Trail troopers

 Today is our last day! Wow! That went by way to fast. I feel like our first day was yesterday! We finally finished all our work! I still can’t believe its over and I’m so proud of our tent platform. We worked hard and long and got a great outcome! We finished up the nailing on the edges of the base and put in the flooring pieces. It tool a lot of precise spacing and measurement but we got there. Its a little special but with the time and tools we had I think she’s pretty great. Overall it was a really fun project and I had a great time with my group working hard and having fun. Our hours today was from 8-11, 11:45-3. And that completes our project and hours!

 Today is Day 11 and our second to last day!! We still have a lot to do. We did a lot today after a full day of work. We went up at 8 oclcok with our tools that I talked a lot about in day 10. Our plan was too arrange the rocks and make the base and do the paneling tomorrow. It took us much longer than expected to align the rocks and pile them so that every one of the four boards was even and perfectly level from each other. We were able to achieve our daily goal after literally a full day.  We came down at 11:30 for our seminar and went back up at 12:30. We finished our base and brought down the boards for the top for tomorrow morning. Our hours were 8-11:30, 12:30-4

 This week was a little wonky because the original plan we had last Sunday went a little south. We had hoped to clear the trail all the way around Mud Pond with our original group but looking back today our plans have changed since then. Our goals before we started had a lot to do with the trails and the duck boxes and have shifted after going up and realizing what we were working with. We cleared the trails as best we could but was halted after running into a giant birch devising the path as well as a steam /marshy area cutting into the bath further on. We were worried we didn’t have the tools or time to reroute the path so after talking to our mentor we edit ted our goals.  We finished our first goal, being to clear the area by the cabin/lean2 and have shifted our other goals to focus on the tent platforms. We have three days left and we are going to spend them rebuilding the tent platform with the tools we obtained Friday. 

 After a lot of talking and planning we were excited to go up and start work. The bugs were especially bad today and we didn’t bring bug spray so that was a little bit of a downer. We started by taking a picture of all of our tools but couldn’t take anymore because sadly the phone we brought had died. We brought regular screws and extra long screws the extra long ones for screwing in one 4 x 4 to the other for the base. We brought the other regular screws to use for the planks to lay over them. We brought a level up to make sure that the platform was even and flat on both sides. We brought gloves to make sure we did not catch our hands and we had a touch on hands. And we brought one fully charge drill and a hammer! The rocks and woods we’re already up there so we didn’t have to do any of that hip lifting! Our hours that day were 8-10 then we got our vaccines and went back up at 11-2:30. 

 Today we did work from 8-11. And then 12-2. We checked in with Lynne in the morning and went to talk to Greg. He gave us the keys to the kabota and Lynne took a trip up there with us. Greg agreed that it would be awesome if we finished the other tent platform so we have made that our goal to finish by the end of the week. We mostly just moved the base wood into place, nothing fancy. But we did take a good look at the already made platform to get an idea of what we will be doing. We are excited to start work on this Friday Monday and Tuesday to finish up our project!

  Day 8 took a turn. Last night we met with Kelly and went over the day of on campus work. Bryson and I decided that we had more fun working at mud pond despite the bugs while Cooper and Sloane decided to stay on campus and keep working with Kelly and Development. We had a meeting with Lynne at 9 and we talked about what we wanted to do now that it’s only 2 instead of 4 of us. As well as possibly rearranging goals because of the blocked paths and the lax of 4 extra hands. after talking to Lynne we decided to finish cleaning the trail as best we could. We emailed       Greg and hopefully will be able to alter our goals. We are hoping to finish building the tent platforms but are still waiting to hear back from Greg.  

  Today was an interesting day because it was our first day of on campus community service. We spent the morning in Kelly’s office doing inventory. So for example we would count how many of the ace bandages she said and then sloane (our scribe) would mark it down. we worked in there for a couple hours and did inventory on almost all the materials. After that we headed to lunch and went and met with the development office . We didn’t do much work there but we did do a lot of talking and listening just learning about what they are trying to achieve and what we can help them with. The idea will be to do a lot of alumni work for them and possibly graduation prep. Today we worked from 9:30- 12 and then 1-2.  

 Today our project took an unexpected route. We collected our tools and headed up to mud pond excited to start work on the trail are the pond. We set off at 8  and got to work. We started by the clearing and worked our way around.  We ran into a few problems that we will have to check in with Lynne about. For instance their is a giant tree over the path in one spot that we cant move.  In another stop further along we get to swamp ground going through the path.  We are not sure how we should move forward and are hoping to rearrange our goals a little due to these complications. The path was kind of confusing and we got lost a couple times because we could my figure out which one was the path.    When we got back, Coop called Kelly because the bugs were becoming a little unbearable. She said we could refocus our community service to work on campus. So we are hooping to try some work closer to campus tomorrow. WE worked from 8- 12 

  After a week of adjusting to our project and trying to work on our goals I think we accomplished a lot within our confines. One challenge so far is having to rely on so many teachers and knowing that with their busy lives and still being in classes it’s hard to work together to accomplish our needs when we need them. None the less we have had a great start to the project.   As I have said in my previous blogs, we have been working pretty much only around the opening by the cabin. We started a little on Friday to look into what we need to do for next week but left most of it to start on Monday. We cleared out the dead wood and trees, cleared paths down to the water, and made clear and easy to see markings to show you where mud pond is.  For next weeks goal we hope to make a clear cut path through the woods all around much pond. We will move trees that are blocking the path and cut down anything that’s growing in the paths. We are excited to start our next leg of our project and hope t

  Day five! What a day! We were finally able to get our tools and were excited to get up and start working! We left at 7:30 trying to make up for some lost time and worked till 12. We were adamant about bringing up our tools that day and was able to secure a time the night before to grab them in the morning.  We went back down to campus to do some heavy lifting for Kelly. We had some lunch and headed back up to continue our work.  We were able to bring up a shovel, a rake, 3 pairs of     clippers and a saw!  We cleared the path down to the water and piled the excess wood in a pile under the cabin hoping it will dry so it can be used for kindling for other campers.   We worked from 2 to 3 and can’t wait to keep going tomorrow!   Bryson got the VIP award that day for hardest working. He was unstoppable with the clippers! Lots of teamwork in action as well!

  Day four was pretty uneventful. Due to the fact that we’re were unable to obtain our tools we needed to complete our work, despite our continued efforts, we couldn’t do much work. We were up at 7:30 and ready to go but since we had nothing more to do at mud pond until we had our tools, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful day and go on a hike up the ski hill. Not much work was done but fun was had! We are excited to collect our tools and continue our work tomorrow.  

  This morning we all woke up early and decided to get a head start on our work and started a 8     AM sharp. Once we got up there we weren’t really sure what to do because we didn’t have our tools so we decided to do a little more fire wood work and raking, then headed down to see if we could collect some tools.     We were hoping to get an axe some clippers and a rake.     We were unable to attain our tools today but we are hoping, when we do, to cut up all the loose wood hanging around and turn it into firewood. Also we want to make clear paths with the rake and clippers to the water where you can easily launch a kayak or canoe into the water to float in the beautiful pond. I had lots of fun breaking wood!  (The video wont upload onto this site.) We wanted to possibly put some boards on one part of the path (on the way up to the pond)    that is getting ripped up from some sort of tractor and is making a big whole.  Our hours today was 8-10, 10:30- 12:30. 

  Our second day was very fun and pretty eventful. We got to work early in the morning at 8:45. We got up there and cleaned out the clearing. We raked up dry brush, twigs, and leafs and threw them in the fire pit hoping one of these days we can light it.   We worked until 11:45 then went down for a quick JJ’s bite. We headed back up at 12 to continue our work. It turns out we don’t have the permits or permission for that but here’s hoping! We took big logs and broke them up into fire wood and piled it under the 3 sided cabin.   Bryson found the biggest logs and lined the path down to the pond with them to make use of them and make a clear boundary.  We made a sign with an old piece of flat wood and a rock and carved “Mud Pond” and our initials into it for a personal touch! We found a spare nail and hammered it into a tree at the entrance to the path (with a rock) and finally headed back down at 2 to get ready for afternoon activities! 

 Today was our fist day of see our project and pretty uneventful. We started the morning at 9 o’clock sharp and walked up towards the tennis courts. After taking a picture of the trail map we set off. Even with the map and the help of a map app, we got a little lost but ended up finding our way. Once we got to mud pond we thought we could mark the path to make a little clearer for us and others who are finding their way.  Once up there we scoped out the land seeing what could be done to improve the beautiful pond. We saw a couple openings to the water with paths that were overgrown and thought we might clear those up as well for easier access and a better view/possible boat launch. After getting the lay of the land we made a game plan for what we might be doing the rest of the week. We made a rough to-do list for this coming week and the next. We also made a list of materials needed for the work we will be doing. We went from 9-11:30, took a lunch break and headed back up at 12-2.