Today was my last day in the field. This morning, I had the realization that exhibition is tomorrow, so I spent much of the morning printing posters, organizing papers, and doing other exhibition prep work. Then I headed over to the Gulch one last time and finished the final three trails.
I hiked up the road, through the meadow, up Telegraph, and up to Pautsky Point. I'd never actually been all the way up to the point before, and the views from the top were great. I could see all of Durango, The La Platas, and even up to the San Juans. After recording the GPS coordinates and taking some pictures, I headed back down to the top of Telegraph, down Anasazi, and along the aptly named Secret trail. The trail started off as just a few bike tracks heading off in to the woods, but got much easier to follow as I went along. This trail was another first for me, and it too was pretty cool. I could tell, however, that it wasn't nearly as well maintained as many other trails that I've done. Officially, the Secret trail isn't actually a trail. It was in stark contrast to Snake charmer, where I hiked yesterday. Snake charmer was very well built and maintained, while Secret was eroded and hard to follow. Hiking that trail made me appreciate the work of Trails 2000 in maintaining the other trails that I've completed.
After returning via Mike's and Stacy's, I took a short side trail off of the ridge line just above the meadow trail head called Bandito. On any other day, this trail wouldn't have been any thing special, but today I had cause to celebrate when I had finished it. It was the last of the trails in Horse Gulch, and once I had written down it's GPS end point, I was finished with every trail in the system.
I have a bit more exhibition prep to do, and then tomorrow morning I'll be meeting with the new crew leader at 9:00. After that, I'll be quickly hanging up some posters for the Bell Built grant before heading out to AHS for the exhibition! I'm excited for exhibition, but I'll definitely be sad to see the end of my internship. It's been a really great experience, and I've learned more than I ever would've imagined. I feel very lucky to have had this opportunity, and I'm really glad that AHS has made it a priority in their curriculum.
I hiked up the road, through the meadow, up Telegraph, and up to Pautsky Point. I'd never actually been all the way up to the point before, and the views from the top were great. I could see all of Durango, The La Platas, and even up to the San Juans. After recording the GPS coordinates and taking some pictures, I headed back down to the top of Telegraph, down Anasazi, and along the aptly named Secret trail. The trail started off as just a few bike tracks heading off in to the woods, but got much easier to follow as I went along. This trail was another first for me, and it too was pretty cool. I could tell, however, that it wasn't nearly as well maintained as many other trails that I've done. Officially, the Secret trail isn't actually a trail. It was in stark contrast to Snake charmer, where I hiked yesterday. Snake charmer was very well built and maintained, while Secret was eroded and hard to follow. Hiking that trail made me appreciate the work of Trails 2000 in maintaining the other trails that I've completed.
After returning via Mike's and Stacy's, I took a short side trail off of the ridge line just above the meadow trail head called Bandito. On any other day, this trail wouldn't have been any thing special, but today I had cause to celebrate when I had finished it. It was the last of the trails in Horse Gulch, and once I had written down it's GPS end point, I was finished with every trail in the system.
I have a bit more exhibition prep to do, and then tomorrow morning I'll be meeting with the new crew leader at 9:00. After that, I'll be quickly hanging up some posters for the Bell Built grant before heading out to AHS for the exhibition! I'm excited for exhibition, but I'll definitely be sad to see the end of my internship. It's been a really great experience, and I've learned more than I ever would've imagined. I feel very lucky to have had this opportunity, and I'm really glad that AHS has made it a priority in their curriculum.