Upper Bear Creek Trail Cub Scouts, Webelos, Boy Scouts

Photographs and a video are provided at the bottom of this web page.

Greetings, everyone on the Internets! It was another wonderful day volunteering in the Angeles National Forest, and with a large crew of Cub Scouts, Webelos, and Boy Scouts, a lot of good work was done on the hiking trail.

When I was told that webelos would be joining us today, I had no idea what that was and thought that we were going to be using some kind of pack animal to help haul tools up the trail. In fact I wasn't far wrong: We had about 50 or 60 young volunteers, a good number of adults, some older and younger sisters, members of the San Gabriel Mountains Trailbuilders, and (if I'm not mistaken!) at least one member of the Angeles Volunteer Association today.

The Upper trail head is located at the Valley of the Moon just above Coldbrook Campgrounds, just where the U. S. Forest Service gate (actually belongs to Caltrans) closes highway 39 which leads all the way up into the Crystal Lake Recreation Area. Though the trail was restored by a contractor some years ago, routine maintenance needs to be done from time to time and today the first mile or so got cleaned up quite a bit.

Upper Bear Creek Trail is a very popular hiking trail. It heads up to Smith Saddle, heads down into the designated wilderness, loops around generally South West, and meets up with West Fork Road something like 6 miles or so down below. Families can use the trail and camp along it because the trail is safe and relatively easy despite there being very little shade for the first four miles or so. It's a good over night hiking and camping experience to use that trail, in fact.

Tom and I collected tools down at the Rincon Fire Station and then headed up to Valley of the Moon where everyone else was staging up for the day. Ben gave a safety orientation talk and a demonstration with the tools that would be used while I ran around with my camera and laptop computer.

Boy Scouts got to pick their tools of choice first with McLouds, shovels, and picks being the most usual tools we had brought with us. Webelos got to select tools from what remained and then adults got to sort though what was left (well, actually the professional Trailbuilders yoiked tools first while nobody was looking.)

It was a busy day, not only for the volunteers but also for hikers. In the first three hours or so I believe there were ten hikers that came through, all of them thanking the Scouts from time to time for the great work they were doing. Since I'm always looking for volunteers, I joke with hikers about grabbing a tool and joining us and surprisingly on rare occasion a hiker will if only to see what it's like. (None joined us today.)

The Scouts were great! They did a HUGE amount of work, supervised by an adult or two, and the professional Trailbuilders got to do the work we wanted to do without having to worry too much about safety, boys throwing rocks at each other, or other naughty boy stuff -- the young volunteers today were focused, highly energetic, and worked hard on the trail.

It looked to me as if everyone had fun. I know I did! I always enjoy seeing kids get out of the damned stinking cities and get up into the mountains like this, and doing exercise, helping out like this in our National Forests is a very good thing to do, I think.

We didn't go far -- just short of one mile up the trail. There was certainly enough work to keep everyone busy with clearing off the rock and dirt slides, removing the berms along the trail which channel rain water and erodes the trail, and moving rocks around and such.

The next time a work crew comes up, we'll be able to hike to the next s ection and work on it without having to spend any time (or very little time, any way) on the first mile.

Interestingly a table was carried up and hot chocolate was provided for those who wanted it. The day wasn't nearly as cold as it had been the week previously when volunteers worked at the Environmental Education Center down below. Further up the mountain, around past 4000 feet there was snow but where we worked it was warm -- more so when in direct Sunlight.

Also interestingly, a number of the hikers that walked past us were packed up with gear for spending the night. Night time temperatures probably attained lows of around 25F degrees but if their sleeping equipment stays dry tonight, the San Dimas Mountain Rescue Team should not need to be called upon to locate their frozen remains, pack them up, and helicopter them out. It looked like tonight will be dry.

We stopped working fairly early -- early for the professional Trailbuilders crews who usually work until the point where we don't have to put our tools away in the dark. But the amount of work that got done today was phenomenal, one of the better, most productive volunteer days that I've seen.

Maybe the cool temperature helped. In the Summer I spend time between picking and shoveling to drink water and rest and likely half the time I spend volunteering in Summer months is used trying to keep from passing out and avoiding heat stroke. Today was cool enough that the volunteers -- energetic kids and all the adults -- got to work steadily so a lot of work got accomplished.

Down below again we broke for a quick lunch, took some group photographs (sitting on the closed gate; don't tell Caltrans!) and then getting some Scout patches and things handed out to the volunteers who had achieved them.

You know, another thing: The adults for the most part once again pretty much stepped aside and let the kids organize and do things their own way. That, I think, also accounts for the good amount of work that got accomplished. I've seen Troop 1210's parents do this before and it seems to me to be a good idea, one that works. Kids know what to do, know what needs to be done (when told) and can usually figure out on their own how to do it.

After the group photographs the Trailbuilders packed up and left the Scouts and the most of the adults up there. We headed back down to Rincon Station, packed away the tools, picked through the metal junk pile for treasure, and then headed back down the mountain.

On the way down we drove slowly past another common phenomena we encounter routinely: Another motorcycle down call-out with medical response and fire crews picking up the pieces. (I couldn't see whether the San Dimas Mountain Rescue Team was working that crash.)

Every week end around 100 or more motorcycle idiots, if I may say so, come screaming up and down the canyon highway at high speeds, leaned over, without any regard for anyone else's health or safety. Nearly every week end at least one will crash and about ten or twenty percent of those will die (the reason is because they have a 33 percent chance of launching off into the ravine below, a 33 percent chance of ramming into the cliff face, or a 33 percent chance of sliding along the highway or running into another car, bicyclist, or hiker until they stop.)

Higher up the highway there were numerous motorcycle riders stopped along the side of the road. Down around the crash there were another large number of motorcycle riders sitting on the side of the road, waiting to hear whether their fellow rider would live, and I wonder whether any of them will learn the lesson or whether I'll (probably) see them racing up and down again next week end.

It should be interesting to see what the young volunteers take with them from these projects. They're doing real, serious, difficult work in the wilderness and they're making a positive impact for hikers and campers who use these trails. I hope that the kids realize how much visitors to the forest appreciate their efforts. I certainly appreciate what they do!

I hope some of the Scouts who worked here today read this because the work they did improved the safety of the trail and in doing so it means that there's an ever lower chance of someone injuring themselves on the trail. By removing rock and dirt slides, hikers don't have to swing out over the drop-offs to get around them, and that makes their hiking day safer.

Injuries require medical call-outs (and some times air-lifts) and volunteers working on these trails improving safety means that the professional medical crews and rescue teams out there can concentrate on vehicle accidents like the one we passed today.

A broken leg on the trail can happen at the same time that a car over the side can happen, and cars over the side usually have pretty disastrous medical issues that are high priority. Reduce the safety hazards on hiking trails and that lowers the window of risk that medical crews will be on the trail when they're needed somewhere else with more serious problems.

I hope that these young volunteers realize that.

So good job, everyone. Fun, exercise, community involvement and service, improving safety, making hiking enjoyable, and everyone benefits from this kind of volunteer work.