“Wow it is so beautiful to get up a 5:30 am, go make your lunch and sit around the fire, drinking hot cocoa and waiting for breakfast; providing you are not the cook or kitchen person. At dish time you see a really good picture of the crew which brings to mind a lot of meaning: team work, the love of job, and happiness.”
Houcine

“Being positive is very contagious, like when it might be raining or the water to bathe in is freezing cold! When I am about to go bathe and I ask a couple of people who went before me how was it? They reply “nice and toasty “or “pretty warm”, when I know for a fact that it is cold. It’s that positivity that I like about being out here.”
Myra Lemus

“I like being out here because I’m away from home. I like the quiet silence. It’s peaceful. No worries except for work. Work isn’t stressful it’s easy and fun. I get to see new country every 2 min I walk down the trail. I like seeing country hardly anyone else sees. I almost feel honored to be out here.”
Philip Godoy

“Why do I crawl through and wrestle with poison oak, when it is easier to stay at home and avoid it? Because this is my home. Why do I, like every other crew member, bust our humps 8 hours a day to come home to an ice cold creek to bathe in and the smiles of people? Well, it’s because I feel happy doing this.”
Tim Brogan

“Personally this spike has helped me gain certain working and survival skills, that I feel are very important to have in life. I have gained some solid social skills. I have found a certain peace within myself and learned a little more about gratitude. I feel that being out in the wilderness like this you can learn things about yourself you never thought were possible, especially when you are with about ten different people, who were raised different than you, and come from culturally different backgrounds. Like I said before, this is a good moment that will be stuck in my memory for life.”
Anthony Houston

“I begin to understand people, cultures, the earth, the fire, the waters, the moon, the stars, the darkness, the sun, the trail, the tools, the knowledge that people hold, the animals that surround us, our ancestors, everything, we are all connected. Though we come from different walks of life, even though we are of different races, or listen to different music, eat different foods, pray in different ways, we are all connected under the web of life that our creator made for us.”
Enrique Velez

“These spikes have given me the opportunity to not only gain experience working in a different forest, but it also has given me new skills. Working with the cobra drill has been an amazing rush. Hanging on the side of a rock face, attached to a rope and harness, chipping away at chunks of rock. Thanks for this opportunity.”
Stephan Garaffo

“I have had a wonderful time here in the San Raphael wilderness. Being out here in the mountains with a small crew working trails is the stuff I really like to do. The area around our camp is really cool; the nice creek that runs along side our home, the wonderful trails that we get to hike and work on, and just being out here is Awesome!”
Jeremiah Scharton

“Daily struggles include frigid temperature, making it a challenge to crawl from my warm sleeping bag and step out into the damp, bitter morning air. Poison Oak the life force which haunts me day and night. Gnats and flies, whose annoying presence brings me nearer to my breaking point with every buzz, tickle and bite. I sometimes ask myself if these things really get to you why do you stay? I stay because in life if it’s not the gnats, poison oak, or frigid air; it’s something else. As I mentioned life is what you make of it. I stay because I have yet to find anything more real than the wilderness. I have yet to come across a more pure, raw, or honest experience.”
Jenna Haywood

“And one of the lessons I’ve found in the mountains with the Golden lessons is when I was taken away from the life of buildings and flat roads where walking was easier, I was insecure. Something was missing and I thought my heart knew. It’s not a Genie with 3 wishes and life is not something you should take for granted. I wear this. I appreciate life. I wear this. And in the mountains with the Golden Lessons, I’ve found my treasure that I am glad I found to take back home and share with my family. It is something that I had lost and loose a lot, kind of like a lot of things I have the habit of losing, and that is Love. Thanks to the people here on spike with me for helping me find my treasure.”
Pablo Castro

“As I write this a full moon has just popped up over the ridge illuminating the sky. I am sitting with my crew around a warm campfire eagerly writing this essay but not being able to keep up with the thoughts in my head. I did not come back on this spike because brushing is the most exciting job; I came back because of the atmosphere. I love being in the wilderness... I enjoy watching the sun come up over the ridge and cast it’s rays through the dew covered trees. I walk down the trail listening to the lizards scurry into the brush and when I cross the creeks I look into the clear pools at the tiny fish, and after the rain all the plants seem so happy and alive. I love my job because I get to be outdoors and I want the wilderness to accessible to others.”
Jennifer Quick

“I see it in the faces of the corpsmembers out here. The camaraderie of a crew on their own. Head lamps together pushing back the darkness. Laughter at the campfire. Completely demolishing a log jam as the trail crosses a creek. Sharing shivers as we wait for the coffee water to boil. Cutting the Dam Poison Oak! Is an indefinable quality, this experience? I see young people relish the misery and the challenge. Rise to the occasion and get all the work done, and keep going. Care for each other, care for the land that supports us. Why? They're not all nuts. Oh, some of them are, for sure. But we have college educated, high school dropouts, haves and have nots, talls and shorts. What draws them to do this? My best guess is that they like the reflections the mountains give them. No matter whom, the land gives back only what you show it and I see for these young people an appreciation of it’s brutal honesty. In an age of political distrust, social craziness and media illusion, wilderness spikes bring us to a place on non-hypocrisy... getting these young ones into the woods is a great thing. It does make a difference. When we’re back on the center, you can tell who’s been touched and who hasn’t... It is a pretty sweet deal.”
Kiva Vigil