Hitch 2 South Zone Trails, Hitch Lead: Dan Members: Brett, Kelly, Andrea, Kendra

Trailwork. The bread and butter of any SCA program, and the South Zone crew proudly rolled back into Moyer with 10 days worth of dirt and sweat on their clothes serving as a testament of their hard work on Blowfly Trail. Phil McNeal of the Forest Service had only one request, that quality come before quantity, and that request was honored, with the trail corridor brushed out to 8’ in width, tread cut to a solid 2’ in width, and a 40’ section of heavily eroded trail stabilized with 6 check steps and as much crush as a crew of 5 could make until their arms were shaky enough to make drinking water a risky shirt-soaking endeavor. Yet the challenges of manual labor no longer mattered once the crew returned to camp and dinner was served, regardless of how creative some of the meals were towards the end of the hitch. Even Phil was pleased (if not a little surprised) to find the crew in high spirits and still “talking to each other” on day 8 of their first extended in-the-field experience while on a trails hitch. This was reassuring, but not unexpected, given the group of 15 twenty-somethings that make up SCA Idaho AmeriCorps, as well as the variety of beautiful locations where crews are fortunate enough to work here in the Salmon-Challis NF. Here’s to the great start for the South Zone crew, and may future crews build upon their accomplishments!