Jen looks at screen in the control room of the USS Pampanito, a submarine built in 1943 at the Navy Yard Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in just nine months, and at a cost of $6 million. After use in the Pacific during World War II, the Pampanito docked at San Francisco.
Dylan walks up stairs to Ghirardelli Sqaure in San Francisco, where we proceed to eat chocolates and purchase wine.
It was gay pride weekend in San Francisco when we went, and the Mission Doroles Park was a center for rallying around the cause.
Suddenly in San Francisco, there was lots of honking and people shouting out in the streets, as well as cars swooping by equipped with Mexican flags. We were walking back home and had no idea what was going on. Apparently, Mexico had won a soccer match against the United States. As Dylan said, "only in the United States would it be tolerated for the winning team to celebrate so openly in the losing team's country."
The crew commissions single track trail in a recreational area by Pyramid Lake, NV managed by the BLM. We were charged with creating a re-route for OHVs around an area that was recently designated as culturally sensitive. We were apparently not qualified to know what was culturally sensitive about the area, but we gathered that this area, named Spirit Canyon, was of significance to neighboring Native American tribes who perhaps performed rituals in this Canyon. Above, the crew walks through Spirit Canyon.
After work on Thursday, the last day of hitch, we take a dip into Pyramid Lake.
The crew walks over the trail at the end of the day to return to camp for the evening.
A GBI vehicle has no choice but to venture through a flooded road. There were certainly no intact, water-free adjacent roads we could have taken instead.
Dylan waits for the tube (BART - Bay Area Rapid Transport). We went to San Francisco for our three-day weekend and stayed at a hostel called El Capitan.
Dylan, Jen and Erica sit by a railing on the south side of the Golden Gate Bridge as we contemplate where we're going next.
The longest line we've ever seen for an ice cream shop. It's the Bi-Rite Creamery by Mission Dolores Park in San Francisco. Delicious but probably not worth the price and line.
The crew heads down the stairs to a BART station.
The crew rendezvous near the trailhead of the Wilson Canyon trail by Yerington, NV, at the end of the day for a brief meeting. After two hitches, we had completed 3.7 miles of trail. As a result of such a feat, Austin has designated our crew as GBI Special Forces.
The Wilson Canyon area is teeming with petrified wood. This petrified stump is becoming exposed after years of erosion. This area outside of Yerington used to be covered in pine trees before climate change resulted in the arid desert that exists today. Although there is no volcanic activity now, the topography used to be very erratic, and fallen pine trees would be covered in soils, leaving them no oxygen needed to decompose. All organic materials in the wood are eventually replaced with minerals while maintaining the original structure of the wood.
Phil, Austin and Luke build cairns, or reassurance markers, alongside the trail in Wilson Canyon.
After more strong winds at Wilson Canyon, some tents needed to be taken down.