Gilbert Trail - 7/29

Those 30 trees from yesterday?  Yeahhh, there were actually over 50 obscuring the path.  Combine the miscalculation with the encroaching vegetation and we got ourselves a 13 hour work day.  You know, despite the sheer exhaustion I am currently entertaining the notion of working 3 13 hour shifts a week and having the other 4 days off.  This is for after the program, of course, as I am averaging 60 hours a week here in Montana and there is no indication that the days will shorten.  Ah well; see the need, meet the need—it’s how we roll!  Awesome views and great people make it all worthwhile.

We did manage to finish Gilbert Trail with a little extra effort.  That trail has been on the Corps to do list since we arrived in Montana so I’m glad we can finally check that off.  Our team would have finished a little sooner but I caught a thunderstorm trying to creep up on us so we had to seek shelter in the woods for a time.  I consider myself to have poorer hearing than most, but I somehow am always the first to notice thunder.  Weird. 

Anyways, I’m going to go crash.  Good night friends.

Gilbert Trail - 7/28

Why are stringed instruments so awesome?  Clare was perched up on a rock yesterday fiddling away and it felt natural—a fitting soundtrack for Montana.  If I broke out a flute here it just wouldn’t have the same effect.  Maybe my instrument fits perfectly in another environment.

This week my team is being sent out to Vigilante to tune up some trails.  As nothing can be too easy round these here parts we had to hike 1 ½ to 2 miles just to get to our trail.  Upon finding the trail marker we discovered that the trail has not been maintained in years.  We needed to cut out a corridor 6ft wide and 10ft tall and Mother Nature was generous enough to provide us a 2ft by 4ft start.

Fortunately the trail held up a bit better under the shade of older trees as we progressed, but there were other obstacles.  Dathan was moving a log off of the path when he had a sudden piercing pain in his head.  Ants bite around here so that was the immediate suspect at our elevation, but then I heard the unmistakable sound of bees—lots of them.  I relayed my discovery to my team and Dathan backed away just in time before the slumbering hive roused the rest of its defenders.

Another tricky obstacle was the open plains.  There was no tread to follow so we needed to keep our eyes open for blazers and cairns.  The vegetation was so tall in the fields that it was difficult tracking down the piles of rocks—but with 3 of us spread out we were able to maximize our efficiency on getting through the trail.

The path was too vast for us to tackle in a single day due to around 30 trees having fallen and we had but a crosscut to combat them.  The important thing is we now have the whole trail mapped and will return with a chainsaw tomorrow to finish what we started.

Good night friends!

Blacktail Ridge - 7/26

We surprise attacked our comrades with water balloons.  A couple of them were tipped off because a nozzle was left out, but I volunteered to stay on their side until the last moment to ease their suspicion.  Dee was playing it off as a skit so we gathered everyone and had them stand on one side with Liana and me while the rest of the folks who came to Montana with us originally were on the other.  On Dee’s command everyone shouted “This is FLEECER!” and we threw open the coolers and launched balloons.  Despite their claims of having my back, the lone balloon that got me in the arm was tossed by one of my companions as I bolted to their side.  I made sure to give as good as I got though!

That was fun and our work today was pretty gratifying.  The Butte 100k went down today and we were sent to fix up a trail that was part of the race while bikers were using it.  It was a little tricky, but by informing each other when a rider was coming we were able to prioritize accordingly.  Every one of them thanked us for our work and a group of hikers that we kept bumping into kept offering us cherries.  I made sure to take them up on the offer a couple of times as I didn’t want to be rude and we talked about our program.

This was a good day.  My fire boots were found, everyone is here, and I just saw some shooting stars!  Those moving stars were nice as the past couple of days consisted of constant clear blue skies.  With no clouds drifting around or trees swaying Montana has put a sort of time stasis on us all.

Mm, I am barely keeping my eyes open.  Until next time!

Lady Smith and Mormon Gulch - 7/25

The whole crew is here!  Fleecer cabin looks like it is under siege with all of the tents surrounding it.  One tent in particular clued me in as to why mine has been giving me problems: I’m missing some poles—4 to be exact.  The missing poles would lengthen and widen my shelter so that the rainfly wouldn’t be all awkward and I could stretch out.  My tent and I have made it this far though so who needs the extra space!?  Our first week here we crammed 4 of us in 1 tent while spiking out in the wilderness so what I have currently feels roomy in comparison.

Anyways, today we were sent out to clean and maintain 2 campgrounds: Lady Smith and Mormon Gulch.  We cleared the roads and campgrounds of obstructions and even took down a couple of hazardous trees.  Compared to the trail work we’ve been doing in recent weeks today was a breeze.  The hardest part was probably demolishing some picnic tables but that was also the most fun.  Crowbars, sledge hammers and teamwork resulted in the end of a handful of tables that have seen their share of use.

Well I’m exhausted.  Only other thing to add is that just about everyone is calling me Hellraiser now.  I like it.  Good night friends.

Sheepshead Recreational Area - 7/24

Nights around here are eventful!  A pack of coyotes trotted up and sang us the song of their people in celebration of the eve of Christmas in July.  The caroling went on for a few hours with a couple interludes involving Mother Nature’s wind symphony… but I fell asleep pretty early on.  My tired friends had nothing but back-handed praise about the concert though!

As for today we returned to Sheepshead and finished repairing both the barb wire and jack link fences.  The devices put up a hell of a fight though.  Some old barb wire punctured me deep enough to draw blood and the ensuing wound has a rather dark look to it.  After a couple of calls back home during lunch I learned I had my Tetanus shot in 2011 so I should be in the clear!  Not wanting to be shown up, part of the jack link fence collapsed on me.  It managed to scratch me a bit, but I emerged relatively unscathed.  Other than these two incidents the day went by smoothly.

My highlight is a tie between scaling a steep gravel hill and hanging out with a bald eagle.  The first was undoubtedly fun but the latter was on the verge of magical.  You know, I’ve seen several bald eagles out in the wild since I joined the Emergency Response Team.  I think this is a sign of good fortune in some form or another.  Anyways, I should probably go clean and mend myself; tomorrow the rest of our Corps will be arriving so weekly showers are in all likelihood coming to an end.  Talk to you all later!

Sheepshead Recreational Area - 7/23

Last night I awoke to the walls of my tent closing in on me.  The wind was blowing furiously—so much so that moments after I opened my eyes there was a loud SNAP.  Another followed accompanied by a continuous flapping sound.  Rather than soldiering through a storm without my rainfly I headed into the cabin and found that Liana had beat me to it.  Great minds think alike!

It was an exciting experience, but the interruption to my sleep left me zoning for much of the day.  We went and cleaned up a campsite by Delmoe Lake then traveled to Sheepshead Trail and fixed up a past nemesis of mine: barb wire fencing.  We didn’t think to bring a chainsaw so we ended up man-handling some fallen trees off the fence and off the trail.  Tomorrow we most likely will be sent back to finish the job.  We’ll see!

On our way back to Fleecer we saw a rainbow touch down in one of the pastures.  Now we’re listening to it storm and are waiting to see if it picks up into the severe storm the meteorologist was predicting.  Me thinks the rainbow may have been a warning.  Anyways, all is well here and I hope the same is true for you all back home.  Later!

Homestake Lake - 7/22

Smog and smoke have blanketed the region.  When we stopped by the McDonalds the other day to check our emails an older gentleman noticed our fire shirts and asked if we knew anything about the fire.  We didn’t.  It wasn’t until we returned to Fleecer that we received word from an ERT alumni that he and his hot shot crew were being staged in Oregon.  The haze that has descended upon Butte is from a giant wildfire burning through Washington.

Anyways, a peculiar thing happened today; it was raining on us while the sun was shining.  There were cloud culprits in the sky although I kind of wish there wasn’t as that would have been even more fascinating.  We were fixing up the Homestake Lake picnic area when this peculiarity occurred, you know, the usual stuff—clearing trails, taking out invasives, the works.  I enjoyed the refreshingly cold shower, but not nearly as much as I did watching some locals using our modified gate.  Cows had wandered into the picnic area earlier today so we were charged with creating a sliding gate—and before we left we saw folks utilize it!  That was cool.

In other news, you may have noticed I didn’t submit an entry yesterday.  Believe it or not, it was because I was reading a book: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.  One of my friends here was told that this to-be series could be the next Harry Potter.  Very high praise.  While I was skeptical the remark was enough for me to give it a read.  Without spoiling anything, I enjoyed it and I thought the author had an interesting way of storytelling—although I would suggest reading through it without comparing it to J.K. Rowling’s masterpiece.

Well I’m off!  Night!