Week 9: Pube Bombs and a Negative Drug Test

SOOOO the results are in!!! Came in 2nd in the cooking contest last weekend...so jipped :/ but we did win candy bars. whooopppeeeee.... haha I'm not bitter or anything. AND I passed the employee drug test. We ended up having to get them done because of insurance purposes or something and I guess because the other saw crews had to get tested it had to be fair or something. We all passed though, so no harm done I suppose besides wasting a Friday afternoon.

Rendezvous was fun. Basically just chilled out at the lake..met some cool people from other crews... ate a lot of yummy dutch-oven food from the cook-off...and enjoyed some great talents around the campfire. Then there was the Pube Bomb... You may ask yourself, what exactly is a Pube Bomb?? Well the idea originated on the way back from a sunset hike in Buff Pass. How could we make our mark at the talent show?? What's something that would really grind some gears, but not have to potential to harm?? What's gross that we have a lot of?? Naturally, pubes came to mind (not my mind). Now the smell of burned hair is quite atrocious, but add the sweat and frumundacheese that happens to accumulate in the pubic area and that's a whole other story. The plan was to have the crew shave their pubes and collect them all into a paper bag and then throw it on the fire at Rendezvous, creating a memorable conclusion to an otherwise relatively wholesome campfire.

Although I did not personally contribute, most of my fellow crew members,along with the other Saw Crew, did. Needless to say, there was quite a pile. The delivery was carried out by my delightful 6' 7" dreaded friend Skeeter. Upon the apparent closure of the talent show/campfire, he raised his hand, signalling one final act. As he rose to his feet and approached the fire, he nonchalantly asked the audience if they had ever heard of a Pube Bomb...naturally, no one answered because that's RIDICULOUS!! As they sat in bewilderment, he simply tossed the tiny bag of wonders atop the flame. 10 seconds passed... then the smell. Those downwind were the first to witness the horrifying smell (myself included). People started to clear out of the circle whilst shouts of SAW CREW IS VICTORIOUS and TALENT SHOW WINNER echoed over the lake. It was definitely a success, reinforced by the talk around the water cooler the next morning. We made our mark for sure.

This past week was our last week at Independence Mountain, where we've been living for the past 5 weeks. We finished our thinning project on Monday and felled trees for the rest of the week. I'm definitely feeling more comfortable with a 40 foot tree looming overehead than I was earlier in the season.

Now we move to our new worksite/home for the final 2 weeks of work. It's right near where Rendezvous was at a place called Pearl Lake, which is about an hour outside of Steamboat Springs. We are hopefully going to be felling hazard trees and maybe planting baby trees for our final projects. Then, we are going to breakup the work weeks with a 4 day backpacking trip in Medicine Bow National Forest. I've had a blast this summer, and can't believe the season is practically over. I am ready to return to civilization I think, but I know as soon as I'm driving through 'gansett surrounded by New York and Connecticut license plates, I'm going to wish I was back in the woods...

xo