Crews are made of one crewleader and three crewmembers. My crew goes by various names, such as Bad News Bears, any combination of two words that start with B with "and" in between, Team Blowin', Autobots, Star Team, and my personal favorite of Team Big Bowl.
We are led by crewleader of the year Chris "Honkytown" Mullen (his words). He knows his stuff and he used to work in a restaurant. We eat well. I told him about No Food Waste and he has taken it to heart. So much so, in fact, that he made me eat a whole bowl of jalapeños and raw onions with him in Zion at a restaurant. He is 26 and is from Vegas. He currently lives in Logan with his girlfriend who is known to the rest of us as "my girl." That hole in his shirt has since grown and created an oval sunburn on his shoulder.
On the left is "Sloppy Sophia" Ochoa (her words). She is a rising junior at Utah State studying biology. She has the biggest smile I have ever seen. Her family lives in Riverton on the south side of SLC and she periodically brings fresh herbs and veggies from her garden. They are magical and she knows how to find the best produce in the grocery store. She loves oldies music, especially Harry Belafonte. She is still unsuccessfully trying to teach us how to cha cha. She is 20.
On the right is "Hilarious Hillary" Hiatt. Hillary is soo jaded because she did UCC last year. She lives with her sister and her boyfriend in Logan to get away from her parents and the LDS church. She is a fellow vegetarian and an intense hipster. She loves horses and she showed me how to properly wield a lasso. She is chief DJ for team big bowl and has a special penchant for Fleet Foxes, Harry Nielsen, and Kristoff Krane. She is 19.
This is my crew. I have also befriended two members of another crew with which we frequently travel.
We are led by crewleader of the year Chris "Honkytown" Mullen (his words). He knows his stuff and he used to work in a restaurant. We eat well. I told him about No Food Waste and he has taken it to heart. So much so, in fact, that he made me eat a whole bowl of jalapeños and raw onions with him in Zion at a restaurant. He is 26 and is from Vegas. He currently lives in Logan with his girlfriend who is known to the rest of us as "my girl." That hole in his shirt has since grown and created an oval sunburn on his shoulder.
On the left is "Sloppy Sophia" Ochoa (her words). She is a rising junior at Utah State studying biology. She has the biggest smile I have ever seen. Her family lives in Riverton on the south side of SLC and she periodically brings fresh herbs and veggies from her garden. They are magical and she knows how to find the best produce in the grocery store. She loves oldies music, especially Harry Belafonte. She is still unsuccessfully trying to teach us how to cha cha. She is 20.
On the right is "Hilarious Hillary" Hiatt. Hillary is soo jaded because she did UCC last year. She lives with her sister and her boyfriend in Logan to get away from her parents and the LDS church. She is a fellow vegetarian and an intense hipster. She loves horses and she showed me how to properly wield a lasso. She is chief DJ for team big bowl and has a special penchant for Fleet Foxes, Harry Nielsen, and Kristoff Krane. She is 19.
This is my crew. I have also befriended two members of another crew with which we frequently travel.
Mitch "The Mange" Fosnaugh (my words) is from Bainbridge Island although he is too much a wanderer to really have a home. After high school, (about which he has crazy stories such as how for one class he had this insane teacher who drove them on a bus wildly through back roads in the forest to fill bear feeders) he got a one-way to London and turned it into backpacking and farming all the way to Bulgaria. He has experience with trail work in the North Cascades, and he has been to many other places. He keeps his trusty silver spoon in his pocket should ice cream ever be made available and he keeps the rest of his belongings in the thule on his subaru. He plays clawhammer banjo in addition to guitar. He occasionally has crazy eyes and is 20. He looks strikingly like John Muir.
"Jet-powered" Janet Zarate is in a similar situation to me in that she just graduated in Engineering from Swarthmore (which is apparently a Quaker matchbox.. read: swatties marry swatties) and has no conservation experience. She hails from Boise and rolls around in her olive Honda Odyssey that goes by the names of The Buffalo, The Bear Box, or Home depending on the setting. We travel together often on weekends. She laughs more than anyone I have ever met. After the summer she will go to Cape Cod to do a year of Americorps researching marine biology and teaching. She hopes to get there via a road trip in a diesel car that will be powered by diesel that she makes herself with old oil, methanol, and silica gel.
hey kevin, blog looks great and it sounds like things are staying pretty interesting in your life. it all sounds like an awesome experience and i'm looking forward to catching up with you when i get home and we have a chance. if i'm lucky enough, maybe you can teach me a thing or two in the wilderness. ps mitch definitely has the john muir look going, but christopher mccandless came to my mind
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