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Wednesday, July 27, 2011

American Hiking Society Volunteer Vacation


This whole week there are extra volunteers working on our boardwalk project. The American Hiking Society organizes Volunteer Vacations all over the U.S. and we are privileged to have a crew here helping us.

Sadly, I'm so busy this week that I only had this one day to go out with them. We did a lot of this:

carrying boards

I got a chance to talk with quite a few people. There were some from Michigan who were looking for an opportunity close to home. But there was a lady from California, and a man from Rhode Island who have done several of these VVs. There were two people from Chicago suburbs.

And we did a lot of this:

setting posts

There are two posts every 8 feet, and each of them has to be plumb, and set in a deep hole. Oh yes, those holes had to be dug. I managed to shame one guy into letting me try a hole. After watching me do two he said, "I can see that you've done this before."

Well, yes. Why do we have to keep re-training guys that some of us girls are happier with a post hole digger than with a purse? I gave him a fake kick in the butt, and got a good grin out of him.

The next picture was taken last Saturday. You can see that this one section was just two lines of posts in the woods.

lines of posts

Look how much has been accomplished already. Here's the same section today:

boardwalk

I'm glad I got to go help a little bit. My contribution to this boardwalk project has been minimal, compared to a core group from the chapter, but at least I'll get to say that I participated.


See Spirit of the Woods Work Day

10 comments:

Trail Guy said...

It warms my heart to see other folks who care for the trails as I do. We do a lot of work with the WTA here in Washington but it never really seems like enough for what you get out of it.

Love the blog and will be back to read more in the future!

RNSANE said...

It really is nice to see that it is a national project and that folks from all over contribute. Good for you, Joan, no matter how busy you are, you always manage to do your share!

You know me, if I were out there, I would have to have my eyeshadow on. To each, our own!

Ferd said...

Way awesome!
Now every time you walk down that boardwalk you can feel a sense of pride that you had something to do with it, something that many people will enjoy!
:-)

john bain said...

You are a very busy lady.

betchai said...

very inspiring work, it's always very inspiring to see so many generous hearts out there who gives themselves for a cause.

Rick (Ratty) said...

Excellent work. I've walked on many different boardwalks, but until now I've never thought about how they got there.

jeanlivingsimple said...

What an awesome model for other states. I must check and see if Georgia offers this program.

Ann said...

how wonderful to have so many people pulling together to work on the project. Looks like this was a fast crew of workers. Quite a lot was accomplished

Unknown said...

The one thing that I must ask .. is this wonderful trail going to be free for people to use or is there going to be a charge? I ask because at the moment all our walks in Britain are free and sometimes I wonder if they will always remain so.

Sharkbytes said...

Hi Trail Guy- your blog focuses more on hiking in particular- although hiking is my first love, who knows what I will be doing on any given day. Hope to see you again.

Carmen- eyeshadow is fine! (as long as I don't have to wear it)

Ferd- our whole chapter is going to feel that way!

John- this week I sure am

betchai- I'm just a nut about trails- this one in particular

ratty- well, I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't either until about 20 years ago.

Jean- I'll put a link in the article. AHS is a national organization... I'm sure they sometimes have things in Georgia.

Ann- fortunately there were enough sections to work on that we could keep a lot of people busy. sometimes that's really hard to do

Polly - this trail is completely free. Anyone can hike it. There is one small section in Upper Mi where one needs a permit for a 43 mile segment to protect the fragile ecosystem from overuse, and also through the Boundary Waters of Minnesota, but everyplace else- about 4300 miles is free with no permits required.