do laundry and take showers at Rio Grande Village. Showers are so nice. After that we headed down to the hot springs for a couple of hours. The Rio feels good after sitting in the springs for a long time. Today not much has happened. A few people went hiking to the SE Rim and out to the Window. Its great just to be chilling.

January 24th 2005 Redford TX

This morning our group got the privilege of having a meeting with the Border Patrol. We were introduced to the history of the BP, and then they gave us several demonstrations on drug search methods, tracking, and they showed us their arsenal of weapons. We watched Puck, the drug dog sniff out marijuana that was planted in one of the patrol cars. The officers also showed us fake tire rims that had been taken from eighteen-wheelers crossing the border. They also showed us how they tracked people crossing the border, and showed us a pair of shoes that were designed with cow hooves on the bottoms, so that BP wouldn't see any footprints crossing the dirt road near the Rio. They happily showed us all of the weapons and gear they had, including several M-16's, an infrared detector and night vision goggles. We left nearly an hour and a half after we had been scheduled to leave, because of their extreme enthusiasm. After lunch we headed back to Redford and met with Enrique and Ruby Madrid. It was several more hours of listening, and information overload, but Enrique is one of the most informative people we have met so far. He talked a lot about power and the bad effects of the border and the BP. He spoke a lot about the Native American tribes disrupted by the division, and said he hoped to see a time when there would no longer be a border. After the discussion we were invited to make tortillas and have dinner. Enrique showed us a formula for making a perfectly round tortilla, and we all attempted to follow suit, although we were marginally successful, except for Steph, who became the master tortilla maker. Dinner was absolutely fabulous, and we all overstuffed ourselves and then walked back to the campsite at Lucy's.

January 25th 2005 Redford TX/ Rio Grande

Today we went whitewater canoeing on the Rio. It had been postponed and so everyone was really ready to go. The water was disappointingly low, but we made the best of it. There were a couple nice rapids, and we played in them a lot practicing ferrying across the current and peeling out. A little further down river there was a huge eddy and Steph and Ellen got baptized. Eva and Ruth took on a lot of water, and their battle cry was "Paddle for your lives!" After righting the canoe and getting everything back together we continued to our takeout sight not far down the river.

January 27th 2005 Big Bend Ranch State Park/ Rancherias Loop

Today we had a great birding lesson from Andrew while we stopped at a spring on the trail. Continuing on the hike the clouds got darker and darker, and we watched as a large storm blew in from Mexico towards us. We had our first lightning drill and sat among the creosote and mesquite as it thundered above our heads. Within half an hour the storm had blown over and soon after the sun came out, making us shed rain gear and extra layers, decorating the outside of our backpacks with drying laundry. We set up camp near a wash that lead to Rancherias spring, in an alluvium flat of creosote and ocotillo. While making dinner a large front came in from the west over the mountains and we watched the sun set and turn the underside of the cloud orange and yellow. As the storm grew, we went into lightning drill and we sat in two's chopping onions and cheese for a dinner of burritos. As the storm grew the desert turned a strange fluorescent green, lighting the plants and the cliffs to the north of us with a strange hew. Behind us the sky turned purple with white puffy clouds and a double rainbow appeared. We sat there awed by this display, watching lightning on the ridge flashing, and counting to thunder. We waited for the rain, but it didn't come, and the sun continued to set and turn the clouds brilliant colors.

January 29th 2005 Big Bend Ranch State Park/ Rancherias Loop

Today was our last day of the Rancherias hike. We woke up and hiked down to the spring to fill up on water before the long haul. After some initial confusion about where the trail was, we started hiking down to the trailhead. The hike was beautiful with many great views down on the Rio Grande and the Sierra del Carmen mountains on the Mexico side of the river. After about 6 miles and roughly 2000 feet in elevation loss we arrived at the vans and drove back to the Outward Bound base camp to clean and stow our gear. We then promptly fell asleep, what a day.

January 31st 2005 On the road. Redford TX and Hueco Tanks TX

Jamie woke everyone up at 6:00 am today so that we would get to Hueco Tanks with plenty of time for bouldering and playing around there. We left camp at 6:40 and drove for about 4 hours. When we got to Hueco, we went through the customary visitor orientation about the site and it's historic value, and then on with the climbing. Jamie and Andrew gave us a lesson on bouldering technique and safety, and then we spent the rest of the day playing on the rocks, exploring caves, and practicing our skills.

February 1st 2005 Hueco Tanks and Tucson

Woke up fairly early today and packed all our things into the trailer, then went over to the Interpretation building for a lecture on the history and current happenings in Hueco Tanks. Very interesting and definitely worth the time spent. We then had lunch and spent a couple more hours climbing and playing. At around 3pm we got in the vans and drove on to Tucson, where we stayed in the Quaker meetinghouse there. It is quite a nice place and we are very thankful to the people there for letting us stay in such a nice facility. Tomorrow is an off day!!! Whoohooo!

February 3rd 2005 Tucson

Yay, logistics. We spent most of today shopping and planning and packing and getting ready to go to Mexico. We also meant to update the webpage today, but technical difficulties reared their ugly heads.

February 4th 2005 Tucson

Today we went to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and listened to several lectures about the plant life that we will be seeing as we drive up to El Cordon. We also spent the afternoon walking around the Museum checking out all of the cool exhibits. They have a bunch of different animals and plants and displays on the natural history of the desert. People particularly enjoyed the hummingbird aviary and the other free flight aviary, and Eva particularly enjoyed trying to talk to the turkeys with her turkey call with mixed results and much group hilarity. This evening we met Mike Grey, an AFSC service project leader who will be with us through out Mexico.

February 5th 2005 On the road, again.

Wake up early; get in the vans (seems to be a sort of theme) and then on to Hermosillo, Mexico. The drive down was very interesting; we saw many different types of plant life, and many different types of human life. We drove through Nogales, which is one of the more chaotic places many of us have ever been. The border crossing was non-eventful, and we obtained our visas with out any trouble. That night we stayed with Lucy and her family in Hermosillo. She is wonderful; we had a wonderful meal with her and then crashed.

February 6th 2005 Still on the 'Road'

We left early this morning, having gained one person, Manolo. He is an aspiring photographer who has worked with Mike before and wants to take some pictures of El Cordon and is catching a ride with us. We started off right, missing the road out of Hermosillo, and consequently ended up with a very interesting van ride. We crossed 3 rivers, the first two of which had a cement road under the water on which to drive on, and the third was just a gravel ford. We popped a tire on the third crossing, but broke out the spare and were back in business within half an hour. We then drove up onto the mesa that El Cordon was on. The road was very rough and steep with some sharp switchbacks, but we made it with out any serious incident. Upon arrival at El Cordon, it was dark and we were very tired, so we just crashed in the one empty house that was provided for us.

February 7th 2005 El Cordon

When we woke up the next morning, Mike showed us around and introduced us to the families that we would be staying with for the next 5 days. We split up into 4 groups by gender and by ability to speak Spanish to stay with our families. We spent some time getting to know our families and then went off to haul firewood with some of the local teenagers. We spent the rest of the day just living in the community working and getting to know people.

February 8th 2005 El Cordon

Today we went to a nearby community called La Mesa de Abajo to visit the community there and see a completed version of the project we are going to start in El Cordon. We spent most of the day there just walking around and talking to people. Andrea also spent some time trying to decide whether or not she wanted to buy a saddle from the local leatherworker. Then back to El Cordon for dinner with our respective families.

February 9th-11th 2005 El Cordon

We spent most of the rest of our time in El Cordon working on leveling an area for a water tank, and working on other small projects around town. We also spent some time playing volleyball with them. It just happened that the volleyball court was the same space that we had just spent all that time leveling and smoothing, go figure. We also did some painting, built a cement wall, fixed some potholes in the road, and helped do some gardening.

February 12th 2005 El Cordon

Today we are leaving El Cordon, although it has been raining for the last 12 or so hours and the roads are looking a little questionable. We made it about 25 feet down the road before we got a flat tire on the second van. We now have no more spare tires, but we decided to push on anyway, and after a long and harrowing ride down to the bottom of the mesa, we reached the paved road. After a quick stop in the nearest town with a tire shop to get some new spare tires, we drove back to Hermosillo, where we again bought more food then I have ever seen in my life (ok not really, but close). Then we went on to Prescott College Field Station in Kino Bay. What a glorious place, there is a nice sandy beach on which to watch sunrises and sunsets from, and a large rocky point to explore looking for hermit crabs and other fun things.

February 13th 2005 Kino Bay

Today we spent most of the day debriefing and writing papers. Yay.........

February 14th 2005 Kino Bay

OFF DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

February 15th Kino Bay

Spent an hour this morning talking about the Seri and getting ready to drive there. Then we got in the vans and went, with a brief stop for some natural history along the way. When we got there, it was dark and we found our lodgings and crashed.

February 16th-19th Desemboque

We met with Laurie Monty, who has been working with the Seri for about 8 years, and talking with her about what kinds of things we would be doing during our stay here. We met the group she has been working with, called the Para ecologists. They are a group of Seri who are working to incorporate Western scientific knowledge with the traditional knowledge of the Seri. The group that we were working with where doing a study on how sustainable the oregano harvest is. We spent an afternoon marking oregano plants and stripping the leaves off of them to see how well they will recover in future years. The time here just seems to slip by; we are busy learning about their culture and about the natural history of the area. On our second to last day here, we went to Isla Tiburon. It is a sacred island for the Seri because they have lived there for many generations, and at one point they used the island to hide out from the Mexican soldiers who were trying to exterminate them. The Para ecologists showed us some of the plants that the Seri use for food, medicine and spiritual needs, and we spent some time just exploring the island. Our last night here, they threw a party for us, with some traditional gambling games, traditional food, and dancing. It was a blast, we all tried to dance, but Ellen was the only person who had much success. We had a great time getting know the Seri a little better.

February 20th Desemboque

Several of us went out fishing and crabbing with the Seri this morning. It was a lot of fun; we saw all kinds of sea birds and animals, including osprey, pelicans, dolphins and a grey whale. We got back from that trip at around noon, and with the fish we had caught, and with some of the crabs as a parting gift, we returned to Desemboque to say our goodbyes to the Seri. It seemed like it was too soon to be leaving but it was time to go. So after a long round of goodbyes and exchanges of gifts we left to drive back to Kino Bay. We arrived in Kino just as a high school group did, and shortly after a group from Prescott arrived. So we are now all living with and around each other.

February 21st Kino

Academic day. We spent most of the day working on papers, with some breaks for soccer and Frisbee games with the Prescott students.

February 22nd Kino

Last day before spring break. Must finish paper.....

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