Willow Creek Restoration Project Update 08/01/04

VWA Willow Creek Restoration Project
Project Update
The Big Haul
July 30 thru August 1, 2004

After much planning and preparation both in the field and on the phone and computer, the Ventana Wilderness Alliance kicked off The Big Haul at Willow Creek on Friday, July 30, 2004. The objective was to remove an estimated 250 backpack loads of trash from the newly created Willow Creek Addition to the Silver Peak Wilderness Area. The loads were to be back packed a mile or more from several previously established stockpiles. The loads would be delivered to the trailhead at Happy Landing where they would be loaded on a 4x4 truck and hauled to a dumpster at the USFS Pacific Valley Fire Station. Half of the loads would be transported across a wide gorge on Willow Creek by means of a Tyrolean traverse.

The Big Haul was the tenth project outing since the field portion of the Willow Creek Restoration Project began in mid-April. The first nine outings were devoted to clearing trails to the project area, demolishing one structure, cutting bulky items down to packable size, pre-assembling pack loads and filling over 300 trash bags with debris left in the area by former occupants. Please see the previous project updates for more information on these earlier outings.

On Friday morning, what was intended to be a small setup crew mushroomed into a crew of 15 eager volunteers who proceeded to pack the 125 bags of trash from the Hobbit claim about a mile and a half to the trailhead at Happy Landing. Once that work was underway, the volunteers who had devised and tested the Tyrolean traverse to be used at the McGranahan cabin site, began setting up the traverse for the Big Haul. By mid-afternoon all of the bagged trash from the Hobbit claim had been packed to Happy Landing, the traverse was set up and running smoothly and loads were ready to be packed out of the McGranahan site. Friday evening most of the volunteers gathered at the Sycamore flat car camp area to relax and enjoy the beauty and serenity of their surroundings as well as the company of fellow wilderness stewards.

More volunteers arrived Friday night and Saturday morning swelling our ranks to a crew of close to 50 by the start of activities Saturday morning. We had twenty of our special external frame backpacks with a 1/8 inch plywood backing and a bottom shelf to help carry the loads which were attached to the pack frame with elastic hook-end cords. Loads were strapped to the frames at the McGranahan site then two loaded packs were placed on the traverse and pulled across the Willow Creek gorge by the crew on the other side. There, waiting backpackers strapped the loaded packs onto their backs for the one mile hike out to Happy Landing. By day's end we had moved all the loads stockpiled at the McGranahan site across the traverse and on out to the Happy Landing trailhead.

Our volunteer trucker arrived Saturday mid-morning and immediately joined other volunteers in loading his truck with the bagged and unbagged trash that was now stockpiled at the Happy Landing trailhead. With additional loads arriving at Happy Landing in an almost continual stream, our volunteers easily filled the truck to capacity for each of its three trips to the forty cubic yard dumpster at the Pacific Valley Fire Station. The Pacific Valley fire crew assisted in unloading the truck into the dumpster. They had also spent a day, just prior to The Big Haul, cutting brush back along the Sycamore Flat Road to provide safer truck access to Happy Landing.

Saturday night at the Sycamore flat car camp, a separate team of VWA volunteers provided a delicious dinner for the entire crew. The meal included green salad, garlic bread, chicken chili verde, vege chili verde, rice, black beans, BBQ tri-tip, sausages, and frozen fruit sorbet (kept cold on dry ice!) over pound cake. In addition to enjoying the great meal, the great refreshments and great company, we had the satisfaction of knowing that we had just about completed what is likely the largest all volunteer wilderness stewardship project on the Big Sur coast. As one old timer put it, "Never before have I seen so many volunteers do so much work and have so much fun doing it!"

With the bulk of the work completed by Saturday afternoon, many volunteers took it easy Sunday morning enjoying the beautiful wilderness of the Willow Creek canyon. However, a few resolute volunteers hadn't had enough and proceeded to pack out about ten loads of unbagged trash that remained at the Hobbit claim. This was followed by another crew cleaning up a small dump site up the Willow Creek Trail toward the Kinder mine. The US Forest Service fire crew stationed at Pacific Valley trucked this last load of trash from Happy Landing to the dumpster on Sunday afternoon.

We kept a fairly accurate tally of the number of back pack loads that were brought out to Happy Landing over the course of the weekend. While it wasn't really a contest because everyone has differing capacities and worked differing amounts of time, there was still a bit of friendly competition nevertheless. The total count was an impressive 267 backpack loads delivered to the trailhead at Happy Landing with two individuals hauling 14 loads each. Of course many others worked primarily on other activities such as loading pack frames at McGranahan and hefting them onto the traverse. Others pulled the loaded traverse across the gorge and up the steep incline to the off load side where they unloaded the packs from the traverse for the waiting backpackers. One of the most surprising statistics was reported by Waste Management, who provided the dumpster. They reported that the dumpster contents weighed 10,280 pounds! That's a lot of other folk's trash to pack out of the wilderness. And it sure was worth the effort.