Windy Gap Trail Wall Building, Boy Scout Troop 636 and Others

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Windy Gap Trail Wall Building, Boy Scout Troop 636 and Others

North 34 degrees, 20.379 by West 117 degrees, 49.701 at 6811 feet

"Energetic!" That's the best word to describe yesterday's trail restoration project at Windy Gap Trail in the Crystal Lake Recreation Area of the Angeles National Forest. Another good term to describe yesterday is "Leadership."

The San Gabriel Mountain Trailbuilders and a number of other first time and occasional volunteers met with Boy Scout Troop 636 to build a rock retaining wall along a section of Windy Gap Trail which has been repeatedly inundated with a rock slide that has made the trail unacceptably dangerous to use.

The new rock wall will hold back the hillside enough that only regular, less difficult trail maintenance will be needed over the years rather than more strenuous efforts to repeatedly re-open the trail after every rock slide.

From the start I could see that the day's project was going to be one of the better organized and successful large efforts thanks to the direction of the Boy Scout who had the task of ensuring that the project was done and done safely.

For the first part of the day the Scout in charge sat atop a boulder and directed the effort to select, collect, and move large boulders from where they could be found up to the new wall site. Every one of the volunteers, adults and Scouts included, exhibited a level of energy and initiative that was phenomenal!

I was very impressed, not only with the leadership but the ENERGY that the adults and Scouts displayed yesterday. It wasn't easy work -- good grief, no! -- but everyone without exception met the challenge and kept going, even when very tired, and even when the water started to run out.

Parents took direction and orders from the Scout in charge as much as the Boy Scout volunteers did, and one parent mentioned to me that the best way to let their kids get on with the job at hand is for parents to shut up, stand back, and LET them get on with the job, and that's what I saw during this project (with a few exceptions.)

Tell kids what needs to be done and let them do it rather than tell them HOW to do it, and I think things go very smoothly. The true mark of leadership is making sure things get done, that they get done safely, and knowing WHEN to assist but even more importantly when NOT to. And this Scout lead this project very well.

Large boulders had to be levered out of a rock gully down to the trail below using long metal bars and a lot of hard work and sweat! Then the boulders had to be carried up to the wall site, usually using heavy dollies which themselves weighed over 100 pounds. The boulders were placed near the wall going up and other volunteer crews worked the boulders up in to place.

Breakfast and lunch was provided, and even guys like me who don't eat animals was able to have something during our lunch break. I had a gallon and a half of water and drank most of it however many volunteers started running out of water -- which was unfortunate since many bottles of water had been left down below which really should have been brought up -- Scouts and adults were told to bring more water with them but maybe they misjudged how much they would be needing.

There were a few scrapes, crushed toes and fingers, maybe some sunburn, but I think everyone had a lot of fun.