I meant to get this posted the week after I talked about last year’s weekend backpacking trip on the Pacific Crest Trail in Out With The Girls. But other things kept popping up and here it is already 2017!
Since I have started backpacking, almost all my trips have been with other women. And solo.
If you have been following me for while, you know that my time overnight in the Great Outdoors with members of the opposite sex has been limited to a few failed “backpacking tests” with less than worthy potential partners.
At the end of July last summer, I had an opportunity to do a log out trail work party on my newly adopted section of the Pacific Crest Trail between Janus and Pear Lake above Stevens Pass. As a trail steward, my responsibility is to scout the trail as soon as the snow melts to see what needs to be repaired from winter’s damage, as well as take care of minor trail work like brushing. I can also plan for work parties to go in and do maintenance to tend to wear and tear on the trail. Hopefully, before all the hikers come “thru”.
When I wrote about my gals trip, I left out that I had used that outing to scout the trail for potential logs to cut out for when I returned with the work party later that week.
I had only done a few day chainsaw work parties up to this point, and thought it would be a lot like those, where someone else used the chainsaw and I came along and helped clear out the cut pieces. It’s called “swamping”. I knew that because we would be in wilderness, we would be using crosscut saws instead, but thought my role would be the same. I had no experience using one of them before.
I had been in contact with Dave, our leader, about the logs I had counted on the trail, as well as I few spots I thought could use some trail maintenance, like clearing drains. I also reported that we had run into the forest service who had plans to log out the section we were going in to do. When I got back from my trip with my girlfriends, I let him know and thankfully they were able to clear up the miscommunication and send the forest service on to do the section above Pear Lake which needed a lot of help.
Not that this section didn’t have its own share. There was plenty to do…
I was both excited and nervous to be going on the trip because it would not only be my first backpacking work party but the first one where I was the only woman.
It was 4 guys and me.
Our trip started at the Smithbrook trailhead just past Stevens Pass. We met, had our trip debriefing and divided up the tools we would be using. This is Dave taking us through our safety procedures.
Then we hiked in to the junction with the PCT and made our way north towards Janus Lake. It was at the first log that I realized things were going to be different than I had thought
I was told to watch because I would be helping. We were all be equal on this trip, and I would be using the crosscut saw just like everyone else! We had broken up into two teams, taking turns at the logs as we came to them. Dave and Jim gave instructions as we went along and then we all practiced what we learned.
It was SO fun.
We managed to clear a few logs before we reached Janus Lake where we would be spending our first night on the trail.
While I was packing for this trip, I couldn’t help but think about how things might be different with all guys versus when I am out with my girlfriends. For example, I started using a hammock the summer before and as long as the weather promised to behave, I was foregoing my trusty tent for the total comfort of my hammock. But a tent provides a convenient place to change clothes. I don’t need this with the girls, but what would I do on this trip?
I decided to take my hammock anyway, just like I had a few days earlier and figure it out. Which I did.
I wasn’t the only one with a hammock, so we spent some time picking out trees and comparing systems. We sat around making dinner and talking about hiking and telling trail stories. Dave and Jim have been logging FOREVER and had some pretty good tales to tell. Or should I say, lessons learned. There were even a few thru hikers stopped for the night and it was fun to get to chat with them as they headed up to Canada on their last few 100 miles.
Then the next morning, it was back to clearing trees.
This was only a short walk up from Janus. This was quite a bundle of trees as you can see in the pictures from my previous trip.
Logging is not a speedy process. I now know why you see a bunch of guys standing around in a huddle on construction sites. Cutting a log takes a lot of careful planning and consulting in order to do it safely and effectively. Everyone’s opinion is weighed. There is often not just one way and it’s important to take time to do it right.
You also don’t “make miles” like you do on a long distance hike. You have an expectation of a much slower pace, which can take some adjusting to. You are not only carrying your backpacking gear, you are carrying heavy tools.
We took a lot of breaks because the weather was hot.
But who can complain when the views are so amazing?
We passed more thru-hikers and even a small family of women and girls with a mule backpacking for the weekend. They were thankful that we were helping to clear some of the trees to make it easier to maneuver with their pack animal.
I even had the chance to meet and chat with a tall wiry guy for a bit who said he was out from the East Coast doing a small section hike of the Pacific Crest Trail. He was ultralight and wearing Altras like I do. Somehow, we got to talking about the Pacific Northwest Trail (Montana to the Washington Coast) and how he hoped that it would gain some more of the popularity that the PCT had and how it had a new executive director, Jeff Kish. I told him I was familiar with the trail and Jeff and hoped to hike it some day. As we got ready to part ways and exchange names, he casually says that he is Ron Strickland. RON STRICKLAND???? Pathfinder? The founder of the Pacific Northwest Trail??
I really wished I would have thought to take a picture!
On our second night, we stopped at a creek just past Grizzly Peak for the night and spent the next day continuing to log our way north.
Our third night was at Pear Lake, staying at the same camp site I had been at with my friends earlier in the week.
I have to say I was pretty tired by this point in our trip and it wasn’t long that night before I was laying in my hammock relaxing. Sore but satisfied. The guys and I chatted for a few hours through mesh until we drifted off to sleep. Everyone was beat.
On our last day, we hiked back down the PCT to the junction with Top Lake and headed east to the trailhead 5 miles out where Dave had left his van. I have taken this trail before on an overnight from Fortune Ponds but hadn’t gone past the lake a short mile in.
It wants you to believe it is flat and tame. What you really can’t tell on the map is, after you pass the lake, the trail is more of a boot path straight up and over Fall Mountain, something none of us had mentally prepared for! You really take the easy grade of the PCT for granted until you have to lug up a side trail with trail maintenance tools.
The forest service had already logged this trail out, so we mostly cut back some brush, pulled up saplings crowding the trail and cleared some drainage that was causing a major mud pit on one section.
We were tired, but not in a hurry to go home.
We made it to the trailhead around lunch time and were soon on our way back to where we had started at the Smithbrook trailhead.
But I digress.
I have to say, this was one my favorite work parties last summer. Not only because of all I learned about crosscut saw work, but because I, even as a novice, I had held my own.
And even better, I just received an email from Dave inviting me to come and join his crew of guys this summer to log out my section again.
Oh, yeah. Me and the boys.
I can’t help but say that the only real difference between my girlfriend trip and this one besides the work was that we gals ate MUCH better. I might have to let those guys put me in charge of food this time…it KILLED me to see what they were eating.
Edited for 2017-18: Think you might be interested in volunteering on the Pacific Crest Trail this summer? Do you have questions or want to meet some of us beforehand and hear about what we have planned? Join us on December 17th in Seattle at our North 350 Blades Mid Winter Social or, if you don’t live in the area, go to the PCTA website and find your own regional group and find out how you can be a part of the great work we are doing. Also, look for our trails skills events in 2018 on the PCTA Volunteer page, a great way to meet us and learn more about how to build and maintain trails!
P.S. And in case you were wondering, most of the crews I have worked have had a split distribution of men and women on them. It is definitely an equal opportunity activity. And the food is AWESOME because we are supported by a camp cook. I talk more about doing trail work on the Pacific Crest Trail on my post, Signs of Change.
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