Hitch 5 -- This Trail Is Good to Go

Hitch Summary

We returned to the same base camp as the previous two hitches for our last hitch cementing this spot as our “home” in Umatilla. We were able to share this spot with our leader’s fiancé, Elizabeth, for the first day and a half before she returned back to Portland. This hitch we were a well oiled machine. Setting up base camp went the fastest it has ever taken, allowing us to be able to have the best start to a hitch ever.

The tread west of camp, roughly two miles, was taken care of on previous hitches so we headed east to the Lake Creek trailhead widening and smoothing every inch of tread in our way. Our plan of attack was to do as much continuous tread (no high priority spots were chosen) as we could, and then hope to reach the trailhead. We stuck to our plan like glue but due to limited time, by Monday we were unable to reach the trailhead so we jumped ahead and took care of one high priority spot.

As this being our last hitch we set out with the mindset of making it our best but there were some unforeseen events ahead that left us in a hard spot. On Thursday morning one of our beloved crew members, Jesse, returned home to take care of an ongoing medical problem. It was tough to say goodbye so early but in the end it was for the best. Also on Thursday another member, Andy, left to also address a medical problem for the day. Per usual on Sunday, we went to Jubilee Lake to do some R & R (on that note, Forest Service, please do not take down the rope swing). Overall though, we were able to thoroughly enjoy our last hitch in the Umatilla National Forest.

In the entire week the crew fixed 6,614 feet of tread, one drainage dip and cleared one tree. The crew’s last hitch was filled with our biggest down of the season -- Jesse leaving -- but also filled with many good moments and overall was a great final hitch to end the trail season.