life by the light of a headlamp.

well, it's sunday night, and i'm getting ready to go on my next trail adventure, but i thought i'd share some highlights from my first trail "hitch".

last monday morning i packed up in a van with 5 others headed to the willard brook state forest in central massachusetts. we stayed at a really nice campsite and worked on the dead swamp trail.

when we arrived at the trail, we walked the loop, identifying problem spots as we hiked. after much ado, we decided to tackle a few muddy, wet spots on the trail. the next four days were full of lots of hard work, dirt, bugs, and good times. i enjoyed getting to use my new trail work skills with some great folks. we worked together well as a team and provided good support for one another as we muddled through the mud.

since we were working in areas with standing water, we saw lots of fun amphibians (orange salamanders and frogs!), but we also experienced lots of bugs...most notably mosquitoes and black flies. i've never lived in an area with black flies...but man, they are ANNOYING! they fly all around your face, land on you and bite...then the bites itch. i think they are more annoying than mosquitoes.

i saw the start of a wasp nest on an oak leaf. apparently wasps sting the oak leaf so much in a part that it mutates and the wasps can lay their eggs in the spherical shape that remains. it was so awesome! in other nature sightings, i saw a swallowtail butterfly (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swallowtail_butterfly). it was really beautiful!


one afternoon we needed to fill up the gas tank in the van and on our drive back through town we saw a chicken. crossing the road. ha ha!

we did encounter some struggles like the morning that a few people weren't feeling well, our cooler fell out of the minivan trunk smashing most of our eggs and the box of nails broke sending them all over the ground...but we worked through those struggles and ended up draining 5, 18 and 30 foot puddles as well as building 3 foot bridges and setting a stepping stone.

our campsite was really nice. we had the "taj mahal" of bathhouses...(that's what our contact called the bathhouse, which was really nice with hot showers and running water) and started to feel more comfortable using the camp kitchen for cooking. our last dinner together was spent along a pond eating hobo dinners (veggies cooked in aluminum foil over a fire...yummy!). loved it : )

i'm a crew leader for this next trail adventure...i have a rather large to-do list for the morning, but for now, it is time for bed!