Causeway under construction. This is not the section that Erin didn’t like, but this is the kind of trail we were building.
Back to reality today. I got 7 rocks in my section of causeway, but I wound up having to rework the whole blasted thing. This morning when Matt was lining me out, he showed me where the next step was supposed to go. So, I just started at the lower step and worked in a straight line for the next step. Boy, did it look nice. A nice straight line, contact on at least the entire front of the rock (usually more). It was great.
However, I noticed that the trail was getting kind of narrow after I put in my 5th rock. I asked Matt about it, and he had me straighten the last couple out, and then I continued. Just before the afternoon break, Matt asked Erin (Anders) if the trail width would be acceptable. Erin looked at it and laughed. He laughed. I don’t think he could have done anything that would have pissed me off more than that. At that time I guess I copped an attitude and I didn’t really grasp what little reasoning he gave for having me tear it out and make it conform more to Matt’s side. All I know is that I was really pissed off at Erin all afternoon after the break. I pulled out all of my rocks, making room to adjust them and used a stretched string line to keep my side exactly 6 ½ feet from Matt’s. What really made it worse was that my side was a perfectly straight line, while Matt’s looked like it zig-zagged all over the place. As I’ve already said, I was furious.
After work I talked to Erin about it and he explained in more detail about the necessary width and using Matt’s side of the causeway as a guide. But I still don’t understand why they wanted the trail rambling all over the place when it’s just as easy to make it a straight line. That whole section of trail is on dirt—it’s not like we had to work around obstructions. But I understand now the importance of working off the other guy’s work.
Completed causeway section. This is what we were shooting for. It still needs some cosmetic work along the sides to blend it in with the surrounding forest.
Three Years With the C's 