Hitch 3 -- Digging In for Better Tread

Hitch Summary

Hitch 3 began after a restful extended Fourth of July break. We returned to the Lake Creek Trail and set up base camp during Tuesday morning at the top of a ridge quite a bit further down the trail than where we were previously. In the afternoon we began work on what would dominate the majority of our week: tread repair. We lined up, classic chain gang style, and worked in 15 minute rotations on each tool. The trail was full of rocks through the meadow and progress was slow with the three pick mattocks delivering the brunt of the grunt work.

Tuesday evening we were joined by Trevor Knight from the office in Boise who rolled up around 9 p.m. in his Volkswagen van which somehow managed to navigate the treacherous and bouncy road to our camp seemingly unscathed. With an extra pair of helping hands to lend as well as a fresh source of stories to share, Trevor’s visit was a well-timed mental diversion during what became our most physically exhausting hitch to date.

We bid farewell to Trevor on Saturday morning and set out for a day of brushing and clearing to break up the monotony of tread work from the days before. We experienced difficulties when trying to start one of the brushers which slowed down progress on some of the clearing, but we made do with the brusher we had. Later in the evening John was able to fix the aforementioned brusher by some voodoo-like magic that we still do not understand.

Sunday was back to tread work, and in light of the stress that was put on the bodies of the members during this hitch, we quit work a bit early and took a trip to Jubilee Lake about an hour’s drive from our campsite. After a refreshingly cool jump in the lake we enjoyed a leisurely evening with delicious food and a rousing game of Settlers of Katan. The break rejuvenated the crew and brought up morale so that we could finish the final two days with our spirits high.

Monday and Tuesday found the crew finishing up the last of the brushing and corridor clearing. We connected with the wilderness area and put in place a new ‘No Biking’ sign. By the end of the hitch we had repaired 2112 feet of tread and cleared the remaining 1.5 miles of trail.

Work Summary