National Crew by Sharon Jackson

From July 8th until the 22ND I went on a trip to Allegheny National Forest for a SCA National Crew Placement. I slept in a tent and I really got to enjoy the beauty of nature. While there I maintained some trails and I built a bridge. During our time there we did a lot of brushing along the trails and removed many shrubs and non native plants that were growing in the tread of the trail. Tread is the area of the trail that you walk on. There were many different trees that were growing in the tread of the trail. We were able to tell that the trail was not used in a while. The work was very hard and exhausting, but at the end of the day to see what I have accomplished made it so much more worth it.

I got the pleasure of meeting other SCA kids from all over America. I got to sleep outside under all the stars and i saw my first shooting star. It was amazing. Most people never get to see those because of the light in the city. I saw plenty of wildlife. I saw bears walking around our camp site. I also witnessed many bugs that I never knew existed.

I would love to go back out there with the same crew I had.

I saw a raccoon there my first night. At first I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to handle staying out there for two whole weeks. After my first two days of work I was ready to head home. I didn't want to let Josh down so I persevered though the tough times and shortly after, the crew began to get funnier after everyone got to know each other. With everyone being so friendly it was hard not to have fun while I was there. I didn't think that the trip would be that intense. I am happy to be able to say I did something like that. I'm most likely the only one from my family to ever went camping in a tent. I enjoyed all the games we played. I have many memories from the trip that I will never forget.

The reason I loved this crew so much is because they were so nice. I never heard people actually say please and thank you for every little thing you did for them. My friend Noe that I met out there seemed like he would've been one of my best friend if he lived out here. We shared many of the same hobbies. We also had some friendly competition. We were always in a race to complete work. That was fun because it pushed me to my limit and beyond and I like being on edge.