last monday found 6 of us piled into a minivan with a trailer hitched to the back, full of everything we needed for 10 days of hard work, good eats, and enjoyable free time. it was actually the same minivan i've been in for all of my hitches...which is fine, but kind of strange.
for this hitch, we camped at f. gilbert hills (to this day, no one knows what the 'f' stands for!) in foxborough, ma. FG hills was central to our two work sites. we spent the first week building up the tread on an eroded section of trail at the borderland state park. the work was fine, not terribly challenging, but it kept us busy. the staff were AWESOME. our contact and the head carpentry guru were especially hilarious. borderland is home to the ames mansion (descendants of the folks who patented the curve on shovels...and made building railroads possible) which we got a tour of one afternoon. there's also a small cabin that some scenes of the film shutter island were shot. the final cool thing about the park was the disc golf course that was there!
one of the other crews, led by my teaching partner caleb, stopped by for a rousing game. i'm not very great at golf or frisbee, so i wasn't very great at disc golf, but the course sure was beautiful. our crew had fun making welcome signs for the other crew (nicknamed the ruopp family vacation) and posting them all over the park.
our second project involved rebuilding a section of boardwalk at the stony brook wildlife sanctuary near norfolk, ma. the main tasks involved removing the 20 year old decking and posts and installing new ones. seem simple? nothing is ever that simple. it was a really fun, challenging carpentry project that allowed all of us to expand on our skills.
the sanctuary was BEAUTIFUL. wildlife sightings included 2 snapping turtles, lots of frogs and toads, oodles of smaller turtles sunning themselves on the mud flats, a couple muskrats, a water shrew, lots of birds, and a family of swans (which i learned are an invasive species from asia).
there were lots of non-work time difficulties along the way...lots of sickness endured (myself included), bug bites (2 spider bites...yikes!), rain storms, and long days, but overall, it was a great hitch. our main site contact, ron, was absolutely hilarious. he worked with us almost every day and told the funniest stories about his many years working in massachusetts parks and forests.
now it is time to enjoy my 4 day weekend!
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Sunday, June 6, 2010
close encounters of the fuzzy kind
i'm writing this entry at the atlanta airport after a long weekend adventure in charleston, sc. i went to see my friend becky get married in a beautiful service with a reception following at a gorgeous mansion.
i think i'm going to try a new format for writing about my trail hitches...here goes!
location: quabbin reservoir park, the main water supply for the boston metro area
project: building retaining walls out of dimensional lumber along eroded sections of a beautiful trail just south of the dam as well as putting in "runners" along the side of the trail near a stream bank to help hold in and build up tred
highlights: quabbin is beautiful. downright gorgeous. we saw lots of wildlife (turtles, turkeys, and an eagle!) and made friends with two families of geese who enjoyed hanging out by the section of trail we were working on. it was the crew leader's birthday in the middle of the hitch so we went to amherst for some yummy vietnamese food and ice cream. the program director even came out to eat with us! our site contact was AMAZING and introduced us to what seemed like almost all of the employees at quabbin. we even joked about making DCR (department of conservation and recreation) trading cards. al detour (nicknamed hipster al for his large plastic framed glasses, snazzy hairdo, and fun sweaters), the head carpenter was invaluable in supplying us with tools and tips of the trade. i broke a sledge hammer handle. yup. i did!
not-so-good parts: in the middle of the hitch a huge thunderstorm rolled through the area and woke us all up for over an hour. there was a torrential downpour, terrifying winds, and thunder like no other. the lightning was so frequent that it seemed as though someone had a strobe light outside the van. needless to say, the day after the storm was not ideal. all of us were tired, some of our work had to be redone, and morale wasn't super high. we got over that though...only to come back to the campsite one evening to find that two big packs had been stolen from our tents (none were mine). that brought on lots of issues (calling the police, questioning our safety there, needing to go to town to replace some clothing and gear the folks didn't have anymore). the police were hilarious, so that was at least entertaining. to add to that, the next day we came back to the campsite to find that 3 of our 4 tents were missing. also gone were a crew member's nice hiking boots and headlamp. we eventually relocated to the ranger station where we slept on the floor of the locker room. i much preferred being in a tent to that, but it was a warm, dry place to be which was all we really needed at that point.
wrap-up: despite all of the not-so-great moments, i had a great time! i loved all of the wildlife sightings (cute goslings and baby turkeys!) and enjoyed having a camp kitchen (even though we didn't use it all of the time).
next stop...southeast mass!
i think i'm going to try a new format for writing about my trail hitches...here goes!
location: quabbin reservoir park, the main water supply for the boston metro area
project: building retaining walls out of dimensional lumber along eroded sections of a beautiful trail just south of the dam as well as putting in "runners" along the side of the trail near a stream bank to help hold in and build up tred
highlights: quabbin is beautiful. downright gorgeous. we saw lots of wildlife (turtles, turkeys, and an eagle!) and made friends with two families of geese who enjoyed hanging out by the section of trail we were working on. it was the crew leader's birthday in the middle of the hitch so we went to amherst for some yummy vietnamese food and ice cream. the program director even came out to eat with us! our site contact was AMAZING and introduced us to what seemed like almost all of the employees at quabbin. we even joked about making DCR (department of conservation and recreation) trading cards. al detour (nicknamed hipster al for his large plastic framed glasses, snazzy hairdo, and fun sweaters), the head carpenter was invaluable in supplying us with tools and tips of the trade. i broke a sledge hammer handle. yup. i did!
not-so-good parts: in the middle of the hitch a huge thunderstorm rolled through the area and woke us all up for over an hour. there was a torrential downpour, terrifying winds, and thunder like no other. the lightning was so frequent that it seemed as though someone had a strobe light outside the van. needless to say, the day after the storm was not ideal. all of us were tired, some of our work had to be redone, and morale wasn't super high. we got over that though...only to come back to the campsite one evening to find that two big packs had been stolen from our tents (none were mine). that brought on lots of issues (calling the police, questioning our safety there, needing to go to town to replace some clothing and gear the folks didn't have anymore). the police were hilarious, so that was at least entertaining. to add to that, the next day we came back to the campsite to find that 3 of our 4 tents were missing. also gone were a crew member's nice hiking boots and headlamp. we eventually relocated to the ranger station where we slept on the floor of the locker room. i much preferred being in a tent to that, but it was a warm, dry place to be which was all we really needed at that point.
wrap-up: despite all of the not-so-great moments, i had a great time! i loved all of the wildlife sightings (cute goslings and baby turkeys!) and enjoyed having a camp kitchen (even though we didn't use it all of the time).
next stop...southeast mass!
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