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| Volunteer | 1.00 Miles |
1,102 AEG |
| | Volunteer | 1.00 Miles | | | |
| 1,102 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Though I worried about being gone two weekends in a row as we are in the midst of preparing my mom's house and stuff for storage and or liquidation, I made this commitment for the volunteer weekend some time ago and felt I should honor that commitment. So very guiltily, I drove up after market close on Friday afternoon.
Neil had just posted pics on FB of snow  on the ground and the mountains. I was hoping that would be gone for the weekend. As I drove up of course, I could see the snow on the mountains and as I turned on to 151, the snow on the ground. When I first got out of Tonto at the stock chute on the east side of the road not too far from the Hart Prairie turn off, I about keeled over. Pumpkin it was colddddddddd  .
I filmed my drive in as the snow and fall colors were magnificent: http://youtu.be/kc0yyrXnQ5E?hd=1. I even caught a deer as he ran across the prairie  . I unloaded my stuff at the usual cabin and then took Tonto over to the parking area. I shivered my way over to the main Lodge where I met up with the rest of the crew. The fire was on full burn and we had to keep it stoked as it was quite chilly. I had forgotten my long underwear so I was worried I would not be warm at nite. But this wasn't to be, thank goodness.
It finally came time to shiver my way over to our cabin. First I had to stop at the very nice but extremely cold outhouse and then to the cabin. There is only a small heater in the whole cabin in the back room and that's where we slept. This little heater did manage to keep the chill off  .
Over to the Lodge at 7AM, looked over at the cloud obscured mountains, enjoyed a big breakfast and then it was time to button up and start work. We would be working off the trees that had been downed earlier in the year with the goal to clean up as much of the area by building slash piles and carting away the rounds. Sure there was a little snow on the ground and a chill in the air but soon all of that dissipated along with the cloud cover of the mountain and then it was just a matter of building  strong slash piles and reinforcing others.
This is rather tedious work as you pick up branches and logs and take them over to a pile, back and forth, back and forth. And sometimes the branches wouldn't cooperate so I ended up face down once and butt down once from my brute force  of trying to yank the branches free.
We worked for a few hours, had lunch and then came out and started the process all over again. I did film and take a break now and then to go shoot some photos. The fall colors and snow together were just so much fun and now of course, the temp was delightful. Once our saw folks retired for the day, we pretty much had to do the same as we had caught up to the work they had done (sawing branches, logs and rounds).
Back to the Lodge to celebrate with some good booze, a fire, a hardy meal and fun chatter among the volunteers. The evening was so much nicer that we all sat further from the fire. There was almost a sing fest but fortunately, that was short-lived. We had a Turkmenistan, Kerim who was volunteering with us; he was a machine and would be hiking Humphreys the next morning. And yes, some things did get lost in translation  .
Here is the video from our first day: http://youtu.be/ksbHoVneASI?hd=1
Day Two is a short day but involved some very hard road work raking and shoveling and leveling. There were 5 of us that finished up that job. I'm glad the grey road wasn't any longer  . We also cleaned up our cabins and I cleaned up the outhouse while the rest did some of the other chores. Here is the video from more of the first day and finishing off with some of the road work we did (the before and after): http://youtu.be/QoiX2v891yg?hd=1
This is what I wrote on the Hart Prairie Work Weekend ThreadWhat a great weekend... as usual! You all work so hard and to tell you the truth; that's almost why I'm hesitant to come cuz I know you are gonna work my fingers to the bone  ! You know you've had a good work weekend at Hart Prairie when your derriere is hurting and you're battered and bruised but are darn proud of it! 
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Autumn Foliage Observation Substantial
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For me, sometimes it's just as much about the journey as the destination.
Oh, and once in awhile, don't forget to look back at the trail you've traveled. |
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| Scenic Drive | |
1,102 AEG |
| | Scenic Drive | | | | |
| 1,102 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | I think it was going to be cold for arizonahikers.com work weekend and it sure was Friday afternoon as I drove in. However, the scenery was simply magnificent and once again, the work weekend would supply me with more than enough fall color to make me smile from ear to ear  .
I also took a couple movies to share with you in this 4 minute video: http://youtu.be/kc0yyrXnQ5E?hd=1
It got down to freezing that nite so we stayed close by the fire in the main cabin until it was time to go to our designated sleeping quarters. That was a cold walk.
I will be doing a separate report on the actual work weekend. Our work at Hart Prairie is always hard but it's always rewarding. |
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For me, sometimes it's just as much about the journey as the destination.
Oh, and once in awhile, don't forget to look back at the trail you've traveled. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
