"For he who serves all his fellows is of all his fellows greatest"

With today being July 4th Arowmen from around the country have all chosen to forgo their normal 4th of July traditions of parties, BBQ, and fireworks to give their time to the New River Gorge National Park. 

The day started out at 5:30 AM with reveille being played to wake the camp up from their slumber.  After people woke up they began to assemble in at the lower parking lot to receive their delicious Philmont breakfast and lunch. While the crews ate breakfast the buses that were going to take us to Craig Branch pulled up into the parking lot.

The I-Corps assembled to review details for emergency action plans if they must be put into place, lets hope they never need to be.

We loaded up the buses and headed out to the work sites, some of us went to south Craig Branch and some of us went  to north Craig Branch.  The crews then went out to their respective sites to begin the trail work needed that they had come to cheerfully give.

The work began with a tool talk that helped all the guests understand the importance of safety on the trail. After the tool talk the participants began removing the organic layer then grubbing (removing all the roots and other materials, so the final product is clean dirt).

As the day wore on each crew found their own challenges.

Finding rocks in this forest environment proved to be a challenge

Smashing rocks is not always the best job but you do get rid of aggression

Many of the crews faced times where logs blocked their ability to proceed down the trail, so they called in reinforcements, the US National Park Service with chainsaws.

Brothers bearing the load together

Part of building trail is also tamping down the surface so that you have a flat area for hikers and bikers to get through on.

The end of out work day was cut short with an impending rain storm, which we just missed as we pulled away in the buses back to base camp.

Once we were back at camp and dinner was eaten, a program for the evening was put on by man different organizations.  Some of these included the national guard, the US National Park Service, a bluegrass band, native American exhibits, and even a snack.

Creating a nail with a forge

Creating a fishing net

With the first day over the different teams had to debrief and collect information of what was good and what was bad from this first day.

Many of the participants are having such a good time they cannot wait for tomorrow.