Where Do I Begin?

Just in case anybody remembers that I have a blog... or that I still exist... I'll write one... finally...

Where do I begin?

I started the blog of my adventures in February. I was just scrolling through my previous entries and its wierd to believe how long ago that was. All the way back about my train ride to Montana, my impressions of Whitefish, work, where I lived, and so on. It's like a life away, but yet it was like yesterday when I met all my new friends having a beer at our favorite local bar, Moose's Saloon, in Kalispell. It doesn't even feel real that I'm not in Montana, that my new adventure is ready to begin. The big question here, am I ready? Yes, but I do miss Montana, all those friends, and all the youth I worked with.

Okay, so what have I done since my last entry? Well, the part of Montana Conservation Corps (MCC) that I signed on for and spent 4 months training for finally came (and went). That is, the past two months I have spend in the woods in Northwest Montana with two different sets of youth working trails and such. This all reconfirmed again my desire to always work with youth. Who couldn't love all that energy, enthusiasm, and imagination?

The way the youth crew works for MCC is that we have two four week sessions during the summer where each set of leaders takes out 6 youth. It's four weeks straight for them, no going home, etc. First session was June 18 to July 10. Second session was July 18 to August 14. The Youth Crew Leaders (YCL) (me included) did all the recruiting, interviewing, and selecting of the youth members. How the four weeks works is like this:
We work 8 hours a day Monday to Friday on the trail. Saturday morning we pack up camp, go into town to exchange any tools needed, go food shopping, and set up camp at our new worksite. Sometimes on Saturdays we went swimming or bowling. On Sundays, we mostly chilled at our new camp, sometimes exploring a bit. Then we work at our new site Monday to Friday, and the month goes on as so.

Setting up camp means setting up a tarp to have our kitchen, digging a sump hole for the kitchen water, digging a latrine for our bathroom away from where sleeping and cooking, and setting up our personal tents. Tents shouldn't be near the car or kitchen area to avoid bears near us at night. The latrine was one big hole, either deep or about 3 feet in length that we would all poop in.

Each session definitely had different dynamics and personalities. Of course, I'm going to say that the 2 crews I had over the whole summer were the best 2 crews, far better than the other 2 sets of youth crews. (I'm definitely not showing any kind of bias with that statement...:)) First session, my crew was only boys. Just imagine being the only female in a crew... Yep, picked on! :) Second session started off with 3 girls and 3 guys and ended with 2 girls and 2 guys...explanation later...:)

Besides working with youth as a plus to this job, this job also moved us all around northwest Montana. We worked in East and West Glacier (Glacier National Park), we worked down in the Swan Mountain Ranges, we worked in wilderness areas (pretty close to the Bob Marshall Wilderness), and we worked on recreational trails in Hungry Horse and Whitefish. I got to see so many different parts throughout northwest Montana. What other kind of job could provide such an amazing office? With fantastic lunch spots?

So, I think how I'll go about talking about each session is write 2 seperate entries and having pics with them. Meaning, this is all ya' get right now... just a tease... no big deal. :)