Primitive Skills Training on the John Muir Trail
Student Conservation Association and USFS Sponsored Training
John Muir Wilderness
Sierra National Forest
August 2006
Just south of Silver Pass, where the John Muir Trail overlaps with the Pacific Crest Trail, hikers encountered a group of students studying an old skill on the verge of extinction. “One pop and these babies explode like dandelions,” an instructor tells a group of Student Conservation Association Staff, Forest Service employees, volunteers.
The School of Rock is in session.
Mastering rock pars, sledge hammers, levers, buckets, chains, and straps employed in rock trail rock is as much an art as it is science. Even more complex is the selection of structure location, choice of materials, the quarrying of supplies and making all those native rocks fit together in a complex assembly that will successfully divert water, retain small material and provide an adequate tread for humans and horses for the next 100 years.
Quality wilderness trails is one goal; leadership is the other objective. The ability to contemplate, plan, discuss and cuss; putting the pieces together to build a trail, requires teamwork, respect, coordination and patience. These students are our future teachers with the charge “to build the next generation of conservation leaders and inspire lifelong stewardship of our environment and communities by engaging young people in hands-on service to the land.” (Student Conservation Service Mission Statement)
Student Conservation Association website: www.thesca.org
“SCA – Rock On !”
