Plover River 2011 - Sue's Pics

Plover River 2011 - Sue's Pics, a set on Flickr.

Pictures taken by Sue B. whose son helped with the Eagle Scout project at Plover River

Taylor County Aug. 18-21 2011

Taylor County Aug. 18-21 2011, a set on Flickr.

A few pics from Taylor County. I wasn't there for too long so sorry about the dearth of pictures!

Taylor County Recap

Like the Brewers keeping up their torrid winning streak, the Mobile Skills Crew checked off another “win” with the Taylor County project. With the largest gathering of volunteers for a MSC project at Wood Lake ever, the goals were easily met, making one reminisce of the legendary Point Beach MSC project of 2006. Whereas at Point Beach volunteers were asked to go for a swim Saturday afternoon, the gears shifted and goals pivoted in Taylor County to include maintenance and upkeep of an additional 10 plus miles of trail.

Tim took a rare project off, thrusting Randy (a.k.a. the jargonnaut) into the Team Leader role. He oversaw a huge project area and succeeded with his usual aplomb. By the time I arrived at the event Thursday evening, most of the project goals were within striking distance thanks to the domination of people like Rich, Cowboy, Fred and Bill. When jokingly asked at 5 why he wasn’t working still, Rich said they took his tools away. That says something when you have to take the tools out of the volunteers’ hands at the end of the day to keep them from working too hard and long. How many people can say that about their job, much less something they volunteer for?

Thursday night Allan gave the stragglers around the campfire an impromptu astronomy lesson. He brought us out right in time to watch the space station slowly slide across the darkened sky. A remnant of the perseid meteor shower graced those with enough patience or the luck of looking up at the right time.

We welcomed the Mentor/Mentee program from Chicago and they got us moving in the morning with their version of a warm-up. It was a little of this and little of that with a lot of movement. I think I work harder during morning stretches than I do in the field.

Friday saw crews spread over a large area as maintenance crews were sent out to chainsaw, mow and brush back the trail corridor. We got our marching orders and my crew was going to be working from the western most Bear Ave. crossing to Hwy 102. Arriving at the worksite, we found a crew already working our area. Who could this be? Walking ahead, I find out it was Buzz’s crew. I told him he was heading the wrong way, but he explained how the trail twists and turns and to go west, you have to go east first. I wasn’t buying it so he got out the map to discover that he indeed was going the wrong way. Good to see the High Point Chapter Leader confused by the trails in his county! In hindsight, I shouldn’t have said anything and just had my crew trail behind Buzz’s crew touching a few things up and pretending to work.

I was lucky enough to be working with Becky and Mack for the whole day, except for the part when I lost them. We were told to work up to “the creek” and then head back, so at lunch we headed down the trail to figure out where the creek was and start working back. We went a ways and stopped among the hemlocks to eat with a creek in sight, but not THE creek. I decided to continue down the trail to find “the creek”, I returned 30 minutes later creekless and crewless. Not a whisper or sign of their whereabouts. Uh-oh. I hustled down the trail hoping to find them while trying to imagine how to explain this one to Brad and Randy. 15 minutes later I finally ran into them working diligently. Whew!

Drew and Joe were barnstorming with the Billy Goat mower between Bear Ave and 102, while Jason was leading a chainsaw crew somewhere between Wood Lake and 102. There were crews doing signage and crews finishing up the new tread and bridge. Needless to say, a lot was going on. Everyone safely returned and a lot of the people went for a refreshing dip in beautiful Wood Lake.

Like the crews stretched out across Taylor County, Thelma’s cooking stretched our bellies. A few of us were talking about how we gain weight at projects from all the food we eat so we decided to limit ourselves to one plate (albeit a heaping plate) to combat the MSC 15. It’s similar to the freshman 15 where your freshman year in college you gain 15 pounds from all the food, beverages and ranch sauce you consume, except you don’t have to be a freshman, just a MSC volunteer.

Friday evening the 2011 MSC class, “Weather or Not” received their Crew Leader shirts. The class this year has been great, adding new insight and enthusiasm into Mobile Skills Crew projects. They’ll use their new knowledge and spread it back to their local chapter, creating a stronger and better Ice Age Trail. Next up for this year’s class is to get their hats. Mack, class of 2009, received his Crew Leader hat in an impromptu “ceremony” in the campground before he left. The hat is the last step in the crew leader process. You have to go through Crew Leader Training, be current with your First Aid/CPR and chainsaw certifications and have been an active crew leader in good standing. Oh, chilly willies are actually the last step, but that is for another blog post.

Mack getting his MSC hat

Perhaps to celebrate all the shirts given out and the success of the project, Rachel busted out some Seagram’s Black Honey Whiskey that was very well received around the campfire. The Packers won and so did the Brewers so it was another good day. Later as the fire burned into the night, I sent myself a text to remember a quote that was both profound and hilarious. The next morning it was more confusing and nonsensical than anything. Something about pi being cyclical…

Saturday folks were back out maintaining the trail and improving signage. While hiking the trail last year, I didn’t care how the trail was blazed, as long as I could follow it. Now, after thinking about it, it would have been so much easier if the entire trail were blazed consistently from Potawatomi to Interstate.

We have “pulling a Crary” where you sneak away in the evening without anyone noticing and now we have “pulling a Kaufmann” where you show up late Saturday night after Matt did that at the Grandfather Falls project. Leah re-emerged from her Appalachian Trail “vacation” and pulled a Kaufmann Saturday night. Who’s going to be the next?

Sunday ended with the Brewers sweeping the Mets and the Mobile Skills Crew finishing a sweep of Taylor County.

Taylor County Preview

Ah yes, Taylor County once more. After taking a year off from our yearly trip to the High Point Chapter, we return to help take care and improve the 80 plus miles of Ice Age Trail through the county. Base camp will be at Wood Lake County Park, which may be my favorite campsite for an MSC event. We’ve had some good times up there, especially doing our morning stretches in the snow a few years back! Our water bottles were freezing in the morning, but I think everyone was just excited to be working in such a beautiful spot with the snow adding wonderment to our surroundings.

The project will have a little bit of everything, from a half mile reroute, to rock work, boardwalk, bridge construction, mowing, maintenance and as always, updating signage. There literally is something for everyone. I know I'll be doing a little of nothing like usual. Work is so much easier when you watch everyone else doing it for you.

This years class of crew leaders, Weather or Not, will most likely be there showing everyone how things are down. They've been very well represented at the last few projects and their enthusiasm has added to the MSC atmosphere. Come up and enjoy everything the Northwoods have to offer! Hopefully the wolves will serenade us to sleep. We've been spoiled with our run of beautiful areas this year from Straight Lake to Plover River to Grandfather Falls and now Wood Lake. If all this hasn't spurred you on to make the trek up to Taylor County, maybe the chance to enjoy Rustic Road 1 will tweak your interest. It's the first rustic road in the state!