On a Scale from 1 to 7

Sunday, August 29th, 2010
The D. Swingers’ seventh hitch started out at the Old Post in Missoula, eating bomb burgers. The most popular was the bacon and bleu cheese burger, which I think we would all recommend. Then we were on the road to Thompson Falls with a mission: to figure out whether or not Jim is lactose intolerant. To complete this goal, he insisted on drinking nearly a gallon of milk on his own, in the car ride to the trailhead. Luckily, he is not lactose intolerant, but realized that drinking an entire gallon of milk will make you sick either way (duh). Travis also learned something on the car ride: how to text properly. After receiving a text over the break that said, “4 u on scale 1 to 7 7 bing the hghst how much do u lik celary,” something had to be done. After a long discussion about how much each member of our crew does or does not lick celery, I think it is safe to say that Travis will be sending text messages that at least include the vowels.

Monday, August 30th, 2010
After warming up with some tai chi during stretch circle, our crew hiked into Cabin Lake. After doing some retread, our sponsor and his ponies brought in our food and two wall tents. We spent the next several hours setting up the wall tents, with a stove in each one to keep us warm at night. It all had a very old timey feel, chopping wood for our stove in the tent where Jim reads us The Hobbit every night.

Our crew sets up one of our two wall tents.

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010
Our crew started out the day thinking we would be working on a reroute around an incredibly steep section of trail. Right as we got to the worksite our sponsor called asking us to hike over to the old reroute to blast rocks in our other trail. YAY! Rocky, Ernie and their friends from the Ranger District showed us how the blast rocks using fireline explosives. The explosions were huge, and after pushing the button to set one off, Tom “Man God” Brangers explained to us all how he has thunder in his finger tips…his ego was otherwise unaffected.


DYNAMITE!! Before….


After!

After blasting and redigging the trail, filling in the giant holes that were left, the D. Swingers hiked the long trail back to cabin lake in the rain. Returning to camp with 9 miles under our belt and soaking wet and cold, the only thought on everyone’s mind was to make a fire in the stove, warm up, and relax while listening to Jim read The Hobbit. After getting the fire going, it was noticed that the tent was leaning a bit. The rest of the events happened rather quickly:
1. Jim asks Kevin and Tom to come out of the tent to see how much its leaning, Tom turns him down saying he’ll hold on to the chimney, but really thinking he’d rather take his boots off and not go back outside.
2. Travis and Ashley come out of the kitchen tent to help, but instead hear Jim yell “Get outta there!” and they see the tent go down. With Tom in it.
3. Despite the shock, the entire crew jumps to it to get Tom out from under the tent, which everyone thought was going up in flames within a few minutes. Tom claims he wasn’t screaming like a little girl, but in the chaos I suppose we’ll never know the real truth.
4. Tom gets out, as well as the stove, and we were left with a wall tent on the ground just as we were all going to go to bed.
5. Two hours later, the tent is back up, everyone is still wet, cold, and exhausted, but we can finally go back to bed, although we spent the rest of the week being a little paranoid every time there was a strong breeze.

Wednesday, August 31st, 2010
Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain, Cold Cold Cold, Hail Hail, Thunder Lightning
Thursday, September 1st, 2010
Sunshine!

Ashley, Tom and Kevin enjoy the view and the sunshine after the terrible weather the day before.

The weather turned (thank goodness), but I don’t think it was as successful as raising the crews spirits as our sponsor was when he brought us bacon and sausage. Yummmm….meat! Well…raising everyone’s spirits except for Travis, our crew’s vegan. After announcing that the smell of bacon makes him vomit, our sponsor, Steve, dared him to go in the tent and smell it while it was cooking. Travis did it, and despite a lot of hacking, coughing, and ghagging, he successfully did not puke.

The crew’s excitement for some real meat.


Travis smelling the bacon.

The rest of the hitch went as normal as it can, with the few highlights being discovering a cool echo Friday night. We all enjoyed yelling characters from Lord of the Rings to have the mountains echo them back to us. Of course everyone went a little loopy on the last day, with Kevin headbutting and tickling Tom etc. We had an extra member join our crew for our last day, Jim’s friend Drew. He was great and was up for digging trail in the snow with us after driving all night and hiking in.


Tom “Man God” Brangers catching snowflakes on his tongue.


Workin’ in the snow, and a little loopy on the last day.


SNOW!!!

Well…another hitch down, only two more to go, and our crew is as good and as strange as we’ll ever be, minus one major person of course. We missed you everyday Vicky! And will continue to miss you the rest of the season!

Hitch 7, by Isaac Miller, Wester Wildlands

Our 6th and 7th hitches were radically different than the previous 5. Front country is now the new norm, as are Chain Saws, Pion Jars, Brush Saws, and Dynamite; all features unbeknownst to the first 5 hitches. Such queer and alien features, like the Swedish made Rock drills called Pion Jars, were approached by all of us with mixed feelings. Some felt eager and excited, others felt discomfort and disdain, but I’d say the predominate feeling among the crew was willingness to get the job done and step up to the daunting task of digging 4800 feet of new connector tread. At least I was (while I was secretly tricking myself into believing our crew was hand-picked to do this job).
Our 6th and 7th hitches started out similar: packing up tools, group gear, and bodies to hit the road down Wild and Scenic highway 12 around 8:00ish in the morning. We stay on the windy road headed WSW for about 120 miles until we reach Lowell, Idaho, population. 24, scratch that, 23 people, elevation 1224 ft. If there was any sleep on the drive to Lowell, there would be none of that from there on out. After a brief pit stop at Cougar Canyon, Big Red and the crew make our ascent up to Cool Water Ridge.
After finding Coolwater Ridge Rd, we promptly rise at an avg. grade of 562 ft. per mile. After 8 miles of climb, we reach Idaho Point turn off, where we will have risen 4500 ft. At that point we have to look forward to an extremely treacherous ride on an unpaved 5 mile ride lasting about 2 and ½ hours (which led to periodic engine stoppages, coffee spills, and inadvertent head bangings). After having gone through 3 of these trips (2 up and 1 down) the rig started to show signs of damage with the camper detaching from the bed (later forcing us to walk the 3/4 mile stretch to the worksite). Feeling that the hard part is half over, we then set up camp and got ready for work.
After hiking the ¾ of a mile, we reach our worksite on the eastern slope of Coolwater Ridge. But along the way, a Black Bear is spotted along the western side chomping down on the season’s berry harvest. Looking east, we are greeted once again by the rocky Selway Crags peaks and, on clear days far off in the distance, El Capitan peak. In the foreground of the Crags, we see Ghost Mountain, which, together with Coolwater ridge, flanks a former lake bed-turned alpine meadow down below. A gently rolling stream runs through this area. A cow moose together with her calf were spotted refreshing in its waters one sunny afternoon while working. After 3 minutes in our sights, the pair quickly scampered off into the trees, presumably after the first subtle sign of danger.
As our presence was heard more and more each workday, wildlife spotting became more and more scant. Crew member Michael (aka McSpace) immediately began drilling rocks into the first bluff on the trail. A brush saw was used to clear bushes along the un-dug trail path, and chainsaws were used to cut and de-limb trees for firewood. All of this, though, certainly did not keep away deer from scampering wildly close to our tents at night.
In summary, the work done on the 7th hitch was pretty similar to the 6th but with the major differences being lower temperatures and more precipitation, and consequently, having a wall tent. The first night it rained all night leading to flooded tents, sleeping bags, and sour moods the following morning. The second day, the rain turned into hail eventually, causing us to cut our workday short and have an engaging Place Lesson. The third day of work resumed with better weather and brighter spirits. Good weather continued up to seventh day when our forest service sponsor arrived with dynamite. That snowy afternoon saw 2 blasts, including a 16-stick dynamite blast into the main bluff, instantly shredding or cracking thousands of pounds of rock (then pried out with rock bars). The 8th morning we were greeted with breakfast and a lesson on chainsaw use and maintenance (and another MCC vehicle damaged by the ride up to the campsite). That afternoon, we then rode back 1 day earlier than we previously would have due to re-gravelling of the first 10 miles of the road. All-and-all, the hitch was good. Even though we’ve completed around 600 feet (2500 ft. behind schedule) we still feel accomplished for building brand new quality trail and thus making history.

Montana Conservation Corps--A Dad's Perspective - Bob Coughlin

My daughter Carolan has worked as an MCC (Montana Conservation Corps) crew leader this summer and has lived in the Bob Marshall/Great Bear Wilderness. This past hitch she was near Inspiration Point and Sunburst Lake, rerouting and maintaining trails. I found this out last evening when she called me from the Spotted Bear Ranger Station. During the past ten-day hitch, she and her crew have lived in tents; in fact, they have lived in tents most of the summer. Most of the summer Carolan, Adam, and their crew (Lemmy, Evan, Elisheba, Barry, and Mark) have lived and worked near Strawberry Creek, just west of the Continental Divide. At times they camped by Sabido Cabin, and other times near a branch of Strawberry to the north of Sabido. If I understand correctly, Sabido is about 20 miles from Schafer Meadows Ranger Station, which is about 14 miles from the Morrison Creek/Skyland trailhead, where Carolan has parked her car most of the summer. In other words, she and here crew have lived a 2-day walk from what we in the "real world" (Carolan's words) think of as civilization.

As a Dad, I glory in the stories and photos that have come back our way to Northeast Ohio. I love that her food and mail come via mule train. I love the way these six young people have learned to live and work together. They have done such good work in the Wilderness, a service to the state of Montana, the United States of America, and even Planet Earth itself. Presuming to speak for all these entities, I'll say, "Thank You!"

In the beginning of my daughter's MCC adventure, I worried about grizzly bears, mountain lions, black bears, grey wolves, and all the wild things that can potentially harm a person living in the wilderness. Turns out that they haven't had many encounters with dangerous wild animals, and when they see one they feel lucky, blessed. Carolan and her companions won't forget that rare glimpse of a grizzly browsing along Strawberry Creek. So I have stopped worrying so much about bears and mountain lions (still worry a little, I admit).

I've also worried a bit about their health. Say they broke a leg two days from help; or someone suffered a burst appendix or a thousand other health emergencies, big and little. So far they have escaped major medical problems. But I'm sure they've lived with a lot of minor problems, colds, headaches, sore throats, stomach aches, etc. These guys are tough hombres, who can't run to the medicine cabinet or doctor for every complaint.

Every day I check the weather in Carolan's vicinity, using the Weather Underground website. Of course there usually isn't a weather station right nearby, so I end up researching the weather in Hungry Horse or East Glacier Park or Choteau or someplace like that. I've noticed that fall is approaching in the Montana mountains and that night temperatures are often in the 30's (and these guys are usually in tents!). I guess the next hitch they will be sleeping at Spotted Bear, in cabins. On actual mattresses, for God's sake!

Another thing I do is study maps and handbooks about trails in the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. I also use Google to find images near where her crew works. I've even located some videos on Youtube that help me picture their work and living environment (there are several videos of small planes landing at the Schafer Meadows airstrip). I do other things, like check in with the MCC Krew blog, http://mcckrew.blogpost.com (which I think is so interesting and wonderful that it should be published as a book), and go to the Glacier National Park website and look at their many webcams. These images are not exactly what Carolan is experiencing, but she is not far away from these places.

My wife and I have discovered two mystery novels set in The Bob, near Schafer Meadows. One story, by Beth Hodder, is called The Ghost of Schafer Meadows; the other, just out, is called Stealing the Wild. Beth and her husband worked for the Forest Service for many years, living at Schafer Meadows and working throughout The Bob and know this landscape intimately. These books have also helped us understand my daughter and her crew's working and living environment. In a strange coincidence, we have discovered that Beth Hodder and I both grew up in Euclid, Ohio, and graduated from high school the same year. The website for her books is: http://www.grizzlyridgepublishing.com.

So I have vicariously followed the adventures of Carolan and Adam's wilderness crew. And once this summer my wife Linda and I were able to visit the MCC office in Kalispell and then actually meet up with Carolan for a day at Glacier National Park.

All in all it has been great fun, a wonderful trip!

[Bob Coughlin, Chardon, Ohio]

Seventh Hitch, Green Team collaboration edited by Trevor Dietz

We had our first snow of the season this hitch and Trevor had a lot of trouble finding his tent every night. One gruesome night Trevor stepped in the latrine while looking for his tent which was a quarter mile away. Everyone farted a lot from Ashton’s cooking. All ten of us (Plus three from the Forest Service Crew) huddled nightly in the wall tent to keep warm. Freezy warm freezy warm in a cacoon. Good hitch, lot’s of work accomplished. Coffee good, wall tent made me happy. I don’t think Trevor brushes his teeth [He might brush his cat’s teeth]. Sometimes the gravity hang froze! And we didn’t always have enough water for the day; oh no! Coffee at lunch on the trail equals crazy trail workers (Especially Tony) with lots of energy. During our break, we all (Minus one) burned our time away smoking cigarettes. It was hilarious when Quirt (Packer) drank all of Peter’s (Forest Service Crew Leader) root beer (Expect to Peter) Quirt is hilarious. This where the steady cam pans away from the Green Team. The final shot of the movie is rested outside of the wall tent where the Crew Leader Paul is on his knees washing everyone’s dirty dishes (Where he belongs). The camera slowly fades to black and an overture (Featuring Daft Punk’s Faster, Stronger, Harder) plays. Fade to black.
CREDIT SEQUENCE
Crew Leader One……Jen Bullis
Crew Leader Two….Paul Twedty
Forest Service TA….Noel
Cocky Crew Member….Tom Bourelen.
Team Ox……Tony Lawrence
Disgruntled Crew Member….Kila Weeks
Mild Temper Woman……….Ashton
Forest Service Crew Leader…..Peter Baver
Olympic Woman…….Alisa
Rain Man………………..Trevor Lyons Dietz

Fish Creek, by Josh Lawrence, Western Wildlands

My first hitch was the wettest (so far). It was pouring rain non-stop, I put on wet clothes in the morning and ate wet granola at lunch. I hadn't learned to pack very well and had a lot of weight in my pack, but we were car camping so it was okay. The weather directly affected the mood of the crew. When it was pouring rain, we just didn't really talk much, but when it stopped and the sun poked through the clouds, everyone was grinning. I ended up shattering the distal tip in my finger on day 3, and got driven back to town on day 5 because it was looking worse and worse. Hitch 2 was much better, the weather had cleared up quite a bit, and the crew was just generally happier. We do a lot of brushing. The brush is THICK out in Fish creek, so it's quite a treat when we get to work on structures, and carry rocks around.
Sometimes the mountains don't give us the rocks we want, but it's still fun carrying them. I especially enjoy using the rock Austins, and carrying really big rocks with other people, it reminds me of the work I did for "Randy's Stone Polishing and Repair," which was my father's business. I hope there's more chances to build crib walls in the future. I think the crew has taken to doing push ups during stretch circle in the morning because there's only a few jobs that work our arms out there. Lugging stone, using the pion jar, chainsawing, and using our picks.
There's been ups and downs, but overall I love my job. Being out in the woods is great, when it's dry. We've seen a badger, a black bear cub, and a moose. We've interacted with a family of mice, which showed up at camp at 8:00 sharp each night to search for food. They've hidden in our clothes for warmth, and once one of my team-leader's pulled all six of them out of her day pack in the morning. They've lost at least one family member, a baby that walked into our camp and collapsed not ten minutes after I pulled a stick out of his brother's eye, which was hanging down by it's cheek. As far as we know, the one-eyed rodent is still alive, but the one that collapsed definitely died. There may have been another fatality, after a corps member threw one out of his tent, but who knows.
Each hitch gets better and better, and the upcoming one is going to be in the best camping spot so far. And that'll be the last time we work at Fish Creek, the next spot is supposed to be extremely beautiful, so it looks like we've got a lot of good experiences to look forward to.