Dates
Jul 29th - Aug 4th 2012
Service Project
Trail maintenance 
Free Days
Dayhiking, fishing, swimming, photography, wildlife & wildflower viewing
Accommodations
Backpack camping
Trip Rating
Strenuous : 4-mile backpack, digging, cribbing, bending, sawing. Pack animal supported
Leaders
Deborah Northcutt
Dave Pacheco
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Central Idaho’s Sawtooth Wilderness and White Cloud Mountains are known for the rugged grandeur of their soaring peaks over 10,000-feet, flowery mountain meadows, crystal lakes, towering alpine forests, and abundant wildlife, including elk, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, black bear, and wolves. Backpacking and hiking are spectacular in this country, and trout fishing is exceptional in backcountry lakes and streams as well as the headwaters of the Salmon River, the fabled “River of No Return”.
Our service project will be conducting trail maintenance on the North Fork of Baron Creek. This trail has not been maintained in several years. Although it is managed for its wild characteristics, the trail needs some attention as it has become quite grown in and high water has taken out small sections of the trail, including the ford at the creek crossing. The trip involves a 4 mile backpack to a basecamp at 5700' elevation, at the confluence of two mountain creeks. Participants will hike up the North Fork trail each day, gaining up to 1000' elevation, performing maintenance including logging out, brushing, cribbing, rock and drainage work, and improving the ford at the creek crossing. On our free day we can relax, swim, fish, photograph, and hike to one of the numerous no name alpine lakes in the area.
The 2012 Sawtooth Wilderness project is our annual Leader Training project. Leaders for this special project are Wilderness Volunteers staff -- Debbie Northcutt and Dave Pacheco. Like most WV projects, we'll conduct 4 days of service work with leadership topics covered in the evenings. Participants will learn about planning and cooking for groups, working with the agencies, managing risks and become certified Leave No Trace trainers.
Once you have successfully completed this leadership course, you will be eligible to co-lead WV projects around the country. After you've led your first trip, you'll receive your $299 registration fee for this trip back. Volunteer leaders do not pay trip fees on trips they are leading and receive modest reimbursement for travel to the projects they staff. Another perk leaders enjoy is being able to sign up for projects that still have openings 60 days out for the cost of food.
Check out more photos from last year's Sawtooth project in our gallery.
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