STANISLAUS BACKCOUNTRY TRAIL CREW
MAY 2007 MONTHLY OVERVIEW
MEGGAN GEHRING, BACKCOUNTRY TRAILS SUPERVISOR

“Men go back to the mountains as they go back to sailing ships at sea; because in the mountains and on the sea they must face up, as did men of another age, to the challenges of nature… but in the hills and on the water, the character of a person come out.” – Abram T. Collier

The beginning of the beginning has ended and the next leg of our journey has begun. We have ventured from the crashing Pacific where we successfully complete many project with our Big Basin sponsors. From Butano State Park to Natural Bridges, we quickly became one with our M-C-L-E-O-D-S and loppers, ensuring many a safe walkway for the public.

After hastily packing up the “Stan Van”, a.k.a. our trusty steel steed, we departed from the salty shores of our front country and made our way deep into the heart of the Stanislaus’ Tuolumne River Canyon. Little did we know, many a foe lurked at the bottom waiting for our arrival. We were quickly infiltrated by rattlers, scorpions, merciless ticks, and vibrant green poison oak. Out from every rock, from every crack, from every patch of free ground, they came slithering, crawling, itching, biting, and stinging. Despite their threatening presence, we worked together with our Stan sponsors and established an indestructible fortress along side the raging Tuolumne River. Our camp quickly felt like home and here we are comfortable.

The Stanislaus 2007 crew will not and can not be defeated. Equipped with tools and our weapon of choice, static laughter, we beat the time schedule and conquered a monstrous rock slide, the hot Hamby Trail, and its even hotter formidable brother, the Indian Creek Trail.

Our weekend excursions have shown promise of higher ground and greener pasture. Climbing out of our canyon and into neighboring Yosemite many from the crew hiked thirty plus miles through the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River over Memorial Day Weekend. Others decided on a more leisure hike up towards Donahue Pass and into Pate Valley where the wildflowers have started their trailside parade.

BACKCOUNTRY SCHOOL RULES! We have learned a lot during the month of May. Many thanks to all our guest instructors: Janet Wohlgemuth for your expertise in First-Aid/ CPR, Big Basin’s UC Santa Cruz intern for the informational presentation on the history of Rancho Del Oso, Stanislaus’ own Brent Petty for your wild class on the Wilderness Act, George Hawley for your relaxing words of wisdom and massage techniques.

Thanks to crew member Kenny Wawsczyk from Michigan for spilling your guts on Auto Boo night and a shout out to our crew member Texan Mark Martinez for your class on how to be crazy on demand. As a crew, we’ve greatly improved on that.

Alexander Stewart and Larry Caldwell have decided the Backcountry Program was definitely not for them and have returned home hoping for something more suitable.
On May 23rd, we anxiously awaited two new additions to our crew. After completing a degree in Providence, Massachusetts Mike Butler joined our crew. As well as CCC Alternate Chris Clair from the San Luis Obispo Center. They complete our crew and we are happy to be whole.

We would like to express gratitude for our tough and talented foreman John Goodwin (Stanislaus 1990) and USFS sponsors Stephen Dolan (Stanislaus 2006), Nick Howe (Stanislaus 2006), and Oz Jardine (Stanislaus 2006).
Thanks too to Frank Gado, our fabulous cook, for feeding the machine by keeping our bellies chalk full of amazing food!