We were starting to hit a grove at this point into the trip, waking up early and heading out by 7:30 am ish. The bulk of our hard work came early in the morning when it was cool.
This trail was PLUGGED! We were now moving at about 1/2 mile per day and cutting or moving about 400 or 500 trees per day. Before….
After….. Much of our time was spent finding the old tread then flagging the route before clearing.
Lunch in Middle Meadow. After lunch things slowed dramatically in the heat of the day.
On this day, Kjeil and I went on a scouting mission. This turned into a regular daily activity. Sending a scout team up the trail helped us make decisions on our daily work commute, expected work, water sources, and expectations on bumping our camp to the next location. By counting trees, we could estimate our next day’s progress. A note on Kjeil’s shirt….. It used to be light green…. in the evening he would set it outside his tent and one dark night while up taking a potty break, I swear I saw it out grazing in the meadow.
As our scouting mission move up the trail, it was increasing obvious that our Total Immersion Trip Squad had job security!
One of our goals was to find a Pack Cutoff Trail. Since it had been some time since anyone had been out this way, we needed to find the trail junction and assess it’s condition. We found the junction…..
As for the cutoff trail, well, we did find some evidence but to say it existed would be a stretch. A later scouting mission (or beat down mission) found about 400 trees in the first quarter mile or so.
Another 20 minutes of scouting up the Dillinger Meadow Trail and we had hope that maybe things will ease up a bit.
Kjeil and I returned to the group who were back clearing trail. We reported our findings to Pam, the team leader then commuted the half mile or so from Middle Meadow back to camp at Meadow of Doubt. Tomorrow, rinse and repeat!
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