Backcountry Busy

I write this from the comforts of a leather couch in Double Cottage, enjoying my last few hours of peace before our next group arrives. Ah, life is tough here in the wilderness. 

This past week was our first backcountry excursion. I was not very excited for it, because originally it seemed like the only work we could do was corridor clearing (bonafied weed whacking) and painting blazes on trees. Hell. No. It was going to be a huge waste of manpower, and not to mention very boring. Thankfully we got approved to do work within the existing tread with some minor restrictions. 

So, we headed 1.5 hours north to section 17 on Mt. grace on the New England Scenic Trail. We had hopes to set up camp and at least scout out work, but those hopes were squashed. It took nearly two hours to find and do a decent bear hang. Food for 11 people for four days weighs a LOT, and we were in a particularly shady area that didn't have many low branches. There were a lot of other things to go over (camp setup, water filtration, sanitation, cooking, etc.), and it took us the whole work day to do. 

We almost went into Monday blind, meaning we had no idea what we would be doing. It seemed pretty standard us. Luckily, though, I hiked up to the top of Mt. Grace with a group and found some work to do along the way. We were rewarded with a 360 degree view from the top of the fire tower at the summit. I was pleasantly surprised to see Mt. Monadnock, my old friend, in the distance. 

My group started a large stepping stone segment on Tuesday, and we were able to get two set on the first day. The other group joined up with us to complete the project, which needed 15 stones in all. I was excited at the potential to finish a big project in a short amount of time, but back pain and general weariness got the better of me. I felt worn out and in need of a vacation all week. My patience was wearing thinner every day. Friday felt so far away. 

Despite my grumpiness, the week came and went as it always does. It felt long, but in reality we did a lot in a much shorter time than we usually have. I was proud to have done the amount of work that we did, but I was so ready for the weekend. 

We only have 3 weeks of teen crews left (then one week that's just us), so I feel as though I just need to suck it up and ignore my longing for time off. Put on my happy face and keep on keeping on. 

Halfway

It's been a busy two weeks since my last update. We finally had our first FULL crew last week totaling ten participants. Only two out of the ten knew each other, so we were unsure how the week would go. Luckily for us everyone was amazing and got along really well. They were all friends within the first hour. It made our lives so much easier.

Waterbar COMPLETE

We had a very full week, but our biggest projects were completing two waterbars. It was the first time we were able to split up into two groups and have two projects going on simultaneously. It was great for productivity, but it was the first time Lumberjack and I went without the "second set of eyes" that we always provide each other. The waterbars were a challenge and took both groups longer than expected, but such is life and trail work I suppose.

We were sad to see our crew go, as they were one of the easiest to manage and fun to have. It was a good mix of personalities and skills. One of our participants dads brought us freshly made bagels, fixin's for sandwiches, and watermelon on the last day. It was heavenly. People always think that we want sweets, but what we really want is fresh foods, fruits, and vegetables. It was perfect.

The weekend brought in the second of two weddings at Noble View this summer, and this one was full of medieval reinactors. It was... unique. They were a great bunch of people, and they thrust our property back into the medieval times with the greatest of ease. It was bizarre. They invited us to join in on the festivities, but something in me wasn't ready to put on a strangers homemade body armor and battle it out. 

Our crew this past week was another crew of all friends, all nine of them. They were by far the rowdiest crew we have had, but they had me laughing hard all week (well, like 90% of the time). The only way to get their attention was to scream at them, I was a professional yeller for the week. It was exhausting. Once their energy was directed in a productive place it was great, though, and we got two reroutes done, a large section of tread work improved, several trail intersections closed, three bog bridges and three stepping stones installed. But it wasn't without some bumps in the road.

Public Enemy Number 1

The sky opened up for our first three days, making everything a muddy, wet mess. Tools were wet, boots were wet, socks were wet, everything was wet. Nothing had a chance to dry. We had plans to do timber work for the first time this season, but a few mishaps delayed that for longer than expected. We set to work doing reroutes and digging postholes to get our sign posts into the ground. Groups went out to continue digging postholes while we started timber work, we have 32 posts to put in the ground and only two weeks left to do it. I took a group of two and we got our first post in without many issues (except for hitting bedrock twice). We hiked to the next nearest intersection, and I sent them out to get good mineral soil and crush rocks to fill the hole and stabilize the post. I was about a foot into the three feet I had to dig when ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE. I'm not really sure what happened, but my best guess is that the posthole digger was possessed by a demon. Okay... but really, posthole digging isn't that fun. You jam the post hole digger into the hole, pull the handles apart to get a scoop of dirt, and repeat until the hole is three feet deep. It doesn't sound hard, but this is New England where everything is rocky and rooty. My best guess on what happened was I jammed the digger into the ground, hit rock or something, and one of the handles snapped back and proceeded to uppercut me in the jaw. I essentially got K.O'd by a posthole digger. I remember the pain of getting hit and then being on all fours about ten feet away, so I'm guessing it knocked me out. I proceeded to terrify my participants by spitting out blood and clutching my jaw. Luckily, I did not break my jaw and the worst that came out of it was a bruised tongue, mouth, headache, and tender jaw. It could have been much worse. I spent the rest of the day sitting on a log with an "ice pack" of Flav-Or-Ice on my face, supervising. 

Big Ben came out to help us fell trees, and I got to fell my first tree with a crosscut saw. It was one of the most American things I've ever done. We felled two trees total, and he challenged us to get three bog bridges done in essentially a day and a half. If we weren't able to complete it then the wood in the second tree would go to waste (it hardens and becomes useless quickly after it's chopped down). Big Ben stayed with us to complete the first one, and thankfully so since the stringer (place where you walk) was about 1,000 pounds. It took 8 people to carry it to where it needed to be. Our team powered through and got all three bog bridges done in time, and three stepping stones in place. We worked shin-deep in mud for the days we were at that site, but it was well worth it. 

Finished bog bridges

The end of the week brought better weather, we finally got things to dry! My laundry still smelled like a dead body (not that I know what that smells like). It was a chaotic week, but a very productive one despite being uppercutted by a posthole digger. I came back to the KCC for our halfway through the season celebration. The team went to a lake to BBQ, swim, and play awesome lawn games to celebrate our accomplishments so far. I can't believe our season is more than halfway over!

Thunder and Lightning

Week 3 has come to a close, and week 4 is less than an hour away from starting. Last week was our first crew where almost no one knew each other (except for a pair of cousins). We ended up with 5 boys, the one girl who had signed up dropped out once she found out it was all boys. Bummer. I figured I was in for a week of farting, burping, and inappropriate jokes. I was right. 

Our first day was spent closing a ton of trail intersections. About halfway through the day we could tell they were getting bored, and fairly. They're always excited to go when we say "we get to go make a huge mess then leave. Bigger the mess, the better." Doing that all day surprisingly gets pretty boring. At least I got to chop a big birch blowdown. We got the "boring" workday over with, but it turned out to be not such a boring evening. One of our kids started feeling sick, and it turned into a multi-hour ordeal on the phone. He left that night, and once again our crew dwindled in number. 

Being one short didn't stop us from tackling big projects, and we desperately wanted to get them on rock work. They were an athletic bunch and we figured a challenge would be good. We got to setting step stones on the most used trail of the system. Finding and getting our rocks to the worksite was much harder than the last time we installed stepping stones. Our last site had a nice slope to roll rocks down and plenty of great rocks, this site was totally level, dense, and had markedly less rocks to choose from. We made it work, and by the end of Tuesday we had all our rocks selected and one set in the ground. 

Wednesday brought the second day of high heat and higher humidity. I stopped looking at social media because I couldn't stand to see people complaining about the heat when all they have to do is go from their air conditioned car to air conditioned office. We work in long, heavy pants, helmets, leather gloves, and work boots, swinging tools for 8 hours a day. The heat meant we had to bring a lot of extra water, so my pack had an extra gallon of water + my usual 4L of water in it, which was another couple of pounds to haul around. In short, it was miserable. It was almost impossible to stay hydrated, and we all felt the affects. A storm started brewing, and our boss (who was visiting us and scouting out projects) told us to call it early. We got to watch the storm from the safety of the cottage porch.

Thursday was somehow just as hot. We had finished the step stones on Wednesday afternoon and revisited the waterbars we worked on in week 1 to install 2 gargoyles. The boys really liked rock work, which was good because they were able to get the gargoyles set in a decent amount of time. Actually, it was painfully slow because it was so damn humid. We quite literally couldn't go any faster or work any harder, or else everyone would have would have overheated and been severely dehydrated. Once again, please, complain to me about your air conditioned work life. See how I react. 

Thursday was cut short again by an impending storm. We hastily hiked out our tools as the thunder boomed, but unfortunately it was all bark and no bite. It turned out to be all bark and ALL bite about 5 hours after that. The storm got really bad as Adam and my family showed up for our 4th of July party weekend.

I was beyond excited to have my family and Adam here to visit. I hadn't seen my family since before I left in May. They rented out a whole wing of the largest cottage, so I got to live in the lap of luxury all weekend. I had a WOOD STOVE, for goodness sake! On the first night Adam finally got me to wear his socks and crocs, something I swore I would never do. It's the most stark example of how much I have digressed into a woodslady life. "Folks, we've lost her."

The group of all boys grew on me as the week went on, but I was ready to say goodbye to all the burping, farting, and inappropriate jokes. We went to dinner in Westfield Friday night after my group left.  We also exchanged gifts for Adam, my moms, and my birthdays, which are all within a week of each other at the end of June. Saturday was spent exploring Great Barrington, including my favorite cheese shop, pictured above.

 We took a dip at Russell Pond, just a few minute drive from Noble View. Our day ended with a big cookout back at the cottage before settling in for fireworks. Noble View sits high enough to see fireworks from many towns, so the sky was lit up with firworks big and small... Well, more like medium-ish to very tiny. It was pretty neat nonetheless.

All fun weekends must come to an end, including this one. Adam went back to Boston early this morning and my family started their long drive up to vacation part 2 in Maine. It was a tough week for me for several reasons, and it was hard to realize that it's not yet half over. I do love being here, though. I just miss folks back home. It was the first time I really wanted Adam to help me pack my stuff and go home, but not home to Boston. Home to somewhere less noisy. 

Well, enough day dreaming. We've got a crew of 9 showing up today, though I wouldn't be surprised if it somehow die less to 4 or less, as it seems like always happens here. Here's to week 4.