Wednesday was the day we spent with Emily, Quin, and Tal doing trail maintenance on a sandy trail mostly used by people on horseback. It was a very laborious day filled with trimming back oak and the beautiful manzanita. We were also in charge of removing the cacti known as prickly pears from the trail. The trail was made up of mostly sand, so we all got a great workout trekking through it. At one point, we had to stop working in order to let a group of fifteen horses through. Even though I am quite scared of horses, the horse ride seemed like it would be very fun, and I would have welcomed one when we finished work for the day but still had to hike back to civilization.
Again, this work did not seem to be a big deal, but Quin explained that at this point in the season, only he and Tal would do the work on the more than three mile long trail. With ten of us working, we got about as much work done in an afternoon that the two would be able to do in a few days of work. All of the rangers we met throughout the week did a great job of letting us know that our work was appreciated and that we were being a big help to prepare for their upcoming season.
After working on the trail for a little more than seven hours, we drove into the nearby town of Springdale to shower for the first time since we had left on Sunday morning. Unfortunately, the shower cost five dollars and only lasted five minutes. However, it was much needed after the sandy and dusty work of the day, and I felt quite refreshed. We decided to spoil ourselves and eat in town at Oscar's, a highly recommended local restaurant. Their burgers were delicious and kept us quite full until the next morning. After dinner, we made a trip across town to Walmart to stock up on more food for the remainder of the trip.
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