Life Lessons on the Sierra Trail: 40 Years' Experiences in the John Muir Wilderness by Allen Clyde

Author:Allen Clyde [Clyde, Allen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Travel, United States, West, Mountain (AZ; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; UT; WY), Sports & Recreation, Animal Sports, Equestrian, hiking, Mountaineering, Self-Help, Personal Growth, General
ISBN: 9781610353779
Google: Rd0IEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Linden Publishing
Published: 2020-11-17T23:41:59.482520+00:00

CHAPTER 6

Trail Trip

“Wake up, Pablo. Time’s a wastin’. Got a big trip ahead and a lot of work to get started,” Clyde hollered from out on the loading dock.

Pablo was soon arriving, coffee cup in hand and with a big yawn. “We got all this equipment to get loaded, about eight packhorses’ worth. Going out for eight days on a trail-clearing trip,” Clyde continued. “The US Forest Service has provided four seasonal employees for this venture. I provided a cook. He’s right over there; name’s Robert Golden. Robert came in late last night with a truck full of food and kitchen equipment. The Forest Service personnel will be here shortly.

“This whole trip has taken years to formulate. For years, the Forest Service has been hauling in the trail crew, simply dropping them off and leaving. They then had to walk out each day and with handsaws commence clearing logs from the trail, then hike back to camp. Each day the walk got farther and farther to the worksite, all on the clock. I’ve always felt this inefficiency was incredibly wasteful.

“As you can imagine the work production got steadily less as each day went on during the tour due to the backtrack hiking required. Was always told by Forest Service managers, they didn’t think the crew would want to move camp all the time. I repeatedly told them to just directly ask the crew and you would find out different. That seemed to be too much trouble for the managers. This coming from top-level people, who virtually never come out into the wilderness themselves but think they know best. The ground troops could only shrug their shoulders and continue to say what can they do. Most of these trail crew members have college degrees of their own but are at the bottom of the totem pole and were only being ignored.

“Seeing the reroute damage the public did by having to go around these obstacles for no sound reason, only ego, just infuriated me. I finally had to volunteer with all the packing, livestock, food, and cook to get this approved. All the Forest Service had to do was provide the four trail personnel, who are already on the clock anyway. Almost took an act of Congress to get the thumbs-up.

“It’s been one heck of a winter and trees are down like matchsticks all over the wilderness trail system. Would take ’em five years at the old rate to maybe get caught up. Also, the Wilderness Act has a provision that allows the Forest Service personnel to use chainsaws, but prior approval is required. You rarely see this because it’s amazing how mid- to upper-level managers can inject their personal agendas and subject all the workers and public to submit to their interpretation. Over time, the public and the wilderness itself suffer. This lack of efficiency is costly. Their only answer was just ‘Give us more money and we’ve always done it this way.’ Well, that doesn’t sit well with me, especially in today’s world.

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