Trail Work

Trail Work! There's no A/C, (or pay...) but the view is great.

Meadows beside the PCT.

What a stretch of trail looks like as the crew puts the finishing touches on it. I know its excessively wide, but that's because no one may get to cut it back again for years, so this will tide it over for a pretty long time. The majority of our work was cutting out brush like this, but on the first few days we did some erosion work, which was tougher but more interesting. We would crush rock with hammers to fill in areas where the trail had turned into a runoff ditch, and carefully place larger rocks and bury them with dirt to divert water off the trail. Work days were hot but short. I did one six-day project with the Pacific Crest Trail Association (PCTA), had a four day break, and did another four day project. The majority of the volunteers that made up the core of the crew were together doing this all summer for an Americorps program that had a contract with the PCTA. It took me several days to learn their ways (they have a particular way of doing everything while in camp, on the worksite, and in between), but once I adjusted it was more enjoyable. The group also pushed me by force of example to try to eat healthier and be as eco-friendly as possible in my camping ways. They're both things that I've put thought in to before, but there's always room to improve.

Also, in the small world department, we figured out that one of my crew mates had done a Mexican study abroad program the same semester as one of my good friends from college, Sarah Isbell. It was crazy to be with a total group of strangers on the other side of the US and discover that you both know the same person quite well.

This is what some stretches of trail looked like before we worked on them.