My Summer on Trail Crew, Pt. II

Hello again! I'm back as promised for Part II of my trail crew adventures. So, sit back, relax, and scroll through some more pics!

July 17

 We pick up on the second day of week 5, the first week we went backcountry, hiking out five miles to our campsite with all our gear and tools.

views on the hike up

(today was basically just a hiking day)

 July 18

Sarah tending to Anna's wounds

stumbled upon another cache of bones

check out this skull!

gorgeous color mosaic

Flat Tops view

Flat Tops view, II

Sam and Sarah looking like bandit sawyers

Sam (in a word: rugged)

Sam and Sarah looking at Anna's photoshoot pics

Sarah (yep)

I commissioned this altar on which to display the bodies

 July 19

sweet return to the van

 July 20
 We spent this rec weekend in Moab, Utah - total landscape change from Colorado (and climate shift: it was much hotter than we were used to), but very familiar to me. (Except for the geology. New Mexico, sadly, doesn't have cool rocks on as large of a scale as Utah.)

cowboy camping in Moab

desert landscape reminding me of home

breakfast at Peace Tree Cafe

quirky little sculptures on the street corners

Sean, Yitzi, Anna, and Diana (waiting for the rest of the crew)

starting out on our hike through Arches Nat'l Park

the red rocks made me feel like I was on Mars

delicate arch

Raven

Raven and Sean (our crew leaders)

Anya

Sean

crew under the arch

we went to a farmers market + free concert in town after the hike

 July 21

hiking through the desert, heading for a slot canyon

river crossing

there was a lot of splashing through the river since it was along the trail

lil toad!

so cute

canyon sunlight

Sarah and Anya

there was a waterfall at the end of the canyon

desert oasis

more lil toads!

so fat and cute!

July 23

 Week 6: another backcountry week, but we didn't hike out until the second day.

twinning Tupperwares (+ Nalgenes)

back to work (but still taking advantage)

July 24

in the aspen grove (on the hike up)

group gathering

planning for our trip to Denver after the season

practically a full skeleton!

Bailey Lake

(cont.)

another perspective of Bailey Lake (coming back from the work day)

Sarah, Sam, and Anna (such weirdos)

in case you couldn't guess, our campsite was at a lake

breathtaking

 July 25

we had to hike up from the lake to another campsite

reminds me of the broken door in Monsters, Inc.

trying to tackle this aspen with Yitzi

scoping out the trail and looking for trees (we didn't find any)

July 26

in the morning light, the algae looked like ice on the lake

another view (Swede Lake)

more of the Flat Tops (on my way down/heading back to the van)

that river winds almost *too* perfectly...

 July 27
 Made it to another weekend; we camped outside of Buena Vista and hit three small towns in central Colorado: Leadville, Buena Vista, and Salida.

campsite in Buena Vista

some probably wanted to hike the mountain in the back, but Anya convinced me to climb the boulder by our campsite

inside Melanzana, a local fleece shop in Leadville

our breakfast stop

a very interesting claim

love these murals

I stumbled upon some tiny houses in a RV park and got a tour!

more murals

Leadville

 July 28

different town, more murals

Buena Vista

July 29

smoky red sun (we switched from our BV campsite to one near Salida)

yet another town, yet more murals

deer chilling in someone's front yard

(cont.)

Salida

picnic in the park - the tree kept me dry from the rain

 July 30

 July 31
 We had to hike up to one of our campsites for our last hitch (eight days instead of two separate four-day hitches with a three-day weekend), but it wasn't backcountry because some Forest Service people drove our stove and massive cooler up the trail for us.

looking upon the Gore Range once more

our kitchen's under the tarp

we hiked back down to go to a free community dinner in Silverthorne

...and hiked back up again to our camp (smoky sun returns)

 August 1

our wedge breaking was just one of many bad-luck things that happened

tents in the evening light

setting sun

 August 2

Sean and I tackled this massive tree (took seven separate cuts to move it all)

if only they'd taught us which berries were edible...

Sean single-bucking

this picture doesn't capture how the texture feels, but it tries

 August 3

The following pictures were taken by Raven on our very unproductive Friday. It rained in the morning, and, despite monsoon season, we'd never worked in a constant drizzle; additionally, we had to hike out almost two hours to get to the last few trees on the trail, so it was more commuting (and whimpering about being cold and wet) than actually working. We had fun, though, and it turned out to not be such a bad day in the end.

Anya

Sam

the cut log ended up on another log and formed a pretty good seesaw

I wonder if seesaws were invented by the original crosscut sawyers...

can't take your PPE off even to have fun, kids

Sam and Anya

Anya (according to Raven, this was her crazy look)

Sam

 August 4

interesting skull (and other bone) across the road from our camp

finally found Lost Lake

the antique tool of our trade

weird Dr. Seuss-esque blooms

 August 5

the Sunday morning rain finally let up

Anna, looking cute as ever

Diana, Sam, and Anya

return to Boulder Lake (coming full circle)

this moose was foraging near our van (and we couldn't really go until he left)

 August 6

looking over Dillon Reservoir

top to bottom: Diana, Yitzi, and Anna

last sunset over the compound

 August 7

clearing debris from a to-be trail

Anna, Sarah (lying down), Sam, and Diana in this cool teepee we found

hardhat lineup

last-day-of-work pants-signing party

Sam, Anna, and Yitzi being crazy

Diana

 August 8

a beautiful morning to wake up to after our last night of cowboy camping

 August 8th was derig: basically, we had to unpack and clean up and put away all our group gear at headquarters (so, just a giant chore day). Once we were done with that, it was on to Denver! Our initial plan was for Anna and Sarah to go to the rental car place, then we'd all drive down to the city. However, it turns out large cars can't be rented out to drivers under 25, so Sam called his aunt, who lives in Steamboat Springs, and she let us stay at her house that night (and even made breakfast for us the next morning).

twilight in Steamboat

hanging out by the Yampa (waiting for the car that never came)

 August 9

morning balloon sighting!

saying goodbye to Sam

the art at Rootz Cafe

 After lunch in Steamboat, the rest of our crew (minus Sam) caught a Greyhound bus to Denver.

in the city after our long bus ride

we made it!

finally in Denver, bitches

dusk views from the hotel

 August 10

daytime views from the hotel

Anna, Yitzi, and Sarah (who I shared the hotel room with)

Yitzi and Anna

the capitol building

Yitzi checking it out from afar

we decided to see it from the inside, too

finally got vegan Boston cream donuts!

met up with Diana and her friend for lunch

reflections

 We had talked, as a crew, getting tattoos in Denver, but Anna ended up being the only one who did that - she didn't get a crosscut, but her aspen is pretty cool!

aspen ankle tat

And that concludes my summer on trail crew! It was a crazy, somewhat surreal experience that I am happy I did, even if it was miserable to wake up in a cold tent (or a wet sleeping bag) and hike for miles to get to work. I am so happy I got to bond with people I wouldn't have met otherwise, and it was surprisingly fulfilling to do work I wouldn't normally find myself doing. I know I swore up and down I'd never do trail work again, but... maybe I would. Or, something else like it, anyway. I've realized I'm kinda into work "trips" where you live with a small group of people in community housing (or tents, which became community housing - we did manage to squeeze the seven of us into Anna's Half Dome 2+ one night (not for the whole night, though; but it was an... interesting experience)) and bond over the different projects you have to do, as well as living together 24/7.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures! Since there's no official Pic a Day, there's no telling when the next post will be, but stay tuned and stay on your toes. (You never know when I'll go on another photography frenzy.)