KINGS BACKCOUNTRY TRAIL CREW
JULY 2007 MONTHLY OVERVIEW
KIVA VIGIL, BACKCOUNTRY TRAILS SUPERVISOR

Overview
When living in the woods, there are some obvious clues as to the passage of time. The waters have finally started to warm up. Our new mosquito friends greet us each morning with their pointed hellos. The days have gotten longer. The beards have gotten longer. Hopefully tempers haven’t gotten shorter. One of these in-your-face., undeniable telltales comes with the inevitable cranking out of another monthly report. Oh joy!
Now, don’t get us wrong. We know there are lots of folks who want to know what we’re up to. Folks that have helped make this whole summer a reality. Perhaps folks like you, the reader. But could you imagine some of the other stuff we’d rather be doing than sitting here, writing the expose’ of our last month in the Sierra’s?
Maybe we’d prefer to be moving our camp from Junction Meadow to Charlotte Lake. You know how camp moves are--tons of fun with very little stress. It begins the day of bumping all the tools, the easy to carry rock bar, the feather lite sledgehammers, chainsaws and gas cans that wouldn’t dare spill over inside our backpacks. And if it’s all just a measly five miles, each step uphill, that just adds to the joy. The tools are soon followed up the next day by all us crewmembers, toting along like exotic turtles, backpacks filled to bursting with all of our must-have possessions. After a long day of moving camp, most of us trail workers can’t wait for night to fall cause that’s when we get to chase bears. You know, the kind of bears that can slink into the middle of camp, carefully stepping over the still forms of all us exhausted trail workers, grabbing the bag of oats brought up by the mules, and then spreading it all over the shoreline of Charlotte Lake as we chase it. Yeah, maybe we’d prefer to do that.
Possibly another scenario that might be of interest to us trail workers? Could it be, working on the trail? The heady scent that granite makes as you rend it to tiny pieces, raising the soil level of the trail ruts running through Junction Meadow. The feverish hunt for sod in the far reaches of the same meadow, lovingly placed to eradicate the old trail like some environmentalist’s version of Tetris™. The creation of a brand new path in the forested sides of Junction Meadow, the roar of the chainsaw pushing through downed trees and the clunck of shovel and mattock as the tread is formed. Perhaps we’d like to roll some rocks on the steep hillsides of the Rae Lake Loop, furiously building retainers  before the next hiking groups passed. A brisk jaunt to Glen and Kearsage Passes to do some maintenance always rounds out the week well. Sometimes us trail dogs want something to really sink our teeth into, like two weeks of rock projects on Glen Pass or re-routing the tremendously steep trail up Kearsage Pass.
Not compelling enough distractions for you? For some it’s not the draw of physical labor that beckons the soul, but the promise of stimulating discussions as we pursue our educational goals. The creation of our Mission Statement brought with it untold hours of excitement as we ruminated on the very existence of ourselves as a team, what brought us here and, you know, stuff. We started in on our T-shirt idea, planned some upcoming events like our Backcountry Prom, Olympics and a yet to be named September Festival. We read the Declaration of Independence and discussed our roles as citizens of the U.S. We learned about meadows. While doing all of this, thoughts about the upcoming monthly report never once cross our minds.
Sometimes our distractions came from outside the mountains. Steel Sims came up to Junction Meadow to visit Kalisa Zuris and have a nice weekend at Center Basin. Devin O’Connel showed up for a week at Charlotte Lake to visit Katie Nelson, volunteer on the trail for a couple of days and impress all of us with the numbing amount of cheesy pop songs he could rattle off. Agnes Vianzon celebrated her birthday and had 8, yes, count them 8, friends climb over from the east side to visit for a couple of days.
There, we said it. There’s lots going on out here. Too much to have to slow down and pen a stuffy old monthly report. Apologies but maybe we’ll do better next time. In fact, in an attempt to inspire us, why don’t you write us a monthly report. We’ll be happy with just the highlights, car chases, that sort of thing. Just don’t put it on the internet or we’ll never see it. A plain, original letter works best. Yeah, the original internet.

Personnel Changes:
Alex Cruz had to head back to Oakland to deal with issues at home. We wish him all the best.

Mission Statement

We are the 2007 Kings Canyon Backcountry Trail Crew and we are here to “get some”. If this sounds ambiguous, allow us to elaborate. “Getting some” is not restricted to moonlit nights of slipping on skin-tight long johns and indulging in oatmeal /tapatio /mac and cheese powder concoctions. To “get some” is our way of life; our mission. You “get some” when Jay Connors calls seconds, you “get some” jumping into the creek to bathe, you “get some” chasing a small dog named Ginger around the campfire, you “get some” when you call out that seven letter word that starts with “q” during group crossword puzzles, you “get some” in dish line, you “get some” in hiking. This is what our crew does.
Sure, we have dreams, fantasies of standing on cliff sides adorned in princely robes; to frolic like meadow ponies, nobly saving the lives of the injured as we migrate to the summits; to mount bears and ride them like rhinestone cowboys along Bubbs Creek.
These dreams keep us going, however we are realists. We’re not going to change the world over night, we’re just trying to get our butts up by 6:00am to make lunch; get that retainer-bar finished by the end of the day, make traveling easier for the mules. Not sweat the petty stuff, but pet the sweaty stuff.
Contrary to popular belief, to “get some” doesn’t always constitute as taking, there’s giving involved. We try to give more than we take, but give because we want to give, which sort of reciprocates back to taking, in some abstract linguistic fashion. We don’t know, we ain’t no philosophers here…
But you “get some” when you lend that cigarette, offer to carry that rock bar, share that lunch, give a hug, express empathy, attempt to communicate, play a song by the fire, smoke out those pits, carry those jungle cans, give an affirmation. We’re not trying to be boy scouts, but maybe put a smile on someone’s face when they’re down. Cause out here, everyone gets down once in a while.
So we get some. Get some laughs, get some stories, get some peaks, get some proper body mechanics, get some passes, get some back rubs, get off peoples dirt, get some pain, get some love, get something we can take out of the backcountry, to share in our future relationships. Cause we know it’s going down… in the worst way possible… slow motion.
In the words of our departed Donald Haywood,
                                    Good Looking