Hitch #7

This hitch began a few days early with orientation for the 2 month fall crews. This means that we met roughly 50 new crew members and a few new crew leaders. We spent a weekend a Raspberry Gulch introducing them to SCC and giving a brief overview of camp life. Because my crew had already been through orientation in June we were given the chance to help facilitate this orientation and work on leadership skills.

After the weekend each crew once again split into our separate hitches. My crew had the unique opportunity to return to a previous site, Zapata Falls HOA where we were on hitch #4. Our project partner had been so happy with our work he requested we return. So we camped on the same beautiful ranch and got back to work with our chainsaws. We also got to visit the sand dunes once more.

Over the course of our hitch we had various issues with our saws, ranging from incorrectly mixed fuel to saws making sounds that we just could not figure out. At one point only 2 of our 6 saws were running. For a team of 8 we can have up to 4 saw running and so this created lag in our project. But sometimes saws just need to be cleaned and cool down and they run like new. By the end of the week we had more than finished our project and had began widening the greenbelt that we were cutting.

On the last couple days before our hitch ended we had a surprise visit from a very friendly dog named Bud. He belongs to someone in the community but enjoyed spending his days at our work site. One evening he decided to follow us home and stayed the night and most of the next day. Eventually we had to let him return home but it was nice to have a trail dog for awhile.

On the last night of our hitch, just like the first time we were in Zapata Falls, our hosts Wayne and Nancy invited us to their home for supper. They cooked bison burgers and wonderful creme brulee. Needless to say we felt quite spoiled. Our next hitch will also be on chainsaws but outside Crestone this time. I'm looking forward to what I've been told will be an interesting hitch.