Community

Dear Internet,

One of the great things about ERT so far has been the community we’ve built. Sure, it’s kind of weird and involves a lot of Cheez-Its and references to the movie “Stepbrothers,” but it’s a place where we all, for the most part, fit. I realized this yesterday. But let me start my tale where I last left off.

Over the last few weeks I’ve done two back-to-back ten-day spikes, each followed by four days off. The first ten-day was at Peck Ranch doing chainsaw training (see previous post), followed by some excitement. We were supposed to go meet a crew working on a part of the Ozark Trail, but as we pulled out of the parking lot at Peck Ranch got a call from the director of ERT, Bruce, saying that conditions were very good that day for a wildfire and that we needed to be on fire standby in cell service range. We all put on our Nomex (a set of fire resistant clothes we were issued to fight fire) and fire boots and spent the day, uncertain, spraying invasive species at the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) office in Eminence, MO.

It turned out that no one set a fire (arson is a big problem ‘round these parts) and we proceeded to drive to the Ozark Trail to meet the other group. It was kind of a relief and kind of a disappointment... we were so ready to go, you know? We probably won’t see fire till the season for it starts in late winter/early spring.

We hiked in to the campsite, where this other group had been living for about a week while they built the trail. We arrived to find them dancing around a huge campfire, waving tools and chanting - just to freak us out, but it was pretty funny. We reunited with our friends, had some dinner, and settled into tents for the night.

The next morning we woke up and hiked to the next part of the trail that needed work done and merrily worked for about two hours, until the gunshots seemed too close.

For. Real.

Hunting season was at that point in its last few days and the land we were working on was not protected. At one point we heard six shots in quick succession -  a semi-automatic not really aimed at much in particular, it seemed - just over the next ridge from us. Our team leaders opted to get us out of there, thankfully. We all hiked back to the campsite, packed up, and drove back to Johnson’s Shut Ins.

At the Shut Ins, the excitement was pretty much over as we spent a few days maintaining another part of the Ozark Trail before heading back to St Louis. It had been a long ten days and everyone was relieved and happy to be back for Thanksgiving!

My Thanksgiving weekend was pretty relaxed and fun. Besides talking to my family on the phone and cooking/eating a lot of food (at a friend’s Thanksgiving feast for those orphans who didn’t go home to their actual families for the holiday), I got to hang out in St Louis a lot, which was pretty nice. I spent a lot of time with my boyfriend Will (a second-year ERT member), going ice skating in the park (it was far too warm and there was a layer of water on top of the ice after a few hours), seeing the Muppets movie, and visiting the zoo. If I couldn’t be at home in Virginia, it was the next best thing :)

My next ten-day spike was at the same campsite and working at the same part of the Ozark Trail we had left a week ago. Hunting season was over but snow had arrived! I could not believe that it snowed on us the first night we were there, but the next week or so was not too bad - frosty in the morning but clear and crisp during the day while we worked.

Snow at our campsite

Snowing one morning - we had to cross these relatively
unstable "stepping stumps" to cross the smaller
part of the river...

...so we could use this bridge to cross the bigger part of the
river. We were pretty sure for the entire spike that
someone would fall in but no one ever did...
knock on wood for the next crew to go there!

The last few days were rainy and we even saw some sleet/hail, but we were able to take a half day of work and go to Eminence to warm up in a certain gas station with delicious fried chicken when the weather got really bad.

The river area behind our camp, with the bridge in the back.
Camp is on the right side of the photo and the trail on the left.

Amelia, me, Jason, Saul, and Sam

The work of hacking a trail out of the side of a mountain is not terribly exciting - in fact it’s pretty repetitive and backbreaking - but it’s satisfying and gives a real sense of accomplishment. You can literally, at the end of the day, walk the trail you worked on all day. Plus, when the view out of your “office” is a forest and a mountain, when you’re breathing all that fresh air, when your lunch break is spent exploring a cave you found in the woods, when you’re looking forward to roasting your dinner over a campfire on a leaf rake - nothing is too bad. Life is simple, life is good. I might not have said exactly that when I couldn’t feel my toes every morning, but looking back, it was a great week.

At work one morning on the trail

Getting back to St Louis was a relief for the simple joy of taking a bathshower - you guessed it, a combination bathing experience complete with candles. That second ten-day spike was, I’m sure, the longest I have ever gone in my life without showering and I had developed a really attractive “hairmet” - hair greasy to the point of staying in place... much like a hard hat.

Since my bathshower I’ve spent the last four days relaxing and hanging out with friends and Will, pretty much just enjoying some (well-earned) time off. Yesterday Will and I decided to go to Memphis, TN, just for something interesting to do. We met up with my friend Amy from college and did a lot of walking. We visited the gates of Graceland

Will & I at Graceland

and a really cool museum about the history of fire in Memphis, committed a minor crime by jumping the fence to visit a place called Mud Island (with a scale replica of the Mississippi River and the cities that line it!),

Amy and Will walking the deserted pedestrian bridge
to Mud Island

watched the ducks march out of the fountain in the lobby of the famous Peabody Hotel, ate gumbo, and listened to some live music. What a day :)

Memphis skyline from Mud Island

I guess it was in talking to Amy about life in ERT yesterday that I realized how much of a community we’ve built up. ERT has its own stories (how about the time Dee went to sleep in Sam’s bed?) and sayings (“Firewall!”) and jargon (Pumper, Nomex). We see each other all the time and know way too many details about each others’ lives. I guess it could be invasive or cloistered but it’s oddly comforting. It’s like having a gang. A gang that knows how to operate chainsaws.

At the same time, I kind of like that my apartment is about two miles from Soulard, the neighborhood where almost everyone else in ERT lives. I hang out in Soulard, I can step back and have a life outside of ERT at my apartment in Shaw. I rarely do, but at least the possibility is there :)

Long story short - the people in ERT are great, and are quickly becoming family. I can already tell that saying goodbye next August will be weird and prickly and difficult.

xoxo,

Liz

P.S. Sorry for the lack of photos in this post. I had to get my camera cleaned, but I will try to snag some from other people's Facebook albums and put them up. Toodles!


P.P.S. I took some photos from Ivy's Facebook - thanks Ivy!