Buffalo River Trail Project

In 2010, Wilderness Volunteers ran three trips along Arkansas's Buffalo National River, assisting in the construction of the 26-mile Buffalo National River Trail. Here's a look at these volunteers in action:



Piqued your interest in a project? Check out the 2011 project list here, and sign up today.

2010 WV Year In Review

To say that Wilderness Volunteers had a great year would be an understatement. WV completed forty-seven projects with a total of 529 participants. Some of WV's accomplishments include the maintenance of seventy-one miles of trails, the construction of seven miles of new trails, the building of 166 waterbars of various constructions, the building of eighty check dams, and improving thirteen more.

WV participants did much more as well, removing three hundred trees from trails, closing five miles of trails and one mile of road, removing five miles of fencing, 153 illegal fire rings, sixty-three illegal campsites, and 61,000 invasive weeds (some of them tree-sized). Participants also placed one mile of fencing, restored seventy-five campsites, surveyed thirteen square miles of area for weeds, completed two miles of archaeological survey, and planted 7,403 plants. And this still isn't everything; there was salmon and sea turtle habitat restoration and much more. Now that's a year of which we can all be proud!

Volunteers of all ages and backgrounds participated in 2010—to Alaska and Florida, Hawaii and Maine and places in between. Some traveled to experience the tranquility and solitude of wilderness; some to make new friends. Whatever their reasons, all these volunteers came to give something back to one of our country's precious national forests or parks. The description below, composed by a first-timer, demonstrates the amazing diversity of goals and experiences people bring to Wilderness Volunteers trips. Enjoy!

By Jacque Phillips

My 20-year-old niece and I participated in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness project during the last week of July. It was a week of connections. Connections to a group of people we had never met. Connections to the mountains we had never seen. Connections to the trail for which we were responsible. And, for us, the most important connection of all.

We were not "real" campers like other group members. We liked the hard work but not the hard ground. We did not have cool gear but instead had whatever we had borrowed from friends and bought from Goodwill. Yet while we laid in our flooded tent and missed our morning lattes, we connected. We connected through laughter—the kind of laughter that we can't stop. Laughter because it has rained for hours and we're laying in a mud puddle and we have to go to the bathroom. Laughter because we can't sleep and we're worried that our laughter will wake up the cool people on our trip.

We connected through powerful conversations on the trail while we worked and while we took breaks. Those were the conversations we needed to have. Those were the conversations we came for. My only nephew died when he was eighteen. He spent the final summer of his life working on trails in those same mountains. And so of all the connections during the trip, the most important one was with him.

Give Something Back in 2011

Selway Bitterroot Wilderness, ID (2010)

The 2011 Wilderness Volunteer service projects are on the website - all 55 of them!

Spread across 21 states - including Alaska, Hawaii, and a handful of states east of the Mississippi - projects range from trail maintenance and trail building to invasive species removal, campsite restoration, revegetation and more. Regardless of your age and experience, there's a project for everyone - including two canoe trips. Not interested in "roughin' it" in the backcountry, or looking for a less strenuous adventure? Try a front-country car camping trip. Check out the schedule and reserve your place now.

As always, these trips would not be possible without our volunteer leaders, who each year generously donate their time and energy to coordinate trip logistics, prepare menus and meals, and lead groups of eager volunteers into the backcountry. If you're interested in joining this outstanding bunch, consider signing up for the 2011 Wilderness Volunteers Leader Training Trip in the Santa Fe National Forest's Pecos Wilderness.

Lastly, as we enter the holiday season, consider giving the gift of adventure: a Wilderness Volunteers gift certificate. For just $299, you can provide friends and family with stunning landscapes and starry nights, camaraderie and good cheer, and the satisfaction of "giving something back" in one of America's magnificent wild places.

Thanks again for "Giving Something Back" in 2011!

Got questions? Send us a note at info@wildernessvolunteers.org.

Does a Body Good

Every other week, there seems to be another article or book highlighting the benefits of spending time in the great outdoors for those young and old. Julie Deardorff of the Chicago Tribune wrote recently that "a daily dose of nature can help keep kids motivated." According to the Journal of Environmental Psychology, spending time in nature makes us "feel more alive" and can result in greater motivation and learning capacity - which means kids do better in the classroom. And with kids spending more time indoors once the school year starts, there's all the more reason to emphasize the need to spend an hour or two outside each day.

Works for me. Read the whole story in the Denver Post here.

On a related note - for the older crowd among us - here's some inspiration to get you out to climb that mountain, run that race, to push your limits at the gym. Meet Olga Kotelko, 91-year old master athlete, holder of 23 world records - 17 of which she has set in the last year. She does the long jump and the hammer throw, runs the 100 meter dash in less than 25 seconds, and does the shot put, bench press, high jump, discus throw, javelin, and more. And she only started at the age of 77 which, correct me if I'm mistaken, is when most people are quitting things - walking being chief among them.

Apparently little old ladies aren't what they used to be. Read the full story and watch the video here.

Quote of the Day

“It always rains on tents. Rainstorms will travel thousands of miles, against prevailing winds for the opportunity to rain on a tent.” — Dave Barry, Pulitzer-Prize winning author and comedian

Betty White - Honorary Forest Ranger

It's official. The former Golden Girl star - who admitted to childhood aspirations of working alongside Smokey the Bear - was recognized last week as an honorary forest ranger by the US Forest Service at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, DC .

"Wilderness is getting harder and harder to find these days on our beautiful planet and we’re abusing our planet to the point of almost no return," White said. "In my heart I’ve been a forest ranger all my life, but now I’m official."

No word yet on if and when Betty will be leading a Wilderness Volunteers trip in 2011. At 88-years strong, I'm sure she could show the rest of us a thing or two.

Read more about Betty's big day here.

Where's Your Other Wheel?

This past summer marked my sixth Wilderness Volunteers trip since I first hit the trail as a WV participant back in 2000. Every trip has been memorable, fun, different, and full of good people, good work, good laughs, and good stories - like that one about the unicyclist.

That's right - the unicyclist.

Of all the things you might expect to see while driving to the trailhead along a narrow, winding, rolling mountain pass deep in a remote national forest, a unicyclist is not one of them. Amidst the tractor trailers and logging trucks barreling along the pavement, the swift, roaring whitewater only feet from your front wheels in the gorge below, and the towering mountain walls and runaway truck ramps bordering the roadway, an individual on a one-wheeled contraption best known for its role in a juggling act in the circus surely does not belong here.

Or so you'd think.

As we cruise along Idaho's scenic Highway 12 at a cautious 50 miles-per-hour, leaning into each turn with an occasional anxious glance in the side mirror for that reassuring white line, then touch the brakes to slow our descent down a steep section of one of the country's most picturesque roadways, we see something - someone - just off the shoulder in the oncoming lane. At first glance, it appears to be a cyclist (the Tour de France type) out for a day's ride, climbing what must be one of countless, punishing hills along his route.

But something is different. This guy is riding upright, with no hands, and only one wheel beneath him. And though he isn't wearing big floppy shoes, a painted face, or juggling bowling pins or flaming swords in his hands, he is definitely riding a unicycle. And he's riding it uphill, in the middle of Idaho's Clearwater National Forest, on a highway, as 18-wheelers and whitewater rumble by.

Unicycling looks hard enough, and unicycling uphill - on a narrow highway - looks even harder. I can only wonder how he's going to make it down the other side. Do unicycles even have brakes?

It turns out they do, and that unicyclist is Sky Horne, a 21 year-old from Baltimore, MD, and a self-proclaimed "ultralite backpacker" (he thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail last year) and "passionate unicyclist" (who seeks to dispell the myth that unicyclists are merely circus performers). As you've likely now concluded, he wasn't simply out for a joy ride.

Sky's journey began some 2,500 miles away in Yorktown, VA. By the time we encountered him along Idaho's Highway 12, he was well on his way to finishing his 3 month, 4,262 mile cross-country journey which would conclude in Astoria, OR. With just an iPod and a six-and-a-half pound pack on his back, Sky has couch surfed and cowboy camped his way across America's heartland - while riding a unicycle, of course. What a way to see the country.

After passing this ambitious "thirty-sixer" (so named for the 36-inch wheel on which he rides), we rendezvous with the WV group at the trailhead, and begin our journey into camp deep in the Selway Bitterroot Wilderness. It turns out others had seen Sky, too, and some had a chance to speak with him as he took a quick break at the Ranger Station (one of just a few breaks he allows himself during his daily 50-60 mile slog). Eyes widen in amazement, and smiles and laughter abound at the thought of anyone riding a unicycle across the country - let alone through the mountains, on Highway 12. Who would have thought?

We hit the trailhead, having accepted that our 10 mile hike has increased to 14 due to a late-breaking project relocation. No sweat. Our group is off. The hiking is long and hard. But as the day wears on, our packs grow heavy, shoulders tire, feet ache, the sun heats up. The mountains rise and the trail follows. Up, down. Up, down. 7, then 6, then 4 miles to go. This is harder than we thought. How much longer? This is the longest distance I've ever had to hike to base camp. Are we there yet?

And though our bodies begin to suffer, our minds don't. We push on. This group is tough. Each time spirits begin to show the slightest chance of slipping, or someone drops back, the group erupts, "Remember the Unicyclist!"

Indeed.

Hat's off to Sky. And hat's off to dispelling the myth that unicyclists are mere circus performers. Apparently they're mountain men, too.

Read more about Sky's adventure here.