This was our first back country hitch. This means that we did not have our vehicle easily accessible and everything we brought with us had to be packed in on our backs. We were in the La Garita Wilderness, working on the Colorado Trail and the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail. On Wednesday we drove the roughly three hours to the trail head and met our project partners. For the first four days we worked alongside two Forest Service rangers.
On our first afternoon we hiked the 1/2 mile to our first campsite. We stayed there until Monday morning. Each day we walked to our work site, crossing a stream twice a day. Our main job for this hitch was building structures on the trail to route the flow of water off the trail. This meant many heavy rocks that had to be dug into the ground and even more logs. Being that this is a National Forest no machines can be used. This means that instead of chainsaws we used cross cut saws. That was a tiring yet exciting opportunity. To use a saw that has existed for decades longer than I've been alive, it feels historic and a bit nostalgic.
On Monday morning we packed up camp and hiked another 4 1/2 miles to our next site. This was done with packs that easily weighed 50 lbs or more, plus the addition of carrying all our tools. But the view was worth the exhaustion. At this point we were close to 12,000 feet and we were surrounded by mountains were the tree line was just above us. We camped in a small valley where we could have a 360 degree view. My only regret is that I forgot to bring my camera so I could capture the beauty.
Monday afternoon, about an hour after we reached our site, I was in the group setting up our bear hang. At this time the rain began. Being that I was a ways from camp I did not have my rain pants on me. The rain quickly escalated into a lightning drill and by the end of the hour of sitting in the rain, I was soaked. Along with everyone on my crew we changed what we could and went back to work in boots that were so wet we were standing in small puddles.
Luckily for us by the time we began work on Tuesday the sun had come out, and continue to stay out for the day and the next day. It's a true testament to the attitudes and skill of our crew that throughout the entire process we were able to be positive and even joke about how wrinkly our feet were at the end of the day. Eventually all our socks dried and work continued as normal.
We made the decision that if we could finish our work Wednesday morning we would pack camp and hike out that afternoon, rather than waking up before dawn on Thursday. We were able to accomplish all our tasks and by 3 pm on Wednesday we had begun our five mile hike back. This took about three hours, even though our packs felt substantially heavier. This is an interesting phenomenon, given that we had eaten 99% of the food we had packed in. I won't go into detail about our meals, but basically breakfast but oatmeal, lunch/snacks was trail mix and one tortilla with pb & j, and supper consisted mostly of some sort of grain and curry flavoring. Needless to say I was excited when we stopped for lunch on our way back Thursday.
Overall this hitch was the most tiring yet, but it also gave us the chance to get even closer as a crew. Our next hitch will also be back country, in the same general area. But next time we will be camping close to tree line and working above tree line. This means higher elevation and more possibly for severe lightning storms. We are now halfway through our season, and after next hitch the summer crews will be finished. We'll be camping as a big group one more time before saying goodbye. Then a week later we'll receive about 40 new staff. I'm looking forward to seeing how the season progresses as the weather starts to cool.
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