WV's Annual Leader Training Trip

Lizard Head Wilderness, CO (2010)

Arriving at the trailhead of an entirely new wilderness area is for me a truly invigorating thrill. After nearly eight months of preparation and anticipation (growing much more intense in the final two weeks), the moment has finally arrived. My co-leader Bill and I are leading a one-week service project to clean out existing water bars along the popular Navajo Lake Trail and install new water bars as needed. This work is recommended by our partners in the San Juan National Forest every two-three years to keep the trail properly maintained and drained .

Normally, the anticipation of a week spent tent camping in a glorious wilderness (under three of Colorado's famous 14,000 foot peaks) would be enough excitement for any outdoor enthusiast. But this trip has an added ingredient making it much more special -- this is Wilderness Volunteers' annual Leader Training Trip, where we train a new crop of trip leaders to join our corps of nearly 100 leader volunteers on service projects in years to come.

I arrive in Colorado with Maidie from Portland, OR and we load our backpacks and make the short two-mile hike to our selected camp, within ear-shot of a series of waterfalls on the West Fork of the Dolores River. Five intrepid trainees have chosen this week to learn a variety of outdoor leadership skills: organizing and purchasing food for as many as twelve volunteers, and packing it in panniers strapped to pack horses; preparing and cooking food for groups; keeping a sanitary and safe kitchen and properly hanging food to protect it from animals; teaching Leave-No-Trace principles; practicing strong communications with public land agency personnel; and, ultimately, being an effective backcountry leader. Wilderness Volunteer leaders are required to be trained in Wilderness First Aid and enjoy a series of benefits in return for their time spent planning and leading in the field.

Throughout our week on the Navajo Lake Trail we deal with intermittent rain, identify problem areas on the trail and fix them, take a day off to hike through an 11,500' pass, take many, many photographs, learn to be good leaders, and, perhaps most significantly, we make new friends and acquaintances along the way.

We're always identifying and recruiting new leaders at Wilderness Volunteers, and we're beginning the process of planning for next year's annual Leader Training trip. If you're an experienced outdoor enthusiast looking for new and rewarding challenges, contact Dave at dave@wildernessvolunteers.org or 801-467-4305.

Got Nature?

Great Falls National Park, VA (2010)

I'm about to begin reading Richard Louv's bestseller Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder, which argues that children need nature just as much as they need their vegetables and their playgrounds and their ABCs. It's an argument we hear more and more frequently and it doesn't apply just to children, particularly in our increasingly digital world.

In fact, there's a growing field of research into the effects of technology on our brains - on how technology affects the way we think and act - with special attention paid to the role nature might play in reversing those effects. In today's New York Times, Matt Richtel writes about a study undertaken by a group of neuroscientists who set out to explore this relationship during a week-long rafting trip on the San Juan River in Utah's Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

WV in the News

It's been a busy couple weeks for Wilderness Volunteers, with six trips completed since July 25th, including the Leader Training Trip in Colorado's Lizard Head Wilderness. Stay tuned for some photos, video, and stories from our volunteers.

A few lucky volunteers who spent a week in Colorado's Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness even made the local paper.

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.

Summer Reading List

Sawtooth Nat'l Forest, ID (2007)

For those of you looking for a good outdoor adventure read, try something off this list:

1) The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind - and Almost Found Myself - on the Pacific Crest Trail by Dan White

2) Indian Creek Chronicles: A Winter Alone in the Bitterroot Wilderness by Pete Fromm

3) Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why by Laurence Gonzales

4) Touching the Void by Joe Simpson

5) Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat

6) Undaunted Courage: Lewis and Clark and the American West by Stephen Ambrose

7) River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard

8) Rocket Boys by Homer Hickham

9) Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

10) Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing

11) A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

What books do you recommend?

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.)

Invasive Species...and Kitchen Corner

Every region of the country has invasive plants that present their own particular problems. When my wife and I moved to a state in the Deep South shortly after we married, we encountered Kudzu for the first time. Kudzu was introduced from Japan into the United States in the nineteenth century and was promoted as a forage crop and an ornamental plant. In the 1930s, farmers in the southeastern United States were encouraged to plant Kudzu to reduce soil erosion. The plant wasn’t considered a pest weed until 1953, and now this invasive swallows up houses if not kept in check. Tumbleweed, the plant so associated with desolate Western landscapes in movies, is an invasive as well, probably having arrived in the United States in seed shipments. Other invasive plants such as Russian Olive and Tamarisk (salt cedar) were purposely introduced to the United States and have become severe problems along many waterways in the western part of the country. In the Northwest, we have English Ivy as well as Scotch Broom to contend with. It is probably not news that no section of the country is free from invasive plants.

Given the pervasiveness of invasives, why even discuss them here? Although most invasives will never be eradicated from environments where they can thrive and crowd out native plants, we can do things to lessen their spread to sensitive areas. Wilderness Volunteers participants join our 50 or so trips each year and come from all over the country to do so. Unwittingly, many of these well-meaning participants may be helping spread invasives or introducing plants from their region of the country into regions where these plants are unknown. The most common way this happens is through seed dispersal, and we humans often become the vehicles for this dispersal.

What can you do as an individual? The simplest thing you can do is check your boots before leaving home for that camping or backpacking trip and make sure the soles are clean. Do the same just prior to leaving your camping/backpacking location to return home. Check your clothing as well. Many seeds can easily attach themselves to clothing or even get into pockets. If you can’t effectively clean your boots and clothing prior to heading home after a trip and have to wait until you get home to do so, there are still ways to prevent seeds from potentially germinating in a new environment. Clean boots and clothing somewhere where the soil and plant matter can be contained; then soak the plant matter in bleach before disposing of it. As volunteers who often enter sensitive wilderness areas, we don’t want to be unsuspecting agents who introduce non-native plants to an area whether it be that wilderness area or our own home territory. Below are some links to sites with more detailed information.

http://www.ucsusa.org/invasive_species/what_you_can_do/what-you-can-do-to-prevent.html

http://www.fws.gov/invasives/what-you-can-do.html

http://www.fs.fed.us/invasivespecies/prevention/index.shtml

http://www.nature.org/initiatives/invasivespecies/


PASTA AND GARBANZO BEAN STEW
Olive oil
2 cups crushed tomatoes with added puree
4 garlic cloves
3-4 tablespoons fresh or dried rosemary
8 cups vegetable broth (use 4 Knorr Vegetarian Bouillon cubes in water)
4 15-16 oz. cans garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
12 oz. Fettuccine in one inch pieces
Parmesan cheese

Heat oil in large pan. Add tomatoes, garlic, and rosemary. Simmer 5 minutes. Add broth and garbanzo beans and stir to blend. Bring to boil and add the fettuccine. Simmer until pasta is tender. Season with salt and pepper. Add parmesan separately.