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| Volunteer | 8.00 Miles |
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| | Volunteer | 8.00 Miles | 3 Days | | |
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| no partners | | High Times in the High Lonesome
Passage 41 - Kaibab Plateau Central
July 19-22, 2015
Immediately following the Marshall Lake Work Event the ATA's usual suspects ventured north on a multi-mission—logging dead fall, installing signs and placing resupply boxes.
The group met up Sunday afternoon at the Orderville TH, just off Highway 89A. The Kaibab has been getting frequent rains so everything is lush and green. Trailers and tents were set up and Gary H. began his work refinishing the historic wooden sign. This sign was placed and dedicated by the Chief of the Forest Service commemorating the first officially recognized section of what became the Arizona National Scenic Trail. It is showing its age and has resisted previous rehab efforts. If this one doesn’t take we’ll maybe have to bring it inside somewhere, but it was worth one more attempt to do it in place.
Monday morning the group started early, installing a resupply box at the end of the log fence surrounding the Orderville TH facilities. The FS Trails Technician had flagged the desired location so that decision was made for us. ATA volunteers salvaged these bear boxes from the burned-over Rustler Park CG, and have them in storage. With a fresh powder coat paint job they look almost as good as new, and they aren’t filling up a landfill. The crew dug the four holes, leveled the box with the legs down in the holes, and then placed 60 pounds of concrete around each leg. After the concrete set the leveling blocks were removed, excess dirt scattered and the job was done. Later in the day the task was repeated at the FR 205 TH.
Next up was the dead fall logging. Two HAZ AZT section-hikers completed the trail over the July 4 weekend, and graciously provided photos and waypoint locations for each downed tree they encountered. See their heart-warming story at [ triplog ] Thank you Bifrost and SlowandSteady, the reconnoitering is a HUGE help for the logging. Knowing where each logs is and how big it is in advance makes a big difference; no one wants to hike 10 miles with saws looking for the logs.
Lee, John, and Shawn headed south under threatening skies. The first log was a mystery; there was a log at the specified waypoint but it had been cut years ago. This was not the first time the crew has been stumped; there really are gremlins in the woods. But all the rest of the waypoints indicated a log to be cut, and as always, there were a few bonus logs that had come down since the recon. About mile 1.5 (of 4.5) the skies made good on the threat and the steady light rain started. There was no option but to continue. The other crew had started in from the south and took care of a big brushy log. The crews joined up and went to FR 205 TH to install the second resupply box.
Rain continued off and on, but by the time the box was in it had let up enough that the logging continued under the same scheme—two crews working towards each other. By midafternoon the logs were vanquished, the boxes installed and the crews sufficiently tired, wet and cold to call it a day.
Tuesday was to be a light day, just mount and install the four trail guide signs. ATA volunteers and a professional lettering operation had made the signs but the FS was bringing the posts. They arrived as promised promptly at 8:00 and the crew began mounting the signs. The signs are flat and the posts are round, so some wood working was called for. A system soon evolved and the 8 posts were flattened, the signs bolted on and made ready to haul to the locations.
A youth crew was working with the FS that day, so they took the sign in to Crystal Spring, a 1-1/4 mile haul each way in and out. To maximize time, they handled that one and the ATA crew started on the rest. First up was the sign at the NPS/FS boundary. The crew leader’s memory said it was located just north of the road, but memory was not what it should be. (I’ll respect you in the morning, the check is in the mail, and all the projects are right by the road.) Some bike riders happened by but could offer no help. A little searching both north and south of FR 610 and the crew found it right at the boundary. The search party removed the old one, the crew hauled the new sign and tools in, dug the holes, set and leveled the sign and tamped the soil in around the posts. On to the next one.
The process was repeated where the trail crosses FR 213. The youth crews joined up there just as the ATA guys were finishing up—on to the last one at FR 205. By now the routine was well established so time was taken to provide some instruction on the finer points of post hole digging and sign planting to the next generation of trail stewards. Their excitement was palpable; they were so anxious to get back to town to share what they had learned. What else could explain their hurry to get back in the trucks?
The last objective was another coat of varnish on the restored sign at Orderville. The crew arrived back at camp with the ATA Toyota—which has an inverter to power the sprayer—and Gary applied the varnish.
A group dinner at Jacob Lake Lodge marked the end of five days of ATA work for most of the crew. The North Kaibab Forest is a beautiful part of Arizona, and the AZT in this area is as fine a piece of trail as any, if only it wasn’t 5 hours from home, 7 hours for some of the crew.
Thanks to Gary H.; Lee, Jan and Moqui A;, Joe L., Tom and Nancy K; and Bill H. |
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Shawn
The bear went over the mountain to see what he could see. |
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