First few weeks as a Crew Leader with Conservation Corps Minnesota!

Well I am in the thick of it now! My term as a crew leader has started and it feels good to be back! Our first week started with our intensive Crew Leader training at Camp Friendship in Annandale, Minnesota.

The cabin I spent the week in

The building we did all our indoor training

The training overall was great!  I learned a lot, was able to meet a lot of people involved with the corps, and had a lot of fun too! I feel much better prepared for the year after attending this training camp.  One of the more fun things we did this week was the high ropes course. They had us do some crazy climbing challenges as a teamwork and leadership building activity.

Safety first!

Scaling the climbing wall

Getting ready to catch people from the zip line!

Another big highlight was our wilderness first aid course. This was extremely well done and what made it so effective is that they had us roleplay through very realistic seeming scenarios. To make it seem more real the "actors" were fully transformed into their role as an injured patient.

One of our instructors, "Eagle", preparing a head wound

Chest wound patient

The final product! Ready to act out the injury!

After our week of training I had a great weekend up in Bemidji skiing and snowshoeing. It was kinda cold and cloudy all weekend but I still had fun! I even did my first ski race in years on Friday night. It was a 6k night race at the local lighted course (less than a mile from my apartment)! I did my best and had decent results. Here are a couple pics from the weekends skiing!

Three Island County Park

Lake Bemidji State Park

This past week of work was very successful as well. We had our first two days of actual project work. The first was helping out at the local Habitat for Humanity Center. We did odd jobs for them all day but it was good to help!

Eleva and Jon repairing a sink fixture

Jeff fixing a Futon

Our second day of work was a tree removal project at a local Nature Center. This was interesting as we were wading through 2feet+ of snow trying to get to the trees. It was a beautiful day and it felt great to work hard again!

Jeff face cutting a large Spruce

more face cuts by Jeff

Jeff bucking and limbing a downed Blue Spruce

John and Eleva working on a downed tree

And we have a video of Jeff felling that big spruce:

Overall a great way to start my year of Service! Looking forward to getting my crew members soon. This weekend I have my first big ski race as I am doing the 25K classic in the City of Lakes Loppet! Should be fun!