Hitch 1

Hitch 1: June 9, 2010 – June 16, 2010
Carson River Trail, Gray’s Crossing, High Trail

Lead: Aaron
Food: Sara
Documentation: Darien
Tools: Hannah
Spot beacon and vehicle checks: Brian

Trees bucked: 6
Total trail maintained: 23,760 feet
Total trail reestablished: 8,855 feet

After two weeks of training in Washington, the Carson-Iceberg trail crew headed down to Bridgeport, California to begin the season. Housing for the summer was the Wheeler Guard Station located on Highway 395 just outside of town. The crew had two days to get settled, unpack, pack, prepare food for the hitch, and meet Jeff Weise, Wilderness Manager for the Bridgeport Ranger District, and Lucas Somers, a Forest Service employee who would be working on scouting projects and documentation for the season.

Crew members were each assigned a task to be in charge of for the season. The five jobs were a hitch leader, food, documentation, tools, and spot and vehicle checks. The person in charge of food planning organized food for the nine days in the backcountry. Documentation entailed keeping track of the amount and type of work that had been done each day as well as writing down the number of people we saw and animal encounters. The person in charge of tools made sure that all tools were propery maintained prior to the hitch as well as keeping tabs on their whereabouts throughout the week and a half. The member assigned to the SPOT beacon and vehicle checks was responsible for signalling that the crew was safe and sound each night with a satellite transmitter and in charge of the necessary vehicle checks in our work truck. The hitch leader made sure that all timing and logistics worked throughout the hitch.

The season began at the Carson River Trailhead with a backcountry hitch. The first three days consisted mainly of brushing and tread projects: resetting bench cuts, widening the trail, and removing false berms. Throughout the duration of the hitch, the crew worked the 4.5 miles of the Carson River Trail, as well as the connector trail to Gray’s Crossing, taking care of logging projects, brushing, restoration of damaged areas, preventing users from cutting switchbacks, and tread and drainage. Work time was cut short by long hikes to and from work projects during the day, but large amounts of progress were made. On the final day of the hitch, the crew moved up to the High Trail to buck a large downed Jeffrey Pine.

Over the nine day hitch we saw only a handful of people, but a group of four recreational horseback riders gave feedback that the trail had been opened up nicely and was excellent for riding after the logging out, tread widening and brushing we had done. An exciting moment in the hitch was seeing a beautiful black bear with golden fur, the first of many to come over the season.