Day 7: June 27, 2009

"At one point, I tried to get everyone to call me Schroedkil -- it didn't catch on. It was during my heavy metal phase." --Andy Schroeder

We started the day back at Rotary Park working on the new trail, and we again moved along the trail as a train. At this point, we've each used all the tools, though a few of us have developed our preferences. Gus just may be the finest bow saw user in the state, and Emily, Hannah, and Jasmine all used the reciprocating saw today to fell small trees. Mike has become an accomplished lopper, and he brings down branches of all sizes. Justin prefers the Pulaski for removing stumps and the vegetative matter, while Jake uses the pick mattock for the same purpose. Ethan seems to be something of a Trail Wizard, appearing just in time -- with the appropriate tool -- to help with whatever situation presents itself.

We finished the work day by grilling hot dogs at the Rotary Park pavilion. Andy invited some ITN board members to meet the interns, and we walked the trail together after we ate; everyone was impressed with our progress. We felt a significant sense of accomplishment tonight, as we cleared several hundred feet of trail in just two days. It's gratifying to think about what we created: a sustainable trail to serve Kodiak hikers for years to come.

We depart tomorrow for Shuyak Island, so we stopped tonight at Walmart for last-minute supplies. We also purchased fishing licenses for the trip, so we'll throw a few lines in both on the way there and on the return trip. The prospect of landing a halibut is exciting, both because they're huge fish but also because just one fish would easily feed our entire group, with plenty to spare.

Shuyak is at the northern end of the Kodiak Archipelago, and it's so remote we won't have access to cell signals or the internet. So, this will be the last blog post for about a week. We'll write a post each day and post them all on our return, but this is it for now.

Finally, here are a few photos from today, including a before and after shot that might indicate how much we cleared these last two days.

http://tinyurl.com/mdp8uk

Day 6: June 26, 2009

"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.

http://tinyurl.com/r8anms

Day 5: June 25, 2009

"I make a hot meal. You come home 30 minutes late. You smell like the pub?!" --Mike Pauker

We made our way this morning to the Island Lake Trail, a community trail owned by Kodiak Borough. We again split into two teams: one to do brush work and the other to place anti-skid strips on a 200-foot boardwalk. The brush work is becoming more familiar, and we're quick to assess which tool to use for each task. The boardwalk work was straightforward but lengthy: we glued down over 100 strips of mineral paper and drove ten nails into each strip. After lunch, we worked together to finish the brush work, and then we headed to the Kodiak Fisheries Science Center (NOAA). The highlight was the Touch Tank, a large, open saltwater tank where we could hold starfish, sea anemones, sea cucumbers, crabs, and sea urchins.

For dinner tonight we had fresh, locally caught king salmon, and dessert was s'mores by the campfire. Tomorrow our work will be a bit different, as we start from scratch to cut a new community trail in Kodiak.

Click the link for today's photos. A few are labeled with captions.

http://tinyurl.com/ll85hu

Day 4: June 24, 2009

"If we use the `A' here, we'll have OR-A-TENT and SIX-A-SOFT." --Gus Halper

After breakfast this morning, we headed back to Fort Abercrombie State Park. We all started together at a beach location and worked to gather stones; the stones would serve as the steps in a stone staircase on one of the park's trails. This was some of the most demanding work we've done so far, as each stone weighed between 80 and 100 pounds, and we collected about 20 of them. We moved them from the beach to the trail in the bed of a pickup truck, but we first had to move them from the beach to the truck. We worked in two and three-person teams, lifting the stones from the beach and carrying them about 30 yards to the truck.

After gathering the stones, we split into two crews. One crew worked to install boardwalk over a low spot in the trail, so hikers could avoid the wet, marshy areas that formed after rainfalls. This team worked to level the trail grade, arranged the timber, and used power tools (!!) to fasten the planks to their foundations. The second crew went to a hill on a different trail to work on the staircase. They cut into the hillside in order to place 19 individual stones, leveled the grade, and filled in around each one.

On our way home, we stopped to see tomorrow's assignment. We won't be in the State Park but will instead work on a community trail in Kodiak. We'll continue to work like we have the past two days, but it also looks like we may have to use a jack to raise and level a small pedestrian footbridge. We arrived home for an excellent dinner: chicken, pasta, veggies, and salad, and we'll put all that fuel to good use tomorrow.

Scrabble has become something of a post-dinner ritual, and both Justin and Gus have proved to be solid players. Perhaps we'll see a bingo before the end of the trip. Finally, we think we've solved our photo problems, so here's a slideshow from our first four days. Click the following link; when the first image appears, mouse over the photo to control the show. Enjoy!

http://tinyurl.com/mcae48

Day 3: June 23, 2009

"I feel like I'm at a Super WaWa."  --Ethan Zubkoff

After an early breakfast (raspberry white chocolate scones!), we made our way to Fort Abercrombie State Park to start our trail work.  We had a brief orientation session with Andy and park ranger Kevin Murphy, both of whom explained the basics of tool safety.  The tools themselves have fantastic names: the pick, the pick mattock, the Pulaski, the McLeod, the lopper, the rock bar, the bow saw.  Each serves a specific purpose, and just saying the names a few times made us feel like genuine trail workers.  

We worked in two teams during the morning.  One team cleared small brush -- like salmonberry plants -- and larger objects, like stumps and fallen trees.  The other team did rock work -- pulling up large rocks from a new trail -- as well as restoration work, which involved covering an old trail with moss and tree limbs. 

After lunch, we worked as a group to cut and excavate six drainage ditches on the trail.  The trail itself has some steep grades; if the water runs down them too quickly during large runoff events, the trail erodes.  The ditches were about fifteen feet long, two feet wide and six inches deep, and the soil was incredibly rocky.  The work is strenuous and quickly generates sore fingers, wrists, and shoulders, but the "office space" -- surrounded by moss-covered spruce trees overlooking the Gulf of Alaska -- makes it easy to stay motivated.

After dinner, we walked through the woods to nearby Crow Beach, where we spent a few hours walking the beach, taking photos, and having wheelbarrow/piggyback races.  The stones on the beach were perfect for skipping, though a few of us need some work on our technique.  Our last stop of the night was in a traditional Alaskan banya, an outdoor cedar sauna/steamroom.  From the door of the banya, we overlooked Monashka Bay -- not bad for Day 3.

We're having a little trouble posting large numbers of photos, so hopefully we'll solve that problem in the next day or so.  Here's a nice group shot of our time on the beach tonight, with Pyramid Mountain in the background.

 

Days 1-2: June 21-22, 2009

"It was like, wake up.  You're in Alaska.  Go hike!"  --Emily Saltz

After 17 long hours, we arrived safely on Sunday in Kodiak at 10:30 local time.  We were greeted at the airport by Andy Schroeder (the founder of Island Trails Network), and we made our way to Monashka Bay, where we'll be staying until the weekend.  After a quick orientation at the house, we headed for bed -- at midnight -- with the sun still on the horizon.  It really did feel like the longest day of the year.

We slept in a bit on Monday morning, had breakfast, and headed out to hike Pyramid Mountain.  The hike was strenuous, in part because the weather changes quickly and dramatically on the island.  We had sunshine, a quick, driving rain, a rainbow, and gusting winds all in the span of two hours.  We gained over 2000 feet of elevation (see the terrain map below); four of us climbed a bit farther to summit the mountain.  The views were breathtaking, though difficult to express in a blog post.

The trip downhill was just as exciting, as we decided the best way down a large snow pack was to slide on our butts.  The real work starts tomorrow, but today was a wonderful introduction to Alaska.

Here's the terrain map and a photo of our hike.

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Tougher in Alaska, CGPS Edition

On Sunday, June 21, a team of eight CGPS students and two chaperones will join a crew from Island Trails network for a three-week project on Alaska's Kodiak Island. We're making the trip as environmental stewards; we'll be doing trail maintenance, invasive species removal, and beach debris cleanup. While it's the biggest state in the nation, it's hard to describe the size of Alaska, so this image might help. Alaska is bigger than Texas, California, and Montana -- combined -- and it's also bigger than the 22 smallest states, combined. The state of New York would fit within Alaska's (land) borders 12 times over.

Kodiak Island is the second largest island by area in the United States (behind Hawaii's Big Island), and it's bigger than both Rhode Island and Delaware. Follow the links at right for some information about the island itself, the village of Kodiak, and Island Trails Network. Here's a map of the island; you can zoom in or out, move left or right, or click the `View Larger Map' link (beneath the map) to really explore. Feel free to follow our progress, and don't hesitate to leave comments. We'll be gone until July 10, and we'll post project information and updates, photos, and maybe even a video or two.

View Larger Map