Truckin'

I'd like to take the opportunity today to write a little about our crew transportation. It's an F-250, 4X4 Super Duty, manual transmission with a V-8 engine we affectionately call Blue. I'm pretty fond of saying that there's nothing that makes you feel like a natural resource employee quite like driving around in a big truck, and this has been no exception. It's like actually living in those Ford commercials where they show you how much punishment their work trucks can take. Just to do kiosk installation we negotiated some gnarly dirt tracks. The most exciting stretch so far was taking a back road to the Mt. Evans Wilderness Boundary to install kiosks for the Chicago Lakes trail. The crux of the road was an extremely steep patch with bare rock exposed. We rolled to the bottom of the hill, engaged the 4X4 (we have to do this by manually locking the front axle, no on-the-fly shifting!) threw it into low gear and took off. The big truck scaled the hill like a nimble mountain goat, or at least a loud, diesel belching mountain goat. The A/C may not work, but we've got a functioning CD player, and all the Hot Shots agree that we've got the best truck in the CFI. Blue always gets us there in style!

Dan

That Long Black Train...

One of the cool things about being on the Hot Shot Crew is the travel. Our small size makes it easy for CFI to send us wherever we're needed. Last week, while we were waiting for the snow to melt on our scheduled project peaks, we drew a quick work detail to Durango.

About 250 miles from our home base near Leadville, Durango is the hub of the San Juan Range, and the home of the CFI Chicago Basin Crew and our Southwest Conservation Corps partners. We drove down Monday to take the Durango-Silverton railroad to the Needleton trailhead and help the Chicago Basin folks start packing in their gear, which I believe measures somewhere in the thousands of pounds in total weight.

Riding the restored, narrow gauge steam train was scenic and fun in a novel way, but it also created an odd dynamic. The thing is packed with tourists, and we're there on work assignment. People were leaning out the windows to watch and take pictures as we scrambled to unload everything from the boxcar, and just about every passenger feels compelled to wave as you sit near the tracks taking a lunch break. It's not that big of a deal, it just made me feel a little bit like I was at an amusement park!

Our campsite was near the tracks along a beautiful stretch of the Animas River, in the most lush forest I've yet seen in Colorado. Tall willows and aspens, 24 in. diameter Ponderosas, and blooming Columbine were all nearby. We tented down in small grassy patch behind an old mining shed.

This was our first crew hitch, and we learned a few good lessons that we'll be able to apply to the rest of the season. The biggest is that if we want to make a bear hang we're going to need to get some stuff sacks to hold our food. This past week, we ran up everything in plastic grocery bags. They lasted the whole hitch, but probably wouldn't have hung there a day longer. Rips and tears were starting to develop and a bottle of hot sauce spilled all over our lunch stuff.

Our work consisted simply of taking the three months worth of gear for the Chicago Basin Crew and getting it all into mule-packable bundles. We

wrapped up ice chests full of food, propane tanks, rope and tent gear, tools and rubbermaid style containers called action packers (just to name a few) into even weight bundles in various types of saddle bags. In the morning Wendell, a laid-back old cowboy who generously offers his time to be our packer, and Shaun, the Chicago Basin project leader, would bring down the mules to get saddled up. The animals do the hardest work, carrying 100 to 200 pounds each, nine miles up the trail to the base camp site, then coming down and doing it all again the next day.

We ended our week with a quick lunch visit to Silverton and a night in Durango, much to Ben's chagrin, watching the Celtics lose to the Lakers in game seven of the NBA finals, before driving back to Twin Lakes on friday. Have a great season Chicago Basin Crew! The Hot Shots were happy to play a small part in your success this year.

-Dan

Need Funding for Trail RPGs

As a team building exercise while in Durango, the Hot Shot Crew went to see a movie. Specifically, we went to see the new A-Team movie. (Go see this film. The non-stop thrill ride will leave you wishing the theater were empty so you'd have no problem screaming "HELL YEAH!" at the top of your lungs.) Since the Hot Shot Crew, much like the A-Team, are an elite, mobile, morally upstanding trail crew of fortune, the movie inspired us take on the roles of the A-Team in our everyday work. Kate is Smith, the cool-headed, elder leader. Ben is B.A., the buff badass with a heart of gold. Dan is Face, the smooth talking playboy.After agreeing on these roles, we still needed a Murdock for air support. Based upon his position in CFI, we naturally chose Greg Seabloom. So Greg, if you're reading this, you're now our crazy air support dude with a death wish. I love it when a plan comes together.

-Hot Shots

Hot Shots headed to Durango

What's up bloggers! Just a quick update to let everyone know that the Hot Shot Crew is headed to Durango on Monday and then going by train to Needleton to help pack in the CFI Chicago Basin Crew. Look for more info towards the end of next week.

Mt. Yale Field Training

Hey All!
We spent the last few days on Mt. Yale with the rest of the CFI Seasonal staff and leaders from Rocky Mountain Youth Corps and Southwest Conservation Corps. We worked on outdoor leadership training, base camp setup and trail and alpine restoration work.
Our crew specific task was to repair a retaining wall on the Mt. Yale reroute set to be completed this year. Hot Shot Supervisor Ben Turati is entering his eleventh season in trail work, and second with CFI, which made this training session a great opportunity to ask lots of questions and learn from his experience before we really get our hands dirty in the coming months.
We also got some training in Alpine Ecology and restoration work from John Giordanengo, a former CFI staffer. We worked with other CFI and SCC leaders, transplanting grasses and forbs into an eroded section of trail and constructing restoration check dams, which I have to say is a nice change of pace from shoving, heaving, and smashing big rocks into place.
In the end, though rock work sometimes leaves me feeling like I'm pounding a massive square peg into a gaping round hole, the great weather, sweeping views, awesome co-workers, and the chance to get some work in on the trail made our short training session on Mt. Yale a great experience.

Season is about to kick off...more posts to come!!