Bretton Woods and the Community Clean Up Day at LOC

The week of October 27th, 2011 was a packed week for me.  As a class we took a trip to Bretton Woods, NH to learn about the recent improvements they've made on the mountain as well as to take a look at the Mount Washington Hotel.  We learned a lot about Snowmaking as well when we took a trip to the mountain's snowmaking facility.  We were able to learn about the canopy tours that Bretton Woods is now currently offering and were amazed at the rock-climbing wall that has recently been put in at the mountains main Base Lodge.  Bretton Woods, like Jay Peak, struck me as a mountain that is doing a lot in order to become a four-season resort.
We were also able to take a trip to the Mount Washington Hotel, which I thought was really cool.  I had learned about the Mount Washington Hotel before and how the Gold Standard was created there in the mid 1900s.  The hotel is extremely beautiful and we were able to take a tour of it as well.  Again, I took the opportunity to take some photos of the views there:

 View from the Right Side of the Hotel

View of the Hotel from the Right Side

The trips to Bretton Woods and the Mount Washington Hotel were both fun and informative, but the big event of the week for me was the Community Clean Up Day at the Lyndon Outing Club.  My group in class, Trail Maintenance, was responsible for putting on this event.  Unfortunately, despite considerable advertising and announcing of the event, there was very poor attendance from both the class and from volunteers.  However, those who did show up were well prepared and were ready to go to work.  We split the workers into two groups, one to stay inside and clean and maintenance the lodge, while the other went up the trails to cut down trees and widen the existing path.  I went with the trail crew and we had a fun time cutting down trees and the brush.  However, there were a few close calls where trees were falling down without notice and Sean Doll almost died!  It was pretty crazy stuff but luckily nobody was hurt and we were able to get our job done in a reasonable amount of time.  Overall, I think that the clean up day was very successful in that we accomplished our goals despite a lack of attendance.  In the future, I think that planning an event around holidays will allow us to have a better turn out and so we can accomplish even more in the future.  I also hope that a Community Clean Up day can become an annual event so that we can continue to help the LOC in the future.