Oh, what a hitch!

This hitch seemed to last forever, yet I can't believe it's over. I laughed, I cried, I wanted to quit, ...but we pushed on and hiked 10 miles a day on top of trail work for 9 days straight! It's been a long time since I've pushed myself this hard physically, and mentally. It was exhausting, but absolutely worth it to see what we can accomplished as a crew. We dug well over 2,500 feet of trail and felt every bit of it. It was tough to get up in the morning with an achey body and know what work was ahead of you for the day. But we encourage each other all the time, whether it be with a hug, a silly joke, or a ridiculous song! "These lops are made for loppin', and that's just what they'll do..." My crew members have become my best friends! I will never forget this incredible experience.

"Thus situated, many hundred miles from our families in the howling wilderness, I believe few would have equally enjoyed the happiness we experienced. I often observed to my brother, you see how little nature requires to be satisfied? Felicity, the companion of content, is rather found in our breasts than in the enjoyment of external things." --Daniel Boone

Jen Haas

Pulling Weeds and Digging Trail

All seven of us, Val, Peter, Mark, Ryan, Jen, H, and my self, started off the second nine day hitch by pulling invasive species ( fancy for weeds). On the second day we were awarded “Ghostbusters” backpacks filled with herbicide and blue die, which I later found out was hard to get out of clothes. It was like a scene out of a Vietnam movie all of us in a straight line going down our separate rows looking for what we were told was, the bad guy. We continued this for three days and on Friday we hiked in on the North Fork trail for about three miles and pulled all sorts of thistle, mullen and other weeds. On Saturday the fun stuff started.

We are all here for the same reason…trail work. We had all been anxiously waiting for over a month to get our hands and Carhartts dirty. Finally, as I said, the fun stuff started. At seven in the morning we turned on to Merrell Mountain road had our thirty minute stretch circle and began building trail. On the first day we dug over 400 feet of trail. The second day we dug 150 feet of trail before lunch and after lunch we started installing water bars, which if you don’t know is a structure designed to promote proper drainage on a trail and to prevent erosion, we in stalled three of them. We continued putting in water bars until Tuesday. We also got wonderful news on Tuesday that we had been approved for a backcountry trip that involved a 9 mile hike in.

And that’s where our third journey starts.

introductions

Nine days, eighty one hours, four soggy socks later, and I want to be back in the woods already. the bumbling mess big society is makes helps me appreciate how my crew members interact. not only do we help each other get through potentially rough projects but the atmosphere we create, provides for a great work environment. we each have many things to learn from one another and 6 months doesn't even seem like enough time for it all. The framework that the MCC provides is teaching me in ways i've always needed to improve. This hitch overall was an interesting introduction to the area we'll be working and living in. I'm glad we got to meet the forest, park, firefighting and volunteer service people, I look forward to getting to know them and what their jobs entail. A firefighter named Alec, gave me a pretty good idea of what a lifestyle of forest work looked like. Each day I see a new aspect of how things work, and it helps me help others help me, if you know what I mean. Five days off almost seems like too much.
-Ryan Gage, CD CM

1st two weeks

Before I came out to Montana, I told myself over and over that I was not joining the MCC to make friends. I was here to work hard in a field I hoped to make my career, and to develop personally as well as professionally. I intended to focus the whole of my energy on the work at hand while doing something I loved- living in backcountry while swinging a pulaski. Working closely with crewmembers was a consequence of this work, and becoming close to them was necessary to effectively complete the projects before me. It didn't take two people to hold an ax.
When I finally met my fellow crewmembers, I was intimidated- I knew that they had come out here for the same reasons; to develop commitment, personal and professional discipline, to grow as individuals. They didn't need me, I- like the pulaski- was a tool for building trails, for development and preservation. I was intimidated simply by the fact that they were here to work- because I had never worked as hard as I expected my crewmembers would be working, and I would have to match my strength to theirs. I was scared that I would be unable to do this, and that I would be alone in the woods, trying to figure out how to be as strong as these people.
However, my outlook changed once I learned the story of the pulaski tool. Pulaski was a wilderness firefighter whose crew had been caught in such an intense fire that they had to retreat to a cave, with no reliable exit through the burning woods. He had to not only held his crew at gunpoint in the cave to keep them safe, but he had to invent a tool in order to make a safe passage for himself and his crew. It was in the very fire that held them captive in which he forged the tool to take them to safety.
I heard this and immediately I saw that the people surrounding me, though I did not yet know them, were the closest friends I had. I knew that beyond being tools to my development, they were the support system and instruments of learning that I would use to not only build trails, but connections with my community. In fact, they were my community. They had, indeed, joined the MCC for the same reasons I had- to do a service, to relinquish ego and selfish pride and to work. No, they did not need me to do the work, but without me, the work would be nearly impossible, impassable. I did not need them- but if I wanted to become a good worker, an effective citizen and community member, I needed a community and fellow citizens. We all came here to do work- and we all came here to work together.
I knew that we were here now to build the paths that would lead us to each other. We would be developing trails to our futures, and pathways into each others lives, as both comrades in arms for preservation, but also the very teachers who would help me learn who I was, by being the mirror, the example, the citizens whose common goals would bring us together tighter than friends. The fires of apathy and fear had sequestered us together, and we were now forced to forge the tools to help each other find the path. Without this fear, without this necessity, we would have never found each other, we would never learn, never grow as individuals, and escape the darkness of uncertainty. We were all here to do the same work, and without one another, this work can not get done. Without the bond of crewmembers, we cannot grow as individuals. It is in the challenge and support of these individuals that I would find the strength to do this work. Without their example, without their knowledge, I would not be able to find my path, because it is the same path we are all on. One of us has the flashlight, one has the batteries, one has the pulaski, another, the mcloud. It is in darkness and fire that we found each other, and it is as a result of this darkness and fire we are forced to come together to build the path. And it is this common path, this common journey that will build a more valuable connection than the connection to ourselves- it is in the compassion to ourselves that we decide to let go of fear and come together and find compassion for others.
-H Israel Ziskind, MCC Corpsmember 2010