CATS feverishly whack trail, May 31, 2018, City of Loveland Natural Area
CAT
scratch fever that is! This evening whack was the second of two planned prep
nights for CATS as we were assigned some detailed rock work that would slow
down the strategy for Saturday’s National Trails Day (NTD) event. We got back
on our causeways, two built already and three in the wings. No problem as you
can see by the photos (tons of photos!) that we found stone in various places
and worked on Brandon’s crew causeway with much aggression. Connie’s first
causeway just needed some extra end stone and then we crushed the center with
fill and naturalized the area. Leigh and Connie joined us on the Scott/Leigh
causeway that was giving us some trouble. The stones were a tad small and
towards the end of the evening – we were running out of them. Not to mention
the skitos come out at about 7 pm or so and target us juicy warm blooded
creatures. The crews were focused and worked overtime again to get 95% of our
work done in time for the big day! Hats off to such dedicated members. Our work
shows it too!
We also
had a new member come out tonight – Lynn Morales (not Monica’s sister) and she
is a long time WRV volunteer and now a dual hatter….Welcome Lynn! Fun times at El Cielo with Margaritas and
food. Two members sealed their membership with us by being presented their ball
caps that are so nice and clean with tags on them still. They vowed to get them
dirty as soon as possible. Congratulations to our new hatters and next five
will be exciting as we get you both into shirts!
Members: Bob, the
Connie, Brandon, Leigh, Scott, Hans, Kathleen, Andy, Lynn
Hours: 4.75
RESULTS: Completed all causeways for grand
total of four and one small rubble wall. Still some light work on last causeway
to be done on NTD
ROSES:
· Lynn came out and liked
everything and joined
· Great crews working on
separate projects
· Good weather
· Two ball caps presented at
dinner
· Great stone retrieval from
areas
· Patience with learning the
stone – sometimes the work gets taken apart to make a tad better
· Nice closure of trail
between our causeways – meaning: they worked the crush into place at 3 foot
width
· Missed some of our folks –
this time – Dean was getting surgery (we were thinking of him)
· Good coordination with COL
folks and staging materials
·
THORNS:
· Skitos – like to
attack
· Poison Ivy likes
to invite us to touch it
BUDS:
OK – so you
go on vacation and this is what happens – you get four reports behind. I am
going to make this one quick as I have to move on to the others and my memory
is not so great any more. Have you noticed the time is going super-fast along
with bodily functions – like reading, memory, and soreness? You youngsters in
the group don’t have a clue what we are talking about but you will as OA (old
age) taps into everyone. Best listen to your elders and seek advice. You are
not indestructible and you cannot do everything – sorry. But we still love you
and remember that we were young once. What does this have to do with CATS?
Everything, cause CATS is a mixture of youth and senior (notice I did not say
‘old’) humans and we care about each other and the land we toil over. Most
rationale humans are doing something else in the evening like biking around all
over the place, or climbing, shopping, dining, relaxing and watching TV or just
hanging out somewhere – other than where we plant our flag every Thursday. Why
do we do it, that is, dress up in hot clothing (does not include Brandon),
heavy boots, nasty gloves, backpack, camera equipment, food, water, all these
things that have weight and go out in the heat and whack trail? I have been
asking myself for years why I do it and Connie too? I think we are crazy and
have a following. No worries – I will not ask you to drink the Kool-Aid, just
drink plenty of cool water to quench the thirst of trail. Be well my friends.
On
the trail,
Go here to sign up for events: http://trailcats.org/volunteer
Go here to see all our photos! https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xQg_4tMEbeb6rMi6d56GwwRBzb36DQZW
--
Bob Johnson
Field Director - CATS
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