Today, Sarah and I are somewhat unexpectedly spending another day getting ready to leave for Hyner Run
State Park, PA and start work on our first of two trail building trips. We’ve been flooded out of our original plan to leave today, make a detour to the Tracy Ridge recreation area of the ANF and spend the afternoon hiking a section of Johnnycake trail that's carved into the side of what's basically a cliff overlooking the Allegheny reservoir (Noah has a good picture, I think). Instead of slogging through mud all day and spending the night out in a massive thunderstorm, we're taking today to read more prep materials and explore wild spaces near our homes.
This
trip will be very different from our second week-long experience because it
only runs from Friday to Sunday, which means that we’ll probably be doing
quick, light maintenance like blazing, and all of the participants are camping
and making food separately, which I think will lead to a much more separated
dynamic than the one that we’ll get later on, when we’ll all be working
together to cook and clean the cabin we’re staying in. While Sarah and I don’t really know who we’re going to be
working with aside from the trip leader, we’re really excited to see who shows
up, find out why they’re devoting their weekend to trail building, and
hopefully convince them to play some Frisbee. All this rain should continue to make things
interesting for us; I’m wondering how much of the work that was
originally planned we’re going to be able to do on trails that are reduced to
mud right now.
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ReplyDeleteSarah told me the weather sort of held you guys back another day. The weather was horrible yesterday, so it's a good thing you guys spent an extra day preparing. I was in the middle of my softball game yesterday, and the refs called us into the school to take shelter from a tornado warning. So thank goodness you guys didn't leave yesterday. Hopefully the weather will be nice and nonthreatening for the few days you guys are out there in the woods.
ReplyDeleteI still think this is one of the coolest senior projects out there. I mean, who wouldn't want to go camping the entire time and trail building!? Will this trip also be similar to the OL trip?
The people that you are working with-are they people from a specific organization that does trail building or are they also high school students on their senior project? That would be cool to meet other seniors who are doing the same thing as you guys!
If I understood this correctly, Sarah said you guys were taking two short trips, so you'll be back for most of the week next week. I was wondering what you guys were doing that week--preparing for the second trip?
So excited to see all the pictures from the two trips! Good luck and be safe!
~Clare