Hitch 5

Here we are at Olive Lake in the Umatilla NF. It's our final hitch and it is beautiful here. For eight days we built staircases out of concrete blocks to prevent erosion at Olive Lake Campground. It was a fun project, but very strenuous since each block weighs 50 pounds. Over the course of the hitch we built six staircases, with a total of 90 steps, using 368 concrete blocks.

We were rewarded daily by swimming in the tranquil waters of Olive Lake. We also had daily visits from the Umatilla 2 team for the first half of the hitch! The advantages to working in a campground added up quick. Not only were we constantly told by campers how great our stairs looked, but we were given tasty treats for our hard work. Our friend Bob in site 4 gave us fresh rainbow trout that we cooked over the fire to perfection. The son of the camp host shot a black bear and on our final night at Olive Lake we spent eating fried bear heart. We also had a lovely couple bring us the best tasting cantaloupe I’ve ever had during one of our breaks.

It was an awesome hitch to end an awesome summer in the Umatilla!