Training Week 2

Today marks the end of week 2 of training, which means we're more than halfway through our training before the season starts!

The View at Noble View

This week we spent most of our time at Noble View, which is where I'll be living all summer. I was really excited to check out my new digs. The property is open to the public, so seeing people filter in and out was a much different experience than living at the KCC, where the rules are very strict and you live in your own little bubble. Granted there weren't many people, but I'm sure the summer will be a different story. The first two days were our Leave No Trace trainer courses, which was pretty entertaining and (more importantly) informative. My principle to present on was 'Proper disposal of waste', aka "The Fun One" aka "The Poop One". In between our two days of LNT training we checked out a nearby waterfall, which will be an awesome summer hungout. I'm sure it will be an awesome summer hangout for a lot of rowdy "public" teens, too.

After digging a drainage ditch

Thursday was our first day putting tools to the ground. We spent the morning talking and learning about different types of trail work, which was actually a lot more engaging than it sounds. It was also an excellent way to wait out the pounding rain that came through all morning. We got out in the field after lunch and worked on benching and drainage, aka digging up some dirt and sloshing around in mud. It was great. It was also a little overwhelming, especially since I'm new at this. Being in the woods a lot doesn't translate into knowing how to do all of these things. Either way, it was great fun and lots of mud. My blue boots won't be blue for long!

My co-leader chopping the tree

Today was (real) AXE DAY. I say "real" because I've said "today was axe day" so many times over the past two weeks. Today was the first time we really USED our axes. My boss' boss' boss came down from New Hampshire to give us a lesson on axes. It would have been beneficial to hear some of it before hanging my axe, but thankfully it was hung well enough that nothing went wrong (if it's not hung correctly you can have a loose head after a few swings). We went out to the woods and found a downed tree, got a lesson and demo on chopping it as if it were a blowdown across the trail, and got to work. It. Was. AWESOME. My co-leader Dave and I worked on the demo tree, so we had a nice starting point. It was still a massive dead, wet tree, which is particularly difficult to cut through. But, drum roll please, we chopped through the whole thing with only minimal help! It was very satisfying. I learned that I need to sharpen my axe, and I also learned that I love swinging my axe.

We're now back at the KCC, where we'll be for National Trails Day on the Appalachian Trail building a bog bridge with other volunteers. We have 1.5 days off before starting our final week of training! I'm cutting this short because the dinner bell just rang. Sorry, priorities.

Cheers!