To Whiskeytown and Beyond!

Yes. I am in Northern Central California, closer to Oregon than San Francisco actually, doing trail construction and maintenance. There are sixteen of us SCA (Student Conservation Association) Interns working for Whiskeytown National Recreation Area outside of Redding. Of the eight guys and eight gals, many people are from the east coast, with only one guy from Southern California. The age range is between 18 and 24 years old, although most of us are between 19 and 22, with everyone going or recently graduated from college. (There are two people who each just finished their first year of graduate school – one medical and one law, who are also dating.) The mix of personality ranges is quite vast, ranging from me, the art student, to the ROTC Marine to the couple from Wisconsin to two guys from upstate NY (Rochester, and north of Utica) who camp frequently, not to mention a guy who just spent a semester in Namibia, also the just recently graduated high school student (who is on her fourth SCA internship) to a guy from Texas who is as equally inexperienced as I am. However, everyone seems to get along, and most people are really social. It seems to be shaping up to be a good group.

On Wednesday, my first day and everyone else’s third day of work, we went out and started learning how to use the tools given to us. These are old school hand tools, like Pickmatics, Polaski’s, Cuttermatics, shovels, rock bars, and hand saws-tools I have mostly steered away from. Nonetheless, that first morning Julie (from Minnesota) and I removed a stump from the middle of the trail with our Polaski’s for most of the afternoon. Once all the roots were dug out, we would cut both directly next to the stump and next to where we dug out, creating more room for us to continue digging to the next layer of roots. The tree stump, named Ted, took us four hours to remove. After all the work it took to remove the stump, it really did feel like a major accomplishment. Afterwards we both joined everyone else with widening the trail constructed last year.

Thursday brought a whole new set of skills for me: flagging trails. The trail markers that one often passes, wooden spikes in the ground with neon taping around the top are laid out for the construction crew to build, and serve as reference points for the future upkeep of the trail. The places for these markers are carefully chosen based on a number of different components: mainly the gradient of the slope –especially compared to the others because it is important to keep that consistent, and the feasibility of creating a trail in that area – is it easier if the trail went around the other side of the ridge based on what needed to be removed. While keeping both of these in mind, one must lay the markers out in about eight foot sections so that the trail crew can quickly split up the work and the hiker can easily follow the path. Scott (a ROTC Marine from North Carolina) and I practiced measuring gradient and flagging trail for the entire day.

Lumber carrying beckoned everyone on Friday: the trail was in desperate need of a path over a steep decline where a stream passed through. Therefore, the 44 planks of treated wood needed to build such a bridge were carried in by us, as well as the air compressor for the nail gun, and miscellaneous equipment. Although the carrying itself took almost the entire day, it was quite fulfilling to walk over the bridge after it was done on our way back down. (We went back to the trail maintenance work we had started the day before). I must admit, everyone’s shoulders were sore for a day or so, but on this Sunday night it has vanished.

This weekend almost everyone drove over to Lassen Volcanic National Park, an hour east of Redding. I personally headed over very early Saturday morning with Aaron, a computer-science major from LA who drives a silver Toyota Camry (my definition of silver Toyota Camry, just to clarify). After eating breakfast with the six who had left the night before, we drove to the trail head at Lassen Peak, elevation about 8,000 feet. We hiked two hours up the mountain (with snow covering part of the trail) to the peak at approximately 10,500 feet of elevation. Then, between warming up/resting near the peak, then walking over together and gawking from highest peak in the park, and eating lunch at the peak an hour was spent. It took one hour to hike back down, and I did not need to stop once. Granted, this was a major surprise based on the countless times I stopped going up. Thankfully Aaron hiked and waited for me despite my slow pace. Also, ironically, I received better cell phone reception at the peak than anywhere else inside the park, so I took the opportunity to call my dad… Later that day we drove over to Cinder Cone, another place in the park. Cinder Cone is literally a mountain of volcanic ash created from a series of 300-year-long eruptions ending in 1851. Inside the crater, from the central blow of the volcano, were millions of pumas stones created at the point of eruption. It was quite spectacular, frankly. Below were views of dunes also created by the same eruption. Additionally, the view of Lassen Peak was interesting, as the mountain looked exceptionally menacing despite the fact that we had climbed the peak earlier that day. Afterwards, we headed back to the camp site (a little over a mile hike in from the parking lot) to arrive just in time to set up tents before a thunderstorm that ran throughout the night. Tina, a gal from Massachusetts, and I shared a two-person tent lent to us by Matt, the guy from Florida who spent his past semester in southwestern Africa. Thankfully his tent stood up to the rain and kept us dry throughout the night. The next morning I packed up, defrosted in the car, hung out while others ate breakfast. Then, Aaron, Ro (a gal who grew up in Maine but now lives in Florida), and I drove back to Whiskeytown to enjoy the remaining portion of the day restfully.

Well, now you are about caught up. Granted, this is an exceptionally long post but thank you for reading along. I will update you on future events and happenings. Ciao!