Montana
Week 1 : I learned that mountains are tall
I was put on a team of 12 and we packed out to spend the week working on trails and sleeping in tents in the mountains. We arrived at the Ranger station in Phillipsburg and the guy in charge of our project did not want us sleeping miles away from civilization because a huge snow storm was heading our way. He was afraid that we wouldn't be able to get our pack train( mules loaded with our gear) back in to pick us up at the end of the week. So instead we stayed at a variety of places and hiked to our work site everyday. It was only a two mile hike in and then another two mile hike out, not bad right? Haha think again it was up hill both ways and we walked in two feet of snow. Ok so that's a bit of an exaggeration... but not by much. We were hiking up and down a mountain every day to get to a beautiful lake where we built a 60 ft bridge. We also improved the trail leading down to the bridge. It snowed on us and was pretty cold some days, but looking at the finished product and enjoying the beautiful view around us made the whole week well worth the work. (Now if thats not a heck of an alliteration I don't know what is ;)
Week 2: Snow is not dirt
Most of our group spent the second week building a long curved bridge in a park outside of Butte. It was snowy and cold the whole week, but we had a heated cabin to go back to at night. We were even allowed to sleep inside when it got really cold at night... although silly me decided to brave the twenty below in a tent outside. It wasn't too bad actually.
Week 3: Bridges, and trails, and chainsaws
This week was spent taking apart old bridges, building better bridges, and digging new trails. We also took our chainsaw training class and before we left for St.Louis we all took chainsaw tests. These tests consisted of starting the chainsaws(not as easy as it sounds), falling a tree about a foot in diameter, and bucking and limbing our fallen trees. I did pretty well and am happy to be among the ranks of all the A sawers out there.
Missouri
I spent the last couple weeks in Missouri training for the year ahead. We all became CPR, AED, and First Aid certified. We also got to hear from some pretty important people who work with disasters on a regular basis. After hearing from groups like FEMA, Salvation Army, United Way, Missouri Department of Health, Missouri Department of Mental Health, United Methodist, and the American Red Cross we set up a mock VRC (Volunteer Reception Center). I was the Liaison Chief. It was kind of intense. This is something Americorps St. Louis is know for. We organize volunteers and connect them with projects after a disaster has happened.
I just got back from a week of fire training( I am now a level 1 wild fire fighter in Missouri) and conservation work at Peck Ranch. I spent a couple of days cutting autumn olives and other invasive species. And yes I used a chainsaw to do it.
Well that's all I have for now.
Hope to update again soon
