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Show 51 they taught us was water t e s t i n g , " Karen r e c a l l s , "to see vihat kinds of organisms lived in the viater and to figure out how big a c i t y population one stream could support. And s o i l composition - i t was f a i r l y basic stuff, but a good, broad look at how things i n t e r r e l a t e ." Since the region vihere they worked was ski country, the YCC members lived in a ski lodge which would have been otherwise unused in the summer, High mountain peaks loomed above them, s t i l l snowcapped in the middle of July. The slopes were lined with t a l l dark pines. Here and there narrow stands of t r e e s had been toppled by snow avalanches so t h a t t h e i r trunks all pointed downhill, looking from a distance l i k e s p i l l e d toothpicks. As a college g i r l among high school students, Karen f e l t a b it confined by the s t r i c t rules governing the crevi members, but in some ways she was s t i l l a novice. "On my very f i r s t backpack t r i p , " she says, "I was one of the worst equipped. Fortunately i t was a short hike, only about five miles. I vias carrying a Dacron sleeping bag, vihich seemed heavy even on the way to the campground. Then i t rained l i k e crazy that night and my s l e e p i n g bag got soaked - on the t r i p back i t vieighed about forty pounds. I couldn't wait to get i t off my back." After t h a t , Karen bought a much l i g h t e r , down-filled bag. In that f i r s t summer of the Youth Conservation Corps, 1,348 female crew members viorked in camps throughout the country. By 1978, the Corps gave jobs to 21,728 g i r l s , and the program is s t i l l growing. Crew members of both sexes l i k e the program - 99 percent have said so in surveys taken over the years, and Karen Eckels agreed. Ten weeks of hard physical work in a i r that smelled of pine |