KLAMATH BACKCOUNTRY TRAIL CREW
JULY 2007 MONTHLY OVERVIEW
KARLSON HUBBARD, BACKCOUNTRY TRAILS SUPERVISOR

Overview
Move over Honesty, Integrity, Patience, and Understanding, there’s some new guys in town and they’re the bad asses in the coral -. Ridicule and Selfishness. Now young bucking colts are as wooley and untamed as the wild horses of Wyoming. In fact we’re not entirely certain they’re not from that state.
Yeah, it’s kind of ironic that these two hooligans showed up during the one month we least needed them. Hell we were all dead tired during July and our focus was waning. I guess maybe that’s how Ridicule and Selfishness snuck in. Man they sure made their presence known amongst our stock string and our crew. Our other faithful mules did their best, along with the crew, to beat them back, make them sore. It took some time and little empathy on everyone’s part to show these new animals how to behave. There sure were some good battles fought.
In the end Ridicule and Selfishness learned that they just couldn’t fit in with our string and our crew. The only problem was there was nowhere else they could go and with our final camp move just around the corner and our food running low… well they found themselves in a prickly situation.
Yep, with the ending of July we decided to celebrate with one last feast before we said goodbye to the Tom Taylor Cabin & English Peak. It was house steaks all around until we all had to unbuckle our pants. Put a little seasoning on them, and even Ridicule and Selfishness will taste great.

Curriculum
Tell me your deepest, darkest secrets. Shhh. Show us those skeletons in your closet. July was filled with one life story after another and in the end there was nothing sacred anymore for we had all exposed our souls to one another and were met with understanding and compassion. Life Stories.

Odds and Ends
Now there are five other Backcountry Crews who are also on their epiphanic journey across time and space and spiritual awakening zones that we want to recognize. Thank you five other crews for being the water in our oasis, the stairway to an elevated, higher, more intelligent plane where we have gathered strength in our souls like nuts and berries in the belly of a big old furry grandpa. Without you our efforts and trials and tribulations wouldn’t be worth a hill of beans in a country that has never heard or seen beans. Thanks

Quotes
“There’s a time to dig and a time to play cribbage. Let’s get it on.”  Ben Fergus – 2006 World Cribbage Champion who passed through camp while backpacking.

“I drank dirt and ate the rocks and I’m still here. So don’t tell me about being cold!”  Gus Merst – Naturalist that was backpacking in the Marbles.

“Some men wince at the thought of going home and leaving the mountains. I like those kinds of guys.”  Dennis Torlino – Old trail worker from 1924.