The success of a hitch can be measured by the miles of trail cleared, the number of water bars installed, or the acres of weeds sprayed. This hitch, however, was measured by the amount of dirt brought home. Cutting new trail is dirty work as it is, but cutting new trail in a section of the Beartooths that burned in the 2008 Cascade fire is dirtier than that.
On the Senia trail in the Beartooth-Absaroka wilderness, we began an almost overwhelming task: build a new trail on a steep hillside with nothing but a few red flags marking the way. We had never done anything like that before but jumped in and started digging. Swing after swing of our pick-mattocks and we slowly found ourselves moving further and further away from the trailhead. We also found ourselves being covered in more and more soot and ash left over from the fire. In the hot June sun, layers of sweat and sunscreen further cemented the dirt into our pores and a cold snowmelt river near camp was less than inviting for washing up. After ten days the entire crew looked as if they had been mining coal for a month without a shower.
Once back in Billings the work wasn’t over. Now it was time to remove the dirt caked onto our skin so thick that it even covered those awesome farmer tans we have from our MCC work shirts. When the first shower after a ten day hitch has dirt running down your legs, you know it was pretty bad, but when dirt is being found two days later in knee and elbow creases, you know it was really bad.
A second hitch in the same burn area last week revealed an unusual tolerance for a level of filth that would otherwise be unacceptable. When Ryan, EW Program Coordinator, noted the dirtiness of the hands we were eating with and the response was this isn’t nearly as bad as last time, we knew it was our dirtiest hitch. Don’t mistake this for complaining. That was one of our best hitches, and from how dirty we were when we arrived back in the office, it was the most successful.
Liz Dodson, EWCL
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