YOSEMITE 1 BACKCOUNTRY TRAIL CREW
SEPTEMBER 2007 MONTHLY OVERVIEW
Kevin Livingston, BACKCOUNTRY TRAILS SUPERVISOR

Overview:
            We didn’t finish the month of September in the mountains but we did finish our project, and right on time. Rocks were rolled, double jacks swung, buckets filled with dirt and logs grip-hoisted into place. With just two days remaining, our mighty foreman Doug Matheson shattered his thumb in a whirlwind of rock and hammer and had to be helicoptered to the clinic for medical attention. Our final project was finished with only one day left before we began to pack up camp and head on out and on to Debriefing at Camp Mather.

            Our original end-of-season crew plan was to hike from our backcountry camp to the east side of the Sierra, but we had to cancel the cross-Sierra hike when we found out our sponsors were not able to shuttle our vehicles over Tioga Pass.  We decided to hike 17 miles back to Hetch Hetchy where our season began in April, retrieve our rigs, then drive over Tioga and down the east side to Mount Whitney. After finishing the climb up the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states, I picked up an emergency phone message from Yosemite requesting that we return as quickly as possible to assist with a search for a missing hiker.  We drove many hours to get back to Yosemite to help with the search, but found out the hiker had been found safe and sound five minutes before we arrived.  The time between leaving camp and the search was spent exploring the east side to climb Mt Whitney, and explore the Mammoth area and the hot springs it has to offer.

            After returning to Yosemite we spent time playing ultimate Frisbee on a perfect field in Groveland, CA and enjoyed pizza from Two Guys Pizza in the same town. We then headed on to Camp Mather and got together with all the other crews to swap stories and experiences. We received our crew shirts and newspapers, crossed the stage thereby gaining our Backcountry patches, hats, and certificates completing the season. The whole thing was capped off with Peter Lewis bidding us farewell along with the mountains and the cold and rain announcing to us it was time to go. Let it be known that the crew members of Yosemite-I 2007 made mud pie out of mud and I feel honored to have worked and served along side of them.

Curriculum:

            We spent a week and a half reading our end of the season story “USFS 1919. A Ranger A Cook and A House in the Sky” by Norman MacLean. We were also taught a class on how to fill out applications for future employment for trails and NPS jobs in general. We had one last great game of Ultimate Frisbee.

Quotes:
 “Smoke and mirrors” – Max Gray

“I want to thank the little people.” – Doug Matheson