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[at-l] trail crews

In '93 I spent 2 weeks with the Force Crew in Maine, "paying my dues" for all
the AT has given me.
The process of signing up was pretty amusing. At that point it was coordinated
out of Virginia (it may still be), and the woman on the phone was trying her
best to disuade anyone who thought they might be going on vacation. She
informed me that  1) you spent the first week at "The Farm" a- living in a tent
b- no running water and c- no electricity, and that 2) you spent the second
week "living in the woods".  As a thruhiker I din't have any problem with these
concepts....
What surprised me was that I was the only "hiker" on the crew, most of the crew
was college students out for the summer.
The second surprise was that at 32 I was the "old man" on the crew.
The typical day began at 6 am, unless you were on the breakfast crew, then you
were up at 5:15 or so. The crew hit the manual labor about 8:30 after
"commuting" to the worksite, the days were spent digging rocks out of one hole
and burying them in another. Quitting whistle at 4:30, baack to camp at 5:30,
dinner and clean-up til 8 pm, and if you could stay awake til 8:30 that was
your free time. Believe it or not it was a blast! The crews have the same kind
of camraderie as a crew of thru-hikers, just a laugh to hang out with...
So, no, you don't need anything special ('cept a strong back and weak mind  :
) ] , just be aware that it's WORK...

Skeeter
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