AHS / PNTA Volunteer Vacation
Olympic #64
Olympic National Park
9/8/07 - 9/15/07

This was a 6 person, full volunteer crew which was staged on the 2 nd week of September. The purpose of sending a second crew to the Sol Duc Deer Lake – Mink Lake Loop was two-fold, to complete the excellent rock work on the mud flats of Volunteer Vacation #63 crew and to brush and widen tread on the long traverse of the Low Divide where tread standards were sparse.

The start of the work party focused on tread widening along a sidehill below the low divide to build up the skill level of the crew. By the finish of the work party, crew were re-establishing tread to the 2’ standard on steep side hills of the Low Divide. Other days were spent hiking the very worst muddy spots of trail to 4 miles beyond Deer Lake including one unfinished low spot and 2 upper spots of the Low Divide and hardening them with well-fitted nearby rock. The upper spots of the Low Divide were alpine meadows with flat elevation features and clay pans below. The most obvious solution was to raise trail beds with well-fitted rock. Brushing was made in these same open alpine areas of up to 2’ beyond tread edges where heather growth was low. In the more forested traverse of the Low Divide, brushing was made to 4’ beyond tread edges for long stretches along re-established tread.

Specifics of the work completed include

35’ of ditching most of this was below alpine level, that above was made with rock lining
1,600’ of brushing
600’ of tread widening on steep side slopes

In sum, this work party had less technical work completed but extended their maintenance throughout the majority of the Low Divide than the work party of volunteer vacation #63. It was an excellent week to wrap up an excellent summer on the Olympic Peninsula where sunny skys greeted crew as they lifted their sleepy eyes from quiet autumnal slumbers. Crew members really established their tread work skill on a 600’ traverse in a hop-scotch-like effort along the trail. The hop scotch work was fun and crew made many mental notes as they passed each other.

On a separate note, pack-in pack-out was provided on both volunteer vacations by Kit’s Llamas. Her assistance was always sure-fire and on time. She packed for us on all hikes and it was a pleasure for crew members to participate in this style of packing and learn about the unique nature of packing llamas. Kit showed the spirit of the Old West for the last stage of her packing. On final pack out, Kit had her 6 llamas stand at attention from across a river by the camp grounds. With llamas fully loaded and tethered together, Kit yelled the “yamma” from the far side of the river and created a stampede of llamas through the water like a scene out of the movie “Rawhide”. As the chaos of big-eared animals reached Kit’s side she lunged high for some part of the tether between racing animals and brought a calm on the herd; only one bag was dropped.

Kit’s Llamas has serviced all PNTA-sponsored trips in the Olympic Region this summer. Her service accounts for 8 separate pack-ins and pack-outs to backcountry settings accompanying crew members in the country Kit was born and raised in. Of note, with this Olympian llama packer, Kit offered service on all planned trips back in April without exception while other packers mulled over raising fuel, feed, and insurance costs; on SKY trips, while some “at-risk” youth trail crews might be described as surly, Kit established trust and respect, though raising expenses are part of the mechanics of the marketplace, Kit insisted on servicing all our trips without charge. Kit Niemann at 70 is setting new standards for service to organizations like ours and we greatly valued her assistance and look forward to more work with Kit and her family in 2008.

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