Hitch 3 Enter the BC by Jullian Doppen McCosker

This was our first back country hitch. As a result we worked four ten hour days. Day one primarily consisted of preparing for hitch, hiking out and establishing camp but we begun work on the trail in the mid afternoon. Day 1 was concluded with a talk about objectives for the hitch during which a humming bird landed on Drew. Day 2 we con0tinued the work started the day before as well as began several projects. We completed a reroute and obliterated the user made trail but the big projects of the day were the beginning of a retention wall as well as reestablishing tread in several places. Wildlife spotted on this day consisted spotting a black snake by the retention wall. Day 3 brought the conclusion of the retention wall and all members of the group were more enlightened to the dedication and patience the rock work requires; some from personal experience, other just from observing the amount of work that goes into it. On this day we also completed another small reroute in order to prevent future issues with tread and took our work across the stream in which we worked on the trail to make it more obvious in the winter time. On day 3 we also fell two dead trees, one to keep it from uprooting the wall and the other to block a user made trail that may lead to confusion. Day 3 was also accompanied by the sighting of another snake, this time a black rattle snake. Day 4 was our wrap up day. We finished up work and broke camp making sure to re-vegetate and minimize and impact that we had with our camping. The afternoon was spent at Deerfield Work Center cleaning tools and gear so they are prepared for us to begin work again in 3 days.