Caprock Canyons State Park was beckoning us for our 6th hitch to do maintenance on the quickly eroding trails there. Waterbars, check steps, rubble walls and drainages needed to be built, put in, and touched up. Few of us had experience doing that and some of us have never been in the desert or seen a canyon before.

After a full long day of driving, we entered the park at sunset. Wow! Mountains! Bison strolling on the road! As tired as we were after a whole day of driving, we all crawled out of the van at the visitors center and limped on our half asleep from the drive legs to the edge of a cliff to snap photos of the setting sun behind the towering canyons and grazing bison in the distance.

The next morning we chewed on our breakfast and watched millions of stars fade away, the early sun rays illuminated the vistas all around us. Red, orange, brown cliffs with splashes of green on the towering canyon walls were aglow all around us! Whoa! Everywhere you looked the red giants guarded us, giving their morning salutations to welcome us. These gorgeous lands and canyons were going to be our home and walls for the next ten days!

We had two set work sites going on Haynes Ridge Overlook Trail, which is about 600ft of elevation gain from the trailhead to the top. One worksite, which was at the very top, needed rock steps and a rubble wall built. The other site, about 300ft below that point, needed waterbars and check steps built and a few features reinforced. Our legs protested carrying all the tools up the steep, loose rock and way over 8 percent grade trail. The two-ton griphoist was extra nasty to the knees, but our hearts and minds loved it.

Some of us struggled with the steep hike to the worksite in our bulky workboots and pounds of water in our packs. The heat was excruciating, the red sand was in every nook and cranny of our clothes, gear, pots, and bodies.  A few of us got away with just scratches from spikey desert plants, some of us sunburnt, and some with smashed fingers, but the crew persevered and we not only completed the planned work but did extra maintenance, fixing up eroded waterbars and junk walls in many areas. We put in 6 new huge check steps, 4 waterbars, repaired a check step, cleared 3 existing waterbars, and installed 8 rocks stairs!!!

Our strong team bond helped us excel, work well together, and exceed our set goals on this hitch. Heavy winds and epic thunderstorms broke one of our tents and everyone was glad to have helped rebuild and come up with shelter solutions. Instead of retiring to our tents after dinner, all of us hung out together playing games or just cracking jokes and just lounging in each other’s company. It was a whole other camping experience with the crew this hitch. We were closer because of our isolation from the public and being in new territory. We were eight people working and camping just a few feet from one another on a daily basis, and all was well. Caprock is truly magical. It brought us even closer together.

A few days before the end of our hitch, our off-highway-vehicle, Ranger, got a deflated tire. We waited for the park’s staff to come rescue us. Dennis from maintenance showed up to save us and fixed the Ranger’s flat only for the other one to get another flat later in the day. Dennis helped us with numerous back and forth rides to carry out our camp stuffs and tools back to the parking lot. He helped patch the injured Ranger up and answered our trillion questions about the park.

This hitch has been a productive adventure. We did good work, grew as a team, and explored together. On behalf of TAT, I want to thank everyone who planned our hitches, this one and previous ones, and who made it all possible. Such exposure to skills, people, parks, and new regions of Texas are tremendously valuable experiences, making everyone a better person and the world truly a better place. I wish many future TAT teams to have amazing hitches and mind-blowing, life changing experiences like we are continually having this season.

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“May this fast vibrating frequency stay on its tune or higher” wrote Yuliya in our hitch journal on February 2, the halfway point. Reading back through the journal to catch up on what others had felt, especially Yuliya’s quote, signaled to me that we are composing a symphony here. The pluck of crew leader Amber’s ukulele and the twang of member Cassidy’s banjo, the squish and slice of hazel hoes and McCleods in the mud, sawtooth to wood, pick-mattock on rock, cutter to stump, laughter by way of silly jokes and fun pranks, sizzle of fried potatoes in the cast iron, the whine of the spigot as we fill our bottles, a sigh at the end of the day, each tired “good morning” at the beginning.

We cheered and hooted in the van on our way to the trail when we saw the wild pigs running so fast in the pasture, we awed and cooed at the cows and bulls almost every trip, we shouted and booed the raccoon when he so brazenly stole the chips off our picnic table. Our song is metered in feet and drainage dips, hummed in the key of our sweat, and counted off by our tool inventory each morning and afternoon.

This composition is imperfect as of yet, but we are taking the time to write it. Every foot of trail cut and every camp chore done reminds us of our commitment to the song. We stretch in the morning like we’re dancing to our own tune, and we debrief each afternoon like we’re listening to what we’ve written. It’s a peculiar thing to realize, seeing as how we never agreed to write a song at all. But here we are, a team of trail builders and maestros, creating our opus. Wish us luck!

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This hitch was a blast for the TAT crew. We spent some time finishing up two of
the bridges in Tyler State Park, started another bridge and a crib wall, as well as
some general trail maintenance. While it has been interesting coming onto a crew
that’s already halfway through their term as a new guy, they have all been very
welcoming. Since everyone on the crew was already fairly experienced, they were
able to help me learn along the way. The jokes, the communal cooking, sweating in
the humidity, and the evenings spent around the fire are all part of the camp life
while out on hitch. By the end of 10 days I felt as if I had known the crew for 10
months.

The weather on this next hitch is expected to be cold, rainy, and absolutely
dreadful, yet somehow I just can’t wait to get back into the woods. My life back in
Austin feels like a waiting period to recuperate for the next push on our trail project.
Somehow the idea of living in a tent sounds better than being in an apartment,
dealing with mosquitoes rather than traffic, smelling like a campfire, sharing food,
and not having wifi sounds really awesome. I’m really excited to get back to waking
up with the sun in the morning, working in the woods all day, and going to sleep
with the stars overhead.

The work isn’t easy, sometimes the food goes bad, and its not always painless to
live and work with the same 8 people for ten days straight, but so far TAT has been
an amazing experience. At the end of the day when you’re tired and sore, you can
look back and see the work you did, and know that it helped make our world a
better place. I hope that feeling warms my heart when it reaches 40 degrees later
this week!

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