That's a Wrap!

View across Sitka Sound to Mt Edgecumbe

Sleeping at the terminal!

The final location on our Southeast Alaskan tour was a beautiful town called Sitka. We had quite the time reaching Sitka from Skagway. We had to spend an extra day in Skagway and ended up spending two unrestful nights in the Juneau ferry terminal. But finally made it to Sitka a day later than we were expected.

Sam all packed up to go

 Sitka Trail Works, the organization that we are working for, had us remove boardwalk from the Lower Gavan Trail. Estimating about three weeks to remove about .5 miles of board walk, we got to work early Tuesday morning. Providing the team with pack frames we removed wet soggy board after board. The addition of protein powder in Nate and Vinny's diets made for remarkable results. On the first day alone we moved well over 2.5 tons. Taking between 20 and 30 trips per person per day we were able to finish this section in less than four work days. This work week took a toll on everyone’s bodies, which resulted in a relaxing weekend watching movies in the bunkhouse.

Team work makes the dream work

The second week we removed boardwalk from another trail, again more quickly than we were expected to. We also worked on some revegetation and brushing. We had more energy the second weekend and were able to explore Sitka and more of Sitka’s trails. Sarah, Vinny, Nate, and Lesley hiked around Beaver Lake on Saturday. (Lesley actually ran the trail because she’s a beast). The weather ended up being perfect and the hike itself was beautiful. That night Lesley and Sarah made a raspberry rhubarb pie with the rhubarb from Kat’s garden and it was delicious. We had a very lazy Sunday because the rain returned with a vengeance.

Beaver Lake

Our final week of work was not terribly strenuous because we had wrapped up the main projecs Sitka Trail Works had planned for us. We ended up repairing parts of Upper Gavan Hill that had been destroyed by a landslide. On Wednesday night we went out to eat at Larkspur Café to celebrate the end of the season. The food was delicious and Amanda Johnson, who we have worked with through our time here, joined us. Lesley baked more pie, this time pumpkin, and had ice cream too to continue the celebration once we returned to the bunkhouse.

Before

After

After