Awesome Apache-Sitgreaves

The first week of July was PERFECT for heading to the pristine forests of eastern Arizona. With the number of 100+ degree days setting records in Texas, we were eager for cooler temps! And cooler they were! Upper 70s to low 80s during the day, and lows in the 50s at night. Imagine sitting around a campfire with a light jacket on while everyone is sweltering in Texas!!

Here is how things turned out:



Before leaving Texas, our host said they'd been having an early "monsoon" season, so we anticipated daily rainfall. However, we only had a brief bit of rain during our first night in the woods. After that...nothing!

Dave and I left Austin on Thursday morning with the group's food & cooking gear in our vehicle and Martha Spetseris from College Station as our passenger. Pat Dixon & his passenger, Zack Slachter from Fort Worth, met us in Junction, TX and we caravanned from there.

After an overnight stop in Deming, NM and a quick visit on Friday morning to the unique Catwalk of Whitewater Canyon outside Glenwood, NM, we arrived a couple of hours later at Don & Janie Hoffman's place that's tucked in a remote part of the forest at the end of a dead-end dirt road near the Blue River.

Don was retired from the Forest Service in Alpine, AZ & recently contracted with them to be our volunteer crew leader. He & his wife recommended that we rendezvous at their place where we camped in their meadow, used their bathroom & kitchen, played horseshoes and explored the area.

Since we arrived fairly early, Dave & Pat took off to go fishing and Martha, Zack & I hiked up the creek behind the Hoffman's place to look for a small Indian ruin they told us about but dark clouds began forming overhead and thunder became noticeably louder, so we headed back.

Andy Waters & Robert Gross left Austin on Friday & joined the rest of us at the Hoffman homestead early Saturday afternoon, and had plenty of time to climb the mountain overlooking the Hoffman home. Robert recommends NOT doing that in sandals!

On Sunday we fixed a big breakfast for everyone, including our hosts, then loaded the vehicles & headed out. We stopped in Alpine to pick up some items & met Myron Burnett, the Forest Service guy who would be hauling our gear on his pack animals. Then, off we went!

On the way, Don showed us a scenic overlook of the Black River from a high bluff & graciously agreed to take group photos with everyone's camera. Afterward, we piled back in our vehicles for the soon-to-be bumpy ride to the Fish Creek trailhead.

When we arrived, we unloaded the gear & had to cram all the food & cooking equipment into 4 hard panniers so they weighed about the same. Other items were put into soft panniers and, when everything was as balanced as possible, they were strapped onto the two mules & one donkey. We put on our backpacks & started down the trail.

At one point, Black Jack (the donkey) decided to head back up the trail but Pat, who has no experience with animals, caught him & after talking with him a bit, was able to lead him back down the trail. What a great photo that would have made!

After hiking a mile or so, we arrived at base camp. Don told us we were in the exact same spot as our previous Trail Tamer trip in 1999, & he was right on! There were lots of "fond" memories of that trip. For me, especially, it was a really big adventure!

Myron & the mules arrived ahead of us so, after setting up our own tents, we helped unload the gear & set up the kitchen & cook tent. Don carefully dug a campfire pit, following leave-no-trace ethics, & we started the evening meal & talked about the work he wanted us to do in the coming days.

On day one, we headed down the trail brushing out & clearing a HUGE amount of overgrown vegetation, especially at creek crossings. The trail hadn't been maintained for at least 5 years. The whole area is fairly moist with moss, ferns & wildflowers everywhere. Oh, did I mention lots of POISON IVY?! We also noticed a lot of diversity in the size & types of trees. Don said this whole area had somehow escaped the ax & had never been logged. Amazing!

Don had brought a 2-man crosscut saw but ended up wielding a chainsaw because of the sheer number & size of the dead-fall across the trail. A couple of crew members followed him to move the freshly cut sections off the trail.

Each day, the distance & number of creek crossings from base camp to our last trail-clearing location increased until, finally, some of the crew reached the Black River where Fish Creek joins it & forms a nice swimming hole that they enjoyed!

Once the lower trail was completed to Don's satisfaction, we turned our attention to the part that we hiked in on, & spent the last work day on that section. We actually worked our way back up to the trailhead & left our tools there, then hiked back down to our basecamp for the last time.

Don was truly happy that we completed the whole trail (5 miles from the trailhead to the river), & was impressed with the "outstanding" work we did. Even though the Black River was about 4 miles from our basecamp, no one complained too much about the daily hike back & forth. However, on the last day of work on the lower trail, one of the crew jokingly referred to the hike as the "BaDon" death march.

The beautiful terrain along with daily, refreshing dips in pristine Fish Creek, & nearly perfect weather was more than a person could ask for. For the most part, wildlife avoided us but Robert & I saw a couple of elk cows, & Pat caught a trout. The most excitement came when Martha & Andy saw a BEAR on the trail ahead of them!

There were no real problems except for a couple of leaky tents on the first night, Robert's encounter with a hornet that caused his hand to swell up, and the pesky BUGS that seemed to prefer my flesh & blood to the others! But, amazingly, no one ended up with a case of poison ivy!

Upon returning to the Hoffman's place on Friday afternoon...we showered & changed into clean clothes, then were treated to some mighty fine BBQ chicken with all the trimmings & plenty of liquid refreshment. It was so nice sitting on the Hoffman's front porch, taking in the surroundings & watching the guys playing a game of horseshoes. Robert & Andy decided to head home, but the rest of us camped in the meadow once again. In the morning, after a breakfast of pancakes & coffee, we said our good-byes and hit the road.

My sincerest appreciation goes out to my dear husband, "Chef Dave", for preparing those delicious meals; and to our talented friend, Pat Dixon for sharing his campfire rendition of "Oh, Danny Boy", among other things. I also appreciate "Super Woman" Martha Spetseris for being such an enjoyable & energetic go-getter; and Zack Shlachter (the "young-un" in the group) who is such a delightful young man & knowledgable in an amazing range of subjects.

Then there's Andy Waters & his buddy Robert Gross who were the source of much laughter mixed with interesting stories told around the campfire. We all worked hard but we also had a doggone good time! And, of course, our thanks goes out to Don Hoffman who was an excellent host and crew leader, and his wife, Janie, who was so gracious for once again allowing a crowd of people to "take over" her home for a few days.

We captured a bunch of photos and placed them on FlickR.com. We also added captions that can be seen if you select the "Show Info" menu item at the top of the screen. Select the link below to check them out:

Click here for FlickR photos of the trip

A Great Thank-You Letter from the staff at Davy Crockett National Forest!

I would like to tell EVERYONE, that I
personally appreciate all the hard work
and great sense of humors.

It truely is a pleasure to work with CTTT;
each time is a new wonderful adventure.
I hope that everyone had a great time and
got to do some things that they wanted. I
hope everyone will come again soon...And
enjoyed the NEW folks!!!! I have enclosed
some pictures of the crews working.

Sorry, I did not get pictures of the crew
(George, Jim) repairing ADA trail nor of
crew installing new Portal sign (Steve/Earl)
and also built 2 new boat racks. Neither
did I get the infamous Group picture.
I truely failed on that...My apologies.

Happy Trails.
Pearlie

Pearlie Green
Davy Crockett National Forest
18551 State Highway 7 East
Kennard, TX 75847
PH: (936)655-2299 Fax: (936)655-2817
email: pearliegreen@fs.fed.us

Trip Report - Davy Crockett National Forest (Feb. 14-16, 2009)

Hey gang,

Again, another great work session! Not only did we complete all of the primary projects but also several secondary ones. Pearlie and Merlinda are well aware of how we work and at the first of the week when I told them that we had 20 signed up, panic. Both got together and luckily came up with additional projects. Everything looked great and could only have gotten this way by your hard work and pride in what you do. Thanks.

The new path from the restroom to the viewing deck at the Neches Bluff is ready for use. It meets ADA specs. The viewing deck has had a lot of use. It is our hope that with this path and the new restroom, it will get more. Thanks to Mike Rodgers and his crew for that project. Those working on that project besides Mike were, Raylene Welch, Bob Weglarz, Martha Spetseris, Derly Rivera, Vick Hines, and Pearlie Green, ranger. Looks great!

Hurricane Ike managed to take out the Forest Service portal sign on Highway 7. Steve Baker and Earl Connors rebuilt, and painted the base. They then attached the new sign which really looked good and should be there for years to come. They also managed to build several boat racks at the lake, and rebuild a table that was destroyed by the storm. Merle Monroe, Merlinda's Dad, also helped on this project Sunday. Good job guys.

The ADA trail within the lake proper was also damaged by Ike. George Boemerman and Jim Britt repaired the trail by replacing all the landscape timbers that needed replacing and repacking road base in the holes left when trees on the trail fell. The trail still meets ADA specs. Good job you two.

There are 7 bridges on the northern part of the 4 C Trail that receives a lot of damage from Ike. The bridge crew of Ivan and Judy McGowan, Chuck Lundstedt, Andy Waters, Dwight Riley, Merlinda Schory and Dad Merle, and Raymond Fore made up the Saturday crew. We rebuilt over 100 feet of bridge and replaced almost half of the foot treads in the 400 feet of the seven bridges. The Sunday crew of Riley(just Riley), Andy, Terence, Derly, Mike, and Pearlie added hand rails over the 200 or so feet of the bridges. The most difficult part of this task was getting the materials to the job site which was a half to three quarters of a mile from the nearest road. The completed project looked good and should provide safe crossing to hikers for years to come.

Sunday morning, Chuck Lundstedt and crew began updating the pads within the RV loop. They pulled up the leading edge of each camp pad and put in road base to build a ramp. The leading edge of the sites were made of concrete blocks approximately 4 " x 12 " x 36 ". Heavy work but with the aide of a tractor, most of the sites were completed. This will make getting in the campsites with RVs easier. Good job, crew.

Since we couldn't run off all members Sunday, a Monday morning crew of Steve, Earl, Jim, Terence, Derly, Chuck, Pearlie, Merlinda, Merle, and Raymond completed the task started the day before. We completed restructuring the campsites within the RV loop. This crew finished off the work session with bar-b-que sandwiches from a local stand in Ratcliff. Good eating. Good job.

I'd like to thank all of you for the hard work each of you did. There was a lot of good fellowship in the evenings and even during the workday, a lot of joking and bull. That makes for good work and good memories. The campfire helped. So did the good food, beer, wine, and crazy stories from storytellers George Boemerman and Earl Connors. We'll see all of you next year. Again thanks for making my job easy.

Ray Fore

Thank-you Letter from Sierra Club!