`: July 2010

Hi! After much ado, I'm finally back and with pictures to beat the band! Now I'm not firin' all my bullets on this go around, this is just a sample. See, to keep you coming back after such a long break in between posts I'm going to carefully ration these here photographs.

This particular batch is from my first of six eventual spikes (or tours) out to the backcountry. From here on out I'll be 8 days on at a time and then have 6 days off afterwards. The dealio is that we carry our personal gear in to wherever we camp, and a string of mules carries our food and tools. Now, I haven't snapped a picture of the mules just yet, but I'll get 'em, just you wait and see.

Our first (and probably next couple) tour was to the Bogachiel River trail, and more specifically to a gravel bar close to the Flapjack campground. Its something like 8 or 10 miles in the park, and we'll go deeper as our work progresses. Our job is to clear the trail of the stuff that fell during the winter, and to generally maintain the trail with tread work, drainages, and reroutes.

Below are photos of our basecamp, the main tarp being the group site where we stash food in the bear canisters and stow away tools.

Actually I lied, the picture above and below are from a different trip... a very short three day spike that we used as a "transition" to the backcountry camping... really it was just car camping.

Now here's the good stuff... this was the big gravel bar that we chose to setup shop on. Why on the river? One, the mosquitoes don't really hang around there... two, we don't have to worry about leaving a trace, as the river will eventually see to covering our tracks (know the phrase, meandering river?)... three, we don't use up the established campsites that visitors would like to use... and four, we get some space and privacy.

Plus there are less spideys - eewy!!

We're always up for a game of dominoes after a hard days work.

My spot... could it be any cooler? I had a nice little ledge of sand overlooking the river... seven nights this was my home!

Divvying up tools... and do you see those logs on top? Yea, we cut those.

Luke making sure the teeth are nicely sharpened.

The sump.

Just me felling a tree... no big deal.

Big Foot?

Luke and I comprised Team South Side, and had to ford the river every morning and afternoon to get to work. Ya see, the stock trail is on the south side of the river, while the old normal trail (now very sketchy and overgrown) is on the north side. So, we split our efforts.