"Really? We're going to relive the moment over and over again?!" --Emily Saltz
After breakfast this morning, we went to work on today's project: cutting a brand new trail through Kodiak's Rotary Park. The trail itself runs along a hillside, but we couldn't cut the trail at the bottom of the hill because the terrain there is marshy wetland. Instead, we built the trail right into the hillside, which made for difficult work. The technical term for this type of trail is a "bench cut", which means we cleared a corridor for the trail and then leveled and flattened the grade, which created a "bench" into the slope.
We've added some great new tools to our arsenal in the last few days: the weed whip, the reciprocating saw, and the machete (yes, really -- Emily and Justin are naturals with it!), and each was quite useful today. To create the corridor, we worked as a 12-person train. The advance group worked with the machete to knock down grasses and salmonberry. The next group used weed whips, bow saws, and the reciprocating saw to bring down small trees and large branches, while the rear team used Pulaskis, picks, and McLeods to strip the vegetative matter from the ground and flatten the grade. The work is tiring but rewarding; at the end of the day, there were a few hundred feet of trail where this morning there was only heavy brush.
At about 4pm, we headed into town for a quick outing in the kayaks. We paddled briefly around Kodiak Harbor and delivered the kayaks to the Island C, which is the boat we'll take to Shuyak Island on Sunday (click the link at right for information about the ship). We also made a quick stop at Harborside Coffee for coffee and snacks -- the Harborside Mocha is reason enough to visit the island!
The night was filled with walks to the beach, a quick run, conversation and card games. Here are some of today's photos.
My son with a machete -- all those years of caution gone in a single stroke! Terrific description of your day. I felt as if I could see you all at work even before looking at the photos. Hope you get some more of that Mocha before the trip is over. Imagine you are all sleeping well at the end of these strenuous days. Keep up the good work (and the wonderful posts).
ReplyDeleteReally enjoying this blog! Photos are super! Sure looked like a tough day at the "office". Pat yourselves on the back - great job to all. Love the photos Matthew - especially that last one of that cute little wife of yours:-)
ReplyDeleteWow, you all are amazing! I love the photos, the terrain is breath-taking. I'm so glad you are blogging about this, it's exciting to keep up with your adventures.
ReplyDeleteyou guys are AWESOME!!! My favorite has been the "butt surfing" on the snow field- Bird nest, machete, nice work on the trails, scenery worth staying there for, and the kids all look like great & obviously hard-working company!!! Love from us in Newtown!!
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