'Crazy yard work' Club working to reclaim the 21-mile Trans-Kalmiopsis Trail ... and that's just for starters

The 21-mile-long Trans-Kalmiopsis trail has been in shambles since the Biscuit fire raged through the area in 2002, but that's changing quickly this summer.

The Siskiyou Mountain Club, a new, local nonprofit organization, has spent nearly 500 hours this summer cutting through fallen trees and digging brush in order to reopen this wilderness trail. The idea for the project came to club co-founder Gabe Howe after a trip to the East Coast.

"I went to New Hampshire and worked with the Appalachian Mountain Club, and I saw this model I haven't seen used on the West Coast "… You can get volunteers involved to create a service-based effort to do trail work," says Howe, a 26-year-old Ashland resident.

What Howe saw on the Appalachian Trail was a coordinated effort by volunteers to maintain trails on public land, something he realized was necessary in Southern Oregon, where a plummeting budget for the U.S. Forest Service has meant that many trails are no longer maintained.

The difficulty, says Howe, has been convincing the agency that volunteers can work under difficult conditions. The 21-mile Trans-Kalmiopsis trail crosses the Coast Range without any access to drivable roads.

"This is the first time they had ever been approached for something like this. They had service groups in the past, but they had certain limitations, such as troubled youth, who weren't able to do work past the periphery of the trailheads and work remotely," Howe explains.

Legal issues arose during Howe's discussions with the Forest Service.

"There was some apprehension. Safety was a concern. As a volunteer you come under their worker's compensation, so they worry about liability issues," says Howe.

Once these details were worked out, Howe recruited friends, created a blog, and ended up with a group of nine who gathered on June 17. The Trans-Kalmiopsis trail begins at Babyfoot Lake, an hour's drive from Route 199 in the Illinois Valley.

This work party signed up for far more than the usual day of volunteering. They spent nine days on the trail.

"The first few days were easier "… we were still near the trailhead with access to all our stuff. By day three we strapped everything on and headed out. It's hard work hiking with a heavy pack "… On the roads, we were trying to figure out what the best route was. With blowdown, is it better to chop through or go around?" says Jill Stokes, the club's other cofounder.

The primary tools the group used were hand saws, pruning shears and the Pulaskis that are commonly used by fire crews. Chain saws and other motorized equipment are not allowed because the trail is in a wilderness area.

The experience, says Stokes, was like doing "crazy yard work" on a trail that was difficult to locate amidst all the fallen trees and thick, young rhododendron.

"In sections it was literally brushing rocks to the side, kicking rocks off the trail, scraping it along with your feet, making the tread visible. I think just having 10 people walk over it helps, too," Stokes says.

Many of the tools were loaned by the Forest Service, as were walkie-talkies.

"Having radio contact with the group is important for safety. We checked in with them every morning. We gave them weather info, especially if lightning or storms were forecast," says George Brierty, Trails Coordinator for the Forest Service's Wild Rivers Ranger District.

Brierty is pleased with the result.

"They did something for us we couldn't do because of funding issues: brushing out trails and clearing downed logs. They're making the trails a lot safer," Brierty adds.

The Siskiyou Mountain Club has scheduled a second trip from Thursday, Aug. 26, to Sept. 5 to clear the next six miles of trail. They will finish the final six miles of trail next summer. Several of the volunteers from the June trip have re-enlisted for next week's labors.

"We felt a sense of camaraderie. We worked hard and had fun. There was a lot of singing and campfires at night. We swam in Carter Creek and the Chetco River. Noone used a watch — it was a great escape," says Allison Gilroy, a Portland resident who will be back for the second trip next week.

Many hikers have shied away from the Kalmiopsis Wilderness, thinking that the half-million acre fire left nothing but a blackened landscape.

"I like to think of fire as a renewer, not just a destroyer. It's like a bubble in the stock market, it comes back with a vengeance," says Tom Atzet, a retired Forest Service ecologist who has been studying the Kalmiopsis area for 35 years.

"At the trailhead at Babyfoot Lake there are already seedlings everywhere, even pines, incense cedar and Brewer spruce. We need to have faith," Atzet adds.

Howe and Stokes are looking for trail crew volunteers to help with next week's work, along with "runners" to carry in food and supplies.

The Kalmiopsis trail may be just the beginning for the Siskiyou Mountain Club. Howe and Stokes say they hope to build not only a trail, but an organization.

"I have a broader vision, kind of in line with AMC's operation, but doing it in the Siskiyou region," says Howe. "I'd like to get funding, grants. I'd like to be able to get to the point where we're able to pay our own trail crews and have employees that do education at the trailheads."

Daniel Newberry is a freelance writer living in the Applegate Valley. Reach him at dnewberry@jeffnet.org.