Project Inspire. part 2

so it's been a while since pi, but i have to blog about it some more.

we camped out at a high school, yes, a high school. we looked like squatters. it was great. we stayed in tents and did all of our cooking outside. for whatever reason those in charge decided that it would be best to do all of our cooking in dutch ovens... except it wasn't an oven, it was a stove. we ate a lot of burnt food, but after a day of hard labor, i was grateful.

day two of pi was all about moving rocks and digging small trenches. for the first half of the day we moved an enormous pile of rocks in order to make  a trail wheelchair accessible. because of some legislation that is put in place to protect the wilderness, we were not allowed to use any equipment that had wheels.  we did, however, get to work with a mule which i thought was pretty cool.

the second half of the day we worked on digging drains on dirt trails. let me explain. since trails don't build themselves, they have to be kept up by the nice people of the forest service. when it rains, these dirt trails can become flooded. in order to keep these from falling apart, the forest service creates paths through which the water can be carried away, drains.

so, we hiked up a trail, shovels in hand, and dug drains in teams. it was difficult, dirty, and draining, but so fulfilling. it was the feeling of doing something and being a part of something bigger than myself. it made me so happy to be doing it. and it made me think, "one day i'm going to bring my family here and say 'i helped do this'."

okay, time for pictures.

please disregard how tired i look and look at that sunset.

look at that sunset

we fill the buckets and dirt-bags with rocks and dirt and move them to the trail.

spreading gravel and dirt on the trail. the bearded fellow is thomas; the personification of the phrase "workin' hard or hardly workin'"

almost done

pounding it out

pounding away

'i've been workin' on a trail all the live long day'

oh my goodness, i forgot this guy's name the one with the glasses in on the left, in the hat. he grew up in california. the epitome of californian, complete with sentences that end in "ya know, man?" he was great.

flowers at lunch

"and it was like...ya know, man?"

beautiful

the crew, sans thomas