This year was a good one for me mainly because of the interesting conversations that went along with interesting work topics.
The most memorable days to me were the first day on the challenge
course, National Public Lands Day (Watershed cleanup), and our last
workday of Campground Maintenance.
Challenge Course
The challenge course at Gibbs Lake is a chance fore the team to get to
know each other and begin to learn how to work as a team to accomplish
certain goals. We had to get out entire crew through a spider web like
thing without touching the wires, it even included lifting people. We
tested our reflexes and by rolling a marble in PVC pipe cut in half from
one point to another. Each time the marble dropped someone lost the use
of an arm, leg, or eyes. I'm sorry to say that several of our crew were
maimed that day, several times. Though luckily no damage was permanent.
We also had to get the whole crew over a wall with nothing but people
on the bottom and people at the top when they climbed there.
National Public Lands Day.
National Public Lands day is one day a year that groups of volunteers
from every state in the country gather to work together to clean up
areas around them from improperly disposed trash, litter, and other
environmentally hurtful substances. There were a lot of other volunteers
there, besides just our crew. There were even a few fellow past 4H
members I recognized and remembered. It was interesting to interact with
those people in a different setting than what I had experienced before,
and also it was fun to see how many more people showed up for this day
to join us then I recall joining us last year.
Before lunch several other crew members and I were working along a road,
I don't exactly recall what road, but it was had one side that was
going uphill and the other side was going downhill. There were several
people walking, four or five who switched about in the half of the crew
that was at our location. We mostly had to climb down the hill to get
trash, there was very little in the ditch on the other side. The
conversations during that walk ranged from the hilarious, to absurd.
There was a running mention between a couple of us that we shouldn't
have watched so many episodes of the TV show Bones before coming to this
day, because we kept expecting to find some creepy 'remains' to be
found under a pile of unassuming moss. A lot of the conversations made
me realize what the crew had a bunch of interests in common. It was a
very fun day.
Trail Maintenance
We spent one day doing trail maintenance by Quilcene, which included
obliterating an old section of trail, lopping branches out of the way
and leveling parts of trail. We ate by a river, and got our picture
taken on a bridge over the river. It was very cool, except it was quite
loud to talk over lunch as is our custom.
Elk Habitat Restoration
For this we had to cut down small trees of certain species to make way
for rarer ones, and to keep the area clear. After lunch the crew was
also marking (tagging) trees so they could be found again later, and
girdling them so that they created snags for wildlife. Snags are
standing dead trees which insects, birds, and other wildlife use. Our lunch
activities were very fun and included a game where you had to switch
partners and touch that person's head, with some other rules of course.
Campground Cleanup
Last year for this activity, most of what I remember was dodging some
kind of sealant we were using to weather seal the picnic tables while
two undisclosed crew members tried to fling it at each
other, with great subtlety and flair. This year, however, the sticking
memory of this maintenance will be a fantastic little loop of a paved
trail, a scenic trail, that two others and I spent all of the time
before lunch cleaning. First with wide and thin rakes, getting fallen
Big Leaf Maple leaves out of the path, then with two brooms to remove
spare pine cones. First in one direction we traveled with the rakes. The
subject of lively conversation that centered our work efficiency,
focus, and laughter began with casual talk of the National Novel Writing
month, and what my own writing was about for that month, which led to a
trading of science fiction authors and a discussion of differences
between British and American writing styles. Conversations continued to
flow around school, funny things friends and teachers did, those funny
memories that you want to remember but at the same time wish you could
erase from your retinas. The mention of a geometry teacher introducing
proofs by standing in front of the class with a banana saying, "If it is
a banana . . . ". By the end of the first circuit conversation was back to
NaNoWriMo, then moving on to broken sunglasses, Harry Potter, and
direction of wind that brought the perfume from the nearby
outhouse/bathroom as we prepared to turn around and go over the trail
again. Conversations again began, first with the absurdity of sweeping a
paved trail in the middle of fall, then with other absurdities and
discussion of cat 4H, sweeping efficiency and trading of jokes.
This tight knit interaction on that trail will be remembered as a great
time with friends by me for a long time. The leader that was working
with us lopping instead of raking commented halfway through the first
loop that we seemed to be able to accomplish quite a bit while holding a
constant, flowing, and humor filled entertaining conversation. I'm
rather proud of this comment, myself. I'm glad that someone at least
realizes or notices that teens, especially the group I was in, could get
a lot of work done while talking, instead of being bored stiff and
trying desperately to get through the day without talking under an iron
will of a supervisor. I'm very grateful and lucky that my first
employers, of 4H stewardship, and other programs, realize this.
Campground maintenance has always proved a good resource of fun, memories, and interesting circumstances.
Campground Maintenance, take two.
Our last workday started again at Seal Rock Campground, the site of our
earlier maintenance. It was raining and I was the only person who
refused rain pants. Not only do I despise the sound, feel, and texture
of them, I would have been terribly warm in them. I was quite happy
getting soaked while I worked that day, and I did. After lunch we headed
towards Mt. Walker to do trail maintenance on a scenic loop at the top.
Our van didn't start at the end of the campground so we had to get a
jump from helpful bystander so we could actually get all the way to Mt.
Walker.
At the top of Mount Walker there was a fun activity that included
throwing gloves up in the air and doing strange moves while they were in
the air. We lopped the trail after, including a huge branch out of the
way and a lot of cutting back brush to make the trail more easily
passable for wheelchairs.
The view was a spectacular one of a wall of total unending white fog. It
was quite possibly the most blinding of our workdays the whole season.
The whole season, blinding or not. Raining, or sunny. Absurd sweeping or purposeful obliterating of trails, was a very memorable and enjoyable time. I would recommend it to anyone.