Hiking Trails I've Helped Build Across the Country

 Over the last 24 years, I've been participated in 35 volunteer trail projects across the country.  Some involved bridge construction, some were maintenance of an existing trail, and some involved the initial construction of the trail or a re-route of a section of existing trail. Here are some examples of my trail construction projects.

In 1998 in Montana's Gallatin National Forest, we rebuilt sections of the Lightning Lake Trail (8000 feet altitude) that had been damaged by horse usage.  This photo shows us in the muck installing a culvert to divert water under the trail. 

We then constructed what is called a "turnpike," a raised trail section that re-directs water alongside the trail so the tread remains high and dry.

Elsewhere on this same trail, we built a 1/4 mile re-route section to avoid another flood prone area.

In 2000, in Washington's Beacon Rock State Park, we built a lengthy reroute on the Hamilton Mountain Trail to get hikers off an old logging road and into the cooler and more scenic forest. Much of this reroute was on a slope of 45 degrees, making the work a bit trickier.

In 2001, the project was with the Colorado Trail Foundation where we were building the trail across ski slopes of the Copper Mountain Resort at 10,600 feet altitude. The new trail traverses short sections of lovely forest...

              

...and then crosses ski slopes which are simply  meadows in the summer.  Few skiers ever see these areas in all their verdant summer glory, and every winter the skiers are unaware the famous Colorado Trail exists below the many feet of snow upon which they are skiing. 

 

Another project in 2001 was in Michigan's Upper Peninsula in the Hiawatha National Forest. The Colwell Lake Trail is a handicap-accessible (ADA) trail which runs for 2.2 miles around the 145 acre Colwell Lake. The gravel trail was actually being built by a crew from a nearby prison, and our crew was following then and installing rest benches on gravel pads. After a pad was laid, we dug holes 42" deep for the bench which we placed in the holes so the set was 19" above the pad. We then leveled and plumbed the bench and filled th holes and tamped, all per ADA requirements.

Here's an example of a finished, wheelchair accessible, ADA approved pad with rest bench. As a final touch on each of the 10 benches we installed, we added some leaves and pine needles to make the rest area look like it had been there for quite some time.

In 2002, the project was for Tennessee's Cumberland State Trail. The trail was already 110 miles in length by then, well on its way to the planned 322 total miles. In case you are curious, the orange vests and caps were required since this section of trail was in the Royal Blue Wildlife Management Area and it was turkey hunting season.  Hikers are similarly required to wear orange gear during hunting seasons. To protect ourselves, we wore this orange gear back in camp, too, and yes, we did hear gunshots on occasion.

In order to get a new trail tread of three feet in width on steep slopes like this one, we had to dig out a good deal of the side hill and push all that soil off on the downhill side. We always left a slight tilt to the trail tread so water would run over the edge and off the trail instead of down the trail.

Another 2002 project was Kentucky's Pine Mountain Trail which is projected to be 120 miles long.  We dig to remove the loose leaves and duff until we reach compacted dirt so there is a firm trail tread.  Of course, the deeper you have to dig, the more rocks and roots you encounter, all of which then have to be removed. 

A 2003 project on Arizona's Mogollon Rim's Sinkhole Trail at elevation 7600 feet is located at the Canyon Point Campground. The sinkhole is a centuries old major geologic formation on the Mogollon Rim and a drawing card to the campground, but the trail leading down to its bottom was dangerous and in serious need of rebuilding.

The trail was safe and scenic when we finished!

In 2003, it was South Carolina's Palmetto Trail which is advertised as running "from the mountains to the sea" and 350 miles of the projected 600 mile cross-state trail are complete. 

In 2006, my local forest preserve district asked me to built two short trails for their summer day camp programs to use for nature walks. They provided tools and marked the trail corridors with orange flagging...

...and I built the trails, leaving fallen tree trunks and limbs and boulders nearby for instruction by the teachers and examination by the kids... 

...and I built a of couple short sections of stairs so disabled kids could  safely participate.

Arizona's Hells Canyon Wilderness northwest of Phoenix was a desert project which included a short backpack and a week of desert camping as we repaired and improved the Spring Valley Trail in 2007. Though the area only averages 7 inches of rain each year, the downpours can wreak havoc on the trail features, so we repaired damaged tread and installed water diversion structures.

A finished section of trail with Lake Pleasant visible in the far distance...

In 2009 in Maine's Acadia National Park, we were rebuilding the Great Head Trail which had suffered major damage from several hurricanes. We scoured the hillsides for boulders and large rocks and broke them into smaller pieces with sledgehammers, 

...so we could lay a solid bedrock foundation for the new trail...

...and we then covered it with dirt and dug drainage channels on each side of the new trail.

Arkansas' Buffalo River Trail runs 37 miles and our 2002 volunteer crew was led by Ken Smith, the author of the trail's guidebook and a leading local force in creating and completing the trail. In 1972, the Buffalo River was declared the first national river in the United States and is one of the few remaining unpolluted, free-flowing, un-dammed rivers in the lower 48 states and offers both swift-running and placid stretches. I've paddled the river and highly recommend both the trail and a river trip. The trail of course follows the river.

In 2017, we were building re-routes for the Red Leaves Trail in Tennessee's Natchez Trace State Park.  Beavers had built a dam which created a wetlands that flooded a lengthy section of trail, so we built a re-route for the trail up on higher ground on the adjacent hillside.

In 2017 in the Shawnee National Forest of Illinois, our host was the Touch of Nature Environmental Center which is an arm of Southern Illinois University which offers outdoor education and adventure programs for both students and adults. We were extending the Ledges Trail which will take hikers to and then alongside Little Grassy Lake which is seen ahead of us in these photos.

Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area in TN was the location for my 2018 project.  I had backpacked here with my buddy back in 2000, so this project felt like "payback" for me, a way to give thanks for having provided me a wonderful adventure two decades earlier.  I had also vacationed in the Kentucky section of this same park with my sister and her family even before that.

In March of 2020, just as the Corona Virus 19 pandemic was beginning in our country, I was part of a crew of four at Florida's Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse Outstanding Natural Area. On Wednesday of that week, our agency (American Hiking Society) called and said we should go home, that all projects were being cancelled. Our team leader explained that we were housed in a 4 bedroom home on site, we all had private rooms, and all our work was outdoors. Also we were cooking our own meals, so no restaurant visitation was involved. They allowed us to finish the week, which we did, and that was the final trail project of the year for AHS.

We were tasked with helping build a new loop trail through this scrub unique habitat. The mile-long trail corridor had been flagged three weeks earlier, and other groups had cut down the trees and bushes in the new corridor, but they had thrown the cut-offs into the vegetation on both sides of the new trail which would eventually affect the ecology of the area as well as look bad.  We pulled this debris onto the trail and then carried, pulled, and used a wheel barrow it get it to the trailhead and then loaded it on a vehicle to be taken for mulching which would then be brought back as the final trail surface. We also had to dig out all the stumps and roots because they were tripping hazards.

 Finally, we spread the supply of mulch which was already available, thus completing this section of the trail and showing what the finished trail will soon look like...

 My other 16 projects involved bridge building, or trail maintenance where we were lopping overgrowth or removing invasive species, or blocking illegal entry points to an area, or working in a National Park Service greenhouse preparing native plants for transplanting into the wild, or other such activities. The photos and info for all my projects are available here.

My Favorite Campsites and Tents

Sleeping under the stars is appealing and has its advantages and disadvantages. Here I am at sunset in Arizona's Lake Powell in Glen Canyon in 2003. I was houseboating and kayaking for a week, but the boat was crowded and sleeping was in very cramped quarters. There were no bugs and no rain predicted, so I took the thin bunk mattress out to the sand and slept outside -- and awoke each morning with fresh coyote tracks around my mattress. I had been "investigated" overnight and deemed not a threat (or not appetizing?) None of my fellow boaters joined me even though I survived the first night.

But tents do serve a purpose and over the decades I've had several tents.  My compact, lightweight North Face soloing tent was used both for backpacking and on multi-day river trips when space was limited in a canoe or raft or kayak. My mid-size tent for 2 or 3 persons is for car-camping at a campground and my newest of these is just large enough to accommodate my camping cot. I also have a huge 6 person tent for when I'm spending several days or a week in one place, usually on a volunteer trail project. Erecting that huge tent by myself isn't worth the hassle for just one night, but the comfort and space if offers is worth it for longer stays. Finally, one of my first tents over 30 years ago was a full size teepee I inherited from a disbanded Boy Scout troop. There's a photo of it at the end of this post.

Florida's Everglades National Park has a campground at the end of the 30+ mile road that goes in Flamingo, the southernmost headquarters of the park. I camp there when hiking or paddling the eastern part of the huge park, but most often I camp at Long Pine Key Campground just inside the park's entrance where I use the tent as a base of operations for my activities in the Miami-Homestead area which mainly consists of riding various bike trails in the area. This allows easy exit from the park for the bike rides, shopping trips for food supplies, or a visit to the nearby amazing Robert Is Here! fruit stand, and I use my largest tent since I'll be there for a number of days.  In recent years the campground added modern washrooms and shower buildings and most sites are shielded on three sides from views of other sites as seen below. There is also a mountain bike trail that begins at the campground.

This larger tent allows my REI "comfort cot" to easily fit inside with a sling chair, and a storage box acts as a nightstand for the battery-powered lantern, etc. It's a special delight to be able to stand up when dressing and undressing. Not exactly roughing it in this tent!

Two thousand miles west in Colorado, I recently discovered a new "favorite" campground -- the beautiful Little Bear Campground on the shore of Island Lake up at 10,000 feet in Grand Mesa National Forest high above Grand Junction. I used my new mid-size tent which still gives me the comfort of sleeping on my cot. The temperatures were sweltering in the mid-90s in town, but very comfortable way up here!

Another 3400 miles or so north and west of Colorado, I was backpacking in Alaska's Denali State Park which is across the highway from Denali National Park. Our Sierra Club group was too large to backpack in the national park (over 12), so we were hiking up high on Kesugi Ridge Trail, camping on the picturesque and comfy tundra with marvelous views of Mt. Denali in the national park just to our west.

Our group had plenty of room to spread out, and the tundra wildfires that were blanketing 6 million acres of Alaska in 2004 were absent from this area.

When I was in Washington State's Goat Rock Wilderness (prior to participating in a week of volunteer trail work) I arrived early so I could do a quick backpack on the Pacific Crest Trail, where I found this idyllic location my first night. I was up on a rise, nestled in some trees, with a rambling brook cascading beside me and lulling me gently to sleep all night.

Here's a closer look at this campsite. I did numerous backpacks with my buddy, Len, and we even got his youngest daughter and wife to join us a few times, along with my sons.  Len always joked that I'd often find nice campsites alongside moving water, and when he'd get home after a trip, he had to run the bathtub water all night to be able to sleep!

Smokey Mountain National Park has a lovely campground and I used it as a base of operations one year. Here's my site. Again I had some soothing water effects from a nearby gentle stream all night...

During Spring break of 1996, I went on my one and only cold weather backpack trip. I didn't have any 4-season gear but I figured it would be warmer if I headed south from Chicago, so I went to Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky. Predicted temperature was 60 degrees, but a cold snap dropped it to the 40s during the day, and overnight it went down to 20 degrees. I froze! In fact, my water bottles froze overnight inside my tent, and the nearby creek froze over and I had to break the ice to get water in the morning.  Did I mention it was my one and only cold weather backpack trip? And it only lasted one night because I bailed out early! You really do need to invest in proper gear for winter/early spring backpacking up north! Even the trees look cold!

One of my all-time favorite backcountry campsites was in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park. I was hiking up Paintbrush Canyon and spotted a narrow vague side trail going off to my left, so curiosity got the best of me and I followed it for 50 feet where I discovered a knoll outcrop with a magnificent view off to the east.  I can say it was the most magnificent view I've ever had in over 300 nights spent backpacking in 52 forests, parks, and wilderness areas across America.  I was on a high point with Leigh and Jackson Lakes 1000 vertical feet below me and the Gros Ventre (pronounced Gro Vant) Mountains and Teton National Forest off in the distance. And other than the breeze, it was absolutely silent, with no traffic noise or human voices.

WOW! I sat on the point by the dead tree all afternoon and evening, occasionally looking at my reading material, but mostly gazing at the grandeur spread out before me. The next evening at Holly Lake camp area, I met a backcountry ranger and described to him my previous night's site. He smiled and proudly said, "I found and built that campsite six years ago." I stood up, shook his hand, and fervently thanked him! If you ever get to use this site, look over the edge on the south side and perhaps you, too, will see the bull moose browsing the shrubs below, and also be prepared to spend time with the friendly, curious, and photogenic marmot who lives there. You might notice in the photo above that my pack is hanging on the dead tree to the right of my tent, keeping it out of the reach of this nosy and very curious marmot.

A few years later after that marvelous backpack in Teton NP, I decided to backpack the Jedediah Smith Wilderness which occupies the western slope of the Teton Range.  I was greatly disappointed, though, because from this west side of Grand Teton National Park you do not see any of the Teton peaks due to other mountains being in the way. The Hidden Lake Trail was a lovely walk through an open forest to the lake which itself was a beautiful and peaceful locale. 

The elevation gain is only 800 feet or so, with a drop of 170 feet down to the lake area. It is a magnificent area but there is only one place conducive to setting up a nice camp at the lake, and it was taken, so I had to create a space for my tent as far away from the raucous teenagers who were already there.  I set up camp on the far side of their camp (which is seen across the lake on the shoreline.)

In Yellowstone National Park, I solo backpacked down the DeLacey Creek Trail and then around Shoshone Lake, a trek that required fording six or more creeks and also a mile or so slog through a marsh. A highlight was hiking through the Shoshone Lake Geyser Basin at the far western end of the lake which is billed as one of the world's most important basins with over 70 geysers, including 15 foot by 5 foot Minute Man Geyser. The popular geyser areas in the park have elaborate boardwalks for visitors, but here in the backcountry it was just a narrow gravel and dirt trail, and I had the area to myself since it is so remote and difficult to access.

Below is my first night's camp on the shore of Shoshone Lake. The signage with the campsite number had a metal sign, and when I took off my backpack, I leaned it against the signpost. Oops! A corner of the metal sign sliced my sleeping pad and I was unable to repair it, so I ended up sleeping on the hard ground both nights.

New Hampshire's 45,000 acre Pemigewasset Wilderness in the White Mountains was my first ever solo backpack trip and use of backpacking tent, a loop hike that included a section of the Appalachian Trail. This was my first night's campsite. I was glad the tent was small so it could fit in the narrow space. There was downfall everywhere and accessible camping areas were rare.

Our very first backpacking tents 30+ years ago are seen below as my sons and I backpacked in Utah's High Uintas Wilderness. One night at dusk as we sat around our campfire, two browsing deer with their mouths to the ground came out of the woods, and on a straight line passed right through our camp and continued onward, seemingly unaware we were even there!

 

I've been on numerous week-long canoe, raft, and kayak expeditions over the years, and beaches are among my favorite camping locales.

You're always guaranteed a soft camping surface, but if the river has a dam upstream, you better make sure you're well above the river level in case they release more water through the dam overnight! These next photos are from my two paddles down Utah's Green River.

Desert camping is also a bit different from forest camping. The sand is comfy, but slithering, crawling things make you glad you have fabric walls and a floor surrounding you! Below is Arizona's Hells Wilderness where we were on a volunteer trail project northwest of Phoenix.

If you are looking for a wonderful campsite, Wyoming's Bridger Wilderness in the Wind River Range is a winner.  The northern shore of Upper Green Lake has three or four sites, each providing views you will not soon forget. Our campsite the fifth night was by Squaretop Mountain. In the middle of the night, the wind picked up and two adjacent treetops began rubbing against the other making some scary noises as if one of them was about to fall. The term "widow maker" jumped into my mind and made it difficult to get back to sleep!

A two-day backpack up Colorado's Big Blue River Valley in the Uncompahgre Wilderness offered us this lovely view from our tents.

Using this as our basecamp,  we then hiked to the top of Uncompahgre Peak (14,309 feet high) -- a peak my Dad had ridden up on horseback in 1939 with his cousin, Jake, who was the U. S. Forest Ranger assigned to this area and the one who encouraged me to do this backpack trip in 1993.

When we first began teaching jobs, my buddy Fred and I camped at Illinois' Mississippi Palisades State Park and did some hiking in the park and canoeing on the Mississippi River. We borrowed this tent from a friend and this helped stimulate me to continue camping and to start acquiring my own tents.

For 5 years, I was scoutmaster of a troop composed of higher-functioning  mentally-challenged boys who were residents at Chicago State Hospital. My fellow volunteers and I took the boys camping a few times using my friend's tent and also a teepee I acquired when my old troop disbanded (which the boys loved sleeping in!)

Here I'm camping with my young sons at Cottonwood Campground which is halfway up the north rim of Grand Canyon National Park. We began on the south rim and over the course of 9 days, we backpacked rim-to-rim-to-rim. Great trip!

My newest soloing tent replaces my original backpacking tent. Here I'm backpacking in Kentucky's marvelous Red River Gorge with my cousin's native Kentuckian husband.

Across the highway from Mt. Rushmore is the Black Elk Wilderness. The Black Hills National Forest is a wonderful locale for backpacking though it is overshadowed by the more famous presidential faces on the mountainside.

The best backpacking in the midwest is undoubtedly Michigan's Isle Royale National Park, an island wilderness 70 miles north of Houghton, Michigan, but only 15 miles south of the Canadian border. Though much closer to Canada, it was annexed to the United States at the 1783 Treaty of Paris, probably due to a cartographer's error. The island is 45 miles long by 8.5 miles at its widest point and it contains 210 square miles of wilderness.  I've backpacked here twice, covering the entire island. There are 36 campgrounds, all accessible by foot or boat, and all provide tent sites, water source, and outhouses. A few offer screened shelters and picnic tables.

In the photo below we are lunching along the shore at the Moskey Basin Lakeside Campground. The drop-dead scenery is awesome no matter where you stop! One superlative I read about the island: Siskiwit Lake is the largest lake on the island; it has Ryan Island, which is the largest island in the largest lake on the largest island (Isle Royale) in the largest freshwater lake in the world (Lake Superior)!

Michigan's Porcupine Wilderness is a true wilderness, one of the largest in the midwest comprising 63,000 acres. Of these 92 square miles, over 51 square miles contain virgin hardwood forest. Twenty-five miles of Lake Superior shoreline border the park which has over 90 miles of trails.

Around dusk, a scout troop had hiked past our campsite and one of their leaders said: "One of our scouts fed a Kudo bar to a bear a few miles back, and its been following us ever since. Sorry!" They then left, but the bear obviously stayed. Twice the bear came to our tent after midnight, walked around us sniffing the tent, and then left. We have never had food or attractants in the tent, so there were no tempting odors to entice the bear.  I can attest that black bears have really bad breath because we smelled his breath as he sniffed the tent. Afterwards, I always thought it strange that its breath registered in my memory instead of my fear that its razor sharp claws would decimate the tent fabric. I also was glad I had my .357 magnum revolver in my hand as the bear circled our tent. The next morning when I retrieved our untouched food bags, I noticed fresh bear claw marks on the tree bark where it had tried to break my parachute cord and failed. It did not get my food, although another backpacker in the area lost his entire food bag to the varmint.