The first hitch for our Greater Yellowstone crew sent us far away to southern Idaho and the City of Rocks. We started out as a crew of six: our two leaders, Jen and Terese plus four crew members: Chrissy, Luke, Matt and myself, Sara. Unfortunately, Terese developed and issue with her hip that knocked her out of the rest of the season, so we dropped to five people.
Now, for our second hitch, we were entering Yellowstone NP and the backcountry. We met the the trail crew: Cager, Karla, Dustin, Mary and Steve and spent most of the first day in "fall protection" training. In our upcoming hitches, we're going to be working on a suspension bridge above the Yellowstone River. We covered a wide array of gear that will keep us from ending up in the river if somebody should fall.
Most of our hitch was spent doing trail maintenance. We levelled tread, corrected back slopes and remove rocks the size of ponies from the trail. All of the hikers that went through the improved areas commented on how nice the trail was. The stock users particularly liked the widening of the trail in one section that had previously been a bit tricky. Have to love that positive encouragement during the middle of a hot sweaty day when you're covered in dirt.
During our next hitch, we'll be doing more prep work to get ready to tackle the bridge. Helicopters will be flying in 84,000 pounds of supplies for us!
And, some parting words of wisdom "Don't pee in the latrine".
No comments:
Post a Comment