I started my day with an old Oreo cookie to christen the hazy morning drive through the mountains on my way to the MCC office. Early mornings aren't for everyone but there's something serene about the hour right before sunrise as we load our bags into our rig. Once it is decided what brave soldier among my crew will harness the reins of our Chevy pickup and endure the drive to Logan Pass, the rest of us gaze away into the mountains until our eyes fall to a restful nap for the remainder of the trip. 

As we drove up the Going-to-the-Sun road, we took a brief moment to appreciate what a lovely place we were in. No picture nor description can do justice to the sight of mountains and valleys draped with wildflowers that sat in front of us. Once we arrived at Logan Pass, our task was demolishing a portion of the boardwalk. Our crew has mainly tackled trail work and brushing, but a few of us have a past with construction and demo, so we were itching to get our hands on a crowbar and get to ripping up boards. 

The work proved itself difficult, the boards were nailed in snugly, and prying them up required a bit of blue-collar gusto. But my crew is as hardworking as they come and we fell into a groove, creating methods to work as a team and find the most efficient way to defeat this boardwalk, all while reminding each other to keep worksite safety in mind. 

I am truly so grateful to be part of a team that is so earnestly dedicated to our work, although our backs ached from heavy lifting and we at times faced unfruitful weather conditions, there is something so motivating about our joint passion to kick butt on these projects. At the end of our first day, we settled down to camp at St. Mary, where we enjoyed luxurious access to showers and cell service and prepared yummy chicken and veggie dishes as well as pasta for our dinners. 

As the work week progressed our efforts did not diminish even while lugging heavy boards in the pouring rain. Our project partners from the NPS were an awesome team to work with and with our combined forces, by the end of our four days at Logan Pass, we were satisfied to see our job was complete, ate lunch in our stinky clothes, and headed home to the hot showers that beckoned us.