Days 1 and 2 of 2010 Greenteam

Greetings all,

The task of blogging for Lauren and Arielle's crew has been bestowed upon me (as well as one-upping the stellar blog post from yesterday by Douglas.) Anyway I digress. I'll start with yesterday's "opening day" of the 2010 Greenteam. As it has been for the last three years for me, seeing all of my friends that I have made through SCA together again in the Voorhees parking lot was unreal. Being that this is my fourth and final summer as a crew member, this one was special. One interesting factoid that I came across that makes this summer different than the others is the emergence of two new black Suburbans. I'm glad to see that SCA upgraded (kinda) from the soccer mom method of transportation. I digress once again.

I'll save myself (and everyone else) the time of going through the events of the first day, since Doug described them very adequately. As for our crew, I'm very pleased with what I see. Our crew, led by Lauren, Arielle and Colin is full of potential, though lacking experience. Seven newcomers to SCA make up our crew, with only four returning crew members. Everyone seems to be eager to learn the ways of the SCA. Onward to Cushetunk! Our trail is a mess, to put it blatantly. The hike up to our trail is very strenuous, as the elevation rises rapidly, causing us to stop multiple times to stay hydrated. Once we arrived to our trail, or "The Boop" as Lauren calls it, I was shocked at how short it was, and how rocky. Words cannot describe how many boulders, not rocks, boulders, are on our trail. Putting it this way, our trail is 95%, 5% dirt. Not a good percentage, considering the amount of fill needed. A tall task indeed.

This next paragraph will be short, because I'm straining myself trying to jog my memory. Today was a good day, as Ice Cube once said. It was significantly cooler out, and we started the day off with the first Big Booty game of the year. Considering how many newcomers our crew has, I was pleasantly surprised with how everyone played. The hike up to the trail was, to put it this way, god awful. Carrying the tools with us, combined with the already steep climb, was not enjoyable. The work was great for the first day. One group installed four rock steps after finally winning the battle against two behemoths of rocks. Another group found the largest rock in the area, pushed it down on its side, only to crack in half, becoming the best thing that could have happened to us, the larger half of the rock became a perfect step for what could be the most treacherous section of our trail. Like I said, today was a good day. Alas, I am tired and my eyes are growing heavy, this post ends now.

Take it steady,
Zach H.