National Smokejumper Association Trail Maintenance Program Annual Report for 2011
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Eastern Washington University EWU Digital Commons Trails Reports 1-1-2012 National Smokejumper Association Trail Maintenance Program Annual Report for 2011 National Smokejumper Association Trails Crew Committee Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.ewu.edu/trails_reports Recommended Citation National Smokejumper Association Trails Crew Committee, "National Smokejumper Association Trail Maintenance Program Annual Report for 2011" (2012). Trails Reports. 1. https://dc.ewu.edu/trails_reports/1 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by EWU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Trails Reports by an authorized administrator of EWU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. NATIONAL SMOKEJUMPER ASSOCIATION January 2012 TRAIL MAINTENANCE PROGRAM ANNUAL REPORT FOR 2011 NSA Trails Program Volunteers of the Year ———————- The Back Country Horsemen of Montana and Idaho TABLE OF CONTENTS Johnson‘s Corner Report 2 Logistics Report 2 Accomplishment Report 2 Blodgett Canyon Trail 3 Blue Creek Trail 3 Wilderness Canoe Base (BWCA) 4 Boundary Waters Trail (BWCA) 6 Bunker Creek Trail 8 Carey Dome Lookout 8 The National Smokejumper Association Trails Program has enjoyed an outstanding relation- Challenge Creek Cabin 9 Gobi Restoration 9 ship with the Back Country Horsemen in Montana and Idaho over the past thirteen years. If it weren‘t Clean Slate Fencing 10 for the supportive and continued exceptional efforts Dixie 11 of them, we in the Trails Program would not have Glacier National Park 11 had the successes that we and the Forest Service Hang Tough 12 have enjoyed. We definitely would not have been North Fork Corral 14 going into the wilderness areas to perform mainte- Priest River Experimental Forest 15 nance and construction work on trails and facilities. San Juan NF Glade Guard Station 17 Jim Renshaw and his pack string crew exemplify Sawtooth Sign Installation 19 the partnership we enjoy with the Back Country Stanley Sign Crew ―A‖ 21 Horsemen. Vigilante Station Fencing 22 The NSA Trails Program is taking the op- West Virginia, Monongahela NF 24 portunity to dedicate this year‘s Annual Report to North Fork of the American River 25 West Yellowstone Jr. Smokejumper Center 26 the Montana and Idaho Back Country Horsemen as exemplified by Jim Renshaw and his pack string Photo Gallery 27 crew of Larry Cooper, Joe Robinson, and Paul McConnell. They packed us into the Selway- Edited and Published by Fred Cooper (North Bitterroot Wilderness in 2011, as well as for the Cascades ‗62) past several years. 1 Johnson's Corner Report By Stan Linnertz (Missoula '61) September 14, 2011 was declared Smokejumper picture display continues to grow. "Smokejumper Day" by Johnson's Corner, one of And thanks also to Chuck, Chef at Johnson's Cor- our most staunch supporters of the NSA Trail Crew ner and on the Dixie and Sawtooth Trails Projects Program. The day was a barn burner -- thanks to in 2011 who posted the pictures on display sheets. Chauncey and Christy Taylor, the owners of Thanks also to Doug Wamsley (Missoula Johnson Corner. That day, they donated 15 percent '65) for spending the day shaking hands and talking (over $1,700) of their restaurant sales to the NSA to the folks that stopped by. Doug says several of Trails Program. This is in addition to two projects these folks were very interesting. Thanks also to over the past several years for which they provide Doug and Mary Lou Howard who stopped by and food and the services of Chef Chuck Orona made Chuck's day. (Associate). If you would like to send a "thank you" to Thanks to Wild Bill Yensen (McCall '53) Chauncey and Christy, send it to their web site at and Steve Carlson (Idaho City '62), the www.johnsonscorner.com. Order their famous Cinnamon Rolls online! ———————————————————————————————————————————————————-- Logistics Report By Gary Weyerman (Missoula '63) We sent out 1,300 meals with our project The "big move" made in 2011 was the pur- crews this summer. We supported ten crews with chase of a storage corner and locating it at the Ae- food, cooking gear, and tools that varied in crew rial Fire Depot. In the Spring of 2012 several of us size from 6 to 14. One crew went out in June with will be building shelves and moving gear from Jon the other nine going out in July. Providing the food McBride's (Missoula '54) storage shed to the AFD and all the tools and gear in tip top shape would not site. have been possible without the assistance of many A very special thanks to Kim Maynard folks including as a minimum, the following: Rod (Missoula '82) and Al Chambers (Associate) for McIver, Chuck Fricke, Tom Blunn, Jim Phillips, their kind and generous cash donation for the vast Dick Hulla, Ron Larson, Wendell Beardsley, majority of funds needed to purchase and move the Bob Whaley, and Ted Nyquest. steel storage container to AFD. Thank you Kim and Al! ———————————————————————————————————————————————————-- Accomplishment Report—2011 By Fred Cooper (North Cascades '62) We had 21, one-week projects in 2011 in over $200,000 (based on the per hour value of vol- eight different states. There were 175 Jumper and unteer services provided by the Forest Service). Associate volunteers contributing 10,500 hours For 2012, we have 24, one-week projects (five person years) of service. Approximately 125 planned requiring the services of nearly 200 volun- were Jumper volunteers and 50 were Associate vol- teers in nine different states. Make your selection of unteers. The value of services provided equates to projects you want to enjoy and sign up by April 16. 2 Blodgett Canyon Trail By Hall Howell (Missoula ‗55) The relatively short drive to the Blodgett how to cut, we cleared a path. That night we were Canyon trail started on a sunny morning, and awakened by a rock slide across from our camp. thanks to Gary Baker (Missoula ‗67) and his truck, No one got out of their sleeping bags. It would all of our supplies went with us. Our crew included have been too late anyway if it had been going to three generations of Howells, myself, George, Lu- hit our camp. cas, and Geof, (all three Associates) and Tom The third night a thunderstorm came Boatner (Fairbanks ‗80), Scott Bates (McCall through and as we started up the trail to work we ‗69), Lin Robbins, (Associate), and Karin Con- found six more trees across the trail that we had nelly (Associate). already cleared, such is fate. That day found an- We started on the easy 7-mile hike to the other jackpot similar to the first one. campsite. It is a beautiful trail alongside Blodgett The next day, more rain all night and till Creek all the way to an open meadow. The packers noon. All in all, three major blow-downs that took passed us and had our gear unloaded by the time a day each and about four miles of trail cleared. we arrived. Over 60 logs were cut with most in the 18 to 36- After a short mile walk the next morning, inch diameter range with many 6 to 8 feet over- we were astounded to see a massive blow-down head. with 24 to 30-inch trees stacked one on top of an- Finally, on the day we hiked out the sun other blocking the trail. Since this was inside the returned and we got in a little fishing as we hiked. Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness we had only Pulaskis Thanks to Karin, the food was great and thanks to and crosscuts to deal with them. So it began. With a Tom and Scott, the younger Howells obtained a lot of sweat and engineering about where to cut and good education on Jumper stories. Till next year -- Hal Howell. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————— Blue Creek Trail By Tim Aldrich (Missoula ‗62) The Blue Creek Trail Project Team for 2011 in- This crew of relative newcomers and obviously cluded Nancy McIver (Associate) our great cook, lightweights headed for the headwaters of Grass- and the following Missoula jumpers: hopper Creek in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge Na- YEAR YEARS tional Forests on July 17. Emotions were running NAME TRAINED JUMPED high after sweeping the awards during the previous Jeff Kinderman 75 32 day‘s saw competition. Arriving at Harrison Park Robert McKean 67 11 Trailhead located just off the Pioneer Mountains Joe Chandler 71 30 National Scenic Byway, team members headed for Kim Maynard 82 9 a large, gloriously green meadow in the nearby Bruce Ford 75 31 Shoestring Creek drainage that would be base camp William Thomas 75 25 for the week. With the able support of Dick Hulla David Dayton 69 9 and his two horses and two young men and three Rod McIver 64 20 beasts of burden from the nearby ranger district, we Dick Hulla 75 21 were soon setting up tents, organizing the kitchen Perry Whittaker 71 6 and eating areas and, of course, digging the cus- Tim Aldrich 62 7 tomary deep hole with an appropriately sized and TOTAL YEARS JUMPED WAS 201 -- an aver- shaped log over the top of it. age of 18.27 years per person. 3 Due to scheduling problems with the packer who This young, well conditioned, highly intelligent and was involved in the Bannack Days Celebration on motivated team of outstanding individuals did an the 17th, some of our large and heavy items were, amazing amount and variety of high quality work with the able assistance of the Forest Trail Program and did it without a single injury. Job well done! Manager, Gordon Ash, delivered to camp the next This was another great project with a great morning.