Happy Trails

After the most beautiful love-filled farewell know to man, Snail and I hit the tracks. Both of us pensive, reflecting on our most glorious last few months, we spent much of the train ride from Tucson to Chicago in silence simply enjoying each other's company. After a yet another Michigan whirlwind and the assistance of my oh-so-wonderful family we were off again, on our way to Rochester, NY in the caruck filled past the brim with bicycles and gear. I left Snail and the caruck in Rochester and drove a rental car the remaining twelve hours to my new home in Maine. Snail is off to Vermont next to be a camp couselor and the caruck is at Airport Transmission to receive two new pieces of shift linkage that fell apart and off during the first twelve hours of driving.
The first two weeks were full force ahead! I am so thankful for overtime! My boss, Lester, and I spent the first week driving around Maine doing site visits and lining out a summer's worth of work for my trail crews. On week two the SCA interns arrived and we did training (chainsaw, griphoist, rock work) and prepped to go out on hitch. In between it all there was a lot of spring cleaning and settling in to be done. With week three we were off to Baxter State Park as a super crew (just interns and leaders) to work on the Hunt Trail. We are on a section of the Appalachian Trail within 4 miles of the summit of Kahtahdin, the beginning or end. We are working on an epic ditch and drain project. Moving rocks that we've estimated weight at least 5,000lbs. Life is good. The interns are kicking butt. We are ahead of schedule and exceeding expectations.
We are spending our first two weekends off at Baxter in order to explore the park. With the sun warming my skin, I am at home. With a day of hiking and another of canoeing, I am at peace and ready to take on another week of possibly dreadful weather.