Trailwork

Over the past twenty years some of the most challenging and satisfying things we have done with our pack llamas is volunteer work with the U S Forest Service. And last summer was no exception. Part of the fun of this volunteer work is solving the problem of how to carry any number of objects which are not the typical camping gear. One of our first volunteer projects, in the early 1980’s, was to carry out a quantity of junk, which had been collected by a troop of Girl Scouts in the area around Lost Lake in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. There were old miner’s cabins in the area, and it turned out that there was quite a bit of scrap metal and other stuff, including two rusty bed springs. Luckily these two old springs could be folded in half and tied in that position. Then we loaded them on good big Cuzco and balanced them by stuffing a plastic bag with appropriate extra weight into the springs of the lighter side. Cuzco was a solid, dark red-brown color, and when my friend Dorene Leonard saw the picture of him loaded with the bed springs, she exclaimed, “Ah! that’s your wired-haired llama.”

Other expeditions in those early years involved revegetation projects near Lakes Isabelle and Mitchell, also in the Indian Peaks. These required transporting tools to scarify the ground, seed to be planted, mulch hay bales, and jute netting to lay over the scattered hay. The mulch hay bales were light, about 40 pounds each, so Spook could carry two of those lashed onto his pack with stakelines. But what about the third bale? I had a pair of newspaper-boy canvas bags and found that each side could take half a bale. So we slung that over Hidalgo’s saddle and tied a role of the jute netting on top.

For many years now the Forest Service has had no money to hire summer crews, usually college students, for trail maintenance as they used to. Back in the 1980’s, after I had helped with the revegetation projects, our local Forest Service found that a crew of four could accomplish a lot more trail maintenance when they had one llama to help carry all the necessary gear and equipment. So they leased our big packer, Julio, for several summers. Since their office was just down the road from our farm, they would pick Julio up on Monday mornings and bring him home Thursday evenings after the scheduled four days of work. Then he and the trail crew had a nice three days of rest till the next week’s work. And on occasion they also used our Apache.

Two summers ago I had packed with friends and family into some of my favorite areas in the Indian Peaks, and both times there were trees down across the trail—the same trees in the same places. So in January I decided to attend a meeting of the Indian Peaks Conservation Alliance. It became apparent that while they were doing some useful activities to help with the wilderness area, they were not doing any trail work. The Forest Ranger in charge of trails was there, so I spoke with him after the meeting and told him what we had done in the past. He even knew of our Julio’s work on trail crew. This was a fortuitous encounter, for he told me that there were plans for some major work with volunteers over a weekend at Diamond Lake, a much-used area. Then he asked if llamas could carry fill dirt for another project near Mitchell Lake. I replied that I knew it had been done on Mt. Ranier in Washington, so I was sure we could  figure how to do that, too. The Ranger then put me in touch with Ed Self, the Project Coordinator who was organizing the volunteer groups to do the work. Adults would be doing the work at Diamond Lake, and teenage groups were arranged for the three days work at Mitchell Lake.

When summer came, plans began to fall into place. The Diamond Lake project was to be the weekend of July 28-29th and Mitchell Lake the first three days of August. In the past I had hiked the trail that passes below Diamond Lake, but I had never actually been there. So in early July, I arranged to do an exploratory hike with a friend, our Greyfeather stud, and Rick Ponczek with our Thunder, whom he had recently bought for a packer. Thunder was just beginning his career and needed the experience. So with our lunches packed we set out from the Fourth of July parking area We climbed the trail towards Arapahoe Pass, from which the Diamond Lake trail drops down to a broad stream crossing in a narrow gulch. From there the trail climbs again steadily to Diamond Lake at 11,000 ft. with a glorious background of rugged, grey, rocky peaks, typical of this region.

At lunch time we staked the pack boys out while we sat on a big log in one of the camping sites, ate, and enjoyed the scenery. It was a good time to assess the challenges of the trail. There were several rather boggy areas with double-log “bridges” for people to walk on. Greyfeather wanted to walk on them, too, to avoid the wet bog but it would not have been safe, as a foot could slip between the logs. So he had to learn to walk in the bogs—something he had not encountered on our other treks. I figured it would be less boggy at the end of July.

The Forest Ranger had already asked me if the llamas could manage the stream crossing where there was a high, narrow bridge for people but not for pack stock. No problem. It was the kind of crossing where we attach a stakeline to the llama’s lead and wrap a rock in the hand loop at the end. One of us goes over to the far side of the stream to catch the end of the stakeline when it is thrown across, and the llama is led through the stream. Thunder took to the bogs and all the stream crossings like a pro.

There was one spot where the trail passed between a tree and a large rock. It was so narrow that even just loaded with the days’ lunches and jackets, the llamas could hardly get through. However, it would not be difficult for llamas to go around that obstacle. We learned later that the trail had been purposely routed through that narrow spot, as pack stock are not allowed on the trail to Diamond Lake because of its heavy use.

The climb back up towards Arapahoe pass seemed a bit arduous, but later we learned that when the Forest Service had a special project, private land-owners allowed them to hike directly up the valley leading to the stream crossing.

In the weeks after our exploratory hike, Ed Self kept me up to date on the plans for the work weekend. There would be 20 volunteers, so we would pack in all the kitchen gear and food, a 30 lb. bear-proof system, tarp, plus a roll of anti-erosion matting, bundles of short pieces of rebar, and a few wooden signs. The volunteers would bring up their personal gear.

Given the amount of stuff we needed to transport, I decided it would be best to take six llamas, especially since we would not really have time to get all these boys in tip-top shape, although we did load them and take them on several hikes in the local foothills. And then we recruited a few kind volunteers from the ranks of those who board some llamas with us. They each brought a friend who enjoys hiking. It turned out to be a wonderful group.

We met the Forest Ranger and Ed Self at the trailhead on Friday morning and my staff members Diane Solomon, Ben Herr, and myself set about loading everything and weighing the packs. The only role of anti-erosion matting Ed was able to get was eight feet long and nearly 24 inches in diameter, though sometimes it’s available in four-foot lengths. It is flexible, so first we tried just draping it over Greyfeather’s pack. But the two ends stuck out so far that it would have been impossible for him to pass between any number of trees or rocks. So Ben folded it in half lengthwise. One of our volunteers sat on it while Ben cut through the role, turning it into two four-foot lengths. We could then tie the two shorter rolls horizontally to either side of Greyfeather’s pack, and the frame pack he was wearing could then also accommodate a huge caldron filled with other kitchen gear.

The Forest Ranger and Ed led us up the valley on the remnants of an old mining road, and although there were a few downed trees here and there, it was a much easier hike than the climb towards Arapahoe pass we had made on our exploratory hike. And the hardest part of the climb then came after the major stream crossing. After unloading all the equipment and eating our lunch, we brought the back down and met some of the volunteers who were on the way up.

On Sunday morning, this time with only four packers, we hiked the same route up to Diamond Lake, scheduled to arrive about 11 o’clock. The volunteers were still busy with some projects, so we staked the llamas out and had some time to explore along the lake and see the trail repairs that had been done, the erosion control matting in it special places, and the wooden signs we had carried up. After lunch when all the kitchen gear and other items were available, we packed up everything and had a pretty easy decent.

For the threes days’ work at Mitchell Lake, the challenge was to come up with the best way to carry fill dirt. After considering several options, the best solution seemed to be to use my eight four-gallon, square buckets, which I had used many times for other purposes on our commercial llama treks. I found that the handles of these buckets would easily hang securely on the front brackets of our Ollie pack saddles.

So I met the Ranger and Ed Self at Mitchell Lake with four packers. This time the volunteers were teenagers who soon learned to shovel dirt into the buckets and load them, one on each side of the llama. It had rained on the uncovered dirt pile, so the buckets, filled to a couple of inches below the top, weighed 45 to 50 pounds. That meant each llama was carrying  90 to 100 pounds, rather a hefty load. Fortunately we only had to hike in about a quarter to half a mile, and the trail was not steep. The Ranger would indicate where check dams should be placed, Then Ed Self and a couple of kids would install the logs, which were drilled and stabilized with short pieces of rebar. The rest of us would carry up the fill dirt, empty the buckets behind the log, one llama at a time, and return for another load. We all enjoyed our lunch break and the llama boys each had some hay and sat down to rest, too.

Over the three days in a row, with three different teen groups, Ed figured the llamas had carried about 7,000 pounds of the fill-dirt. There was still a sizable pile of dirt left, and I suggested that if this were to continue next summer, it might be good to cover the pile with a tarp to keep the dirt drier. However, I was pleased that even with these heavy loads only one pack boy ever suggested he wanted to sit down, and that was late on the third day. They were also extremely tidy and only dropped pellets when we took them to a secluded clearing well off the much-used trail.

In the past, all my major breeding studs, Handsome, Spook, Jester, Inca (a Spook son), and Harlequin proved themselves by working full time in our commercial pack string. Now I was delighted to find that Spook’s son Zenith, three Jester sons, Ninja, High Spirits, and Scout, plus Inca’s son Greyfeather, were all up to the challenge and proved to be willing and able packers. I feel their ability carries on the wonderful working tradition of llamas dating back centuries to Inca times.