May 3 Brush Crew

Discovers Trail Magic

5 May 2013 | Kerby, OR —On Saturday, May 3, six volunteers woke up early and headed out to the Babyfoot Lake Trailhead west of Kerby, OR. At the rim of Babyfoot Lake heavy rain and high winds hung out in limbo, threatening to strike. I stopped there to weigh our options.

If severe weather hit, it would be at least a few miles of tough hiking to get back to the trailhead.

“Who wants to stick with the original plan and just go for it?” I asked. They all raised their hands in unison. So we walked another four miles into the work site.

Knobcone pine, manzanita, ceanothus and other shrubs reached to over six feet in height. Club volunteers spent their day inching along on their hands and knees, using pruning saws and 36 inch long-armed loppers to remove the heavy brush.

What was a difficult to pass, ankle-twisting, leg-scraping section of trail that hikers have been cursing through since about 2008, is now easy and pleasing to pass. After we worked through the section, we sat there gulping water and eating snacks.

“I’ve been in about 10 wilderness areas,” said volunteer Emily Jablonski, a veteran Student Conservation Association intern who spent 2011 surveying the Kalmiopsis wilderness’s trails for the Gold Beach Ranger District. “The Kalmiopsis is the wildest,” she said gazing out into the Little Chetco watershed.

“I’m seeing stuff that I don’t know what it is,” said Sean Smith, a Park Service botanist from Ashland, OR. “It’s a good thing I didn’t bring the field guide. I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere.”

“Thanks for coming and helping out,” I told the group as we started the four and a half mile hike back. This section had plagued me since 2010 when we started working to restore the Trans-Kalmiopsis Route, a 26-mile route from Babyfoot Lake to Vulcan Lake that would have otherwise been lost forever.

“That’s trail magic,” I said.

But what’s really magic is that people are willing to wake up early on their day off and hike nine of Oregon’s toughest trail miles, but not without performing some arduous hard labor half-way in between. Only to come home about 14 hours later.

Join the Club with a tax-deductible donation of $25 or more to help continue our volunteers’ efforts. Because without the commitment of volunteers, the trails in the Kalmiopsis we restore would be lost forever.