With a good night’s rest from their long hike in, Jeff Monroe and his house moving crew wasted no time getting started on the chalet. The fog and mist disappeared when the sun crawled over one side of the valley and slowly cast its light on the other side.

Jeff crawled out of his tent in his flannel pajamas, grabbed a hammer and started pounding around on the chalet porch. He kept that up until we rang the breakfast bell; two large pan lids.

Our lids make enough noise to get the attention of the crew, who are crawling around under various parts of the chalet. We served breakfast and made lunches for a crew of 12.

Breakfast today is pancakes, scrambled eggs and kielbasa. Lunch is tortilla wraps of ham, chicken or roast beef and cheese, with trail mix, dried fruit and candy bars.

After breakfast Larry and Scott pack up the mules and with lunches in saddle horn bags, head out to the trailhead. Larry will ride back in tomorrow with another load of food. Scott has hunting camps to pack in Eastern Washington so he heads home in the morning.

We all keep busy working on our various jobs, but all ears are tuned to hear the first drone of the helicopter. As soon as it gets close we head for the high lines far from the drop zones and close to the horses to calm them if they react to the noise and debris flying in the rotor wash.

In contrast to the spectacular mountains of the Enchanted Valley, the helicopter appeared like a small bird with its long cable gripping a large box of gear. Park trail crew members, guided the chopper pilot to the drop and pick up zones.

Park crew have boxed up years of supplies, windows from the chalet, equipment and trash that was stored in the chalet, so the helicopter will fly in and out with loads.

The horses don’t even raise an eyebrow to the helicopter arrival. Once the helicopter headed out, Jeff and his crew literally ran to drop zone like little boys running to open their Christmas presents — a box of boards this time.

We served lunch to the crew after the second helicopter made its drop. Then word came via radio from Jeff’s crew members at the landing zone that the pilot had started to fly the 1,200-pound steel beams and was not comfortable with the weight.

Jeff and his crew had been meticulous about complying with all the weight instructions when they packaged their loads, but the pilot’s decision stood and now all the beams would have to be cut before they could be flown in. This changed everything.

In response to this news, there was a huge scramble to find a contractor in the Hoquiam/Aberdeen area to cut the steel. More helicopter flights would be needed, which would add considerable cost to the project.

Jeff Doryland would need to get the OK for additional funds and if funds were not approved, the project was in jeopardy. Some other loads would have to be left behind in order to get the beams in because the helicopter was only available for the days that were originally allotted to the project.

The helicopter dilemma put a temporary damper on everyone’s spirits. The crew continued to work with the materials they had, but you could tell Jeff was worried.

Larry would have been able to phone several contractors in Forks who would have brought shop trucks immediately to the site and taken care of cutting the beams, but he was not aware of the hold up.

An Aberdeen contractor said they could do it if the beams were delivered to their shop. Upon arrival at the shop, the contractor refused the job, so the crew headed back to the landing zone.

That’s when a small miracle happened. There was a contractor driving piling to make logjams for a salmon-enhancing program on the Quinault River. He agreed cut the steel beams for the crew with his cutting torches.

Utilizing smaller than the customary beams was a dilemma that would require some creative thinking and the house movers were unsure at this point how it would all play out to a successful finish.

Jeff Doryland was able to get approval for additional funding, but just how the crew would be able to fasten the short beams and work without 50 some pieces of cribbing that had to be left at the landing zone was a huge challenge.

A good meal was what the crew needed now. Sara and I served baked spiral ham and scalloped potatoes, cooked in Dutch ovens, and a huge fruit salad. Dessert was pound cake with caramel sauce and whipped cream topping.

Paper plates being packed in by mules for three meals a day was never an option for this many people. So our routine is to start our dishwater boiling in large kettles as soon as the meal is served.

Water must be boiled and three dish pans utilized including a bleach rinse to meet food handler requirements. Sara and I wash dishes by lantern light after supper. We have one lantern hanging in the cook tent and one outside over the table where we do the dishwashing.

For some reason neither of us seem to be able to avoid clonking our head on the lantern at least once or twice a night as we move back and forth putting dishes into our cupboards. This starts us into hysterical laughter, so the crew sitting around the campfire must wonder if we have something more to drink than what they have been served.

We lock up our “cupboards,” which are part of our bear-proof kitchen boxes in the cook tent, along with 10 bear-proof metal pack boxes full of food lined up outside our tent. Today we labeled the contents of each pack box, which will save us time looking for food items.

Sara and I both grew up playing pioneer kitchen in the woods, so cooking in the wilderness is second nature for us. While we were trail riding one day, we compared some of our childhood wilderness recipes of buffalo meat (chunks of rotten logs) and salad made from dandelions, salal and ferns, rock potatoes, etc. I wish all young girls could learn to cook like this! Maybe Sara and I should start up a business teaching outdoor cooking classes. To be continued …