Mendocino

Mendocino (turns out I’ve been spelling it wrong this whole time) was a great time. The camp is located about an hour from any kind of civilization in a new-growth redwood forest. I think they said that there was a fire in San Francisco at some point and the entire area around the camp was logged to rebuild it. None of the trees were much bigger than normal New England trees, but there is one huge tree about a mile away from the camp located just off a set of train tracks that run through the camp. I don’t know my history very well for the 4th or 5th century very well, but this tree was probably little when the Visigoths sacked Rome.
Even without the cool trees, Mendocino was awesome. The ROPE course at the camp is 35 feet off the ground, and is a giant playground for adults. The only catch is that you have to wear a harness and clip into guidewires that keep you from dying. Personally, I think I could have been fine without it; the course was only as hard as you made it, but liability is America’s middle name. But I still had fun dangling from the harness, etc.
As to the service work we did at Mendocino: we spent five hours splitting, chopping, and stacking firewood. Since we got to start the splitting from the large segments of whole tree, using sledgehammers to drive in wedges. Lumberjacking extremes. Awesome.
But the special news just arrived tonight: we finally know where we are going on our first project. We are going to be doing trailwork, invasive species management, and general outdoor maintenance on the Island of Catalina. I’ve done a bit of googling and the island is about 27 miles offshore of California right between San Diego and Los Angeles. I’m psyched, because we’ll be luxury camping for three weeks (meaning permanent tents with mattresses, showers, and a kitchen) but no electricity. I am going to be slightly cut off, but in the best possible environment. That, and the fact that I will miss thanksgiving, is the only bad parts about this assignment. We leave on the 23rd of November, and until then I will be doing more training type stuff. Unfortunately.
More tomorrow I’m up far too late for a five ocklock rise.