We became the U.S. Forest Service maintenance crew this week. Not exactly the most exciting thing in the world, but we were occupied and working so we were happy. Tasks included trail maintenance on the above mentioned trail, priming and painting a water tower, and lawn mowing at the campground.
I'm actually pretty happy with our trail maintenance task. The trail around the lake is beautiful, but I was always absolutely freaked out on it because of the overgrowth. I thought some rabid animal was going to come out of the brush and bite my ankles. Now it's maintained and I have been taking advantage. It's tough after a hot work day to get my butt in workout clothes and around the lake, but I feel great after. And let's be real, I walk a lot more of it than I run. But it's the effort that counts, right?!? I'll get the pictures up soon.
Another AmeriCorps NCCC team is working twenty minutes from us in Heavener, Oklahoma so it's been fun to have some friends nearby. Last weekend we had them over for a barbeque, and Wednesday night we went over to their place for dinner. This will sadly end soon though, as we move 1.5 hours south come Friday. Supposedly we're moving into air-conditioned Oklahoma State University housing. We don't know many details, besides we're moving on Friday. I'll believe it when I see it. Although I am excited, camping has been great but it's getting a bit too warm for this Minnesota girl. The past couple of nights I have abandoned the comfort of my two sleeping pads for the ground inside my tent, it's much cooler. When I wake up around 3 am I move back to the sleeping pad because it's cooled down enough, but I'd rather just sleep through the whole night. Conundrum. It'll be over soon.
As you may have inferred, we never headed to Arizona to fight the wildfires there. They had them contained enough by Monday that they didn't need the reinforcements. We're still in the system though, so we could be called for any fire anywhere in the states. Our sponsor, Justin, says it's a decent probability we'll get called. We'll see.
Speaking of fires, we're definitely on call this weekend. Being Memorial Day weekend with hot and dry conditions, they told us to be ready just in case. The campground started filling up this past Wednesday/Thursday and as of Friday night last night, it's pretty well full. We've got neighbors!! We're keeping our fire packs and boots in the trucks so we're ready. We're all itching to get some real fire experience.
Stay tuned next week to find out if we get a fire this weekend!
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