Residential Life: The Field Team Way
Written by Lindsay Briar Madison, a field team member with Wenatchee National Forest:
Lindsay Briar Madison
The trail team experience thrusts seven strangers into a foreign environment where the house is replaced by the campsite, the indoor bathroom by the rustic latrine, and the next-door neighbor by the inquisitive deer. Apart from some quality alone time spent fetching water or visiting the latrine, the tent becomes each person’s private domain, a pseudo-bedroom where you can read, sleep, and change between your two outfits to your heart’s content.
Night time at camp Wenatchee
Tent dynamics are funny to witness; some prefer to position their tent far from the rest, silently intending to reduce their chances of becoming a breakfast candidate for grizzlies. Others cluster together with barely a foot between tents and during the night take comfort from the occasional snort or sigh emitted by their neighbors. And in the morning all emerge from their respective tents in startling and amusing fashions: one person trips sleepily like a baby from the zipper door, while a stone’s throw away a different one gives the impression of an enraged rhinoceros, vociferously demanding coffee and empathy.
The Wenatchee team
Notwithstanding any faults our little abodes may have—fiberglass poles that snap under the weight of a stern glance, rain flies that manage to keep more rain in than out—they are a welcome destination at the end of a long day of trail work.
This entry was posted on Monday, August 17th, 2009 at 11:35 am and is filed under Field Team, General MAC News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.