It has been a busy summer for me leading a trail crew on the Salmon-Challis National Forest, but it has been one of the best in my life. We have done a bunch of cool projects and recently built a 50 ft turnpike with a 5 ft bridge over a stream. That project took the crew about 4 days to finish and by the end, we were pros at making saddle notches with the limited tools we carried (we didnt even have a chisel). Its quite amazing when looking at the pictures of our trail work.







For our last two work hitches, we will be building some rustic stringer bridges. It’s a lot of work, but it is extremely rewarding to see the finished project on something so complex. One of the bridges we will be building is on Kane Creek Trail, where a bike rider broke his leg trying to cross an old, blown out bridge. The other will be on Summit Creek Trail over a large see in a hillside; although, there is still a chance we might just build a log retaining wall instead.

When we havent been working the crew is often out climbing some spectacular mountains in the area. I have spent much of my off-time enjoying the peace and quiet of living an hour from any type of town. We did go to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks for one break; however, I much prefer the solitude of Idaho mountains.

Only one more month before I head south to do trail work on the Florida Trail for the fall and winter!

I just went through seven of the most physically challenging days of my life in the most remote place in the lower 48, the Frank Church Wilderness in Idaho. Ben, a forest service employee, and I were dropped off by plane on a short dirt landing strip at the confluence of Lower Loon Creek and the Middle Fork of the Salmon River.

Our mission was to clear rock slides, cut trees that had fallen over the trail, and make the trail passable by human and horse. We had a rough twenty-five miles of trail to cover in just seven days; it should have been eight days, but our flight was canceled the day earlier due to a snowstorm and whiteouts. If successful, we would find a forest service rig waiting for us at Meyer's Cove, the trailhead to Camas Creek. The first ten miles of work would be on the Middle Fork trail and the last half would be on the Camas Creek trail, this is excluding a steep jaunt up Dry Gulch for a few miles.

The Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness is one of the most rugged places I have ever been. The trail is often hanging on the edge of a cliff or on a fire-burnt slope that is ready to slide into the river. At some of these points the trail has sections missing that required Ben and I to try to cut a solid tread into the hillside that would still hold the weight of a horse. I definitely had the thought, "don't look down," going through my head as I was putting my weight into the swing of a pulaski.

Beyond the ruggedness, the pure physical challenge of carrying seven days worth of food and gear including the multiple tools is nearly overwhelming. At one point I had all of my normal backpacking gear for an extended trip, but also had a rock bar and pulaski attached to my pack in addition to the crosscut saw in my hands.

But at the end of the day, I would wash some of the black off from the burnt areas and the plain old dirt from everywhere else and look up at my surroundings. I would see a herd of elk moving across the hillside, a group of deer coming out of the cover to feed or an amazing mix of colors as the sun set over the mountains. No matter how exhausted I was or how difficult it was to pump water, it was all worth it to me. Although I may have captured some of these scenes with photographs, I will always remember moments such as these.

I recently spent an eight day work hitch clearing brush and cutting blowdowns with crosscuts on the Horse Creek Trail in the Frank Church - River of No Return Wilderness. Horse Creek empties into the Salmon River about five miles down river from the confluence of the North and Middle Forks of the Salmon River. We cleared brush for a little over 6 miles and my arms haven't been so sore for quite awhile. It was still a great time and we saw a ton of wildlife; elk herds daily, black bears, mountain goats within a couple hundred yards, and a wolf.

The SCA is taking applications for trail crews on the Salmon Challis National Forest including the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. I will be leading one of the crews! Here is the position summary from the SCA:

Help restore, protect, and enhance recent burned areas in the central Idaho mountains. SCA is looking for 10 energetic, adventurous, hard working, high spirited, individuals interested in getting their hands dirty completing a vast array of trail projects in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness and surrounding areas. Project location will be the Salmon Challis National Forest. Term of service is 3 months and much of that time will be spent in various backcountry and front country settings, camping and living in a tent. Hiking and backpacking required. Plan, manage and complete trail construction projects, 80%; prepare for field hitches, 20%. A community spirit and teamwork is paramount to the success of the project.

I know that after looking at some of my trail work pictures, I can't wait to get back out there and do some work! I think it has to do with the incredible amount of effort and attention to quality that I put into these projects and the awesome results, not to mention the location of the work!

The Mojave National Preserve, Blue Ridge Parkway, and Kenai Fjords National Park are three of the places I have spent much of my summer working for the Student Conservation Association. I was a coleader for two crews and a member of one of the SCA staff crews. I built a bridge, designed new trail, chopped out that trail, moved huge rocks for a rock staircase and pulled hundreds of alder roots. These experiences have taught me quite a bit about trail work and a whole lot more about myself.

My first project early this summer was as a coleader of a 6 student SCA high school crew in the Mojave National Preserve. Our work was to be concentrated on new trail construction as much of the trail had been wiped out by fire and floods. We built over one mile of new trail and fixed the tread of almost another two miles in 21 days of work. The desert heat wasn't too bad and we only had a few days where it became an issue. Here are some photos of our work showing the new construction of trail:

For our recreational trip after the work, we traveled to Sequoia National Park. It was a long drive but I felt as though we needed to get out of the desert and find some water and trees. The crew also had a great time in the mountains and climbing up to high passes. Here is a picture of the crew:

After my crew in the Mojave National Preserve, I flew back home for a day and the flew out to Roanoke, Virginia to lead my second high school crew with my girlfriend, Ashley. This crew was going to be working much more frontcountry and deal less with the harshness of the environment I had in the Mojave, but we had terrific projects with the Blue Ridge Parkway NPS unit. The first and main project was replacing an old 26 foot bridge with a new, wider, and stronger bridge. The bridge took a little over a week to finish and was a terrific project. Here are some of the pictures at different stages:

After completing the bridge, we found another project building a rock staircase on a steep section of trail. The 16 step staircase took 5 days to build but should last for years. The crew did a great job making crush around the stairs and using heavy and appropriate rocks for stairs. Here are a couple pictures:

I am very proud of this staircase and think the crew did a tremendous job and put a lot of effort into a very difficult project. After completing these two projects, Ashley and I took the crew to the Great Smokey Mountains and Shenandoah National Park for environmental education and recreation. The crew participated in fish shocking in the Smokeys, backpacked in Shenandoah, and traveled much of the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was a great experience for all of the members.

When I started my first two high school crews, I was unsure what I would be doing when fall came around. One opportunity that Ashley and I had was to be a member of a staff crew working at Kenai Fjords National Park. The staff crew would be made up of six crew leaders from the summer and we would be putting in 1500 feet of new trail to relocate part of the Harding Ice Field Trail. The project would require working in temperate rainforest removing hundreds of alder stumps, walking through devil's club, and swatting biting red flys. Here is a picture showing the vegetation after a chainsaw had already gone through:

We worked extremely hard and made great progress. We knocked out 1500 feet of new trail and removed hundreds of stumps with nothing but a pulaski, pick mattock and loppers. However, I greatly enjoyed the lack of responsibility of being a crew member and being allowed to concentrate on work for several hours at a time. It was also a great opportunity for me to enhance my trail building skills, specifically designing trails. Here are some pictures of completed trail:

The opportunity to work in Kenai Fjords National Park was amazing. Every morning we had a view of mountains and glaciers such as this, taken 100 yards away from the cabin we were staying.

Working in Alaska also afforded us the opportunity to see much more of the state than Kenai Fjords National Park. Ashley and I made a week long road trip through Alaska traveling to places like Denali National Park and Wrangell St. Elias National Park. These two parks were two of the most beautiful places that I have ever been to. Snow covered mountains and wide open spaces could be seen in the distance at any point along our route. Here are a few of the most beautiful photos.

Overall, I had an amazing time and traveled to awesome places this summer and fall. I definitely think I could continue doing this for a few years as I have no expenses while doing these jobs. The projects are also extremely fulfilling, especially when I had an opportunity to make an impact on a high school crew member. There isn't a much better feeling.

Tomorrow morning Ashley and I will be flying to Anchorage, Alaska to work on a month long Student Conservation Association trail crew at Kenai Fjords National Park. Afterwards, Ashley and I will be road tripping through Alaska for another seven days.

I just finished leading two high school trail crews yesterday with the SCA; one at the Mojave National Preserve in California and the other on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia. Projects ranged from new trail layout and construction to building a bridge and rock staircase. Pictures from the crew on the Blue Ridge Parkway can be seen at sca.justinwp.com.

At Kenai Fjords, we will be rerouting a section of trail that was badly damaged and constructing retaining walls with rock. It's an adult crew with crew leaders that all just finished leading high school crews in the last week. Hopefully we can all work together and not be stuck doing things the way we as leaders have always done them.

Oh and we will be cooking and sleeping behind an electric fence while camping. So don't worry about the bears, but hope for good weather!

Eight things to know before backpacking in Shenandoah National Park:

1. A free permit is required for overnight use, but you may camp almost anywhere in the park. Permits can be obtained at entrance stations, visitor centers, both ends of the Appalachian Trail in the park, and Old Rag fee station.

2. Open fires are not permitted in the park. Although you may enjoy the experience of a fire, fires are restricted for ecological reasons to protect the park.

3. The most popular backpacking areas are the Appalachian Trail and Jeremy's Run. The AT accounts for over 50% of backpacking use and Jeremy's Run consistently leads all non AT trails for destinations. If you want to avoid crowds, check out the south district of the park.

4. Several areas are off limits to backpacking including the Whiteoak Canyon Trail, Limberlost Trail, Old Rag and Hawksbill Summit, and Big Meadows. Backcountry regulations stipulate that you also camp a quarter mile from Skyline Drive and the park boundary. You also must camp one half mile from park structures such as Rapidan Camp.

5. Shenandoah National Park has undergone significant ecological change in the last few years as hemlocks continue to die and the forest recovers from the 2000 fire which burnt over 20000 acres. Many parts of the park may appear to be great campsites according to a topographical map, but the lack of a forest canopy has drastically changed many areas. Instead of open forest understories, you now find thick mountain laurel and new growth. You've been warned, now don't forget about those widow makers either.

6. Less popular but great trails can be found. Examples include White Rocks, Thorton River, and Big Run. You really can't go wrong with any trail you pick in the park.

7. Bears, snakes and poison ivy. While working in the park for the last summer, I was far more concerned about where poison ivy was than bears or snakes. Although the bear population is very high, most of the bears are well behaved. The nuisance bears are quickly relocated and are often found at the frontcountry campgrounds anyhow. For snakes, there are a few spots in the park where you are likely to come across a few copperheads or a rattler, but sightings are usually limited to snakes sunning themselves. Just go around them when you see them. Watch out for poison ivy!!

8. Although these aren't the highest mountains, most hikes usually begin from Skyline Drive and head down the mountain and then back up. Just remember that it's a lot more work going back up than it is down, especially on a hot and humid summer day.

If you have any questions about the park, I'll be happy to answer them, just leave me a comment.

I spent all day yesterday going through chainsaw training so that I can use a saw in the park. Unfortunately it wasn't the formal sawyer class for interagency type work, but it's a good start. We spent about 3 hours in the morning going over the job hazard analysis(JHA)and a little bit about the saws. We then spent approximately 3 hours bucking some trees along Pass Mountain Fire Road in SNP. Nothing too difficult, but it was a good opportunity to get some experience and practice what I was taught.

I will be spending all of next week at Prince William Forest Park near DC for wildland fire training. Looking forward to this opportunity as I may pursue it for a couple years while I am still younger.

I hope to get out for a couple hikes this weekend but will be working at Big Meadows in the park helping out the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club for trail days. Next weekend I am going backpacking or floating down the Shenandoah River. We haven't decided which yet.

5/19/06

Today, I got a quick orientation to Shenandoah National Park and was introduced to more people than I could possibly remember the names of. In the morning, Steve and I also finished up some paper work and outfitted me with some gear; radio, corona saw, first aid, etc?

Steve has been the man in charge of everything backcountry; trails, visitor impact, shelters, and much more. He has a few employees working under him including 3 trail crews, and several others responsible for various aspects of the backcountry.

At about mid morning, we drove out to Front Royal at the northern end of the park to check a self registration station half a mile into the park on the Appalachian Trail. Quite a fancy setup compared to other registration stations I have seen in national forests out west. We posted a bear poster and collected the filled in registration forms. Shenandoah National Park requires all backcountry campers to fill out free registration forms and attach a copy to their pack.

After hiking back to the truck, we drove into the park at the Front Royal entrance station and began the scenic tour of the park on Skyline Drive. A few miles later, we drove down a fire lane to Gravel Springs Hut on the Appalachian Trail. A log across the trail was my first chance to try out a corona saw. Tomorrow I?ll be helping the north district trail crew clear some trails with similar but larger corona saws and crosscut saws. Steve gave me a little information on the shelter and pointed out a marking left by the civilian conservation corps from the 1930?s. A thruhiker named Riverside who started on April 1st was resting near the shelter.

We also checked out the three nearby campsites and removed a fire ring that was only a few feet from a ?no fires? sign. A little later, Steve explained to me how creating campsites on a slope was much more effective than they had anticipated. Since the only flat spots were established campsites created by park staff, campsite expansion was greatly reduced and the impact was contained to a few spots. There was also less chance of disturbing archeological artifacts since few people lived on such steep slopes.

A few more miles down Skyline Drive we checked on a volunteer group from the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club that was rerouting a section of the Appalachian Trail away from some radio towers. The PATC does quite a bit of work on the AT in the park and maintains the AT shelters. The group was moving along well and Steve explained to me how often the most expensive and time consuming part of a project was completing the archeological survey before any soil can be moved.

We kept on moving south along Skyline Drive, checking backcountry registration stations along the way until we reached Thorton Gap, eventually making our way back to park headquarters. Steve had me log into the park intranet and begin entering the registration forms into a database program. This enables the park to identify heavily used trails and campsites and check to see why a vehicle might be parked in the same place for a week. It only took me a few minutes to get a feel for the program, but it will probably be a month until I can identify all the place names. At about 4:30, I was finished for the day and made my way back to my house. Tomorrow will be a long day as I start at 7 and will be working with the trail crew.

5/19/06

Today I helped two of the north district trail crew guys clear the Pine Hill Gap Trail from the park boundary to a little past Short Hot Mountain Trail. The access road to the park boundary in the valley was quite a culture shock the way some people lived there. The one place was full of trash and basically a collection of tarps hung over a vehicle that an old man lived in...

We parked the truck on edge of this single lane road and began the day hiking up a steep trail. We had two corona saws, an axe with a wedge and a large crosscut saw that was probably 100 years old. Since this was wilderness area we couldn?t use chainsaws.

We made slow but steady progress up the trail a couple miles gaining something like 1200 feet elevation. The final count was approximately 60 trees that we cleared with some a couple feet in diameter. Right now, my arms and shoulders are dead, but at least it was a good time and I gained some experience with a crosscut saw. Luckily, I have three days to explore the park before I start work again on Tuesday.

I found this impressive guide on using crosscut saws while doing a little bit of research on trail maintenance and construction techniques in preparation for my summer job at Shenandoah National Park. It's really more like a book than simply a guide and has everything from the history of crosscut saws to planning escape routes when making a cut. I imagine that most backpackers volunteer for trail construction at one point in their life, so I recommend you check it out.

The crosscut saw did not come into common use in Europe until the mid-15th century. These early saws were rectangular with handles that fitted into sockets forged into each end of the blade. Early saws had a plain tooth (also called peg tooth) design. Over the next 400 years, numerous saw patterns developed. Many countries and regions had their own "national" patterns. Saws started to appear with a curve both on the back as well as on the toothed edge. But as late as 1900 in Europe, the plain and the "M tooth" pattern were the most common.

Imported saws were used in Colonial America, and by the mid-1800s they were being manufactured in this country. However, it wasn't until about the 1880s that saws were used for felling timber. During the golden age of crosscut saws, from 1880 to 1930, numerous saw and handle styles, tooth patterns, types of steel, and methods of grinding were developed (figure 1).

There is also quite a bit of information on how to fell trees which is applicable even if you do not use a crosscut saw. How to choose directions, different cuts etc...

In trail work, the purpose of felling is often to obtain construction material. You need to visualize the tree on the ground to make sure you can remove the logs you need for the project. Can a team of horses get to the site? Can the logs be winched out? Also, consider the visual effect of tree removal. Will the stump or slash be visible from the trail or structure? Is this acceptable?

Trees felled across the slope will be less likely to break, all other factors being equal. Trees felled downhill are in the air longer and pick up more speed. Uphill felling should be avoided, especially on steep slopes. The tree strikes the ground quickly, often bounces and kicks back over the stump. This is dangerous.

If a tree is not leaning more than 5 degrees from vertical and other factors are favorable (limb weight and distribution are even, winds are light, and so forth) a faller can generally drop the tree in any desired direction with proper placement of undercuts and wedges. Big trees with uneven limb distribution or noticeable lean can seldom be felled against the natural lean, even with wedges.

Two-Heel Drive found a few training regimens at Backpacker Magazine to get you in shape for your next bacpacking trip. I have my own theory on how to get in shape for backpacking and usually base my exercise activities around it. It's built on three main elements:

Anaerobic endurance is necessary for climbing those steep, but short hills. This usually goes together with overall leg strength and I increase my anaerobic endurance by doing sprints up a hill. I'll sprint 40 yards, walk back down and when I get to the bottom, repeat about 10 times.

Aerobic endurance is needed to keep moving for those 10 hour hiking days. For this, I usually go for a long bike ride, nothing too hilly, but just making sure I'm out biking for a few hours. I find biking is much easier on the body than running.

Core body strength is needed to handle the weight of the backpack without getting a sore back or any other problems. For this, I usually just take a backpack filled with some weights and go for a easy hike. This also gets my feet adjusted to the extra work so that I can avoid blisters on the trail. I usually combine my dayhikes with scouting for deer hunting, trying to walk down a deer trail with a backpack on can be a challenge.

So basically to get in shape for backpacking, I ride bike, do short sprints, and go on long dayhikes. It's nothing too strict and unless you plan on following a training regimen for months, you don't need anything too complicated.