The summer of (if memory serves) 1987, as I was finishing up my undergraduate education, I volunteered for a trail-building project. A ten-mile stretch of unused railway was to be converted into a walking/bike path between two small northeast Iowa towns. The rails had already been removed; we had to pull up the ties, pile them up to be hauled away, and then grade the right of way smooth. After that, a contractor would come in and spread gravel. I was fortunate enough to drive one of the tractors with a grader blade, as I was one of the few kids who had experience with that kind of equipment. I volunteered because I thought it was worthwhile work, I got bonus points with my academic advisors, and the fact that there were a lot of girls volunteering didn’t hurt any. We got the whole ten miles of path done in less than a month.
Now, in Crater Lake National Park,…
