I've been working on the trailroad

[ilanarama]

As part of National Public Lands Day (which is actually next week, but who's counting?) the San Juan Mountains Association sponsored a trail work day at Animas City Mountain on Saturday. This is one of the places that we took catbear hiking when he was here, and it's the place where I'm mountain biking in my icon.

About five years ago, one of my New Year's resolutions that I didn't quite get to was to do volunteer trail work. I've always felt vaguely guilty about using the trails and never doing any maintenance; I also figured it would be a good way of meeting people I might be compatible with, so I signed up for Saturday's work day.

It was a blast. About 20 people showed up, and we were divided into groups for working low, high up, and in the middle -- I ended up in the middle. Our job was to repair silted-in and washed-out water bars, and to build new ones. (Water bars, for those not up on trail vocabulary, are berms of dirt, rock, or wood which angle across trails to divert running water off the trail.) Between hiking around with heavy tools (we used Pulaskis, which have a two-bladed head, an axe on one side and an adze on the other; McClouds, which look sort of like a sideways spork -- kind of a cross between a heavy rake and a shovel, mounted perpendicular to the handle; and Pickmatics, which are pickaxes with an adze blade on the back of the head and a removable handle), swinging the tools, and hauling rocks and dirt, it was a real workout.

My only injury was when I swung a Pulaski a little close to a rock we'd set and mashed my right index finger into the rock. It's achy and swollen today, owie owie owie. Of course my whole body is a little achy today, but nothing that ibuprofen won't cure.

So, I got some exercise and I fixed up a trail that I use and enjoy. I met a lot of nice people, and SJMA and BLM gave us lunch and lots of goodies, including a t-shirt, a water bottle, a bandanna, and a step-above-cheap-garbage multitool pocketknife. Woo!

So, happy Public Lands Day, everyone.

Comments

[laurelwood.livejournal.com]

Hey, thanks for the invite here- I've long wanted to read about your outdoorsy adventures (or indoorsy play-related adventures), but didn't want to pry.

Sorry about your finger; I hope it mends soon. Work parties are fun, aren't they? Brooke's school recently had a workday for maintenance on their 1-acre "outdoor classroom" (it's got representative sections for several different CA ecosystems- redwood forest, chapparal, etc.) and it's such a great way to meet people, do much-needed work, and sweat away happily (though not quite at YOUR level of fitness!) in the hot sun.

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Yeah, one of my Seekrit Agendas in doing this trail work thing was to meet people. Since both my husband and I basically work at home, we have a tough time meeting people, which is a pain because we both like to be social.

And, welcome!