Hitch 9: Trails [1]
Hitch lead: Stephanie Hanshaw
Members: Ben, Joe, Lisa, Maggie, Erica, Nick
As our final hitch for the 2012 season, the trails crew was once again housed at Wildhorse guard station and spent time working on both the Mt. Borah and Burnt Aspen trails. The days were spent installing water bars and check steps, the evenings passed by all too quickly watching movies, reminiscing about the season, and laughing. So much laughing.
On the trail, Erica and Maggie were skilled rock analysts, and gave me tips such as “that rock will smash better if you turn it this way” and “flat rocks are easier than round rocks”. Ben and Steph H. were able to work with Phil for a day and demolished a foot bridge with their BARE HANDS (plus a chainsaw). I found the perfect borrow pit and dubbed it “Lisa’s mini-mine”. Nick and Joe were water bar animals, and the whole crew stayed motivated for work despite the sub-freezing temperatures.
I cannot imagine a better last hitch for 2012. As Nat once told me, you choose your location in life for the people, the place, or the job. Rarely do all three come together, but I can honestly say that this season has provided incredible people, a breathtaking place, and a great job. Thanks to everyone who made SCA Idaho AmeriCorps 2012 a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Work totals:
Waterbars: 8
Checks: 16
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Hitch 9: U-Routes [4]
Hitch Lead: Shannon Montano
Members: Adam, John, Kenny, Bri
It was another lovely walk in the woods for U-Routes. The weather was wonderful aside from our final night where it got down to freezing! The boys kept warm by attempting to connect their tents into “Habi-Tent for Bro-manity!”
Most U-Routes encountered seemed to have heavy use which is most likely due to ranchers moving cattle to a new grazing area or filling/repairing water troughs which are stationed at many places in the open space areas. None the less it made for interesting walks and plenty of data gathering.
Along our U-Routes we saw some wonderful wildlife. Kenny and Adam stalked a herd of elk where he came face to face with an 8 point buck! We also drove along forest roads where a Golden Eagle soared near us. At night while John got a fire going to keep us warm, Bri serenaded us with her special acoustic melodies.
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Hitch 7: Wilderness Trails [6]
Hitch lead: Lisa
Member: Ben
Ben and I had a blast in the wilderness. We drove to Stanley at the start of hitch and flew in a 206 bush plane to Indian Creek Guard Station. Ben and I both had an adrenaline-filled moment when the plan dropped and our arms floated up involuntarily. The pilot just turned back and gave us a huge grin. It was awesome. We spent our week working with the Selway-Bitterroot Foundation to disassemble and reconstruct a boat ramp on the Middle Fork of the Salmon. Deconstruction was fairly simple: smash and haul. The Reconstruction was a bit more technical, with a 12 step process for installing steps (square step in a round hole) and an equally lengthy list for preparing the rails. By the end of hitch, we were able to complete the new boat ramp with level, equally spaced steps and well-fitted rails. Ben and I hand-augured 104 rebar holes, placed 52 steps, 9 rails, widened one trail, and repaired one septic system. All told, the hitch was a success.
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Hitch 7: U-Routes [8]
U-Routes began on Wednesday with Magdaline, (hitch leader) Stephani, Shannon M., Owen, Kenny, and Shannon completing routes near Moyer and spending Wednesday night at Moyer. We headed out Thursday to Iron Lake, not far from Moyer, to finish the routes in the area. Iron Lake was beautiful but very cold and the routes were a two-hour drive away. Alex joined us freezing Friday morning and with three cars and three Trimbles, we split into three groups. We finished the remaining U-Routes in the area and headed back to Moyer.
We took Saturday off and on Sunday morning we headed to Leadore. We split into three groups, each with their own car, Trimble, and area to complete. Leadore was cold in the morning but fortunately not too hot during the day. Kenny’s favorite part was defiantly the 4-wheel driving; we all thought he might have enjoyed it a little too much.
One U-Route led straight up a 300-foot hill to a very windy hilltop. Once up there Steph and Shannon found a cairn with a film container in it. In the container was a note that said, “ARESINIC Poison Creek” and had a name with date from last year. Not knowing what that was about, they added SCA U-Routes, their names, and the date. Shannon is currently trying to find a Poison Creek in the area.
Work totals:
Uroutes assessed: 332 (137 miles)
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Hitch 8: Wilderness Trails [13]
Hitch lead: Lisa
Member: Owen
Hitch 8 had Lisa, Owen, and Alex out on Little Pistol Creek trail in the Frank Church - River of No Return wilderness. The goal was to log out down trees on the trail, which runs 15 miles from the trailhead at Pistol Lake until it reaches the Middle Fork of the Salmon river. After making quick progress the first two days of work we were confident in our ability to saw everything clear down to the Middle Fork by the week's end... then we reached the burn area. Over five days we cross-cut and chopped out 411 trees over five miles of trail.
It seems that very few humans have traveled the Little Pistol Creek trail in over a year, but we saw plenty of evidence of wolves, bears, elk, and deer. The remoteness of the trail made the experience really unique; we felt like the only ones in the entire valley, and the only human sounds were our voices and the saw at work. A beautiful place and great company made it a wonderful hitch.
Work totals:
Trees cleared: 411
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Hitch 8: U-Routes [18]
Hitch lead: Kenny
Member: Nick
Our hitch went very well while doing Timber with Mike Fisher who came out and worked with us on some of the days we were out in the field. They did run out of work for us to do while on timber so we got moved to U-Routes the following Tuesday. The first day on that we had a bad day because we had an incident with the vehicle followed by our Trimble refusing to work and us having to have to go back to Moyer to get a new one then turn around and go back out to the field after a whole wasted day. We did have our day brightened back up that evening when a drunk guy came into the campsite to use the restroom and he screamed because he dropped his beer in the toilet and it was still unopened. So never a dull moment in Idaho! The rest of the week went very well and we were able to accomplish 11.2 miles of U-Routes walked. We also saw a herd of Bighorn Rams on our way to the U-Routes which we got pictures and a video which was really neat.
Work totals:
Uroutes inventoried: 41
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Hitch 8: Hydrology [20]
Hitch lead: J. Adam Martin
Members: Bri, Sarah, Tisha
Hydrology Hitch was building jack fence around Moose Creek. Moose Creek was the sight of dredging for placer gold in the forties. That process rendered a stretch of it with tall mounds of stone on which no plants grew. Several years ago the Salmon Challis National Forest Hydrology department went in and seeded the site with grass and put in willow cuttings. They also moved rock around to allow the creek to regain more of its natural meander. Our task was to build jack fence around the area to keep the cows out so that the vegetation could thrive without being trampled.
It was a new experience for Sarah, Bri, Tisha, and I as none of us had ever built jack fence. Our Hydrology contacts Dave, Jeremy, and Bill told us all about the history of the project. They also showed us how to build the fence and kept us supplied with trailer load after trailer load of wooden jacks and rails. We gradually built up our hammer arms and greatly improved our pace over two weeks. We were also helped by a forest service fisheries crew on two occasions: Eli, Bill, Beth, and Desiree. During our second week we were joined Chris, Shannon, and Aaron from the u-routes hitch. All the while we enjoyed camping at the cold, but beautiful Wallace Lake. One day when returning from camp we were greeted by a fox, and elk were common during our early morning drives to the worksite. We built a lot of fence and learned a lot about the site and cooperation.
Work totals:
Fence constructed: 2034 ft
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Hitch 8: Engineering [22]
Hitch lead: Joe
Member: Stephanie H
One thing's for sure when working with the Roads crew: you're always in for a surprise. This was my second consecutive hitch working with Engineering & Roads, and marked the 3rd for Steph H. We headed to town at 5:30am on Monday expecting to unenthusiastically trim brush and limbs along forest roads for 2 weeks, but ended up on a pretty interesting journey each day during this hitch. We began our work in Stanley, assisting Gary with replacing an extremely rusted culvert (basically a large pipe that channels water under a road). Despite the long drive, it was a really interesting experience learning about the process, and watching Gary maneuver a backhoe like a professional. The following day was spent inventorying signs along the Salmon River and numerous other forest roads for Pete. The signs must be replaced by 2015, so we needed to form a list of existing signs on these roads. The subsequent weeks were spent removing a deteriorating bridge, replacing cattle guards, replacing damaged road hazard signs, removing brush along a number of forest routes, and shuttling road equipment to various staging areas with the crew. The weeks went by fairly quickly, and allowed us to get to know the Roads crew a lot better than before. It's been a great experience working with these guys, and we both gained a new appreciation for the considerable amount of road maintenance completed each year to keep the forest accessible.
Work totals:
2 miles of brushing
1 Culvert replaced
1 Cattle guard replaced
4 Cattle guards recycled
31 Signs inventoried
16 Signs replaced
1 Bridge removed
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Hitch 5: Engineering; Fires, Breakdowns, and Rosemary [28]
Hitch leader: Steph Kopfman
Member: Tisha
Monday started out with a panic button pressed. After waking up an hour after sleeping though my 4 am alarm I raced out the door into the pitch dark and headed toward the kitchen. When I reached the kitchen Lisa and Jackie were sitting calmly eating breakfast at the table and watching me freaking out. Lisa made me toast while I was trying to make my brain function. Luckily I had packed most of the gear the day before and only had a few things to throw in a cooler and our personal gear to put in the vehicle. I asked them if they had seen Tisha and the said, “no”. I spent the next ten minutes chucking the rest of the gear into the truck and tying it down. After that was done I headed back to the kitchen in hopes of seeing Tisha there ready to go. No such luck. So I ran over to her house and all the lights were off. Not a good sign. I tip toed though their house trying not to wake everyone up. Not knowing what room she was in I just picked the first one and in my loudest whisper called her name in the dark. I heard a groan of a yeah and asked if she was awake and she said yes. Considering all the lights were off I was pretty sure she wasn’t. I told her that we had ten minutes till we had to leave and instantly her own panic kicked in. An impressive fifteen minutes later she was in the truck, vehicle checks were done, toast sitting on the center console and a 2 liter of Dr. Pepper in my lap. We were on our way. We arrived in Salmon on time and met with Pete, Jim and Gary our contacts. Tisha was sent with Jim to pick up the grader and Gary and I went to pick up the water truck. Unfortunately the water truck was by Opal Lake and required me to drive the hour and half back by Moyer. On our way there Jim calls and tells us we need fire clothing because will be working in a fire area. After picking up the truck we drove down Spring Creek. I got in my fire clothes a beautiful hunter green pant paired with a stunning mustard yellow long sleeve button up shirt. We spent the next two days trimming trees and watching Jim fix a wash out in front of a bridge. We also ran into J.P.( Fire Crew 7) whom we worked with in the fuels hitch. I promise were not stalking Fire Crew 7. At the end of the first day we came back to the truck (old Bess) and she had a flat. Jim and Gary were awesome and stayed and helped fix it. After a two hour drive back to North Fork we were too tired to fix dinner and so we ate at the restaurant there and watched the Olympics. Wednesday we drove down to Blackfoot and picked up a brand new truck and drove back. It was a long drive. Thursday Gary and us went to a campground to work and we trimmed trees and put in not so up to code handicap path. Considering we only had a shovel and a rake we did a pretty good job. We talked to several of the folks staying there and it was a lot of fun.
We started the second half of the hitch a day early by adding another member, Sarah, and volunteering to give fire information out at North Fork Ranger Station between 8-12pm. Not surprising that no one came in that late so we had Smoky the Bear kids’ activity book competitions. When were leaving old Bess made a crunching grinding noise as we were leaving the parking lot. When we got onto the highway and got up to 50 mph. it started sounding like it was on rumble strips. At midnight there isn’t much we could do so we drove slowly to the campground and just went to bed. The next morning we drove slowly to Salmon arriving 20 minutes late after dropping of Sarah for her hitch. We took it to the shop and dropped it off. Over the next few days we changed vehicles 4 times and found out Old Bess had a cracked transfer case. We were assigned a particularly bushy road that needed a lot of work by Gibbonsville that week. After work one day we were craving Mexican food and heard of a very good place there in town. When we got there the lady that runs the place told us they were not open until later that week but told us to come in and she would fix us enchiladas. She was a very very nice lady named Rosemary and she had fantastic food. She made us homemade chips and salsa and a huge plate of chicken enchiladas and offered if we came back the next day to let us take showers in one of the rental cabins she owns. We spent the rest of the week working on the road and have the pole saw breakdown on us. We also got the opportunity to tour the fire camp which we enjoyed. Needless to say in was an interesting hitch with some rough patches but filled with great people.
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Hitch 7: South Zone Vegetation [35]
Hitch leader: Sarah
Member: Erica
This was our last hitch out on South Zone Vegetation. Sarah, my leader, and I set out to complete our final stands expecting 20 percent slopes and open forest of douglas fir. We were mistaken and ended up doing plots on mostly 50 percent slopes. One stand had a particularly bad case of mistletoe which made it difficult to navigate. Another stand had us crossing a steep ravine full of willow and prickly unidentified plants from the current and rose family. Happily, we had a variety of trees in our plots with subalpine fir, lodge pole, as well as a few white bark pine seedlings. These we were surprised to find and they made things more interesting.
Once we figured out what we were up against we settled into our routine; taking Brown’s transects for downed woody material, getting plot data and recording height, DBH and damage to the trees which fell within the plots. Things were going smoothly.
Camping was fine as always, Sarah and I were able to get by without cooking. Not cooking after a long day of work was a relief. We premade all our food. A few mornings Sarah did make us pancakes and these were delicious and such a treat.
Driving every day we decided the chipmunks around Little West Fork needed to learn to be safe, and perhaps join in our culture of safety. Sarah and I attempted training them to move off the road for cars as we drove down the street honking the horn. This training (honking) was very effective and recommended for all animals hypnotized by headlights or unaware of oncoming traffic, though braking is also necessary.
But, back to work. On our third and final stand we realized our Brown’s transects were short 38 feet for large downed woody material over 3 inches in diameter. Also, we had been taking our slopes on the wrong side of the clinometer. This gave us readings of 20-30 instead of the actual 45-60% slopes, thus affecting the height of our trees, and the fixed plot radius.
So, it was back to all our plots in the two most difficult stands yet. This last hitch ended up being extended into Saturday so that we could finish our work. It was unfortunate, but we are now positive that our data is correct and we fixed our mistakes leaving South Zone Vegetation with a good name.
We also came out with a great song, the chorus of which goes:
But little did we know, in this stand from hell, due to our miscalculation, there would be no holiday from South Zone Vegetation.
Overall, this was a great learning experience. Our contacts with the forest service were so excellent and sat with us for many an hour explaining the forest to us which makes all the work so much more interesting and meaningful. We learned from our mistakes and we learned also form our contacts and our work. I will miss field work in the Challis forest, it is a beautiful place. If any hitch were to be extended I am glad that this was the one.
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Hitch 7: Trails [37]
Hitch Leader: Aaron Osowski
Members: John Horsfield, Chris Jackson-Jordan, Tisha Farris, Nicholas Larson, Adam Martin
Wildhorse Guard Station was once again the home base for Trails for Hitch 7, and, as per usual, the ‘70s shag carpeting and plush amenities of our trailer were the reasons for our high morale and consistent productivity. John, Chris and I were returning to work on Burnt Aspen trail this hitch, while newer members Tisha, Nick and Adam added to the fresh mix of the crew. With the untimely injury of our trails supervisor, Joe, we were to trust in our own judgment and planning in what would be seven days of constructing timber check steps and water bars as well as filling the trail with dirt.
Phil McNeal of the Challis Forest Service office, despite being swamped with various other ‘#1 priorities,’ provided us with guidance and motivation on the trail during his several visits. The average day consisted of constructing around 4-5 timber check steps and filling at least 100 feet of trail with dirt fill from nearby borrow pits. The whole purpose of the check steps, water bars, and dirt fill is to prevent water from running down the trail, which it does every spring thaw, leaving behind a ‘cupped’ trail that almost resembles a half circle. Despite the work quite literally being ‘dirty work,’ our crew found quite a great amount of satisfaction in what we had done every time we ascended and descended the hill, looking at the hundreds of feet of trail we had filled and erosion-preventing structures we had installed during our time at Burnt Aspen.
For our time off, on Saturday, Chris, Nick, Adam, and I took it upon ourselves to summit Mt. Borah, the tallest point in Idaho at roughly 12,662 ft. Setting off from the trailhead at 7:30 a.m., we found it encouraging as we were passing people who had started at 5:30 and 6:15 a.m. Chris and I reached the summit just before 10:30, while Nick and Adam arrived closely after at around 11:00. Standing above the smoke from the not-so-distant wildfire, we were given an awe-inspiring panoramic view of Idaho, which showed a unique combination of sage desert, farmland, forests, and mountains. The descent back over ‘Chicken-Out Ridge’ did not disappoint either, as Class 4 climbing greeted anyone who decided to take up Borah’s challenge.
SCA Trails will be stationed back at Wildhorse Guard Station next week, with another crew of six and John as the only returning member.
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Hitch 7: Timber [43]
Hitch Lead – Bri
Hitch Member – Steph Hanshaw (and Rango the Durango!)
Timber was fortunate enough to have work this hitch. This was my second Timber hitch but I hadn’t done any actual Timber work last hitch, so I was excited to get into the field and do some vegetation work. This was Steph’s first vegetation hitch in general so first we headed into the office where Jim (our contact for Timber) gave us a crash course on what he wanted us to look for and how he wanted the paperwork filled out.
We then headed out with Mike to the Hale and Sawlog China stands. These stands were in part of the forest I had never been to before and overlooked the Mustang Complex forest fire. This was an old burn area that had been replanted and we were looking to see how many trees were still living. The work was really hard; the slopes were steep and the smoke didn’t make physical exertion an easier, but Steph and I got a lot of work done. Steph and I also had a competition to see who could fall the most. I think Steph won, but I took harder falls. For week two we moved on to Withington creek where we worked hard and were able to finish up the stands there.
Some hitch highlights were: volunteering at the animal shelter one afternoon (right now they’re overwhelmed with animals from people who have been evacuated because of the fire), our first night camping at Wallace Lake when we were scared that there was a creepy murderer in the forest so I told Steph the entire synopsis of the third season of Glee to get our minds off of it, winning Steph over to my ‘no cooking while on hitch’ philosophy, and lastly having Jim complement us on our work.
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Hitch 5: South Zone Vegetation [45]
Hitch leader: Erica
Member: Owen
This was an exceptionally fantastic hitch. We moved into a new area of stands just down the road from Little West Fork. We accomplished a lot of work and examined some very large Douglas Firs. We were working around 8,000 ft most of the week but the views were blocked out by smoke for the Halstead fire. We had a great week camping in a new location and loved the morning views. We are looking forward to working more on South Zone Veg.
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Hitch 6: South Zone Vegetation [48]
Hitch lead: Owen
Member: Shannon Montano
This Veg hitch was one of our most productive yet. We continued examining timber stands in the Little West Fork area. The weather was great and the wildlife and was on the move. We saw a fox and an owl amongst the usual mule deer and red tailed hawks. We examined one stand which consisted of some of the healthier trees we have seen this summer. This stand of Douglas Fir had fast growth rates and large crown ratios. It was a great hitch and another very productive week on south zone veg.
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Hitch 7: Engineering, AKA The Hitch of Darkness [51]
Hitch leader: Baba
Member: Joe
Hello again, well as the title may suggest we didn’t really get to spend too much time in the daylight in the beginning of our hitch. In fact we spent several days getting up at a time I like to refer to as “Oh heck no O’clock”. Other than that the hitch was agreeable enough, with the exception that for the first week we didn’t really know what we were doing. Indeed Joe and I spent a lot of time second guessing our selves as to how much of the road we were clearing and whether or not we were doing a good job. In the end we decided that we did as well as we could and called it good (ha that rhymed). All in all it was a lot of fun we got to spend sometime doing things that I hadn’t done before, (like use a Blowtorch) and got to repair some cattle guards (while using a blowtorch). If you couldn’t tell I really liked using a blowtorch. We also got to spend some time the second week with other SCA members Bri and Steph H, and due to some experimental fun in the kitchen we got to eat some things that I’m sure not many people have eaten before. Like I said pretty fun but also pretty quiet hitch Gary, Pete, and Jim are really interesting guys and super funny I hope we see them again.
Written by Baba
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Hitch 6: Engineering [55]
Hitch leader: Tisha
Member: Sarah
Engineering Hitch 6 with myself (Sarah) and Tisha was surprising.
I had kind of braced myself for 2 weeks of difficult physical labor, and the first half we did spend clearing a forest road in Gibbonsville, removing trees and brush. However, the road crew was great to work with, it was good to learn the tools (the pole saw and brusher), and we had the variety of spending the second half of hitch helping with bridge inspections.
The Stoddard Pack Bridge Project is a very unique and interesting project that we got to see- they're rebuilding it from the original 1930's design mostly by hand, which involves hoisting up sections and sliding them above the water on ties.
Again, it was great to work with the engineers, learn more about the work that they do, and see more of Idaho.
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Hitch 6: Trails [59]
Hitch lead: Kenny Grilliot
Members: Hanshaw, Joe, John, Chris, Aaron
Everyday of trails we had to hike uphill to our worksite which posed a challenge due to the steep incline and long hike every morning. Most found that hiking a slow pace and drinking plenty of either coffee or Whey Protein every morning was a good way to get us up the hill. Once we were up the hill to our worksite the day would go by much smoother with all of us working really hard and having fun with it. Jokes were told and funny stories. Me and Aaron for example were working together and we would motivate each other by making weird sounds or speaking weird to get the other laughing. We stayed in a trailer at the guard station at Wildhorse which made everything so much better after a long days work. We would cook a nice meal and talk and play games before going to bed and the beds were much better than sleeping on the ground. It helped with soreness in the mornings and helped keep moral up.
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Hitch 6: Timber [61]
Hitch lead: Adam Martin
Member: Bri Wills
The first thing about timber is there was no work to do with timber. So for our first day Bri Wills and I went with our Forest Service Liaison Angie Hurley (who is also a public information officer) and ran the trap line. Running the trap line means going to predetermined stops and updating their bulletin boards with the most recent fire information. It also means you talk to everyone who is interested about what the fire is doing. The next day we gathered up stuff to set up a booth for the Forest Service at the Lemhi County Fair. The theme of the fair was 100 years tradition as it was the fairs 100th year. We set up some historical photos, old ranger journal quotes, old gear, a 1918 ranger uniform replica, fire information, and a ton of Smokey Bear swag.
The next four days were spent at the booth from 10 AM to 8 PM with Forest Service people covering some hours to give out the most recent fire information. We were asked a lot of fire questions as well, mostly why were we not personally out fighting the fire. We mostly dolled out Smokey Bear swag. Which is when we discovered that most kids will stand sheepishly off to the side until you tell them it is all right to take something, whereas parents will rob you blind despite two one item per person signs. The perk of working the booth is that on the first day the food vendors were having a slow day so they went to all the booths and took orders. That how we got ice cream delivered. We also got to spend lunch breaks watching the rodeo qualifiers. On Thursday we helped set up the petting zoo and the children’s play rodeo. We were also on hand during the attempted break out at the petting zoo when a calf kicked over the fence and made a run for it while the donkey tried to quietly slip out the opposite direction and the pig just generally freaked out. Luckily Bri caught the donkey. On Friday we had the privilege of escorting Smokey Bear himself around the fair and giving out stickers. The next day I donned the ranger uniform and the persona of Ora Cockrell the first ranger on the Salmon River Preserve. After taking down the booth on the last day we went to the rodeo with the Hurley Family fellow corps member Tisha and Shannon.
On Monday we went out to reinforce the u-routes crew (Magdaline, Baba, and Nick) at Mackay reservoir. The first day was pretty chill because they were still out so we took in the reservoir and grilled burgers when they got back. The next two days we learned about U-routes. I learned that most are up steep hills and are for fence maintenance. I also watched Maggie and Nick do the super fun work of moving all the Trimble data to the computers and logging/updating all the maps.
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Hitch 6: U-Routes [66]
Hitch lead: Nick Larson
Members: Magdaline Salinas, Matt Baba
This was my first time to be on a U-Routes hitch, and I must say, I
don’t know that anything could have prepared me for it. The hiking was hard and sleep proved to be difficult at our windy campsite. Despite that, the hitch was very enjoyable. Getting to work with Nick and Baba all week was really fun and really motivated me to work hard. The boys often tried to make the hikes easier by reminding me that we could easily take down Mt. Borah after this.
We got to see what I consider one of the more beautiful areas of the
forest (near Mackay.) Between the canyons, the old mines, and the
puppy we found on the side of the road (but did not keep) I was really happy to be hiking for my job. Bri and Adam joined us for out last 2 days of work, which was really amazing and allowed us to get even more done. Jackie also paid us a nice visit bringing along her love in Reese’s peanut butter cup form. I feel really proud of everyone on this hitch for working so hard, and was glad to be a part of this multi-year project.
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Hitch 6: ITA Wilderness Trails [69]
Hitch leader: Lisa Weidemann
Member: Erica Madden
Hitch 6 was a partnership with Idaho Trails Association (ITA) and the Selway-Bitterroot Frank Church Foundation. Three SCA folks and two ITA volunteers were going to work on the Gant Ridge trail in the Bighorn Crags. Unfortunately, both ITA volunteers were not able to attend. Undeterred, our crew took on the extra work with enthusiasm. We camped at Cathedral Lake, an oligotrophic body of water created from the last glacial recession. It was lovely. We fell asleep to a trickling melody played by the small creek near camp each night and awoke to sunlight filtering through Engleman spruce every morning. After oatmeal and coffee, we hiked out to the worksite and tool cache, stretched, and began working. The trail certainly needed our help. In some areas, the trail was indiscernible from the rest of the forest, in others, switchbacks had completely washed out. In eight days of leonine effort, we were able to repair 1630 feet of tread, realign 115 feet, create 9 drainage structures, clean 2 water bars, and place 6 stepping stones. Safe to say the trip was a success but much more work is needed on the Gant Ridge Trail.
Work Totals:
Tread repaired: 1630 ft
New tread: 115 ft
Drainage structures: 9
Waterbars cleaned: 2
Stepping stones: 6
Trees logged: 12
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