I gots me some time, finally. I gots me a job too. Whoop-de-doo. Temporary, but you know. I just got back from Montana in November and boy were my arms... anyway, I came back from Montana because my 6-month term of service in the Montana Conservation Corps ended. I needed to live a new life for a while so I left New York. It was good. I found something that challeneged me physically and mentally. It was good. I have seen the top of the mountain. Descriptions don't do it justice, but here are some anyway:

I worked on a crew of 6 people, 20-25 years old, four guys, two girls. Those two girls have given me new respect for women as physical workers. I tell ya, thems was some unstoppable broads. Not that us guys weren't awesome, but I'm biased because I still am an awesome guy. Hoo-aaah!!

I remember most fondly the times we had in Rierdon Gulch, just south of the Bob Marshall Wilderness, which is just south of Glacier National Park, which is just south of Canada. We hiked three miles in and found some level ground to make camp. Our heavy food containers and wall tent supplies came in after us on pack-mules. We used felled trees as poles to make a sturdy wall tent that would be our living room for the next ten days. We had collapsible water containers, an element filter and a nearby stream as a water source. We dug a cat-hole away in the woods to relieve ourselves. There was a shovel near the wall tent, laid up against a tree. That was the cat-hole shovel. You took it with you when you went. If you didn't see the shovel leaning against its tree when you had to go, you didn't look for it. These were the systems we used. We brought oreos as mid-day snacks and desserts, but we soon grew creative. We pioneered and then mastered the art of frying oreos in pancake batter.

(Heat oil from last night's dinner in metal cup
Mix pancake batter until smooth
Dip oreo evenly in pancake batter using tongs
Quickly move oreo from pancake batter into heated oil
Rotate and flip gently for ten second
Remove oreo to plate or paper towel

Let cool and enjoy)

Your arteries will clog in protest, but it's worth it. Anyhow, onto our ride: An old, beat-up, old Suburban (The Burb) and a pimped out trailer. Our crew leaders got some wheel spinners from Wal-Mart so that they could say they got $16 spinners from Wal-Mart. Midway through the season, a particularly bumpy road managed to rock both spinners free and I can still remember watching them roll away from our trailer and off the roadside in a cloud of dust, still spinning.

This is no place to end, but I gotta get up for work tomorrow, so I'm cutting it off here for now. I'll have more stories in the future as well as some pictures. That's right, I said pictures. I want you all to see it for yourselves.

I wish I could bring you all there, but the closest I can get to doing that is with this thread and this parody that I wrote. Here's a link if you want some more outdoors (And if you were wondering "What the heck does all this rambling have to do with parodies?").

Trail-Workin' Guy