The Golden McLeod

I am happy to announce that my girl was awarded the coveted Golden McLeod for being the best female trail builder on the Jefferson County Open Space Trail Stewardship Team. It is a pretty big deal.

There are about 100 hundred teens total. The awards are based on general attitude and quality of daily work. Towards the end of the season about 20 kids are given a different color of shirt to indicate that they are in the running for super crew and one of the awards. They are quizzed on informational points and they take part in one or more trail offs. This is an important contest where each of the members designated for this competition is given a section of trail and a limited amount of time to build their part of the trail. The judges come through to look at how well the builder did. This includes looking to see how deep the builder went to remove roots and rocks, the quality of the scrubbing and top texture and the kant or the slight slope of the trail so that water runs off of it.

This year they had two trail offs for the girls. One was on a regular day, and another was on a day where it was all mud from a night and day of raining. In fact, they did the trail off in the rain. Those who were competing got soaked to the bone.

Last year Ellie was the best female crew member, but she missed the picnic to go to North Carolina, so we was not eligible for an award. However, she set her sights on that honor and worked hard to earn it all season. There are three awards: the Golden McLeod, The Silver Pic and the Bronze Shovel. (Ethan won the Bronze Shovel one year.)

They were transported to the parks in school buses and then they hiked in to the work location. Everyone had to carry their personal gear and the tools they needed. Some of the tools would weigh up to 60 pounds.

They would encounter wild life as well.

This is the last year that she can be on the crews; next year she could apply to be a crew leader. She loves building trail, so I would not be surprised if she did that job for the season.