In This Issue:
- WV's Annual Auction
- Six Places You Should Go in 2011
- My Annual Sawtooth Sabbatical
- Book Review
- A Tick in Time
- 2011 Photo Contest
WV's Annual Auction
Wilderness Volunteers second annual online auction was a success, raising approximately $10,000 to support the program. Thanks to our donors who made this possible, and to everyone who placed a bid. The auction will let us put our first intern into the field this summer.
Six Places You Should Go in 2011
There's nothing like hoisting a backpack and getting away from civilization for a week of work and camaraderie in one of our country's beautiful wilderness areas. In this issue we are highlighting six trips that allow volunteers to do just that; make new friends while doing valuable and much needed work in a gorgeous backcountry setting. This is the spirit of Wilderness Volunteers.
Weminuche Wilderness, CO
At nearly half a million acres, the Weminuche Wilderness is the largest designated Wilderness in the state of Colorado, lying in the San Juan and Rio Grande National Forests. For fifty miles it is bissected by the Continental Divide, diverting its headwaters to either the Pacific or Atlantic Oceans. The Weminuche's immense size encompasses diverse environments: cascading rivers, glacial valleys, and windswept ridges of the Continental Divide.
On July 17, a group of volunteers will backpack six miles, gaining an elevation of 1,400-ft before reaching base camp at Black Lake, a cirque lake formed from glaciation at 11,000-ft. We'll focus on rebuilding four sets of switchbacks that have been eroding over the years. The Rio Grande National Forest will supply pack support to carry the tools, food, and commissary gear to camp. Free day options include hiking, fishing, or just relaxing in this remote high-altitude setting.
Cranberry Wilderness, WV
For the fist time, WV is headed to the Cranberry Wilderness in West Virginia, the largest Forest Service Wilderness Area in the eastern United States. Here on the Allegheny Plateau, deep and narrow valleys dissect broad mountains that range from 2400 ft. to over 4600 ft. Black bears are abundant, and share the wilderness with deer, wild turkeys, grouse, mink, bobcats, and foxes.
On July 31, we'll hike to our base camp adjacent to a stream. From there, we'll day hike to work on any of five main trails that provide access to hikers and backpackers. Volunteers will be bending, lopping, digging, and shoveling to stabilize trail tread and correct drainage problems. On our day off we can hike the area peaks, fish or just relax and take in the scenery. Come join us for this inagural project in the eastern United States.
Uncompahgre Wilderness, CO
On August 7, WV heads to the north-central region of the San Juan Mountains in Colorado named the Uncompahgre Wilderness, an area containing more than twenty-five thirteen thousand foot peaks and two fourteeners, including Uncompahgre Peak, at 14, 309 ft. The towering rock castles and sweeping ridges form some of the most splendid scenery in the state.
The service project starts with a three mile backpack, gaining 1000 ft. up to a streamside basecamp at 11,4000-ft, just below timberline. We'll make short daily hikes to our work site, where our job will be rerouting a small section of trail, involving moving rocks, making a new tread, and digging in the rocky soil with hand tools. For people accustomed to high elevation and in good physical shape, this is a very rewarding trip. On the free day, peak baggers will rejoice, as will avid photographers. Pack animal support will be provided.
Marble Mountain Wilderness, CA 
WV is once again sending a crew to the 241,000 acre Marble Mountain Wilderness in northern California. It features craggy peaks, abundant meadows, and Marble Mountain itself, a beautiful red and gray marbled peak. Numerous trails provide excellent and extensive access to the Wilderness, including the Pacific Crest Trail which crosses the entire Wilderness for 32 miles north to south. This is a misty, moist mountain with huge trees and pristine lakes.
On August 21, we'll backpack 8 miles up the Elk Creek Trail and gain 3600-ft setting up a base camp at 6000-ft near a series of alpine lakes. We'll take short daily hikes to our worksite to improve the nearby trails and do some fire rehabilitation work. This is a challenging trip, but for those in good physical condition, it will be a rewarding one. Fishing enthusiasts will delight in the many lakes stocked with trout.The Forest Service will provide pack animal support to help carry group food and kitchen gear. Word has it that Bigfoot could be hiding out in the region.
Jedediah Smith Wilderness,ID
On August 21, a WV crew heads to the Jedediah Smith Wilderness, part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and home to black and grizzly bears, big horn sheep, and wolverines, among many other species of wildlife.The Jed Smith Wilderness lies on both sides of the Idaho/Wyoming state line, including most of the west slope of the famous Teton Range where peaks rise 5000 to 7500-ft. This is dramatic, beautiful rocky mountain country.
After a three mile hike in, we'll set up a base camp in this extraordinary setting. Our project will be trail reconstruction and rerouting of the North Teton Trail leading to Table Mountain, a broad open summit with great views of the entire Teton Range. The area is in a picturesque high alpine setting which offers the perfect opportunity for a hike to the top of Table Mountain on our day off. Although the work and trip will be strenuous, pack animals will help carry our tools, food, and commissay gear.
Kanab Creek Wilderness, AZ
If your summer is booked up, join WV on Octber 2 for a trip to the Kanab Creek Wilderness, south of Fredonia, Arizona. It's part of the Kaibab National Forest, whose 1.6 million acres is divided by the Grand Canyon, one of nature's greatest attractions. Here you will see colorful rock formations, and water and wind carved features. Among the wildlife, we may be lucky enough to see desert bighorn sheep and the endangered California condor.
Our project will be trail maintenance on a steep section of the Jumpup Ranger Trail that descends into a side canyon of Kanab Creek and we'll set up camp near a desert spring in the canyon bottom after a short, half-mile hike.Our work will include everything from repairing rock steps, water bars, trail tread, and lopping brush. The forest service will provide pack support for tools. On the free day we can hike deeper into Kanab Creek, or just relax and absorb the beautiful scenery.
Check the Wilderness Volunteers website for more information about these amazing trips and for information on all the projects that Wilderness Volunteers is offering in 2011.
My Annual Sawtooth Sabbatical
In the Minnesota winter of 2004, I stumbled upon an advertisement in Backpacker magazine that caught my eye. Wilderness Volunteers had placed a small ad in the back pages of the publication, seeking volunteers for trail work. "Give Something Back" the ad stated. With a love for the outdoors and the mountains out west, I signed up for my first trip to the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho. Over a span of seven years, I have participated in each WV trip offered in this area, all involving interesting projects such as trail building, campsite restoration, clearing of downed trees, and one year we had to dig a grave for a dog that had passed on while in the backcountry. One thing is for sure, each day as we started out amidst the glorious scenery of the Sawtooths, I thought to myself there's no one luckier then I. The WV organization is a well run team, and I have had the pleasure to work with truly professional leaders. Both Gayle and Bunny Marechal have led all the trips that I have participated in. Their ability to plan, motivate, and bring together a group of twelve individuals who in most cases just met never ceases to amaze me. I also must mention that I believe there are no better backwoods gourmets than the Gayle and Bunny team.
For people who have not heard of or been to the Sawtooth Mountains, if you come once you will be driven to return again. This is a special place which offers a true wilderness experience with the added bonus of sparse crowds since it lacks the notoriety of other big name National Forests.
A WV trip is a unique experience. Since I do my day-to-day work in the corporate world, a week-long volunteer trip is an experience I can't replicate on my own. The group environment of working and camping together provides both camaraderie and friendship. All participants jointly share the satisfaction of doing something worthwhile. For me, a WV trip is truly a give and take event. We complete worthy tasks, and I get to take selfishly from the experience. After a WV trip, a weeklong therapeutic sabbatical, I feel invigorated and mentally rested.
I am lucky to have a son who shares some of my passions. My son Rob has joined me on several of the WV trips. Each trip has provided us both with some quality time together, especially the great trout fishing. On our free days we always head out to a remote area and have had some really good luck landing a few nice trout.
On all of the trips at least one individual from the Forest Service accompanies us and provides horsepack support to haul in tools and gear. The annual project is also pre-planned by them. The Forest Service always defines the scope of the work up front so all of us have a clear understanding as to the goals and reasons for the task, and safety is a foremost consideration from both the Forest Service and the WV leaders. One very experienced Forest Service Employee, Deb Peters, stands out as a born leader. I have had the pleasure to work with her on each of my trips. She has a natural ability to lead, direct, and motivate people. Her style is to lead as a hands-on advisor with a demeanor that makes all people around her motivated and driven. The Forest Service is lucky to have someone like her working for them.
When I return to the work-a-day world and step once again into the corporate race, I do so with a clear mind and a renewed focus. I take pride in telling my co-workers what I did on my vacation. After I explain that I volunteered my time and dug trails, lifted rocks, sawed down trees and hiked hard, I always get some looks with lifted brows and sometimes that "you must be nuts" expression. It's easy not to understand what WV is all about until you experience it for yourself. For anyone who is thinking of trying a trip, my suggestion is do it. It will change you forever. Better yet try the Sawtooth Trip.
Book Review
The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival by John Vaillant
In the state of Texas alone, a part of the world with no natural history of tigers, there over 2,000 tigers in various forms of captivity while approximately 3,200 tigers exist in the wild. Thus, it may seem that tigers are in no danger of extinction; however, at the beginning of the twentieth century, there were approximately 75,000 tigers living in the 
wilds of Asia. John Vaillant, the author of the highly acclaimed The Golden Spruce, has written another compelling story, the story of one tiger in a remote region of Russia's Far East and the relationship the Siberian or Amur tigers have with the people living in the taiga or boreal forest they share. In telling this story, Vaillant gives the sad history of the tigers' declining population throughout Asia while at the same time giving an intimate picture of life in post-Soviet Union Russia.
The story begins with the death of one man, who lives in a rough log structure near a small settlement with a declining population and little to support those who remain except what can be gathered, trapped, or killed from the taiga, in December 1997. It is evident from the gruesome details that the man, Markov, who makes his living poaching in the forest, has been killed in a savage and deliberate attack by a large tiger. It is left to a forest inspector, Yuri Trush, a member of a group formed to protect and if necessary kill man-eating tigers, to determine what has happened and track down the tiger which has killed Markov. At first Trush thinks that Markov has been poaching tiger cubs and selling their pelts and eating the meat and that the tiger that killed him is the avenging mother tiger. The truth, however, is more complicated, and Trush's search for the offending tiger is at the core of this fascinating book. As the reader follows Trush's investigation, the reader learns what perestroika has meant not only for the Amur tigers but also for the people in this impoverished region of Russia.
Interwoven into the story of Markov, Trush, and the eponymous tiger are other stories of tigers, tigers' relationship with humans, and what tigers have meant and continue to mean for the human population. We humans don't have a good record when it comes to dealing with the other creatures of the earth, and The Tiger tells an all too familiar tale of a declining wild animal population. What sets this story apart is the startling conclusion when Trush and his team finally encounter the tiger. This book is a not only a cautionary tale but page-turning story of one tiger's struggle to live in contemporary Siberia and the people who coexist with that tiger.
A Tick in Time
As we advanced up the trail, some bright cumulus clouds with their cauliflower heads were invading the late afternoon sky, providing additional shade at points where the canyon walls did not. Frequent stops along the route were not just a benefit for our lungs, but for our minds. Peering across the colorful expanse towards the North Rim, we were in near constant view of the mouth of the crevasse known as Bright Angel Canyon. Its junction with the Colorado River marks the location of Phantom Ranch, a respite for weary hikers. As we gazed on the long, flat and sandy ribbon of the spur trail leading to Plateau Point, we pondered the truly grand magnificence of the canyon. How huge, how quiet is this continual metamorphosis of sunlight, shadows, and colors, enriching the soul! A cotton-white cumulus turned slightly nimbus, sending some welcome sprinkles to our weary bodies while creating a polka dot design on the dusty trail. With all of this refreshment, Marge was in good spirits, and the sight and chatter of tourists on the canyon rim above provided the energy for the home stretch and the setting of a new objective: the shuttle to Hopi Point for sunset pictures.
We emerged from the Colorado gulch with the combination of fatigue and energy that many hikers experience after a unique trek. Weaving through the crowd, within a few minutes we took our place in line at the Hermits Rest shuttle station, chatting with a young couple that we discovered were friends of our nephews from our Pennsylvania hometown, one of those "small world" experiences that travelers enjoy with relative frequency.
Waiting in line, with the tree-trunk peeking sun now shining directly in our eyes, we knew we had a narrow window of time before the huge orange disc would slip behind the Colorado Plateau. Luckily the shuttle arrived, and off we went to Hopi Point just in time to see the thin clouds on the western horizon produce a bright bronze backdrop that silhouetted the many camera-armed visitors standing near the rim. Finding a spot to sit and click, we quietly contemplated the experience of this very unique day, and the thrill of Marge's clearing the first hurdle on our way to join the WVers for the Apache Kid project, just 60 hours from now. (To be continued...)
2011 Photo Contest
It's time again for the 3rd annual Wilderness Volunteers Photo Contest. As was the case in this event's first two years, which, among other things, have featured hard work, extreme hikers, a snowman, great views and "deep thoughts", we're looking for your best photos of folks doing whatever you feel demonstrates the best of Wilderness Volunteers. Past prizes have included WV-branded items (hoodies, Klean Kanteens, t-shirts, hats and more). All pictures will be posted to the Wilderness Volunteers Photo Gallery, and the winning pictures will be posted on the blog in July. (Check out past winners here and here.
Submit up to four photos from any WV trips you've participated in, and include the name and date of the project, as well as a brief caption describing the photo. Humor is appreciated :). Email your entries to Mike Leonard. Prizes will be awarded for the top three submissions (maximum of one prize per entrant) and the contest will run until June 30th.
Stay tuned to the Wilderness Volunteers Blog for more details.