My log for yesterday would go:
Came in early to get marking paint to paint cut trees for spur road. Guy with key to paint locker did not show up.:censored: No paint.
Leave early to meet with loggers on unit. :censored:
Apparently I slept through a wind event. Cottonwoods have gone down on the main touristy traveled road. Must get out Twinkle and start whacking cottonwood and the assorted conifers they knocked over. First, call road guy on radio, who informs me that the road crew is off for the day, which I already knew. Then his radio suspiciously quits working.:censored:
The trail guys call just before earplugs go in. They'll come over and start from the other side.
I start cutting. An old guy drives up and starts asking questions about which roads are washed out. When will they be fixed? I finally say, "I need to get to work." He drives away. YAY.
Twinkle and I drive to the next one. And the next...It is muggy, it is :censored:buggy. I'm sweating. And I'm running late. :censored:
I'm just cutting and throwing the stuff that will kill or hurt an idiot driver. There's a lot of that kind of motorist on this road. I leave the small limbs so I won't be so late. At last, I see the trail guys.
I speak briefly to them. We are cheery. Really. I take off at 0840 to meet the loggers. I was supposed to be there at 0830.
I get up to the unit. I'm already geared up. The Fatty Logging Program begins. We walk and walk--take down flagging, put up flagging. I notice that the huckleberry brush has lots of flowers. It is a foggy day, so no bees to pollinate them.
We have a different road system than shown on the map when finished. But it is the same or less distance so it'll be OK. There will be less downhill yarding, and more uphill. They'll get more lift by moving the road and landings over about 100 feet. Logger is happy about that. I am happy about that. More lift = less scarred up trees. Get back to pickups, I see why my stomach has been growling, it is almost 1230.
I drive down to the lower road, stuffing my soggy sandwich in my mouth. I arrive and lock up the cab with Twinkle inside. Twinkle gets thrown in the cab when I've been using it. I'm short and it requires a step stool to get Twinkle in and out of the pickup box and that takes more time.
I start walking up the road with the logger. I answer a question the way he doesn't want to hear. But "That's just the way it is." I'm all set for another couple hours of hiking, but he just goes up the road, and points. It takes 5 minutes.
I head back in....nothing more happens. I drive the same way back and somebody, I think it was the trail guys, cleared all the little junk off the road.
YAY trail guys.
