Training is a vital part of the SCA process. It is what teaches us the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, night and day. This year training took place at a Girl Scout Camp in Carnation, Washington. The first week was a lot of classroom-style learning. The SCA policies were implanted into our brains; these are the rules that define our lives. Another part of this week was the CPR and Wilderness First Aid training. Over these days I saved many from fake injuries.
The second week the Trail Corps teams split from the Army Corp of Engineers teams. On Sunday, we started the day with setting up base camp. We learned how to filter water, tie knots, and use camp stoves. In the afternoon, we were introduced to tools used in trail work and we tried out the ax, jacks, and cross-cut saw.
The next four days we got into the major skill categories which were water drainage, timber, trail design and trail construction. Trail drainage was on my first day, so we went over basic trail terms and looked at drainage on a trail in the morning. In the afternoon, we brushed a trail and worked on the drainage of the trail. Next was timber, and we set right to work building benches. In this station we sawed off pieces of a cedar tree using a crosscut; notched part of the tree trunk; hand-drilled holes; attached the bench together using wooden dowels; and smoothed out the bench surface with chisels. In the trail design and trail construction stations we built a new trail for the camp. Construction was the most strenuous station, and I was at this station the last day. We worked two extra hours to finish, but what was accomplished in these four days was rewarding and worth the effort.
These ten days will always remain in my memories. The SCA training was often difficult and tiring, even tedious at times, but the feeling of accomplishment when you complete a project with your own hands is one that is hard to match. The SCA always draws intelligent, interesting individuals in. Nowhere else have I met people that after only a few days I can share so much of myself. The people you meet seem like they have been in your life for months or even years, and after this short of a time they are people you can talk to about almost anything. Going on from here, I am excited about exploring the Green Mountains in Vermont, the team I get to work with for the summer, and the awesome people that I am sure to cross paths with this summer in New England.
P.S. As I am looking over this post, the end of TrACS training has arrived. During this last week NH and VT TrACS (A.K.A. Super TrACS) trained with the U.S. Forest Service in the White Mountain National Forest, which lies in New Hampshire. This training involved two days of working with the Forest Service, one day of Super TrACS tracking a trail, and a travel day on each end. The end of this training marks the end of Super TrACS for the time being. May the NH TrACS, a.k.a. Moose TrACS, wheel run true until we reunite. Llama TrACS, as the VT team proudly calls itself, will valiantly push on in their absence.
