So we have completed our first two hitches. We had a 5 day hitch followed by a weekend in town , which i spent in Kake helping with a kids fishing derby and then another 5 day hitch in the woods, followed by this weekend in town which i have spent at the bar last night to celebrate my 21st! Monday we are off again for our first 10 day hitch.
Our first hitch stated off slow work wise because we had to fall some huge trees so we cold use for natural trail building materials and it will be our new helicopter drop spot for the $50,000 worth of wood planking that we will use to build the trail. I worked with Matt the first week building about 15 feet of trail with the planks. It will get faster but for now its very time consuming. First you have to put down sills and they cant be more then 4 feet apart from center to center. They have to be level and dug into the ground. Then we can put the plank on and see if we need risers to go with the grade of the incline. Then we nail and cut the planks.
For the natural trail we use trees. So first Oso will fall a tree then we have drawl knives to de-bark the tree so it will not rot as fast. Then we use a grip hoist to drag the trunk to the part of the trail we need. A grip hoist can pull 4,000 tons and if you add a switch block it can pull 8,000 tons. We connect the grip hoist to a standing tree and we start cranking with this handel. Its like we are rowing a boat and every crank will move the tree about a 1/2 an inch. The sills are also part of the tree we have fallen and we stake in those sills. Once we get the tree onto the sills we mark where the tree sits on the sills and flip it over so Oso can come by with the chainsaw and make notches. We flip it back over using PV's and then re bar the trunk into the sills and then Oso will cut steps into the trunk. ( i will need to take a pic of the grip hoist in use and maybe it will help to understand what the hell I am saying).
Camp is going well. We already have a mice problem but I guess that's going to happen. Angie forgot she had a piece of chocolate in her pocket and she woke up in the middle of the night to a mouse munching on her piece of candy right next to her face. I have not been woken up by the mice but apparently they hang out in our tent and yurt at night. The food is awesome and their is so much of it ( so much for getting in shape). I made pasta with shrimp and scallops in it for my meal. We had a taco night and just lots of seafood. Smoked black cod is amazing by the way. We need to get Maryland into smoking fish because that's something I am really going to miss here.
So for Kake we left on Friday around 4 and it was a 30 min plane ride to the town. The landing and take off was so smooth and we flew low and we could see bears on the ground. I saw the orlds largest totumpole and we went to Cascade waterfall ( i think thats the name of it). Two trees had fallen across the water so I was walken on one and thought I should jump to the other log. So I jumped and well I did not make it. I fell into the frezzing cold alaskan water! My boots and clothes were soaked and it had gone up to my shoulders! The kids derby was fun, we had games and prizes for them. They just fished off the dock and caught the ugle bottom feeder fish that you cant do anything with other then use for bait.
