it has been a while since my last entry because i haven't had access to a computer for the better part of two weeks. i'm waiting for my laundry to finish, so it's the perfect time to recollect on my trail experiences. after finishing a 5 day hitch and having 1 day off (not really a day "off" since i had oodles of errands to run and emails to check), i spent my sunday getting ready for another adventure. since i was leading a crew, i had extra paperwork to worry about, food and tool pack-out to coordinate, and lots of other little tasks to stress over. however, sunday went well! we got all of the food and tools we needed, and i even had time to make some sweet potato bread, chop vegetables for our first meal and take a walk around the pond.
on monday, i was up early to get myself ready to lead! once everything was packed, we drove out to leominster, ma - stopping at the wachusett mountain state reservation to drop off our personal gear and food (that's where we were staying) and then headed to the worksite at the leominster state forest. i must say, the staff at wachusett mountain are AMAZING! we were greeted by bernie, this entertaining park employee who told us lots of fun stories from his time at the forest.
we spent the rest of monday, all day tuesday and wednesday morning doing some rock work on a steep slope at the leominster state forest. moving heavy rocks on a steep slope is a little unnerving at first, but we were able to figure things out.
wednesday afternoon we packed up and headed to the otter river state forest to volunteer with the massachusetts envirothon. the envirothon is a high school science competition where student teams take tests and make presentations on a wide variety of enviromental subjects including ground water, watersheds, forestry, wildlife and soil. we helped set up a lot of tents, tables and chairs on wednesday evening. then we froze in our tents that night...not exactly ideal...but it comes with the life of trail work. the day of the envirothon we bummed around here and there...helping direct people where the needed to go, manning a display booth about SCA programs, generally being awesome in our "conservation begins here" shirts. in the afternoon we led a service project clearing some branches on a nature trail. we were expecting 30 students and only had 7...so it was kind of a bust, but the students who volunteered with us had a great time wearing hard hats, using tools and learning about some of the trail work practices we use on a day-to-day basis, so it was a success. once we were done with our project, we cleaned up camp and headed back to wachusett/leominster.
as a side note, we met this great fellow named joe who gave us flagging tape with the state of texas imprinted on it and told us of his experience in trail building near our site in leominster. apparently he was with a crew that build some shelters along the midstate trail. one of these shelters was later used by, in his words, a "martial arts ninja group" who literally destroyed the shelter in their practices. he said they found ninja stars all over the walls and so much damage that the shelter had to be taken down. hilarious!!
for a mid-hitch crew leader surprise, i bought everyone their favorite candy and gave them out after the envirothon. i think that went over quite well : ) the rest of the hitch went well. we completed 2 rock water bars (to divert water off the trail...reducing erosion), cleared drainage ditches for 7 existing water bars so that they will be more effective at diverting water, removed a dead tree from the middle of the trail, built a rock check step to help control the water and build up the walking surface, and did some general sprucing (haha, tree pun!) of the trail for the start of the season.
our off time was pretty great : ) we were staying by a mountain so we climbed to the summit one evening to watch the sunset, visited a wind turbine farm on the side of the summit, played sardines in the visitors center, made delicious meals and made packing tape poetry (think DIY magnetic poetry with packing tape!). we had our ups and downs with energy levels, but all in all, i'm very happy with how the week went. we only had 1 injury...and it was me...(i had a rock bar, a 17 lbs lever, fall on my shin while we were attempting to move a heavy rock in a slightly unsafe location)...but i'm fine and just have a nasty looking bruise (it's like a sunset on my shin!).
it was especially great for me because i did not have a lot of experience in rock work prior to this hitch and now i feel much more confident in my ability to complete a rock project. i also discovered that i like sharpening tools! who would have known. i will be leading another crew on the last hitch at mount greylock. wahoo!
i treated myself with a weekend excursion to new york city! a few of us left wednesday night and spent thursday and friday wandering around. it was my first time in nyc, so i had a great time. i think thursday was one of the more perfect day of my life...we saw so many wonderful exciting places, including a gorgeous sunset in battery park. it was just great! i even made it to contra dancing back in MA last night, which was also a lot of fun!
well...my laundry is just about done. so long for two weeks!
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