It was a quiet night with no more rain, and the waterfall made some lovely white noise to aid our slumber. I found Thank You Laura enjoying a second cup of coffee in a patch of sun. My kind of girl! Savor the last few days!

It is a refreshing day, the storm cleared out the humidity and bugs and left a cool breeze that would stick around all day, perfect hiking weather.

I entered the green tunnel and emerged a short while later at Crawford Pond where I enjoyed a sandy beach snack break. 

Then back up and into the fresh day

The air is so clean after the storm, I feel like I’m purifying as I walk, sweating out the poisons that are bubbling up my skin. The rash seems a smidge better, no bug lotion/spray for me today.

I fall again. That’s twice in two days. 2002 She-ra fell at least once a day too. New rule: no phoning and walking (that was my sin today…there are simply too many obstacles to walk and do anything else without consequences).

I lunch at the next shelter and Bilbo shows up. He met Kool-aid at another road yesterday where they had a resupply drop only to find him sick and throwing up. Bummer! Kool-aid took advantage of a ride supporting a few other hikers and got a hitch into town. That’s one of my Katadhin brothers down (we all climbed Katadhin the same day).

The trail would go up from here, we were getting into the mountainous section of the 100 mile wilderness, and the ups go straight up. More amazing rock works leads us up the climbs, and at the top of the first one I find two Canadians out for a week. We chat and I carry on. I really do love these little interactions. We will never see each other again, but usually we stop and ask about the hike, where we are from, and share any useful tidbits about the respective trails ahead. Not always the nobo thru-hikers though (no-bo means north-bound, as in walking the whole thing from Georgia to Maine). They mean business and are easy to spot. Skinny, tan, small packs, fast pace. The siren call of Katadhin is great…and many rush to the end.

Then the next big climb up White Cap. I huff and puff up to the next shelter, Logan Brooke, a charming lean-to perched in a drainage of the mountain. The water source is a cold pool filled by a small waterfall. The forest is covered in mosses and it wouldn’t surprise me to see a knome or troll pop up in the green. It’s that kind of magical forest.

Then I wait, and she doesn’t take long to appear…Speedstick! She came to hike a few days with me! Speedstick is a dear friend who moved to Maine about 6 years ago from Bend, and I haven’t seen her in all that time. She is a fellow triple crowner and has hiked the AT twice, the last time in winter when she was attempting the calendar triple crown. That’s some insane stuff. Imagine these steeps climbs but covered in snow and ice. No thank you. She now lives outside Bangor and comes up to play in this area quite a bit.

We spend the rest of the afternoon and evening playing catch up and it is so wonderful to have her on part of my journey. I feel all warm and fuzzy (and she brought chocolate!).

Tomorrow I’m going to be brave (or stupid) and hike without bug spray. The rash has spread. I think it’s the bug juice because it’s on my neck, hands, and legs…only where I put the lotion or spray (I’ve been using two different kinds which makes it even more confusing to figure out the offending poison). If it was not topical, wouldn’t I have it on my torso and back? Thank goodness I haven’t been spraying my face…

Eight easy miles today felt like a day off. I must be getting stronger, but also am ready to do more miles. But not yet. I have a visitor coming tomorrow…more on that when she gets here!

The morning got started earlier than usual…I wanted to check on Bilbo. He had been so destroyed when we got to camp yesterday that he passed out for the rest of the evening. But, he was up and in much better spirits, ready to give the AT another try. It’s hard to quit a trail when you have to hike to get out…so he’s hiking and hoping to keep going. We got your back Bilbo! 

We hiked together through some flat cruisy trail until Jo Mary Road. Bilbo continued on and I sat under my bug dome to wait for Ron. Ron! So this is a fun story: Ron started section hiking the Oregon Desert Trail last year and we’ve exchanged a number of emails. In this spring’s emails I happened to mention that I’d be hiking a section of the AT this summer, and he said if I was up in Maine that he’d be happy to help….well as it turns out… I jumped at his offer, and when I learned he lived near the 100 mile wilderness, we planned to have him meet me not once, but twice in this 100 miles to make the food carries more manageable. With my 10-mile a day average, that would make my first few weeks infinitely easier. And Ron has hiked everything. He is a triple crowner and then some, up to something like 17,000 miles (I may hit 13,000 on this trip?). He reassured me that it was time for him to start giving back after I said meeting me twice was too much (and I’ll be staying with him when I get to Monson)…having received so much trail magic over the years. Ok, thank you Ron!

We had planned for noon, but I was way early, and he was too. Perfect! We chatted for a bit, he’s been the trail maintainer for the next section of trail that I’ll hike, and knows the area really well. We treat some other hikers that show up to some extra goodies Ron brought, and I enjoyed some homemade bread with tuna salad that he brought me for lunch. Trail angel Ron everybody!

I’ll be meeting him in a few days, so my carry isn’t large…I asked for fruit and veg again….why not? And he even made some hummus for my cucumber and red paper lunch bagels. I’m definitely living large.

There is a storm on the way, so I hike out and try to get to the next shelter before the heavy rain, hail and whatever else comes with big Maine storms.

And wow. Cooper Brook Shelter is a shangri-la of goodness. A waterfall and swimming hole sit right in front of the shelter, and I swim away the heat, and hope to cool down some of that rash. I have a small chunk of soap, so I’ve been hauling water to wash off my poisoned appendages on dry ground and before I go swimming. The rash is even rashier if that is possible, but not too bothersome…so I’ll continue to ignore it, and will hike tomorrow without any bug stuff on…I’m almost sure that is the culprit. 

I’m at the shelter so early! I read and chat with a few other sobos that arrive, Nick and Hero…and really enjoy meeting Thank You Laura who is days away from finishing her nobo hike. Good peeps! I wanted to hike around good peeps and it’s happening 😁.

I’m in the shelter tonight for the first time, and the storm only dropped some rain before the sun came back out. 

Sleep is sweet.

When you can accept what is…the hiking gets easier.

That’s today’s tip, folks. Acceptance.

But first, coffee.

I’m looking out on Jo-Mary Lake at Antlers Campsite at a cloudy yellow and blue sunrise. It’s quite spectacular. I’m camped on a point next to a bunch of Nobo thru-hikers who are giddy with excitement at getting this far. I’m giddy with excitement that my rash hasn’t gotten worse. 

My strange mix of bug bites and rash (caused by bug bites? Or bug spray? Or allergies? Or ???) Has caused me to try and transcend the itch: Don’t scratch, it will be 100% worse if you scratch. Think happy thoughts.

Ok, I gave those bites enough time this morning, time to move on.

2002 She-ra didn’t even have a tent, she slept in shelters and I don’t remember what was done about bugs. Ahhh, the bugs again, they are insistent little buggers. No more talk of bugs.

Right after hiking out this morning I ran into Bilbo. Oh man. He got up and started hiking the wrong way. Bummer, and easy to do out here in a fresh sleep cocoon.

We leap froged each other a bit during the morning (going south) and I stopped in the next shelter for a break. Rick was there again. Rick was the trail maintainer I saw yesterday at the shelter. Turns out he drives four hours from Augusta to volunteer on the AT! Has been doing it since the 1980s, and that puts some things into perspective for me…like those steep stairs from yesterday. The Maine Appalachian Trail Club has been working on buliding stairs in this area for over 30 years 😳. He said, “Imagine what it was like before the stairs. They are a big improvement.” I had been joking with myself earlier that not much has really changed on the AT in 20 years, except maybe they installed some more rocks. Guess I was right. Thanks again volunteers! I know I’ll be saying that a lot on this trip. Imagine the collective work that goes into maintaining a 2,175-mile trail? Arguably the most popular, used, developed trail in the country? With shelters and privys every 5-15 milesish??? Absolutely mind-blowing.

But the walking. The walking is infinitely easier than yesterday. There are even stretches that are rock and root free, and you can actually stride out and cruise. Dreamy.

I swim for lunch and catch up with Bilbo again at the next shelter. Now he’s got me turned around and I start leading us on a trail back to the shelter that we just came from. Oops…

We hike together and take a break at a sandy beach before getting to the campsite.

We also started flip flopping with a group of girls hiking a section of the AT with their summer camp. Get this, they are hiking a 350ish mile section! For 7 weeks! Amazing. 

I chat with one of the leaders at camp (who gets paid to do this 😍 and is a thru-hiker herself) and it turns out her cousin is Adrian, who thru-hiked the Oregon Desert Trail in 2016, the same year I hiked it. The ODT was his first thru-hike, (daunting!) but he had some expert tutelage from his girlfriend Nikki out there. Both are accomplished runners, and I was thrilled to see Adrian won the Leadville 100 last year, one of ultra-running’s hardest races. His cousin (I didn’t catch her name, I’ll find out today) said after the ODT that he decided to stick with running. Ha! He tried one of the hardest hikes in the country first…although these miles on the AT have been anything but easy. In fact Bilbo is thinking about all the other things he could be doing instead of this. 

Camp! More swimming! Views! 

I meet trail angel Ron tomorrow with my first resupply, and I’ll walk in with one lunch to eat if I need to. I planned the food perfectly!

I’m going for maximum enjoyment on this hike. 

This morning that looks like two cups of coffee and adding freeze dried strawberries to my blueberry granola. Living large!

I am though. Did I tell you about all the fruits and veg I packed out? When I left Hilary the other day I was carrying: an apple, avocado, red pepper, 1 1/2 cucumbers, and a bag of cherries. They all pack fairly well, I’m really impressed with the cherries…Day 4 and they aren’t smooshed despite my packing techniques. 

Since my goal is to enjoy two months of living along the AT, I’m going to live it up. 

Some call it #platinumblazing 

Actually I think platinum blazing is supposed to mean doing fancy things all the time like staying in hotels and eating good food…I will be the more dirtbag version. 

****

I wrote the above on the morning of Day 4 before leaving camp. Good morning entries will have a much different feel than grumpy morning entries, or tired morning entries. For example I’m writing this now on the morning of Day 5 when I keep finding bug bites everywhere. I am covered in bites and have no idea where they are coming from, and yesterday’s insane rocks reintroduced the AT ache in my feet.

I guess this is an itchy and annoyed morning entry? Oh wait, I haven’t had my two cups of coffee…stay tuned.

***

Everything was wet. I waited for the steady rain that fell overnight to wane before emerging from the dry. So good news: the tent holds up well in constant rain.

The morning was misty…perfect moose weather, but no moose sighted yet. I walked along Rainbow Stream and stopped often to watch the water flow through blocks of rocks. Kirk would love this little creek and all its water features. I need to get him over to the NE for some adventures…off the AT…he’s not a nerd for trails like I am.

I stopped for a morning break at the next shelter and find 17. He got wet last night, and was using the shelter to dry some stuff out. We had a good chat…he’s thinking of turning around (not enough food) and climbing Katadhin instead. I have a feeling this will be the first of many backpacking adventures for 17…I can tell he has the stoke. 

As I was getting ready to keep on keeping on, a trail maintainer walked up to check on the shelter. Thanks for all you do!!!

The name of the game here is to go slow. Not because my legs are quivering masses of jello on the insanely steep climbs and descents, but because the rocks, roots, and mud will take you down without a second thought if you don’t think. It really is one step at a time out here, and today the steps were steep.

Speaking of steps, I’m still finding immense pleasure in not having to think about where to go. The AT is the ultimate in a well-marked trail. I can let my mind wander and every once in a while look for that iconic white blaze on a tree, and am reassured that I didn’t wander down a creek thinking it was trail (a real risk out here for sometimes the creeks are trails). When my head is down and I’m sweating through another meham of roots, the blazes lead me to the next gap in the forest and the rest of the trail.

Ok, Onward. A rare road crossing provided just what I needed: a big patch of sun. The clouds have finally blown off, and a wooden bridge gave me the perfect dry spot to hang out all my wet gear. Thru-hiking tip #4: Never pass up a patch of sun when you have wet things.

As I lumbered on, the next section the trail circled Crescent Lake and started the climb up Nesuntabunt Mountain. I passed the sobo hiker Bilbo who was taking advantage of a rare bar of cell signal at a lookout point, and kept going to the top. A short side trail led to a view over to Katadhin, and another sobo (flipflopper) Kool-aid was there. I ate my lunch of tuna packet and avocado and did a little cell phone checking of my own. 

Then the crazy stairs happened. Some of the rock work on the AT is out of this world, and the descent off of Nesuntabunt was straight down wet rock stairs. Going down wasn’t much fun…I almost prefer steep uphills to these downhills which can blow your knees out fast.

The rest of the afternoon I got stumbly…the tiredness in my legs was making it harder and harder to make the steps…and each step had some kind of obstacle to navigate around. This hiking might not be demanding to navigate, but it was demanding to walk.

Camp came just in time. I walked through the scene of a lord of the flies rampage…teenage boys and their stuff was everywhere…it might have been a sweet-natured boyscout troop, but the chaos of voices and gear drove me to hide out on the side of the camp and pitch my tent away from the scene.

Oh my, this is my day five morning entry, and I’m still alive.

Day’s highlight: Rainbow Ledges

Day’s lowlight: walking the edge of Rainbow lake for miles before I could jump in.

Each night I sleep more out here. I imagine my muscles knitting layers of new strong as I slumber. It’s a nice dream…I look forward to the day when I jaunt up the rocks and roots instead of heavily trod and plod. 

Two rounds of coffee for me this morning. Several hikers take off, and I stretch and dawdle….with short days every task can be stretched out. There is no need to hurry or worry here. 

When I do start hiking, it’s uphill. Up up and away to Rainbow Ledges. Have I mentioned the rock is mostly granite here? Giant slabs of the stuff. In fact, I’m walking thise giant slabs as trail on Rainbow Ledges. The trail is actually just the absence of moss and flowers….I’m surrounded by green mosses, yellow and fuchsia flowers, and trees that let up enough for another view back to Katadhin. 

Alright, alright!

Break time.

I meet the 17 year old (the one mentioned yesterday) at the top and we both take off packs and shoes for the first sweat-free moment we’ve had all morning. 

It’s sunny today…but the last weather news I had was rain. I looked and looked, but it was only blue sky with wisps of cloud. No rain in sight.

It was 5.2 brutal miles to swimming after that, brutal because we were so close to the lake most of the time. I pictured diving beneath the chilled yet swimable surface of the water where all the dirt and sweat would flow away. Great lengths of time were spent envisioning the swim.

When I finally rolled up, 17 was just in front of me. We plopped down and then I had my swim. In reality, it was a quick dive into the deep, and I was out soon after. Cold! 

It was amazing. 

Lunch.

I had a lake day after that. I only hiked a few more miles to a small dam, and set up my shelter with a view of…wait for it….Katadhin. 

An early afternoon meant naping, podcast listening, reading, and snacking.

Alright, alright. 

The trail unfolded before me, but first, breakfast!

I had already been up a while, drinking my coffee and writing (as I like to do), when I heard Hilary rustling in the next tent. 

We got up and put bags into bags, and those bags into other bags, and into our respective vehicles. My pack was looking bigger….I had 5 days of food to reach Jo Mary Road where my trail angel Ron would be meeting me….more about Ron later.

Hilary scrambled up the rest of the eggs with some homemade pesto. I put it on a bagel with some of the left over French fries from the lobster roll lunch a million days ago. I included a banana to the growing belly before calling it quits.

Way too soon, and we had ourselves packed. I guess it was time to hit the trail.

We see the campground’s helpful park ranger on our way out, and he taks a few photos of us by the AT sign…soon we are hugging out goodbyes.

Thank you for everything H! Best start to an AT Sobo hike ever!

Then, walking.

I walk through dappled green forests, I walk through a soft carpet of bright green moss, and I walk next to lakes and water and rivers. Wow!

The trail was gentle through the rest of Baxter State Park, and I was happy for the soft touch after such a demanding summit day. I breaked next to Little Niagra Falls, and lunched next to Pine Point. There were plenty of opportunities to soak the problem foot (which wasn’t having many problems by the way!)

I rolled out of the park mid-afternoon and up to the Abol Bridge Store for a giant ice cream cone and bug spray. The bugs were out, and having been kind of caviler about them so far, was finding welts all over the place. 

Soon mint chocolate chip was dripping down my chin…I couldn’t keep up with the melt!

I met a father getting ready to say good buy to his 17-year-old son who was going to be hiking the 100-mile wilderness solo to Monson. I reassured him that we look out for each other on the trail, and got excited by the thought that I’d only be seeing backpackers on this section…there were almost no roads, so it was to be a solid backcountry week.

Yes!

The route got considerably rockier and suddenly I recognized the AT. This: rocks, roots, large thigh-busting steps you wern’t sure you could make, and mud.

I’ve never been as strong as I was on the AT, and I was looking forward to that again….if I could make it through the breaking-in-phase.

I came to Hurd Brook Shelter when I was ready to sit down, and then sat down. There was a guy ready to finish his section-hike up with the Katadhin summit in the next day or 2. Oh yeah, and I met Clutch at the lunch break who was finishing his 10-year section hike….so fun!

The evening was filled with stuff you do when camping, and I chatted briefly with some other hikers. 

Sleep!

Will everything be this much harder than I remember? 

The 4,000′ 5-mile trip up Katadhin took us a solid 10 hours to hike up and down…this mountain is made of granite boulders, and this trail makes you climb up and over them like we were ants looking for the honey trail. 

Sometimes we would find help in rebar holds that were drilled into the rock, sometimes the help came from a friend pushing your behind up a ledge, or leaning down to give you a hand and pull you up.

Whew!

On a trail like this you and your fellow hikers are all in this together. You start to make friends- giving little encouragements, laughing with them when their shoe falls apart or they make a funny little sound when preforming their own style of acrobatics to scale the next feature, because this is a full contact hike, and it becomes a community triumph when you all make it to the top and offer to help take each other’s summit photos.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. 

As expected, I don’t sleep well. It’s probably the heady combination of starting my hike, that extra beer I should have forgone, and the thermarest that I’m convinced has a broken valve. No matter, I’ve been here before…on the CDT I didn’t sleep for the first week and somehow managed to move my body through space and time for over 100 miles. Determination and excitement alone can be a powerful fuel source.

Hilary whips up a tasty spread of steak and egg tortillas (homemade tortillas I might add, how did I get so lucky with this one?) and deep, dark coffee.

We ready our day packs as more and more hikers walk past our campsite to the start of the trail…the first ones having started just after 4am (and folks: start early for this one…the earlier the better!). When we were fed and caffeinated it was go time.

The Hunt Trail can be broken up into three parts: trees, boulders, and summit (all three sections have boulder gauntlets though).

We made good time on the first mile of the trees, and when the stair stepping rocks started going straight up, when the trail turned into a creek bed for a time and the next step required larger and larger steps to proceed, we became much more intentional with each footfall. If you tried to walk and look around at the same time you risked a faceplant, so we kept our eyes on the task in front of us. We started cracking jokes as the sweat soaked our shirts…then we reached the boulders.

One little boy refused to go any further, the exposure and sheer physical challenge of the section was painted on his red tear-streaked little face. As we passed his group by, all astonished at the task in front of us, he did get the courage to continue, and we would leapfrog with that group the rest of the day…he was in much better spirits after that.

When we could look up the rocky ridgeline and see the boulder section stretching up, up, and away into the sky, we sighed and worked on each boulder problem as it came. Each one required a handhold we weren’t sure would hold, and a leg stretch just beyond our comfort level (In 2002 this climb was a blur…the memory of this grand finale of the 2,175-mile hike was the people: Average Joe, Banjo, and Noodle and I were a tramily (trail-family), and I just remember laughing and dancing with them at the top of the mountain).

The day was clear and blue as promised, but there were some puffy clouds casting large shadows across the forest below. We could see lakes, so many lakes! And at one point, rain. We started to get a little worried about what rain would do to these vertical granite surfaces, and sighed with relief when we saw the wind blow the squall away from Katahdin. I would not climb this mountain in the rain.

Our old lady noises were getting getting louder and more frequent with each hour of the ascent, and finally we topped out of the boulder section to see over a mile of clear trail (trail still meaning boulders here…just smaller ones) to the summit.

Ok, but first lunch. We hadn’t had a proper break yet and we were starving. PB and J bagels never tasted so good.

After a quick feeding time we continued on. With eyes on the prize we worked our way to the summit…throngs of our new mountain friends coming and going. We celebrated with the ones already on their way down, and encouraged the ones still stumbling their way up (all of our legs were shaky regardless of the direction and speed with which we hiked).

And finally, the sign.

Now my hike could start! The Appalachian Trail officially starts (or ends) up here, but I’m going to count each mile I hiked today. One gentleman shared his story of finally finishing his 20+ year AT section hike at the sign today, he looked a little choked up….hiking all 2,175 miles can be a herculean effort, especially if you can only hike in the weeks between raising children, taking work vacations, and the march of time that 20 years brings to your body.

I met a few flip floppers: folks who hiked from Georgia to the halfway point at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, and then hopped up to Katadhin to have a more leisurely hike south back to WV, so I’ll probably be seeing quite a lot of them as we head south together.

Hilary and I took our turns posing with the sign, marveled at the gorgeous day we had in front of us, and murmured astonishments at the even more difficult looking descent of the Knifes Edge trail (no thank you!) going down the north side of the mountain. Then we turned around for the 5-hour descent.

I’m going to breeze through the efforts it took to climb, slide, and inch down that boulder section, but it is worth knowing our knees were screaming, and a fair amount of skin was left scraped on the unforgiving granite rock faces.

We had a quick (and relieved) snack break when we reached treeline, but remembered our celebration was premature when the rocks continued to elicit grunts and groans as we hiked around down and through them.

The last mile took forever, and we were convinced there had been a rip in space and time. Surely this trail was longer now….someone or something had stretched out this section into an unbearable last few miles.

Then: chairs, beer, splashing off the sweat and fatigue in the cold water of Katadhin Stream, and snacks.

Oh the bliss of food and drink after a day like that was amazing. I broke out goat cheese and crackers and cut out pieces of cork from the chilled bottle of white wine we had (oops, no corkscrew). Hilary prepped our dinner of fresh salad, corn on the cob, and pork chops, and we merilly passed the evening hours until the comfort of tent and sleeping bag called to us:

“Come rest your weary heads. Close your eyes. Good job my friends.”

Of course there were delays, but what was most important was getting all the way across the country without getting hung up in the throng of summer travelers. I kept texting Hilary:

“I’m boarding the flight!”

“Oh no, some mechanical problem…they say an hour delay?”

“People are getting off the plane now, maybe 3 hours?”

“Oh, boarding again! Lets see if this actually happens!”

And finally, I arrive in Portland, Maine…weary and bleary-eyed, and I find Hilary outside the airport with her handsome new puppy, Dill.

We pile into her car and try to catch up on 10 years of happenings, or is it eight? We can’t exactly remember how long it has been…but I guess that will be the theme for this reunion hike….not quite remembering all the details and pulling out vague recollections of places and faces…or just letting go of all that and being present to the now as it unfolds.

After a fabulous time touring her little pocket of paradise near the coastal fingers of the Maine coast, we eat good food and remember our time as roommates in the other Portland about 17 years ago. We lived in an old craftsman near Hawthorne Ave with a few other roomates: the bartender at a fancy Peruvian restaurant, and a bike mechanic with about 30 bike frames in various states of disrepair in the damp basement.

Hilary and I drank a lot of tall boy PBRs on the porch of that house, and played a lot of pool at our neighborhood hangout, the Goodfoot. Ah, Portland, Oregon in the mid 2000’s was quirky and fun.

After waking up to rain the next day we make our plan: shop for the last few items I needed for the hike, stock up on groceries for the few nights we’d be camping at Baxter State Park, and driving up the 3.5ish hours to Katahdin and the start of my Sobo Appalachian Trail hike.

When we pulled out of Hilary’s house early afternoon, we decided to take the scenic route….stopping for a lobster roll on the way (when in Maine…!)

Turned out we made a wrong turn, not having noticed the error as we belted out Ray LaMontaine songs into the sunny afternoon with the windows rolled down. So the long drive took longer, but it really didn’t matter….we were on a road trip, and had all day to get to our campsite at Katahdin Steam Campground. 

The evening consisted of tacos, campfire and stories of hiking injuries. I wonder what my AT hiking injuries will be this year? There are always a few…

We went to bed too late; I don’t think I’ll sleep tonight.

I’ve been making lists for months now, and even though my summer hike is getting closer and many things have been crossed off, more are added.

It’s been a while since I’ve planned for a multi-month adventure, especially one with such a different climate. Hot, humid and rainy…that’s about as different as it gets to the Oregon desert. There are lists of gear to dos, work to dos, home to dos, to do to dos…

And in my final few weeks before I fly out there are work trips….so many work trips.

I am days away from departure and the to dos haunt me when I try and concentrate on other things, but this last work trip has been a good lesson in “be here now.”

I am out working with our Tribal Stewards crew, a group of 8 young adults from different tribal nations around the country. The Steward program started in 2019 (a partnership between ONDA and Northwest Youth Corps) and is designed to engage tribal members in learning about careers in conservation, stewardship and public lands management while working on restoration projects across Oregon.

This week we are repairing Beaver dam analogs…weaving branches of lodgepole and ponderosa pine in between posts that had been sunk in the creek bed….an effort to mimic the water retaining magic of a beaver dam in these desert creeks…in hopes of enticing Oregon’s state animal to move back into the area (most were trapped out of existence during the fur hat craze of the late 1800s.)

After work we go swimming in a high lake deep within the forest, finally cooling off from the 90 degree day.

And as the morning breaks on the calm surface of Magone Lake and the birds flit about looking for breakfast, I am here. Now.

The lists will be there when I get back, the things will get done, and for a day or so I am able to focus on what is important…these people and this work.