On Sunday, I worked beside friends and fellow congregants on the Windy Point Trail off Swan Mountain Road. The trail borders our beautiful Lake Dillon Reservoir.
The project was part of Mitzvah Day, an annual day of giving and service, a gift to our community from Synagogue of the Summit. Other synagogue members and friends painted Summit County Preschool, worked at Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center and packed bags for food insecure kids at Smart Bellies.
Our trail maintenance activity was guided by Lizzie Morrison, Friends of Dillon Ranger District programs manager, and Program Coordinator Maddie Retrosi. I’ve done yard work since I was a kid. Trail maintenance is the same, but different.
First I was clipping roots that were sticking out of the trail. The roots were left by a mini excavator, that cleared and leveled the trail. That machine also left a rather steep slope, that can lead to trail washout.
Our goal was to reduce the slope line to about 45 degrees, to reduce the speed of the water as it passes over the trail. As we cleared the debris from the slope, we tossed it back up higher. We were not to leave a berm on the down slope side because that would hold the water on the trail and make it mushy.
I used a McLeod, which is also a firefighting tool. It’s a wide hoe on one side, and a strong toothy kind of rake on the other. I definitely never used one of these in the backyard. Maybe I should have …. It’s very useful.
I’m grateful to be here. I’m grateful for Lizzie Morrison’s expertise, kindly redirection and patience with our aging bodies, which required frequent breaks.
All this work was made so much more delightful by our environment. We were graced with a sparkling, beautiful, sunny day. It was such a welcome relief after that mid-June week of rain and 50 degree temperatures.
The flowers are emerging, and with the information feature on my phone I was able to identify the red fairy trumpets and the white and blue flax. For a few hours, it seemed that there could be nothing wrong with the world, just this beautiful place that needed a little trail maintenance.
I’m grateful that some relative I never knew decided to take a chance and walked away from Belarus, now run by a dictator, a puppet of Putin. Belarus has just received nuclear weapons from Putin. It’s the first time nuclear weapons have been deployed outside of Russia since the dismantling of the former Soviet Union.
According to news reports, Belarus will soon be hosting the newly decommissioned former Putin mercenaries, the Wagner group. I’m glad I’m not there.
I’m very grateful to the U.S. Supreme Court for its 6-3 decision in Moore v. Harper, which unequivocally dismissed the independent legislature theory, which I discussed in a couple columns. This decision affirmed our system of checks and balances and removed the shroud of doubt that was cloaking the viability of our great democratic experiment.
For the record, all the tricks attempted in the last election with alternate electors are now unquestionably illegal. The power of state courts to enforce their constitutions and negate gerrymandered districts is affirmed. The power of the voter and ballot box is affirmed with this important decision. But it won’t help North Carolina.
According to the Washington Post, Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch said the decision was moot because the newly elected North Carolina Supreme Court, now Republican, reversed its earlier decision clearing the way for the Republican-dominated North Carolina legislature to gerrymander districts any way legislators want.
I’m so grateful to be here in Summit County, Colorado. I won the lottery. I’m grateful to the new people who came out and helped clean the trail, who had never done anything like that before. One volunteer asked, “Who pays for Friends of the Dillon Ranger District?”
I said, “We do. It’s a nonprofit.” I told her it’s on my automatic bill pay. I’m grateful for all the people in all the nonprofits we helped Sunday. I’m so glad we had an opportunity to contribute.
When you help someone, you really help yourself. That creates a circle of gratitude.
