LOCALadk Magazine

Fall 2015 LOCALadk Magazine 27 LOCALadk Sweat rolls down my face and into my eyes. It stings. I search for a piece of clothing that isn't saturated and have no luck. It's that type of day: hot, humid and hazy. The Great Range is a fuzzy line on the horizon. Blueberries thrive along the exposed ridgeline of the Broth- ers. With a clip, I unfasten my day pack. Equipped with water, cam- era, notepad, pencil, food and an extra layer, it weighs twelve pounds at most. A faint breeze cools my skin and I take a moment to collect the wild berries. With a handful, I find a comfortable perch and start snacking. "Ah, this is the life," I think to myself. It's a beautiful July day in the Adirondacks, and I'm headed up a High Peak and gaining nour- ishment from trail. After a few swigs of water, I repack and strap in. It's a tough day to hike. The thick air and heat zap your energy, though I have little to complain about. Today, I'm attempting to meet a trail crew dispatched from Adirondack Mountain Club near the summit of Big Slide, elevation 4,239 feet. And I know their packs are a lot heavier than mine. Further up the trail, the hardwood forest transitions to dense stands of balsam. Less than a mile from the summit, I hear them before I see them. A combination of laughter and banter gives away their posi- tion. Around the bend, a girl with short bleached hair and knee high socks is hidden beneath the shadow of her pack. The external frame is strapped down with sleeping and cooking gear. She extends a hand and introduces herself as Chloe—not spelled like Khloe Kardashian. Next to her is Jacob, a good friend who lives down the street in their New Jersey town and current trail crew pal. They are part of a five- day teen volunteer trail project coordinated by The Adirondack Moun- tain Club Trails Program. The two escort me to the rest of the group, chatting along the way about food and what they'll do upon returning to the "real world". Chloe reminisces about a Chinese restaurant in their hometown and Jacob adds, "The first thing I'm doing is taking a shower." When we come upon the group, they're refilling water bottles beside a small stream. Charlotte, one of the trail leaders, drops iodine tabs into each Nalgene bottle. She wears hiking boots and her light hair is strapped back with a bandana. This is her summer job, to take groups of volunteers into the Adirondack backcountry to work on trail proj- ects. Volunteers are oriented on Sunday nights at the ADK Lodge and then transported to their sites Monday morning. After a week-long shift, they are picked up Friday afternoon and taken back to the lodge. It's a busy schedule for a leader, but Charlotte doesn't seem to mind. When it comes to trail work, she thrives. Her favorite part of the job is "wrestling rocks," she says, and her favorite project has been working on the Ore Bed rock steps. "We moved a lot of awesome big rocks," she reminisces, swatting at a blackfly. This week, the trail project has little to do with rocks. The group is constructing a bog bridge over a section of soggy, muddy trail. To imagine what that section of trail looks like, think of walking through the conditions pigs like to roll around in. The problem is, some hikers won't hike through, and they'll make herd paths around. One of the goals of establishing the bog bridge is to get hikers back on the cor- rect trail and minimize impact elsewhere. As part of their orientation process, volunteers are trained by the crew leaders to use tools such as rock bars, shovels, crosscut saws, mattocks, and handsaws. In order Alisa Fersch

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