As we were setting up camp we were visited by a Forest Service work crew. This four-person crew was visiting sites to assess the damages. They said they were concerned mainly about three things:
1. Was the firegrate area useable? Ours seemed to be undamaged.
2. Was the latrine useable and intact? We climbed over and under and up and around and through to make sure. It took a good ten minutes, but we found the throne intact and unscathed under a canopy of fallen tree crowns.
3. Was the site safe? Were there trees hung up? Any "widowmakers"? That was hard to tell. There were a variety of bent and twisted birch and poplar, and it seemed as though someone had already cut a few that had come down over the firegrate. But everything seemed allright.
The crew offered to clear the path to the latrine. Initially, I jumped at the offer, thinking that they had the chainsaws we'd been hearing all morning. Alas, they said, the chain saws went to the portage crews. They were only a campsite crew. All they had were bow saws. We figured they had plenty of campsites ahead of them to inspect and told them to go ahead and be on with their business. We'd clear the path ourselves. As we thanked them and said our goodbyes, we broke out the saw and the gear and started to make a campsite out of the mess.
