My First Volunteer Trip
This past week, I had the opportunity to give back to our public lands by volunteering to help maintain hiking trails in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
On Friday, we gathered by our launch point on Lake One and waited to get canoes situated when two members of the forest service pulled up in their truck and unloaded a canoe. They knew we were there and what we were doing. They thanked us for what we would be doing, a reminder that with limited staffing and resources, agencies like the USFS increasingly rely on volunteers to help maintain these remote areas. The forest rangers then told us that they were setting out to the area where we would be to investigate a smoke that had been reported due to lightning the night before. They shoved off with some tools to investigate and fight a fire a couple of minutes before we did, and they moved fast. Pretty soon, they were out of sight.
We loaded up four canoes and the team of 9 I was a part of paddled away, starting at Lake One. We portaged to Lake Two, pausing along the way to clear downed trees that blocked the portage, and paddled our way to the Powwow Trail off of Lake Three. We stashed our canoes and hiked about 1.3 miles on the powwow trail to reach the Rock of Ages Campsite while taking note of what we found, since this stretch is where we would be working.
The area was burned in the 2011 Pagami Creek Fire, which destroyed the trail. Over the past decade and a half, there’s been a steady effort to rebuild it. While fire brings regeneration, we do not want vegetation to regenerate in the middle of the trail. Overgrown trails will cause people to make their own trails, creating more of an impact on the ecosystem than using an established trail. Also, having a clearly established trail reduces the number of lost hikers.
Our job was to clear the trail and maintain a visible corridor for future hikers until the forest can develop its canopy and naturally shade out the dense undergrowth. We also carried in a backcountry toilet to be installed further down the trail at another campsite at a later date.
When we got there and set up camp, we ate lunch, and I took a little nap. I then headed out to start doing trail work. I was pulling small plants that had grown in the middle of the trail, and lopped off some tree limbs hanging over the trail. That night we went to bed and a beaver was making quite a lot of noise, like they were throwing rocks in the water for most of the night.
The next day was a full 8-hour effort, cutting down small trees and digging up root balls from vegetation that had previously been lopped off but regrown. Some of the root systems were embedded between rocks, making it very difficult to dig up with a Root Slayer. It took two of us to dig them up. It made me realize how much time and labor even a short stretch of trail demands — and how difficult it is to keep up without sustained support and investment. By the end of the day, we had almost completed our task to cover the section of the trail between Lake Three and the Rock of Ages campsite.
The following day, we split up. Half went ahead to finish the bit we missed, and the other half went ahead and cleared more trail past the campsite. This was beyond our original task, but with another volunteer group set to come out in a few weeks, the idea was that if we could push ahead, they could pick up where we left off and cover even more of the trail. As we did this, it started to snow on us.
Our trip saw cold overnights and rain on and off through the day, as well as a bit of snow. We were supposed to work a full day, but agreed we would all meet back at camp for lunch, pack up, and head out due to the below-freezing temps forecasted that night. We accomplished our goal and then some.
With camp broken down and our gear packed, we retraced our steps, hiking back to our stashed canoes and paddling across the lakes one last time before reaching our vehicles.
I also want to mention how great everyone who was part of this adventure was. I was the only new one and felt very welcome. Everyone worked hard to help everyone else. We celebrated together and shared in the misery of the cold, wet weather.
This work is physically demanding, hiking on rough trails with heavy equipment, and working on hands and knees. This experience gives me a new appreciation for the behind-the-scenes effort that keeps these wild places accessible. Trails don’t maintain themselves. They depend on people who care, public support, and ongoing funding for forest management.
We inherit these places because generations before us believed they were worth protecting. I hope enough of us keep believing that, so we can pass these lands along, wild and intact, to those who come after us.
