Hitch 4: Otter Creek/Little Copper Butte structure work

Well, I'm headed off to my fifth and final hitch of the season tomorrow, and before I leave, I wanted to post some photos from the past hitch. This hitch was focused around the same trail as the last hitch, but this time, instead of cut and run (when we are just clearing the trail), we worked on building check steps, which help prevent trail erosion. Building check steps involved felling trees, debarking these trees, sawing them into five foot sections, and then digging trenches in the trail to bury the check steps in. We had a fairly large crew on this hitch, so the conversation was lively, and morale was high, despite overzealous mosquitoes and a few rainy days. We were car camping on this hitch, meaning that we were able to eat more fresh food than on a normal backpacking hitch, which was a real treat!

One of the highlights of the hitch was going up the road from our campsite about one mile to the Indian Hill Fire Lookout. Larry, who staffs the fire lookout, invited us up to visit him. It was his birthday, so we made him a cheesecake (this is a big deal when you're camping) and we got to chat with him about what his duties are as a fire lookout. We really felt like we were witnessing history being able to spend time with a fire lookout. As the fire lookout towers burn down, the Forest Service is not rebuilding them because it is much more efficient these days to use planes to monitor and scout for fires. We heard planes every day, going over the wilderness to report on fires. This brings to mind a few questions: how is this change influencing wilderness character? And isn't there something to be said about preserving the historical ways of doing things, instead of replacing them in the name of efficiency? I've been thinking about the latter question a lot this summer since we use cross cut saws instead of chain saws in the wilderness. I truly believe it is important for us to learn these methods of trail work and remember that the "new" ways of doing things may not always be the best, or the most interesting.

Mara and I try to be serious as we pose next to the first tree that we felled on our own, using only an ax and a cross cut saw!

Indian Hill fire lookout

Packing lots of produce for car camping

Meet Deerhunter, the Montana Conservation Corps (MCC) vehicle that I sometimes drive.

The fire finder in the lookout tower

Larry the fire lookout shows us all of his maps.

Looking at the beautiful layers of mountains.

Mara, Kristina, and I with Chip, one of the lookout dogs

The group listens to Larry tell us about life as a fire lookout

Elevation of the fire lookout

View from our daily hike to the portion of the trail we were working on. It was neat to see clouds below us!

Fireweed