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June 24th, Day Four – Push to the Work Site

Tents from the campsite.

We awoke to a cold morning and quickly got dressed into our work clothes. After a hearty breakfast, we took for the work site. On the way, we filled up a ten gallon jug of water at an untreated water spigot. There was no water up at the work site and it was a long walk from the water spigot to the site. We filtered the water in the jug and filled up our water bottles. We also used polar pures to purify our water. With a polar pure, you put the chemical solution in your water bottle. After a half hour, it is purified. We then carried the filled jug up to the site.

I was out of breath just by walking up to the site with nothing on my back. We were at an elevation of between 10,500 to 11,000 feet. This might seem like nothing, but coming from Long Island, New York of an elevation of about 0 feet, I definitely felt the difference. Our foreman gave us an orientation of the tools, describing the proper use and safety rules for each tool. They also explained the proper methods of trail building. Before I knew it, I had my hard-hat on and work gloves well secured. I was ready to go; time to get dirty!

Filling up on water from an untreated water spigot

It felt great to get back to work on the trail. It has been about one year since I held a cutter-matic (a cutting tool) in my hands from when I participated in OA Wilderness Voyage. As I took a swing into the earth making trail, life felt just right. Sweat was starting to pour and my muscles became strained, but I needed to keep swinging. A rhythm developed and I felt at home again.

 

Tools laid out at the work site.

The coolest thing about the work site was every time someone took a break, they had a beautiful view of the Baldy Mountain. We had a great view from our work site. We started on cutting down branches and trees to make a new path for the trail. We moved earth and soon enough, a trail was forming.  Before I knew it, lunch was upon us. We took a short siesta and went back to work.

View of Baldy Mountain from the work site.

We cleared some more trail. We moved more trees, branches, earth and rocks. We were getting dirty and were on a roll. It eventually came time to clean up and eat dinner. After we cleaned up the tools, we filled up our water supply from the water spigot along the way back to the campsite for dinner water.

For dinner, we had spaghetti with garlic bread. Despite the fact that a "magical" gust of wind made some of the spaghetti spill to the ground, we cleaned it up and made do. The food was terrific. I was expecting dehydrated noodles. After we cleaned the pots and took care of the smellables in the camp, we continued with our Personal Introductions. We ended the night again with thorns and roses. It was cold, really cold. Where did my summer weather go? Before the end of the night, we figured out we made forty feet of trail with a switchback today.

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Revised 6/02/2006