Trail Crews in 2023

I'm just back from a week working on a volunteer trail crew in the Mokelumne Wilderness. The trip into Moraine Lake was organized by the American Hiking Society, and led by staff from the US Forest Service. And it was full of fun, adventure, and damn hard work.

We had a mighty hailstorm (and a corresponding tent failure) health issues, lost hikers, buck saws, axes, Pulaskis and McLeods. We did rock work, lopping, sawyering, hoeing, tamping and scraping. We got bug bites, sun burns, tummy cramps, and sore, sore muscles.

Looking foward to the next one. Here's the whole story:

https://www.backpackthesierra.com/post/high-ho-high-ho

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Check our our website: http://www.backpackthesierra.com/
Or just read a good mystery novel set in the Sierra; https://www.amazon.com/Danger-Falling-Rocks-Paul-Wagner/dp/0984884963

Thank you for all the hard work clearing trails up in the Sierras.

(And for the pictures, too!)

Just did another four days in the mountains as a wilderness volunteer--this time in Desolation Wilderness. What fun! Met lots of good people, answered a few questions, did a little hiking, and got to know the hikers and neighbors in a really lovely part of the Sierra.

The full blog post about it, with a few photos, is here: https://www.backpackthesierra.com/post/meet-and-greet-at-the-trailhead

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Check our our website: http://www.backpackthesierra.com/
Or just read a good mystery novel set in the Sierra; https://www.amazon.com/Danger-Falling-Rocks-Paul-Wagner/dp/0984884963

And just in case you were thinking about putting up a cairn in the back country...


https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=841925900982269

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Check our our website: http://www.backpackthesierra.com/
Or just read a good mystery novel set in the Sierra; https://www.amazon.com/Danger-Falling-Rocks-Paul-Wagner/dp/0984884963

Saw that. Love it.

In June 2016 - not a heavy snow year - my brother-in-law and I tried a day hike to Clouds Rest. By the time we go to the top of the switchbacks the trail was covered in snow so that we'd lost the trail, and stupidly, we'd left the snowshoes in the car. So we tried the navigate the snow field on our own (and postholed a lot), but what was really annoying were the rock piles some people had put on top of some of the larger rocks that were above the snow. No help whatsoever, you just need to know how to read a map and look for landmarks. We went to lower and middle Sunrise Lakes instead.