Re: Whining Ridecampers

[BMcCrary27@aol.com]

In a message dated 01/31/2000 11:34:43 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
superpat@gateway.net writes:

<< but then I got asked to help with trail clearing
 and had an absolute blast. >>

We LOVE trail clearing!  It's great excercise, it's an opportunity to be out 
in the forests and hills, it's companionship with each other and sometimes 
with our family, and it's very creative.  Some of the best times we've had 
are on weekends with a picnic lunch, dogs and tools along, clearing and 
reconstructing trails.  The only thing that can beat that is building a brand 
new trail somewhere that we've looked at and thought there really should be a 
trail there or we've always wanted one there.  We were doing that just this 
past weekend and are about 3/4 of the way through with a new trail that we've 
been thinking about building for at least 5 years.  One of our favorites is a 
1-mile piece that it took us 4 months of weekends to build, just the two of 
us with hand tools and a chainsaw.  As we came closer to finishing it, we 
even would go out in the evening after my husband came home from the office, 
about 5:15, and work on the trail until it was dark, then come home and eat 
dinner.  What a great satisfaction, and the exercise made us feel so good 
physically.  To this day, 10 years after finishing that trail, I still 
remember the little discoveries, the exact places where we sat and ate our 
sandwiches, the humorous things that happened.  And as I ride that trail, I 
feel a great sense of satisfaction for our having built it, and it is forever 
new each time.  Some people are musicians, some are artists, some are 
writers, some are poets.....we build trails.  It's that simple.

Barbara