WV in WV!

Dolly Sods, Monongahela National Forest, WV

In less than two weeks, Wilderness Volunteers heads to "Wild and Wonderful" West Virginia for our first ever service trip in "The Mountain State." That's right: WV in WV!

We'll spend the week ditchin' and turnpikin' - that's trail slang for cleaning up soggy, washed out trail - in the Cranberry Wilderness, which some have called "the crown jewel" of the 919,000-acre Monongahela National Forest. Home to scenic red spruce, rhododendron groves, and mossy, fern-covered forest floors, the wilderness is a designated black-bear sanctuary and boasts some of the best trout fishing in the east.

We've got a good project, a good hike, good meals, and a good group - all key ingredients for a successful trip. One could say "It's Almost Heaven..."

Stay tuned for a full report in August.

Endangered California Condors

We often see California Condors on the North Kaibab service trips, lazily soaring in thermals or perched on snags in the areas above Kanab Creek. They are huge, very distinctive looking birds with large numbers on their wings (this is a picture of number 33).

I recently learned that the singer Johnny Cash caused a forest fire in 1965 that burned 508 acres including 49 of the 53 condors being raised at a sanctuary in the Los Padres National Forest. Cash, who reportedly said, "I don't care about your damn yellow buzzards" at the time, was sued by the federal government and settled, bragging for years that he was the only person sued for starting a forest fire.

According to this report, there are currently 369 California condors remaining in the world, and in northern Arizona, several are pulled out of the wild every year to undergo chelation therapy for lead poisoning due to eating lead shot used by hunters. There is a program to give free safe ammunition to hunters and to teach them to clean up the entrails and shot left when they hunt in the North Kaibab, which has been somewhat successful although at least two condors died due to lead poisoning in 2010, and three are unaccounted for.

Spend a week on the North Rim with Wilderness Volunteers for an opportunity to see this rare, magnificent condor and marvel at the 9 - 10-ft wingspan as they take flight.

A Better Way to Get to Work...

Tired of the same old commute to work each morning? Need to liven up your work week? Take a cue from the 2009 Denali National Park Wilderness Volunteer's work crew.

And for some great music about working in Alaska, check out David Walburn's "Cabin Song," featured on this blog last winter.

Wild Montana Sky

Bob Marshall Wilderness, MT (2005)

Thoreau took to the woods for inspiration, peace of mind, and creative expression. Bill Bryson took a "walk in the woods" and wrote all about it. So did Aldo Leopold, John Muir, Teddy Roosevelt, Rachel Carson, and countless others.

And so do some of our volunteers.

Here's some poetry from one of them, which recounts an experience in Montana's Bob Marshall Wilderness a few years ago.

Montana’s dusk burns slow.
Light climbs the mountain’s pines
On needle tip toes.
Over trees that sip from storms
That help spring chase summer
Across fall’s leafy floor.
Winter has its snow cap on.
Tents pop up
Like grizzly humps.
The propane tanks hiss.
Montana’s nights cool quick.

'His mother took him to her breast...'

The black flies hummed along,
And flitted like ash fleeing
Up towards promises of dawn.

Been inspired? Have something to share? Send it in.

(Bonus points to anyone that can name that tune - the one referenced in the title and the second to last stanza.)

Get That Song Out of My Head!

In the classic tale of survival, Touching the Void, Joe Simpson recounts being stuck in a crevasse, hurt and thinking he was dying, and he had a song by the British band, Boney M, stuck in his head. "Bloody hell," he remembers thinking, "I'm going to die to Boney M." When he tells the story in the movie based on the book, that part always gets a laugh from the audience. Because we all know what it’s like to have a bad song stuck in our heads, endlessly repeating.

But it's no laughing matter when you have an inane song in your head, and no matter how many times you try to think about something else, it keeps popping up. And sometimes songs can be suggested by fellow hikers that then become stuck in your head. My worst experience with this was a girl telling me that she had the song, The Gambler, stuck in her head. For miles, I couldn't stop thinking about it. That has to be one of the worst songs around to be saddled with, and I'm not going to repeat any of the lyrics here.

My plan this year was to learn the words to some songs that I really like so I would have something to distract me from bad song hell. The rule was that the song had to be complex enough to be interesting -- no endless repetition of the chorus please. This is my current favorite distraction song:

Got out of town on a boat for the southern islands
Sailing a reach before a following sea
She was making for the trades on the outside
On the downhill run to Papeete

Water songs are always good, whether they are old Irish chanteys or river songs.

Off the wind on this heading lie the Marquesas
We got eighty feet of the water line -- nicely making way
In a noisy bar in Avalon I tried to call you
But on a midnight watch I realized why twice you ran away

Songs with mystery and longing are always good.

Think about how many times I have fallen
Spirits are using me; larger voices calling
What heaven brought you and me cannot be forgotten
I have been around the world, looking for that woman/girl
Who knows love can endure -- And you know it will

Songs with tight harmonies give you lots of options to practice different parts. Air guitar helps.

When you see the Southern Cross for the first time
You'll understand just why you came this way
Cause the truth you might be running from is so small
But it's as big as the promise - the promise of a coming day

This song was written by Stephen Stills and the Curtis brothers and covered by Jimmy Buffet; I prefer the original Crosby, Stills & Nash version. You can find a great YouTube video of them performing this song at this link.

So I'm sailing for tomorrow, my dreams are a'dying
My love is an anchor tied to you, tied with a silver chain
I have my ship and all her flags are flying
She might be all that I have left, and Music is her name

I first saw the Southern Cross (the constellation) on a Wilderness Volunteers project at Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge on the Big Island of Hawaii. It barely came up over the horizon and didn't stay there long.

So we cheated and we lied and tested
And we never failed to fail -- it was the easiest thing to do
You will survive being bested
Somebody fine is gonna come along, make me forget about loving you.
In the Southern Cross.

What are some of your favorite songs to while away the time while hiking?

Montana Time

Two years ago, a good friend of mine visited Montana and returned with some music by a folk singer named David Walburn. Apparently, he sang songs about mountains, Big Sky Country, a cabin, the American West, fishin', and bears - needless to say, a few of my favorite things and perhaps yours as well. I tossed it in the CD player and, simply put, was hooked. Since I always enjoy hearing new music and a good story, I'm passing this along.

As the story goes, after graduating from college and tiring of the 9 to 5 grind, Walburn and three friends set out from Georgia and traveled 4000 miles west to the Alaskan wilderness to build the cabin of their dreams. And they did that just that, using only hand tools, the WV way. (These guys could swing a Pulaski and saw logs with the best of 'em!) Here's the story and the song:

Looking to nature to simplify life, Walburn finds the inspiration for his music in the wilderness, and now travels the country performing at schools and venues, telling the story of Lewis and Clark's famous wilderness expedition, and encouraging young people to follow their dreams, as he has his, having worked "every job imaginable" in the process to support his music career. He's also a regular during the summer at the Many Glacier Park Hotel in Glacier National Park; if you're in the area, you may want to check him out.