This post is dedicated to the Echo Crew. I will do my very best to honor our experiences together with the photos I choose for this post and the captions/comments that accompany them. I hope you guys enjoy the pictures; feel free to download them, and if you're curious about others I didn't include, hit me up (you have my phone number in that contact book - yes, I have a working phone now).
I have returned! As you may know from my last post (two months ago - I know, it's been a while), I was up in Colorado working on a trail crew this summer. It was wonderful and tedious and hilarious and miserable and an amazing bonding experience and so many things that it would take too long to say or can't be put into words, so I will let my photos do the talking. (A funny side note: you know how I said I wouldn't be able to keep up with Pic a Day while working? It turns out I got a photo almost every day except for one. How about that? I was traveling and seeing lots of new places and making new friends and doing stuff I don't normally do, hence the over-500 photos I took during those 58 days. If I'd been chilling at home, I'm sure I would have gotten hardly a fraction of that number, since there was nothing interesting to photograph. AHEM. Back to the reason you came here: pictures!)
June 14
The afternoon/evening/night before the first day of work, I pitched my tent at headquarters, then my parents and I walked around Steamboat Springs a bit before they drove back home.
June 15
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| first day of work (orientation): packing up the van & trailer |
June 16
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| morning at our first campsite |
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| not sure the purpose, but they look cool |
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| taking a break during our day of hands-on crosscut learning |
To clarify/explain: I was on a crosscut crew, so our main work was using crosscut saws (you'll see pictures of them later on; they're from the turn of the century (thereabouts) and used in place of chainsaws in wilderness areas due to wildlife disturbance concerns) to "buck" trees (cutting trees that fell onto/over the trail and moving them; "bucking" is differentiated from "felling," where still-standing trees are cut down - you know how they yell "timber!"? yeah, that wasn't what we were doing).
June 17
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| checking out our new campsite in Buffalo Pass |
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| Buff Pass views |
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| our crew leaders took us to the hot springs |
June 18
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| Silverthorne/Dillon - our first chore day |
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| tying down the trailer |
June 19
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| hiking up the Gore Range trail on our first official work day |
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| Sarah + Yitzi double-bucking |
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| lots of lagoons on this section of the Gore Range trail |
June 20
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| I used cool anomalies like these to mark the distance on the hike back |
June 21
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| askew |
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| lilypad lake + majestic mountains |
June 22
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| Sam + Diana at the end of our super long work day |
June 23
This marked the start of our first "rec weekend." We generally had four days of work followed by a three-day weekend where we could chill, do fun activities together as a group, and get some chores done (laundry, showers, groceries) before heading back into the work week.
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| kitchen setup at campsite #1 (I didn't put weekend sites in the count) |
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| the teepee was already there - very cool addition |
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| just me |
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| I climbed up the hill behind our kitchen to take in the views |
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| those views, pt. II |
June 24
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| we wanted to hang out at the lake, but it got stormy... |
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| ...so we hung out at a coffee shop in Keystone instead! |
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| Anna, Sarah, & Anya |
June 25
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| Yitzi in a tree (taking down the rope for the tarp for the kitchen) |
June 26
Work week 2. I was paired with Alan Chapman, the man who taught us during orientation about crosscutting (both in the classroom and in the field) - he was an idol and legend for our crew. Because of how many trees we got that day (i.e., an insane number that nobody believed), I earned the nickname "Chapman" from my crewmates.
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| Alan taking pics of Boulder Lake |
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| Boulder Lake |
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| putting shoes and socks back on after crossing the creek |
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| cascading river |
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| cascading river, pt. II |
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| the van (@ campsite #2) |
June 27
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| to give you an idea of the kinds of forests we worked in (= very dead) |
June 28
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| it's like my grandma's garden |
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| more fields of flowers |
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| crosscut caught in a bind |
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| Diana + I watching while Sean tries to get the saw unstuck |
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| more of that Gore Range |
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| I took a pic of these initials for my parents' anniversary (a day early) |
June 29
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| Yitzi at the end of the trail |
Here follow some pictures of my crew (minus the leaders). From left to right (well, more like a triangle/mountain shape: Anya, Anna, Yitzi, Sam, Sarah, and Diana.
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| hooligans |
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| we were on our lunch break |
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| absolutely incredible |
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| (can't get enough) |
June 30
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| I went down to the river this morning... (yep, I had to make a lil song out of it) |
July 1
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| on this fine weekend, the crew voted to hike one of CO's many fourteeners |
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| Anna hiking up |
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| lakes down below |
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| (I love this one) |
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| some shaggy mountain goats |
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| rocky slope |
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| more mountain goats |
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| the crew at the top |
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| Anna + Raven |
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| I was unimpressed - nothing can top Wheeler (even though this *was* a taller mountain) |
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| Anna + Raven making their way down |
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| yet another mountain goat |
July 2
We spent this week and the next doing trail work projects other than crosscutting. Week 3 we were in Rand building a turnpike, fixing water bars, and doing other trail maintenance.
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| foundation for a turnpike |
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| (cont.) |
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| looks like railroad tracks, doesn't it? |
July 3
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| good morning, campsite #3 |
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| tents in the meadow (so blissfully flat!) |
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| hard to see in this pic, but I hand-sculpted this water bar |
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| work on water bars |
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| these are the patterns made by beetle larvae when they infect/infest a tree |
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| Anna looking so badass with that pulaski |
July 4
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| the worksite |
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| turnpike complete! (past the bridge, which we had nothing to do with) |
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| went to Walden for dinner to celebrate Independence Day |
July 6
This weekend, Rendezvous, was a big mid-season gathering for all the trail crews in the organization.
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| the sun sets over some mountains.... |
July 7
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| ...and rises over others |
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| the lake |
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| some water fun |
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| (cont.) |
One of the activities at Rendezvous was a cook-off: each crew prepared a meal, and we had a potluck where we got to try everyone else's dishes (also, there were judges that rated the meals on different qualities - we ended up getting "most authentic" for our Thai coconut curry).
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| crew hanging at the van/getting ready for the cook-off |
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| (cont.) |
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| (cont., pt. III) |
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| waiting for all that delicious food |
July 8
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| writing outside the laundromat |
July 9
Week 4, our second week of non-crosscutting: instead, we helped build a downhill-only mountain bike trail in Buff Pass.
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| views from my tent |
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| back at Buff Pass |
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| there was another crew camped by where we were - they left much earlier for their work day |
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| there were also some civilians camped by us (I love that little camper!) |
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| don't mind me, just admiring the rock formations |
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| the trail we worked on |
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| Sam and Yitzi climbing the rock throne |
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| Sam: rugged / Yitzi: enlightened |
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| another angle |
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| gathering/packing up tools at the end of the day |
July 10
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| trying to move a gigantic rock off the trail |
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| still trying |
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| we definitely earned our break after that one |
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| I can't take all the credit for this, but I did some work on it |
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| Anya posing on the rock bridge our crew worked on |
July 11
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| mornings |
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| reminds me of the east side of the Sandias (all the scrub oak) |
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| Buff Pass, stealing my heart |
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| photos can't do these views justice, I'm afraid |
July 12
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| another look at the trail |
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| in process of being built (kind of apocalyptic?) |
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| not my handiwork or anything (sadly, I never got a photo of the additions to our back-window art wall) |
July 13
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| in the Flat Tops (there was a big fire many years ago, hence the many dead trees) |
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| Trappers Lake |
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| the crew @ Trappers Lake |
July 14
This was our second time cowboy camping (our first was at the base of Quandary Peak), but this was the one that made a mark on me.
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| "crystalline clouds cracking over the daylit sky..." |
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| everyone still asleep |
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| sleeping beans |
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| a day on the Marvine Trail |
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| fording the stream (definitely a little hazardous) |
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| I hiked with Anya, Yitzi, and Anna further up the trail |
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| on our hike up |
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| Anna, Anya, and Yitzi |
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| Slide Lake |
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| Yitzi on the rock |
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| Yitzi, Anna, and Anya |
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| these goons (love 'em) |
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| Anna got some pics of me on the rock as well |
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| log island in the stream |
July 15
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| napkin art by Sarah (we went to a diner to watch the World Cup Finals) |
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| the horses at the USFS station where we camped |
July 16
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| fireweed |
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| spiked mountain |
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| Sarah and Anna were intrigued by my bone finds |
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| stormy lake |
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| I led them to a cache |
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| bones: nature's carvings |
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| more of the lake |
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| tell me this isn't insanely cool |
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| panorama of Trappers Lake |
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| on the opposite shore |
Stay tuned for Part II! Thanks for checking these out - I hope you liked at least some of them - and I'll return soon with even more pictures!
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