Hitch #1 Nash Stream Forest and Bear Brook State Park

Last week we finished our first hitch of conservation season here with SCA NH Corps. Our hitches here are 11 days plus a half day to pack our gear. We have 1 day off in the middle of hitch to rest, hike or do whatever. There are 17 conservation crew members, divided into 3 crews per hitch. Each crew has 2 co-leaders who plan the meals, gear list, tool list and keep track of what is accomplished and the hours.

I was one of the co-leaders on hitch 1. Our team of 6 headed out on Monday June 22 for Nash Stream Forest, nearly a 4 hour drive north. We worked alongside our partner organization to do trout habitat restoration. The area we were working in used to be a lake but when the dam broke in the 80's the stream became the only habitat for the trout. So our job was to make deeper pockets of water for the trout. This was done by setting trees in the stream. We used our new rigging training to pull trees out of the ground, including the root ball. We would then drag the tree to it's new location and dig it into the bank to secure it. We also felled trees with a chainsaw. Overall we put around 55 logs in the stream, built 25 structures, and affected nearly 12,000 sq feet of stream.

Our Nash Stream campsite was in a beautiful field about 15 minutes from our work site. We were about an hour from cell service and the nearest town. We had a few rainy days early on but then the sun came out, as did the bugs. By the end of day 1 we all had wet boots from walking through the stream, and they didn't dry out until after we left and had our day off to set them in the sun. Overall this first part of the hitch was unlike any work I'd ever done and we all wish we could have stayed longer. The crew we worked with were extremely helpful in teaching us their ways and it's always fun to get to know new people.

On Friday June 26 we finished our work day before lunch and drove back to Bear Brook State Park to start the second half of our hitch. That day we packed away the tools we wouldn't need and took our new ones. Then we had a day off before returning to work on a rainy Sunday. Our project for this part of the hitch was to complete a re-route of an existing trail. We had to finish a turnpike (pictured below), clean-up the new trail, connect the ends of the new trail to the old trail and brush in the old trail so no one would try to use it again. The first 2 days was mostly crushing rocks into smaller rocks and digging a huge dirt pit. We used rigging again to set up a line for sending dirt down the hill.

On our final day, Thursday July 2, we worked for a few hours in the morning to put the finishing touches on the trail. Then we did our usual pack in at camp where we clean all the gear and tools we used and put everything back in it's place. We then have a final meeting to see a slideshow from the other teams and hear about what they did on their hitch, as well as share our own story. Then we have 2 1/2 days off before starting our next hitch.

Hitch #2 pack out begins today at 1 pm. I have a completely different crew of 6 and a brand new work site. I'll be going to Wolfeboro to build a new section of trail. I'm excited to see my new project and home for the next 11 days. We won't have a day off this week because we will be finishing a day early and packing up to go to Massachusetts for an event called All Corps. This is when several corps get together for a few days of fun and a bit of competition. I've been looking forward to this all year. It will be really cool to meet other corps and share our experiences.

For now I've got a few hours to relax before getting to work for the afternoon. This will be my basic schedule until I finish in late October, 8 hitches total.