Hitch #4 Blog Post by Eric Schweitzer - Fenn/Moose Creek Trail Liaison
For Hitch three I joined the four Nez/Clear Interns to work from the Warm Springs Trailhead, towards Grave Peak, and loop back around on “Saturday Ridge” Trail #89 through “Warm Springs Pass” and back to the trailhead. You can never be sure what a work rotation will hold for you. How many trees will there be? Will we have mostly digging to do? Did I bring enough food? Are three packs of Ramen healthy for an average adult? I don’t know! Our base-camp was located in a prime spot, used by an outfitter, and was a treat to be at for three nights. There were many downed trees on the trail; beetle-killed, burned, and some from wind events which made our work difficult at times.
With such a high volume of trees we were all able to improve our skills with Cross-cut saws and axes. Calle enjoyed using a double-bit ax she took to calling “Lucy”, Mickey and Mark were an effective team clearing trees with the saw, and Dani was able to move large logs without needing to cut them using lifting techniques she uses in the gym. We were moving well through our time to Grave Peak and enjoyed a night at Wind Lake looking up at the Look-out. I was able to put my fly-fishing rod together and through the clouds of mosquitoes caught a nice Cut-throat Trout. After that we continued to hit large sections of downed-trees on the trail and eventually had to walk over 78 logs after working our full time. It’s always an experience to be out in the Wilderness and even if we didn’t get all of the trees we still got 1,076 off the trail. See you out on the dusty trail!
