Now, there has been a sizable gap between blog posts. To try and tell all the stories and adventures that have taken place with the crew would take an effort that is larger that I can deliver. But I can tell you all what it is really like to live up here in the middle of nowhere. Most people have experienced some type of separation from society for at least a short period of time. Before this summer I had done some small trips that took me out of society, but it was not until this summer that I realized a true feeling of being separated from the rest of the world. We do not have a TV, cell phone service is out of the question, there is no internet at the house, the only form of communication with the outside world is a landline phone and we are only allowed to use it after 7 pm. So to connect with the outside world is quite a task. The closest town is Jelm, Wyoming, about 45 min away down a dirt road. The make-up of this town is a gas station, bar and post office. The bar has a small restaurant that serves over 10 different flavors of pie that are to just die for. Beyond that to reach any sizable group of people we have to go to Laramie, Wyoming. This is the place where we do all of our shopping for food and other supplies that are needed for the weeks of work that lie before us.
Now back to Stub Creek. The house that we stay in is relatively large, it has two bathrooms, ten beds, and kitchen that is ridiculous in size. We have 4 fridges, two stoves and two ovens. Two microwaves to add on to it and more pots and pans that I will ever know what to do with. It is a really nice kitchen for our group cause we have been cooking meals for 6 on a nightly basis and the major overkill on the kitchen makes it easy to prepare food without getting in each other’s way. It is really nice that the over kill is there because is allows us to sit down to dinner together, talk and share stories about life. This bonding has made our group become our own little family.
Now who are the people that make up this nice little family? There are six of us, if you are reading this you know me, Goose, there is also Tom, he is the guy that I drove out out to colorado with, he is originally from Connecticut. Â There is Sophie from New Mexico, Ana from South Dakota, Sarah from Montana and Joaquin who is from Texas. All of these people are very unique and special in their own way. Every single person brings something different to the group. When all these different attributes, whatever they may be, come together we have a group that is fun, motivated, and very dynamic. So far this summer when we have hit many road blocks, we are all open to hearing new ideas and this has allowed us to get us though the summer so far with no major arguments. I have truly enjoyed living with these people, it is a nice change of pace and it is even better that they all love the wilderness as much as I do.
This brings me to the best part of this place. Stub Creek is located just outside of the Rawah wilderness. If you do not know what a wilderness is, it is a chunk of land that has been designated by our government to not allow any mechanized equipment. This includes anything from bikes to chain saws. The only way to get around in places like this is to hike or ride a horse. Areas of wilderness ,in my view, are some of the purest forms of nature that you can find. This sensation of untouched nature gives me a better feeling than anything I have ever experienced before. And because the house we are living in is right on the border of the wilderness, it makes that feeling that much easier to enjoy. You step outside of the house at night and there are stars like you have never seen. You can hear moose calls way off in the distance, late night birds add a chirp here and there. I have spent a few nights sitting on the porch till the toes on my feet are numb, just watching, listening, and even smelling everything that is around me. It all adds to a picture that can never be drawn or taken. It is a picture that must be experienced. There is a saying that a picture is worth a thousand words, well this beauty is worth millions. The fact that I can reach this by just walking out our back door blows my mind away. When we go into the backcountry to live while doing work it just gets even better. The best part of all of this is no one can take it away from me or anyone once it is witnessed. This place is something that will be ingrained in my mind for my lifetime. Nature here is almost completely untouched and it just leaves a sense of peace in your heart and soul. I do not consider myself to be a religious person by any means, but being out here has convinced me that there is something larger than life all around us. What it is I do not know, but the life out here is way too big for anyone to really try and describe. It is so simple it is impossible to explain. All I know that is I am only half way though this summer and I have already learned more about my self than I could have ever dreamed, Â and I can not wait to see what the remainder of the summer has to offer.
Now that you have an idea of what life as a whole is up here, I’ll walk you through a typical day that we encounter. The day that I will describe took place on June 25. On our work days we generally try to wake up at 6 a.m., it takes the group about an hour to make lunch, eat breakfast and get all the gear we need for the day, ready. On this fine morning of the 25th I awoke very unwilling to get out of my bed and get ready for work. The previous night I had made a plan for a kick ass breakfast, I was going to cook eggs, bagels and make a breakfast sandwich. I knew we had a long day ahead of us and I needed to have a breakfast that would provide a significant amount of energy for the day. I had help from Ana to prepare this feast of a meal. Once I ate breakfast, I did my dishes real quick, made my lunch and got all of my gear for the day. This includes rain gear, head lamp, water, some extra cloths and any group gear that must be carried.
We headed out for the West Branch trail head, which is about 15 miles south of Stub Creek. We had already done a day’s worth of work on this trail earlier this summer. What this means is that we have to hike in about 3 miles or so before we can even start doing trail work. It is a nice way to start the day with a fast paced hike, it really gets the blood flowing in the body. We knew from scouting the trial that, where we were going to be working had taking on some pretty significant water damage. The first major project that we encountered about 3 miles in was the hill above the trail was seeping large amounts of water on the trail and making a mud pit out of it. The fix for something like this is to build a water bar at the base of the mud pit and have a trench that is on the upslope of the trail to catch all the water coming out of the hill and lead it to the water bar which will force it further down the hill and to the river. The style of water bar we chose to build was a rock one. We have to get large rocks that weigh anything from 100-400 pounds and roll them into place in an organized manner. Because of all the mud we were encountering today it made it really difficult to move the rocks around and even harder to set them into place. When we would drop the rocks in, if they were just not right, we would have to adjust them, but because of all of the mud they got suctioned to the ground. We were also sinking in to calf high mud that had a great desire to keep our boots. With the mighty difficult working conditions we were dealing with, we did have one thing working in our favor, the fact that we are all kids trapped in older bodies.
Since we are all kids trapped in young adult bodies, it did not take long for us to realize that mud is really fun to throw at each other. Before I knew what was going on, mud was flying and people were slapping each other and leaving nice hand prints all over each others bodies. This battle continued for the entire length of the project. The entire project took about 90 minutes. After, we were all coved in mud, energized and happy. From there we moved up the trail. As we hike we dig out water bars that have been clogged by all the pine needles, sand and dirt. It makes for slow going, but it allows us to enjoy the area where we are working.
So far this summer the West Branch trail is my favorite trial we have worked on. It follows a river up into the mountains, winding in and out of Aspen tree groves and little meadows. All the while you are surrounded by mountains that are just now starting to come out of hiding from the snow. As we were hiking and working we came into what appeared to be an old lane for an rather larger avalanche. It was a little sanctuary that had 5 or 6 little streams, that danced their way down the slope and past us. We hung out there for a little while, just enjoying where we were. It is these little moments that can really make or break your day when doing hard work like we do. After getting our fill of this sanctuary, we continued up the trail and did more water bar work and a few minor projects that involved reinforcing stream banks. In the end we ended about five and half miles up the trial, where we took a snack break. It was almost 3:30 at that point and we knew it was going to take us about 2 hours to hike down. We were all a little tired, ate some food and took a little nap before we trucked back down to our truck(Carl).
Almost all of our days involve us working on our way up and then hauling our butts back to the truck at the end of the day. Most days we just go straight back to the truck, but not today. On the way up several of us had eyed a river that is at the trail head and it looked rather inviting. So on our way down, the three girls and I came to the conclusion that we needed to go swimming. I had no hesitation, I just jumped it and oh my it was cold. It was so cold that it made it hard to breath, but it did not really matter because after hiking 11 miles, any form of water touching your skin makes you feel great.
The fun does not stop there, every day when we get home from work we participate in what we call the “Down Challengeâ€. This challenge involves us doing one push-up every time the boss (Bruce Sprinsteen) says “down†in the song “I’m going downâ€. It adds to about 75 push-ups in total. This always puts the icing on the cake at the end of a long day and today was no different. We did the challenge and the work day was complete. After we were done, we cleaned up and put together dinner. Every member takes turns cooking a dinner meal. So far this summer I have cooked 3 meals that are my favorite from home. When I cooked them they all came out great, but tasted nothing like they do when my mom cooks them. Oh well, I will learn. After dinner we all sit down and choose a movie to watch before bed. It is a nice way to close out each day.
With that, you have now experienced the day to day life that I am enjoying out here. It sure is a chance of a life time.
