Staying Close to Home

For the week of the 19th, the Manateem stayed within St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge hiking and brushing and blazing trail in our own backyard. We packed the orange and blue blaze paint; we strapped on the loppers, saws, and slings, and began to hike. After three days of this routine, we scouted and brushed 11 miles of trail. Our feet were sore and our arms were spent from swinging at the large logs lying across the trail. It was a good thing we packed the Pulaski those days because everyone was able to get some experience with swinging mechanics and gain the knowledge of how much energy it takes to chop a tree in half. But there proved to be no tree too large for the Manateem, and we intend to keep it that way.