CFI's Yale Crew 2008

10 Resources for Getting into Trail Work

As many of you may know I am now working for the Pacific Crest Trail Association as their Southern California Regional Representative.  I love hiking, trails (especially the PCT) and I am honored to be an advocate for one of our National Scenic Trails.  Many people ask me how they can get involved with trails and how they could have a job like mine.  I have listed 10 resources for people looking to break into trail work, trail maintenance, and/or trail construction.  Without further ado…

1. Professional Trail Builders Association:  whether you are looking for a job or resources, this website will give you a great starting point.
2. The Student Conservation Association:  if you are 15 or older, you can get involved with this Conservation Association, check out their programs, opportunities to earn education awards and opportunities to live and work outdoors. 
3. The Rocky Mountain Youth Corps:  if you are 16 or older, you have the opportunity to be on one of the Corps Crews, living and working outside, earning an education awards and having a great experience.  I have worked with the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps (RMYC) before and they run a great program and support their crew members. 
4. Southwest Conservation Corps:  another opportunity for those 16 and older.  Southwest Conservation Corps (SCC) has a few offices in southern Colorado and Arizona and offers the opportunity to live and work in the outdoors.
5. The Colorado Fourteeners Initiative:  this is where I worked seasonally for two summers.  They have many options from volunteering, to becoming a volunteer peak steward or applying for one of their field positions.  If you are looking for experience, the Outdoor Leadership Intern (OLI) might be the position for you.
6. The Los Angeles Conservation Corps:  according to their website the LA Conservation Corps’ primary mission is to provide at-risk young adults and school-aged youth with opportunities for success by providing them with job skills training, education and work experience with an emphasis on conservation and service projects that benefit the community.”
7. The California Conservation Corps:  if you are between 18 and 25 this program could be for you.  Even though they tout “Hard work, low pay, miserable conditions…and more!” as their motto, their mission is “protecting and restoring California’s environment and responding to disasters, becoming stronger workers, citizens and individuals through their service.”
8. The Continental Divide Trail Alliance:  this is the youngest of the three major organizations advocating for the three north/south National Scenic Trails.  They have a volunteer program that grows every year.  If you are in the Rockies, check out their “Get Involved” page.
9. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy:  the ATC runs tons of trail projects each year.  To find out more, or to plan a volunteer vacation, check out their “Get Involved” page. 
10. The Pacific Crest Trail Association:  did you really think I wasn’t going to mention the PCTA?  Of course I am!  Whether you are looking to volunteer or searching for a job, the PCTA may have something for you.  Looking for volunteer work?  Click on the “Volunteer” icon on the right hand side bar.  Looking for season work?  We usually post seasonal (and full time) job opportunities on the left hand side bar, but just to be safe, check out our “employment” page. 

Bonus:

1. The American Hiking Society:  AHS runs many volunteer vacations.  In many instances you may end up working with one of the groups I mentioned above as many of their vacations coincide with projects that the SCA, PCTA, ATC etc. are running.  The AHS site give people a nation wide view of possibilities.
2. The US Forest Service:  The USFS has many opportunities for volunteering in your local forest.  Just look up your local forest and look for volunteer opportunities.  If you can’t find them on the website, give the Ranger Station a call, the should be able to point you in the right direction. 

Any resources I am missing?  Please let me know…

Sanborn Western Camps

Mt. Massive 2009:  Sanborn Western Camps

Our first group of the season met us on Monday at 10am at the Mt. Massive trailhead.  We are working with Sanborn Western Camps (a boy’s and a girl’s camp) who have a leadership program that includes doing trail work with us. 

We hiked in the 3.5 miles to camp in 2.5 hours, let them set up camp, went over base camp rules, groover rules (no peeing in the groover) and some other important information.  We hiked up to the first restoration area (resto area) so the kids could see where they would be working and there would not be as much nervous anticipation in the morning, no kids worried about how far we had to hike. 

There were quite a few firsts going on here.  First, it was the first group of the season.  Second, it was the first time Joe and I had lead together.  Third, it was the first time I was leading a group who I had worked with in a previous year.  Fourth, it was this kids’ first time doing trail work. 

Kids are interesting, they are hard to read at times, they seem tired, then they seem to have boundless energy, they need to be reassured but they need to be left to work things out on their own.  They want to assert their independence but they constantly want your approval.  I know I was the same way at 14 or 15 years old.  The kids were an interesting juxtaposition on their own. 

I do give them credit, for some of them, this was way out of their comfort zone and some of them did very well and worked really hard.  One young man, Zach was an incredibly well-natured gentleman who was ready, willing and able to accomplish any task we asked.  Others worked hard but offered comic relief like Max.  Still others like a young lady named Blayne seemed to redefine how I would come to see them.  Blayne brought make-up with her.  I didn’t wear make-up at 14 so I think I had a perception of 14 year olds wearing make-up, but when she was digging in the dirt and mud, planting transplants, digging up plugs of grass, she worked hard.  The highest compliment that I think I can pay someone is to tell them that they made me rethink or re-perceive a previous perception, thought or view point and she did that.  

Now the other kids that I didn’t mention from the group we also good kids, Ben, Jacob, Elliot, Annie, Gracie and Shannon, their counselors:  Collette, Kevin and Bea.  It’s just that a few things stick out when you are with a group.  Annie and Shannon did do a great job getting the plugs going that first day and Elliot was really inquisitive and wanted to gain a working knowledge of everything we were doing and had a great sense of humor, Ben was great at digging holes for planting plugs, Jacob….well, Jacob was surely doing his share of the work because at the end of each day he had the most dirt on his face, and on and on with stories of things the kids did. 

Over all, it was good to get a group under our belts and they were a good group to start with.  I think I have a bit of a better idea of what I need to do as leader to get the most of our groups, to be that crazy mix of what is needed. 

Mt. Massive:  Staff Training and Preview
So after a few days off relaxing with my sister and ordering my Maid of Honor Dress for her wedding, I returned to the Yurt near Twin Lakes for staff training. Here I got to meet the rest of the staff which comprised of the Windom Crew and Hilary from the Adopt-a-Peak Program. The Windom Crew is working in a very remote area near Windom Peak in the San Juan Mountains and will be staying back there, even on most of their off days. It’s pretty neat actually, they have to take a narrow gage train to a stop in the middle of nowhere and then hike in 7 miles or so to their base camp. Unfortunately, that means that I won’t get to see Shawn, Kenzie, Frances and Ben to frequently as we are pretty spread apart.

Never the less, getting to know them a little bit was great and we engaged in a highly competitive game of Pict-o-nary. We also went on a trail “walk and talk” to point out trail structures and building do’s and don’ts. Over all, staff training was short. After the Windom Crew got on their way down to Durango, we did 2 more days of trail work/training with Joe, Drew, Hilary and I. Asa, a former CFI staff member also gave us some pointers as he went hiking while we were working.

After another weekend off, I went back to work on Monday, June 15th. I ran errands picking up various items at our storage sheds, picking up re-bar, bear wire, lids to our gravity filters and other such necessary objects. I managed to get almost everything to camp in 2 loads including my food, sleeping bag, some clothes and a book. I also spent about an hour and a half bailing water off our tarp as it had collected and sagged to the ground. It was so laden with water; I couldn’t lift it to dump it off so I resorted to a pan to get water off the tarp. I saved some of the water for boiling for dinner and hot chocolate and the rest was put back into the natural world to be absorbed, returned to the atmosphere and then dropped back to the earth as precipitation.

Greg and Joe made it to camp that night just as I was getting worried and the last bit of light was fading from the evening sky. I retired to my tent, my new home away from home.

Totals for the day include about 10.5 miles of hiking and 6 personal contacts on the mountain or in the parking lot. Glad to see some responsible people out enjoying the early season on the mountain.

Tuesday the 16th was to be a preview day with Loretta but car trouble pushed her arrival back so Greg, Joe and I went for a walk up the mountain to get to know it before we hiked it with Loretta. We also checked out some the restoration work that one of my camp groups did last year. So far the transplants that the 2008 Overland Summers group did for us are looking great. We returned to camp, fixed the tarp, Loretta arrived and we made an excellent Curry dinner.  The four of us chatted late into the evening by trail crew standards, about 9:45 pm.

Wednesday I was primed for a butt whooping. We were hiking with Loretta. Loretta is a kind hearted, experienced outdoors woman. She is in charge of managing, contracting and monitoring the working going on the all of the 14,000 foot peaks in the state, amongst other things. She hikes frequently, she lives at elevation and she says she is out of shape. She killed me in hiking today. I keep reminding myself that I am built for hiking long distances a bit slower, but it barely makes me feel better about the shellacking I took today. She did hunker down for a bit and let Greg and I catch up (Joe keep up with her very well) so we could preview together, the reroute that Joe and I will be constructing with the help of our volunteers and the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps.
We hiked up to about 13,500 feet to the saddle before the ridgeline but, covered in snow, the ridgeline was impossible to preview so we returned back to camp, deciding that we’ll have to preview that section later, when we can see the trail.
Loretta and Greg hiked out the night when we got back to camp.

The next two days were spent in preparation for upcoming groups, getting an idea of what we want the groups to do, getting an idea of how long it will take to hike to the work site with the groups, etc. We also did some willow transplants, dismantled a fire ring, filled in old holes left by those who did restoration before us but didn’t fill in their holes from transplants, cached emergency gear and shuttled tools.

We hiked down from camp with the realization that we have a lot of work to do this summer to fulfill the contract that CFI has with the Forest Service. We are going to have to ask a lot of our groups and push them hard. Joe and I are going to have to be focused and prepared, forceful but fair, realistic but setting loft standards and goals. It will be an interesting balancing act and I hope we don’t disappoint.