Hitch 4 report

Progress Report:

Program Name: Finger Lakes National Forest
Dates: 7/13/10- 7/20/10

Carried lumber to privy site
Stained Plywood- 17 4x8 sheets
Backfilled Interloken Trail with soil removed from privy foundation- 150 feet
Constructed Privy
Carried 6x6’s up Gorge Trail- 11 8 foot 6x6’s

The majority of hitch 4 was spent working on the moldering privy at Dunham Shelter on the Finger Lakes trail. The Finger Lakes trail is part of the North Country trail system, and the new privy will be a dramatic improvement for through hikers as well as casual day hikers and picnickers.
We started off the hitch by carrying the lumber we stained last hitch to the privy site. It was a big challenge and took Kevin, Ellen, and Marc the better part of the day, but would have been a lot harder if it wasn’t for Marv (a US Forest Service Employee) and his ATV. While Kevin, Ellen, and Marc carried in the lumber, Scott and Holly carried out the soil excavated from the foundation and put it to use building up some particularly muddy sections of the Interloken trail. On day two we focused on staining the remainder of the plywood for the privy. We sure were glad to finally finish staining this day. After letting the plywood dry overnight we hauled the plywood to the privy site. Again, thanks to Marv and his ATV. We then spent the afternoon constructing the framing for the floor of the privy.
On day four we took a break from constructing the privy. We could not go any further until the circular saw the USFS was nice enough to buy us came in. We spent the day carrying the remainder of the 6x6’s we will be using for turnpiking up the Gorge trail. Way back in hitch 1 we hauled 9 6x6’s up the trail, but still had 11 left over. While carrying in the 6x6’s it was obvious to us how much stronger we have gotten in the past 6 weeks. Back in hitch 1 it was incredibly difficult to get the 6x6’s up the trail. During hitch 4 we carried them in without even having to take rest breaks!
On day five our circular saw had arrived and we got back to work on our top priority, the moldering privy. By the end of the day we had the floor finished and all the walls framed off. The following day we hung the plywood walls up. Hanging the walls turned out to be harder than we anticipated; plywood is not light. Nevertheless, all four walls were complete by the end of the day.
On day seven we constructed the privy door. Afterwards we realized that there was not enough 2x4s to frame the roof. We spent the afternoon tracking down 2x4s and staining them. On the final day of hitch 4 we finished framing the roof. The privy is now 90% complete. We are just waiting for the roofing materials and the toilet accessories to come in and we will have it finished in no time.