Idaho AmeriCorps 2011

WILDLIFE Hitch 10

For our last hitch, we co-lead in order to wrap up the Aspen-Inventory project. Data-management was our focus; first we had to finish uploading GPS points and aspen stand photos from previous hitches, as well as organize these files. This was slightly confusing, as there was some data in a different office, but we worked with what we had.

After the first snowfall, we were grateful to be inside (and have indoor-housing versus camping), but when the weather cleared up, we were excited to participate in a short inventorying project. From the facilities at the Hughes Creek Field Station, we headed up the Idaho-Montana border to survey for lynx habitat along the Continental Divide Trail. At 20 random plots, we took 4 photos (one in each cardinal direction) of a red-and-white checkerboard banner to indicate horizontal vegetation coverage (a major factor for snowshoe hare, prey for the lynx). It kind of looks like we played a game of “Where’s Waldo?” in the woods!

The second part of the hitch, we practically camped at was the office! There, we had a list of objectives to accomplish including: returning equipment, editing electronic GPS files and hard-copy aspen inventory sheets, making a template for and printing out several hundred photos of the aspen stands, which we then organized into several binders. Data was collated for reporting totals (we inventoried 267 stands or 228 acres this season!); then the files were compiled into various GIS layers for the numerous maps we made of our project areas, which will help the Forest Service strategize for land management.

Overall, it was great to finish up the project. There are/were some missing pieces (at least spread out over several computers) because our project spanned two zones of the Salmon-Challis, but seeing the maps of the areas we surveyed (with “at risk” stands highlighted), really gave us perspective for how much work we accomplished throughout the season. And as we organized all those photos, we were glad that we had the opportunity to see so much of this wild country. It was really rewarding to know that our surveys can help the wildlife dependent on aspen stands!

Hitch of the Killer Tree Posse: U-routes South, trick!
Crew: Kendra (Kernel K-Fu), Andrea (Killer Krossing Guard), Kelly (Egomaniacal Easter Bunny), and Johnny (Killer Klown)

Day 1: Day of the forgotten tent.
Upon arriving at our worksite near the old, haunted, and demon-infested Bonanza Ghost Town, we immediately realize that our tents are missing. This, of course, is Hitch #10. It’s mid-October. Temperatures in the Yankee Fork drop to 20 degrees and below each night. Unfazed, the Killer Trees weighed their options, none of which included returning to Moyer Base. Luckily, the Posse is a very good-looking and resourceful bunch, undeterred in the face of adversity. Solution: fashion a fort from various available materials, including a jank blue tarp nearing disintegration, a plethora of insulating garbage bags, two clear shower curtains, Kelly’s suicide bracelet of cording, warped tent stakes, and pieces of mismatched REI tents. All four slept comfortably and moistly in the brilliantly erected structure for the next four nights, refusing to abandon their hovel for the commonplace Zeta and Half-Dome tents that Jackie arrived with on day two.

Monday of Hitch #10 marked the first week of hunting season in the Salmon-Challis. Hunter’s bullets zinged through the air constantly, threatening to end the Posse’s U-route season early. Kernel K-Foo (as she insisted we call her) handed out uniforms – bright orange flagging tape with the words “Killer Tree” emblazoned on the side next to a skull and cross bones. We donned the tape creatively, each sporting a more ridiculous taped up outfit than the next to avoid death by hunter.

After conquering Montaῆa de Estes, nearly falling down mine shafts, warding off a shape-shifting demon, magically conjuring French toast and sausage flavor from quinoa and curry leftovers, and Nancy Drew-ing a suspicious bunch of murderous midnight miners, we evacuated at 5am on Sunday morning to Copper Basin, narrowly escaping being squashed to death by an evil hail storm.

True to its namesake, Copper Basin was wonderfully copper in color, the tree’s fall leaves vivid against the surrounding snow-covered peaks. The Killer Tree Posse laughs in the face of high elevation and late-season lightening storms. The nights at Copper Basin were cold.

John later described this U-routes hitch as the “…manliest hitch I’ve ever been on.” When asked his opinion on the various triumphs and incidi encountered by the fearless crew, his one-track mind stayed focused on the group’s visits to the Challis Taco Bus, verifying: “I love burritos!”

Wildlife Hitch 9,

The wildlife crew started the hitch going back to Leadore. It consisted of 2 full days of hiking across mountain ranges in search of Aspen. On one of the hikes, we ended in the bowl of a mountain side with a view of a talus lake. At night, our camp was littered with gnats and mosquitoes, driving us into our tents by 8pm at the latest. Once this was done, we headed back to Moyer to finish up some leftover stands that were unreachable in May due to high water levels. We were also assigned to close some temporary Forest Service roads, which was something new to both crew members. We drove into some pretty insane scenery while doing this which made it completely worthwhile. Once on some of the mountain passes, you were able to see the plumes of smoke rising from the local fire. Little did we know that this sight was finally about to end. Over the next few days of hitch, we were dumped on by rain and had the first snow of the season. Each morning we set off on foot straight up the mountains in search of aspen. This hitch was a little different. The feeling of autumn was in the air and was extremely visible. The fall colors brought about a sense of ease to us and felt like the season was anew. Even though the weather wasn’t the most opportune for hiking, we still traveled some major expanses to find the aspen. At the end of the day, soaking wet, we were able to go back to Moyer and eat a warm meal and dry off, thankfully.

Hitch 9 BLM Discovery Hill
Hitch Leaders John and Dan

For our second to last hitch of the season, we worked with the BLM using vertical mulching techniques to close roads on Discovery Hill, or as we preferred to call it, Disco Hill. Vertical mulching basically consists of replanting vegetation on a closed road as well as aerating and seeding over it in order to disguise it and hopefully prevent future use. We had an arsenal of BLM tools at our disposal, including pulaski’s, shovels, hoes, loppers, mcleod’s and picks to name a few, and each person developed their own system on how best to replant and aerate the dense soil.
Our crew technically consisted of two four-man crews, but we camped, cooked, and worked together as one large crew. We passed the time while working playing games like contact and the helmet game; however, the highlight of the hitch had to be getting buzzed by a local retiree in a motorized glider 20 feet above our heads, and then having him drop Hershey kisses on us in the middle of our work day. The work itself was pretty back-breaking, working ten hour days hacking at the soil in all types of weather; the first week the sun beat down on us all day every day, and the second week we were pounded by wind and rain. Overall though the hitch was pretty successful, getting fourteen roads closed over eight days and compiling the data in a user friendly format for the BLM for future projects on Disco Hill.

Hitch 8 South Zone Trails
So Long Stanley…….Another trails hitch at Cape Horn! You know what that means don’t ya?! We have to work hard but we also get to play hard. Thanks to the Cape Horn Guard Station, every work day was followed by our crew coming “home,” turning on the music, cooking and eating dinner as a family, jokes and laughs, maybe a shower, and a movie. Sounds pretty rough huh?
Our first week out, the crew was at fast Valley Creek Trail. Our mission? A few checks steps, filling in a 40ft. entrenchment with rock, re-din two ditches for culverts, and replace the curbs o either side of the bridge. The idea was to build a sort of ramp on either side of the bridge to make it an easier pass for the ATV’s. So we hauled rock in for that and put in a check step on each side to keep those rocks from rolling away. There were culverts placed in both sides already but since they were poking out we had to dig them out, make the hole bigger, and then bury them in again. We joked about how much we just loved to dig a hole, then fill it back in. We then had to replace the log curbs on the bridge. Our sawyer felled us two nice trees, we limbed them and used some draw knives to remove the bark. That was a nice break from hauling and crushing rock. We wound up finishing early and scrambled a bit to stay busy the last day. What can I say, we’re just that good!
The next week we had to finish up some projects from the previous crew. Our mission? To become best friends with shovels and double jacks. We had to haul rocks and dirt to fill and cover two causeways. They both are on Knapp Creek a ways and it took us about an hour to hike into each morning. At 2:40, it’s just a nice way to start the day. We put four check steps in the second causeway and we all know what the entails. Lots of rock and lots of crushing went down after those check steps. To pass the time we counted how many times we each got hit from the flying shards. I didn’t get to see a moose on this hitch either, but there’s still time I suppose.
This was our last hitch in Stanley, Idaho, I’d say we went out with a BANG!!!

Hitch 7 South Zone Trails

SZ Trails was back at it along Knapp Creek Trail outside of Stanley, ID. Braving 20 F nightly lows and pestering horseflies, we wrapped up work on a causeway previously started by the last SZ crew and shored up a highly eroded bank on one side of a stream fording either several timber check steps, some with diameters of up to 16 inches. After finishing up the last check step, we received a call from Central Idaho with an order to return to Salmon ASAP, and so packed up essential gear and hiked out 5 miles to the trailhead with in 2 ½ hours. We spent the night as guests at the Cape Horn Guard Station before waking up bright and early for the long ride to the Salt Fire Incident Command Post to rejoin our fellow evacuees. On the whole, the hitch was a success, with our Forest Service contact expressing his satisfaction regarding the completed work, and also dealing with the unforeseen circumstances of our early departure.

Hitch 7 Veg.
This vegetation hitch was a little different than previous vegetation hitches, in more ways than one. We started out with Ponderosa Pine pinecone counts. This entailed looking at pinecones through binoculars to find ones that were the right size, shape, color, etc for a seed bank in Boise. They would eventually use these seeds for re-vegetation projects in post burn areas. Besides exploring new areas of the Salmon-Challis National Forest, we were staying at a firefighter’s memorial where a bunch of firefighters were staying for the fires that were occurring locally. This was a good way to meet new people with the USFS. Showers were available for everyone to clean up after a long days work, but the SCA crew opted to go swimming in the Salmon River instead….much more fun! We ended up finishing our work about four days sooner than expected so the Vegetation crew joined the U-Routes. After a full day and a half of work with U-Routes, Central Idaho Dispatch called us via radio deeming it necessary for everyone to evacuate to Salmon due to the local fire spreading too close to our housing corridors. With only about 9 out of 15 of our crew members there, we had a Hot shot crew get flown in via chopper to drive the remaining vehicles down to Salmon. Once at the incident camp, our hitch resumed by learning all the inner workings of what makes a fire camp run. Talk about organization. New people and new experiences can’t complain about that.

WILDLIFE: Hitch 6 Write-Up

Our first task was to finish up surveying for aspen in the Lost River Range area. After driving about 5 hours, we hiked several miles up Van Dorn canyon before we found any stands. All the while, my team-mate and I enjoyed pockets of wildflowers, squeaking pikas, and munching on some wild raspberries. After inventorying a few stands that were “hidden” up dry canyons, where high winds had recently toppled over many large conifers, we returned to the trailhead and set up camp for the night.
Then we moved onto the Wild Horse Allotment, where we were to stay at one of the trailers at the W.H. Guard Station. When we arrived, the guards were gone, so we had to choose between one of two trailers; we chose the one that had especially nifty décor (straight out of the1970’s) and didn’t have hantavirus warning signs! Although, later, I found a dead mouse under my bed (a big “thank you” to my crewmate for throwing it out for me!). But having a retreat from mosquitoes was a huge relief! Besides the simple joys of having electricity to cook, lights to read or power to watch the occasional movie at night, hot water for showers, and cozy beds, we were also blessed by having such wonderful hosts! The guard station couple (and their adorable dog), were very hospitable, inviting us over for dessert and some awesome stories!

But back to the aspen-hunt…
At first, we tried to follow the map of aspen stands surveyed in the past, but after searching in vain for our species amongst thick willow stands, we soon realized the data was no longer accurate. Just across the road from the W.H.G.S., however, we found our first plots in plain sight, along the edge of steep slopes, where creeks or springs flowed. Other project areas highlighted by the South Zone Wildlife Biologist required more travel; so we hiked up the Salmon-Challis-National-Forest’s only wheel-chair accessible trail towards the lovely Fall Creek waterfalls.
Later, while making our way towards Kane Creek, we saw some pronghorn in the sagebrush at the base of the epic mountain known as the Devil’s Bedstead. With such ominous-sounding names, I should’ve been warned of the dangers ahead… I was just getting over a nasty case of stomach flu and with my renewed energy-levels, was bushwhacking through willows when I was suddenly stung on the lip by some bee-type insect! My mouth swelled up, but I was fortunately not suffering a severe reaction, although I was slightly sedated by the precautionary Benadryl I took, so my crewmate was kind to take me back to the trailer and catch up on data-entry/paperwork while he surveyed a few nearby stands.
As I recovered, we finished up the allotment by surveying the North Fork of the Big Lost River. There, mostly (non-inventory) points were taken, due to the extreme slopes of the
scree-fields. It was interesting to witness some of the previous “aspen treatments,” where any young conifers were cut into slash-piles and ironically, the aspen suckers were being grazed upon by a herd of sheep. Coincidentally, we met the folks administering these treatments; they seemed somewhat surprised by the stock-invasion (I can only hope they then asked the shepherd to move the flock).
Overall, we drove over 700 miles, hiked over 25 miles, and surveyed about 95 stands (70 acres worth) of aspen. We also saw a ton of gorgeous Idaho wilderness and had some good times!

Hitch Report #6:
Kendra, Jason, Kelly and John

The first and only CDT hitch!
My crew was stationed near Big Whole Pass at 8,000 feet in a very nice ponderosa pine forest with lush, low, green underbrush. The area was deafeningly quiet and fairly remote, aside from a group of ATVs carrying dogs wearing goggles. It was the perfect place for Kelly to refine her skills in a manual transmission. She defiantly got the hang of it and we were all proud and a bit relieved. The trail required light maintenance, mainly brushing and short stretches of tread work. Our favorite work was clearing the snags from the path. On Saturday we volunteered to clean up the river, which entailed a VERY enjoyable float down the Salmon! We collected plenty of plastic, cans, irrigation tubes, tires, an axle from an old wooden wagon, a paddle and a dog toy. The crew enjoyed a day full of laughter, relaxation and a well-deserved day in the sun. After the float, we were invited to a BBQ at Morgan Bar and made our way after filling our water jugs and gassing up the truck. One more stop to the famous Salmon Bakery proved once again how amazingly hospitable this town is when they loaded us up with a bag of pastries. We were thrilled, full and even enjoyed a phenomenal sunset from the peak next to our campsite.

Our crew spent the second half of the hitch at Corn Creek on a bridge assignment just inside the Frank Church Wilderness of No Return. The restrictions of the wilderness limit the crew from using power tools. All of our drilling, skill saw cuts and chainsaw work had to be done up the trail from the bridge site. The temperature hovered between 98 and 102 degrees and our work was laborious, thank god for the river to cool off in after the work day was over! All the heavy beams, timber, gabions and railroad ties for the new bridge had to be hauled in and all the old bridge material hauled out. Though our job resembled that of mules, the crew’s moral remained high and the project chugged along. We removed the old bridge and supporting structure and used gabion baskets as a new foundation for the replacement stringers and planks. Unfortunately, the hitch ended before we were able to see the project through to completion.

All in all, this CDT hitch was upbeat, hot, fun and enjoyable thanks to the fabulous crew, beautiful surroundings and a day on the river.