Today was a busy day of volunteering! I was up very early and was ready to go by 0730. For volunteering event #1, I drove (via Greensboro Road, Etna Road, Hanover Center Road, Baker Hill Road and Dorchester Road) to reach the AT parking area near the Dartmouth Skiway. I arrived at 0800 and met up with Joe, Frank and Andre, the other members of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (Dartmouth Outing Club) work crew. Our task today was to clean up building supplies (leftover from a privy construction project) at the Trapper John Shelter. The lumber was staged at a location 0.8 miles (and 650+ feet of elevation) from the closest road - this meant we had to walk a pretty good distance just to retrieve anything. In about three hours, we made two round trips (plus one detour to the shelter itself, 0.2 miles from the main trail). The effort required about 4.5 miles of hiking and lots of upper body exercise (we were carrying 4x4s, 2x8s and 2x4s). It was a beautiful day, though, and I was glad to make my first return to this section of the AT in nearly four years. Also met a few guys who love hiking, trail maintenance, kayaking and skiing as much as I do. Sounds like we all might be able to help each other out with our respective adopted trails/sections. Side note: I don’t want to get too excited but I’ve been noticing some improvement on my lingering Bursitis - maybe today signals the start of a more active (hiking wise, anyway) season in the outdoors! Afterwards (1100), I drove home by the reverse route of the morning (arrived 30 minutes later). During my time at the condo, I cleaned up, rested and relaxed (and also got some snacks). At 1215, I departed for my next volunteering event. Due to construction on I-89, I drove through Hanover and used I-91. This allowed me to get on I-89 in WRJ - I then used US-4 to reach Woodstock. Fortunately, I arrived in town a bit early because I needed the extra time to locate a parking spot (it was VERY crowded). Starting at 1325, volunteering event #2 of my Saturday included supporting the extremely popular annual Baby Farm Animal Celebration at Billings Farm & Museum. Attendance was great (probably 2000+ people visited) and the little kids weren’t the only ones who were enchanted by the small creatures. I worked at the baby turkey (poult) station and held the quivering birds (two weeks old) as everyone petted them. Words like gentle, sweet and cute circulated in my head and from the lips of the children. Oh, and there were lots of “ooos” and “aawwws” Reminded again why I like volunteering at The Farm: guests are happy when they visit and it’s easy to keep up their positivity while sharing in the glow. Afterwards (1710), I spent some time visiting with the staff. By 1730, I repositioned my car towards the center of Woodstock and attended Mass (1800) at Our Lady of the Snows. Heading towards New Hampshire after that ended, I arrived at my condo at 1915. What a great day interacting with the local community!
