Today, my ten-hour workday started by putting a 60-pound generator into a cargo net and hauling it up a mountain between two maple poles, just like cartoon cavemen bringing home a Wooley mammoth.
Then, as a warm-up morning activity, my crew carried 20-pound rocks in our arms like babies and climbed the quarter mile of stairs and rocky trail we had painstakingly carved into the side of a cliff over the past three months.
During mid-morning, the sound of handheld rock drills was drowned out by the loud hum of the generator which in turn was drowned out by the repeated clanging of a jackhammer. We scrambled around in earpro and eyepro and winter layers and hard hats and tried not to fall of the razor-thin line of flat ground we were creating for ourselves foot by hard-earned foot.
By lunch we had come up with our first plan for a new staircase. We joked, and chatted, and tried to google the weird holey shovel someone found in the woods. When sitting still for lunch got too cold, we struggled back to our feet and grunted variations of “Well, back at it” and “Gues we can’t put it off any longer” and “Too damn cold to keep sitting here, I’m going back to work.”
The sun continued on through the sky. Not that we could see it tucked firmly behind a layer of Washitonian clouds. We tried the first configuration for our new staircase. We took measurements, dug trenches, and yelled at each other over the jackhammer. That plan didn’t work so we tried a new one. We took new measurements and dug new trenches and continued to yell at each other. That next plan didn’t work so we came up with a third. We gave up on measurements and dug up the whole damn hillside and yelled at any other crew members who approached and said, “Have you tried…”
And just as we were getting the hang of it – it was time to pack up and leave. We carried our generator back down the mountainside and shoved tool bags into the back of our work trucks and kicked mud off our heavy leather boots.
I ended the day by completely rearranging my work schedule and promising my supervisor I could get all my paperwork done in a fraction of the normal time so I could squeeze in two more days of working on that god-forsaken rock.
Because I love it.
Trail work has my whole heart, and it has for the past four seasons.
In February Trump and Musk illegally fired many trail builders who work on federal land. Entire crews of trail gremlins are out of a job and cut off from the work they love. While many were reinstated for the next 45 days thanks to a court order, the damage is going to be hard to undo.
Public lands are ours to protect and ours to enjoy. So many of us have enjoyed public lands by hiking, camping, instagraming, or road tripping. Now we need to protect them.
You can help by emailing your representatives, donating to support laid-off workers, or following @ResistanceRangers and @TrailCrewStories on Instagram. It will take all of us speaking up, but I believe that we can show that access to public lands is sacred and worth protecting.
Kesia Lee 