Getting There
I got an early start, about 6am, from Portland to Hood River. I took I-84 and stopped at McDonald's for a breakfast sandwich.
I crossed the toll bridge to the WA side of the Columbia River and drove into Bingen. I continued another 4.5 miles on Hwy 14 East to the Syncline Trail - East Trailhead at the intersection of the old Highway 8 and parked in the small gravel lot.
I was the first to arrive at around 7:40am but everyone showed up by about 8am. We had donuts and milled around for a bit. Sometime around 8:30am, we got into a semi-circle and did the safety talk. I gave a brief overview of the shovel.
The Hike
Distance: 2.94 milesElevation Gain: 733 feet
Hightest Elevation: 828 feet
This was my second work party as an ACL. I'm counting this as a hike since it was at least a couple of miles of travel and some elevation gain. I chose to not count my previous work party at Lyle Cherry Orchard between we worked on the lowest section of the trail, not far from the car/trailhead.
I thought the East Trailhead would get us closer to the trail than the Coyote Wall Trailhead to the west but it's about the same walk on the old Highway 8. There is a lot of debris on the defunct road from the blasted rock crumbling down. At one point, the path through the rocks is only about 8" wide.
It was cold in the morning and I was layered up but I was stopping to shed a layer only after walking for 5 mins. I was much more comfortable on the ascent to the work site on the Labyrinth Trail. Our job for this work party was to "armor" the muddiest sections of the trail. "Armoring" means placing basketball-sized rocks in hole dug into the tread, then covering with small rocks and dirt. The trail is used by hikers, mtn bikers, and horses.
My team of 4 was assigned to the topmost section of the trail we intended to address. I had never done this kind of work before so I was trying to soak in the brief instructions and watch what an experienced volunteer was doing. We had plenty of examples to look at when we hiked up to our work site. However, we started placing small rocks as stepping stones, insufficient.
When James came by to check our progress, he explained that we needed to dig up the rocks we'd buried and use much bigger pieces. He also said it takes time to learn how to do this kind of work and that it takes practice. I was still learning but it started to make sense as I completed my "section".
Fortunately, what we did was a big improvement from the mud but I wasn't as happy with the result. Two of my crew was brand new, it was the very first work party, so I tried to be as positive as I could but still offer advice.
There was another section that James wanted us to tackle. He and I went up there to evaluate the trail. The long-term volunteer finished his section and moved up. I followed to show him what James had suggested. Ed said we didn't need to armor the trail, just remove the berm so the trail would drain. This was an example of the CL giving suggestion but allowing seasoned trail workers to implement what they thought was a better solution.
We finished the task and started back down to join the rest of the crew.
We stopped to stage rocks next to the trail for the April work party to use to armor another section.
It was finally time to call it a day. We started back to the trailhead.
I had a chance to talk with James about what I thought went well and where I could improve. He said I was a natural and gave me kudos for my leadership on this work party.
It was great to hear. I feel like I will grow into this role and be successful. I will certainly have some challenges with potentially challenging people I might have to coach.