The Backcountry News Unit News EPIC EVENT Submitted by Chip Herzig ~ San Gorgonia Pass Unit general rejuvenating a devastated trail system. All told five BCHC units were represented with 11 folks and 8 sawyers.


I have been on many BCHC work parties clearing trails but never on one that was defined as an Epic Event. The “epic” wind event was last October (2012) where the equivalent of the high altitude jet stream came down to earth. Winds out of the north were 100-120 mph lasting 5-6 hours with gusts that pegged the anemometers atop Mammoth Mountain. Best guess the gusts were in the neighborhood of 160- 180 mph. As you might surmise the trees in the forests surrounding Mammoth took a pretty severe hit with blow downs estimated to be in the 10’s of thousands of trees toppled. The burnt still standing trees were unaffected by the wind storm however the fully leaved and evergreens with their large sail areas were pushed down in massive matchstick piles all over the trails. This massive toppling was the event that set the stage for a coming together of many BCHC units, Friends of the Inyo plus others in what was some of the best that we humans could put together. We all gathered in late June at Reds Meadow Resort and Pack Station. Bobby Tanner, our gracious host, provided camping spots for free as well as gave our equines stalls and provided all the amenities of home such as free showers to the tired and dirty. There were old friends, new friends and a ton of work accomplished. All organized by Bill Carter of the Eastern Sierra unit. 27 volunteers spent 9 days clearing trails, rebuilding root ball torn up tread and in All we volunteers cut over 370 trees on some


30 miles of trails. On a previous work party in early June BCHC sawyers cleared a 2.1 mile section of the PCT south of over 160 trees. Each day as we rolled out of our various sleeping areas at Reds we were greeted with a hearty lumberjack breakfast, provided lunch fixings for the trail and at the end of each day we were treated to gourmet backcountry cooking by Todd. The long and tiring days were always greeted with good humor and camaraderie. It still amazes me how we all came together to accomplish this herculean feat. Near the last day of the work party Bill called Michael Morse, of the local ranger district, to report on our project’s status. The report went something like this: “done, done, done…” At the end of Bill’s call, Michael was obviously impressed or maybe a better phrase would be awe struck with what we had accomplished. Yes, we all deserve a large pat on the back!


With 175 different folks( FS Fire Crews, FS trail Crews, SCA,ACE, PCTA, FOI and BCHC) working to open the trails(with both chain saws and cross cut saws) in the RM area, removing near 5,000 blown down trees(many in complex tangles) not a single injury was reported.


More photos of the work can be found at http://friendsofinyo.zenfolio.com/p853466974


Trail Gorillas ~ Names of persons in these photos were not available at the time of printing. Page21


Winter 2013


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