KLAMATH BACKCOUNTRY TRAIL CREW
MAY 2008 MONTHLY OVERVIEW
KIVA VIGIL, BACKCOUNTRY TRAILS SUPERVISOR

The month of May was a very full one. The crew continued to work upstream from Sycamore Camp on the Los Padres National Forest, improving trail and brushing the Sisquoc Trail to the South Fork Ranger station. Tessa showed up the first week of May and helped us out immensely. We all heard the booms of explosives as the Inyo/Stanislaus Forest Service crew blasted an area near Foresters Leap and we got to hike across the new rock bench at the end of the day. Many thanks to John Goodwin and Keith Dolly for their brief lessons on the safety procedures when  using explosives.
With the trail maintained to South Fork, we next headed up the Jackson Trail to tie into the trail work coming down completed by Bill Nolan and the Santa Maria CCC crew. Our crew was very grateful to Bill and his crew because they had worked farther down than we had hoped, leaving us just a very steep 1.75 mile section  near the bottom of the Jackson Trail to complete. This work happened to coincide with some very hot weather, 95o plus, however we drank water like camels and got the trail done.
We next set our sights downstream from camp, working along the river towards Marzaut Schoolhouse. The watershed where we’ve been working was were heavily burned by the Zaca Fire last year.  As a result, the river is full of sediment that washed down from the barren hillsides. The trail crosses the river 16 times in a 3- mile section so just finding the old trail was a bit of a chore. Knowing that the river bed would be changing a lot as the river moved the sediment downstream, we focused on keeping the trail on the stable grasslands or higher. When we had to cross the river, we greatly widened the crossings, and used much flagging and cairns to delineates the right of way. With much work, we were able to reopen the trail to Cliff Camp and tie into the very difficult to find trail up Big Bend Canyon.
All too quickly, our time in the Los Padres was over. We said good-bye to our cook Sara Bull, her dog Ky, and headed up the Jackson Trail for the last time. Some of our team were a bit overwhelmed by the steepness of the trail, possibly due to overloaded backpacks, but we all made it back to the trailhead safely. We met our USFS sponsors Joe Duran and Dave Weaver at the top and were treated to a fine lunch and soda surprise provided by Joe. We arrived at the San Luis Obispo CCC center at 8:30 PM and bunked down for the night. OK, so maybe we took a hot shower or three, then we bunked down for the night.
Bright and early the next day it was off to Yosemite and our new home at the trail barracks, called the Comfort House, in Wawona. The journey went well and we met our new foreman Jeremy Brown (Yosemite-1 ’98),  trail worker Anna Asp (Yosemite-I ’06), and our cook Jen Meno (Stanislaus ’95). And that’s about it. We’re looking forward to checking out Yosemite and gleaning much knowledge from the sponsors we’ll be working with each day. Can’t wait to see some Giant Sequoia’s!
Oh yeah. In case someone out there is paying attention, we did not receive any suggestions for a good name for our crew. We’ve decided we’ll be the Klamath crew but you must pronounce it like it’s a question. The Klamath Crew?  Klamath? Cool.

PERSONNEL CHANGES:
Dylan Kennedy and Orlando Orona decided to seek other paths this summer. Best of luck to them both.
ODDS AND ENDS:
Here are some big THANK YOU”S!
Thanks to Joe Duran for giving this crew a project right in the backcountry, allowing us to work and explore the magnificent San Rafael Wilderness. As well, as supporting us, sending in burritos, way too much soda, lunch on the last day and building the finest spa this section of the Sisquoc has ever seen. Thanks Joe.
Thanks to Tessa for the visit and the many words of wisdom. See you soon.
Thanks to Sara Bull for the great cooking and mothering all of us. You’ll be in our hearts for the remainder of the season.
Thanks to the San Luis Obispo CCC Center for the use of all the gear, tools, and food that we used while in the wilderness. We couldn’t have done it without all the SLO staff working above and beyond duty to keep us sheltered and fed. Thank-you!
Thank you to Tom Harrington for the loan of additional cooking equipment and food ordering tips. Thanks!