Olympic National Forest 2010

Coming off a relatively dry weekend we showed up Monday morning at the workcenter in Hoodsport eager for what mothernature and the Forest Service had in store for us. Mothernature came through on serving us up some typical Olympic Pennisula fall weather (Rain), the Forest Service threw us a curve ball.
We got a really cool oppurtunity to spend some time at one of the Salmon Hatcheries in the Skokomish Valley taking part in a Nutrient Enrichment Project. This encompassed wrangling the Chum Salmon from the holding pond, seperating them by sex and harvesting sperm and roe for artificial fertilization and carting them off the the incubation tanks. The fun didn't stop there though, now to complete the life cycle totally. We hauled the fish carcasses up the valley and tossed them into several of the tributaries that feed the Skokomish River. This was helping to simulate the depositing of all the nutrients Salmon help fix back into the system after they spawn. Providing for little critters in and out of the water, not to mention the trees that have rely on them too.
Tuesday went much the same way, but this time week hooked up with the Forest Botanist and a WCC crew to do some caching of some willow spikes for a re-vegataion project slotted for next year at Pine Lk. We had spent some time earlier in the Summer working on a weed control project. It was really interesting to see how much the lake had been transformed by the fall rains and to know that we would help crews in the spring get a head start on the this project
Now two days into our hitch it was time to get back to our bread and butter.... TRAIL WORK!! It was back to the Skok to finish up a retaining wall that we got rained out on last hitch. The weather was cooperating and we were able to finish it up and complete a couple other tricky areas that needed fill and some TLC.
Our experience with the last log retainer came in very handy with the next big project on our list. Another log retainer in an area that had several problems. We quickly set to work though and with out even noticing we were in the groove, collecting timber, preparing the site, skinning logs and making notches. Our wall began to take shape and the problems in the trail rapidly became a thing of the past. Before we knew it we were finished and taking pictures and patting ourselves on the back.
Our quick work out on the Skok gave us time at the end of this hitch to do some much needed tool maintenance and a chance to spend some time out along the canal replacing some rotted kick rails at Seal Rock CG.

On this hitch, we headed back to the Skokomish to work on a timber project building a crib wall at the approach to a bridge. We began by scouting for logs that were long enough for the project and then proceeded to move them to the project site. After gathering the logs, we stripped them and cut them to size while levelling the ground in preparation for wall construction. It was a great project because we got the chance to learn some basic carpentry skills (like carving notches) and channel our inner Dick Proenneke. The northwest fall wet weather seemed to be telling us that it was not the time to build a crib wall, but we outsmarted it by erecting a tarp directly over our project site - genius!

At the end of the hitch we also got to participate in a 2-day chainsaw training course. We spent the first day in the classroom learning all about safety and chainsaw parts. The second day was out in the field where we all got to try out some different bucking techniques. It was great to learn some new skills and feel more comfortable working with chainsaws in the field.

We love new things and seeing different parts of the beautiful forest that we get to work in every day. This was an exciting hitch because we got to do everything that we love! We spent the first day of the hitch preparing and packing because we were getting horse and mule packed into the Brothers Wilderness on the Duckabush Trail. This was the first time that we had the opportunity to work with pack animals since we started our crew, so we were all really excited (and of course happy that we didn’t have to carry all of the gear and tools we would need for the next 8 days for 6 miles over Big Hump).

So, we got packed in to our campsite and scouted the project ahead of us. Our project was to build a 32’ long and 4’ high rock wall at the approach to a steep section of the trail. It seemed like a daunting task, but we were excited to play with rocks for the rest of the hitch. We spent long days moving rocks, uncovering buried rocks, digging rocks out of holes, picking rocks, hauling rocks, crushing rocks, and artfully placing rocks into position. After the wall itself was constructed, we had to fill in the tread up to the height of the rocks. Fish estimated that we moved over 6 tons of rock to complete the entire project. He is good at math.

After we completed the wall and filled in the tread, we spent our final days of the hitch brushing parts of the trail between our rock wall and the national park boundary line and doing some small tread projects to help out the pack animals that use the trail.

We had a great hitch and enjoyed our time in the wilderness.

6 tons of rock moved
536 service hours

Hitch 7: August 23rd – September 1st 2010.
The Hitch of All Trades: Grasses, Passes, Slugs, Meeting New Mugs, Comings and Goings.

Heading out for our 7th hitch, there was plenty on our minds. We had a crew member about to depart, the trail we had been working on for 3 months coming to an end and the season about to change. Before heading to the Wynoochee Valley, we had an opportunity to see a little more of the Olympic National Forest. We headed up to Pine Lake to help work on a project with one of the forest botanist. There we covered a non native invasive grass, the Reed Canary Grass with fabric, to prevent further growth. This was a great opportunity for our crew to extend our hands for help and to see the other careers working on a forest. On Wednesday, we headed out to the Nooch to start the last part of the trail leading to Coho Campground. We started right by the river ford and worked our way South. We ended up logging out around 82 downed trees on the way. Also, there were places in the trail that needed substantial amounts of brushing. On Thursday we said our goodbyes to Cody as he was on his way East. We finished the trail brushing and logging out the next few days. The last day the rain and the slugs were out in full force! We headed back to Hoodsport getting ready for our big day in Tacoma. On Wednesday we got the opportunity to honor Congressman Norm Dicks with the Elizabeth (Titus) Puntam Award.

I am a recent graduate from the University of Florida (GO GATORS!) I studied Biology and Mathematics and enjoyed learning Italian, too! I was a leader in the outdoor program at UF, teaching college students backpacking, canoeing, and the in-and-outs of camping in the southeast. My love of the outdoors stems from the many family vacations throughout the US along with work as a Ranger at Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron, NM. I am proud to have this opportunity in service to public lands; and I look forward to giving back to the outdoor world-as it has already given me so much.

For our fifth hitch,our crew traveled to the Wynoochee area for a
four-day work week. The first day of work was partially spent
traveling, so we had a short day on the trail--we continued to clear
out the trail corridor approaching a steep section of a reroute on the north side of Trout Creek, connecting the existing trail from the wet crossing of the Wynoochee River to the 100 road. Althoguh the rest of the hitch saw 2 crew members absent due to an undetermined illness, it was nonetheless productive, including the installation of 2 log retainers and at least 50 feet of tread. On our courth day of work, we logged out the existing trail to the stream ford, removing 13 logs over 1/2 mile.

50' of tread
14 logs removed
2 log retainers placed
178 total service hours

We returned to the Wynoohcee for our third hitch, excited to
give another round of 10 days hard work to our first major
re-route. After cleaning up from weekend campers and setting up
our base camp, we picked up tools and began the finishing touches
to tread and brushing along the completed part of our re-route.
On day three, our crew succeeded in strengthening teamwork in
order to fix a large dip in the trail. We hauled rock, crush, and
fill all day to fill and smooth the dip. The accomplishment we
felt as a group when we finished the project was overwhelming. We
continued on, removing stumps and hauling fill to pad over
old-growth cedar roots in the path of our trail. For the second
part of our hitch, we left the Wynoochee to work on several
pressing trouble-spots on the Dry Creek Trail, near the Skokomish
Wilderness Area. There, we paired up with the local WCC trail
crew to complete several rocky stream fords. We enjoyed working
with another crew, and we were sure grateful of extra hands to
complete the crossings! We returned home from the hitch, content
in our work and excited to finish our first big project on the
Wynoochee.

Hailing from Washington, PA and most recently coming from Denver, CO. Cody is a recent grad of University of Pittsburgh(PITT)with a degree in Environmental Studies. He is no stranger to the outdoors, he spends his free time backpacking, mountain climbing and enjoying general merry making. Following his passion for being outside and hikinng trails led him to the SCA, where he has had the opportunity to put his skills to use moving rocks and clearing the way for new trails. His eye for trees that for a lack of a better way to say it, "it'll have to go" has proved valuable when it comes to clearing a nice corridor. Not knowing what exactly the future holds, Cody hopes to continue working hard and in the outdoors, more trails?, wildland firefighting?, who knows. Whatever it may be he will apply the same passion and hard work he has done here at the SCA.

This marked our first official hitch on the Olympic Peninsula and within the Olympic National Forest(ONF). Trying to put the wet weather from training behind us we set to work on the Wynoochee Lake Shore trail clearing, brushing and re-routing in an effort to re-open a trail that has not been totally maintained in 16 years. Heavy flooding in recent years had washed out the trail along the banks of the Wynoochee River in several locations. The hope is to get the trail open again before the season ends. The goal of this hitch was to help build on trail maintenance and construction techniques learned at training. Although the weather was not ideal the crew was fortunate enough to have more sunny days than rainy ones and we all got a really good taste for trail work in the ONF.

o 2 miles of brushing and clearing
o 1000’ re-route cleared and tread established
o 15 trees logged out of trail corridor
o 20’ Rocky Stream Ford Built
o 25+ lbs trash removed from dispersed camping sites
o 458 Service Hours

Summary By Trevor Knight