San Juan National Forest and Durango Colorado

Last week we loaded down nine mules with 160 pounds of gravel each and led them into the wilderness to fill up a sandpit. Again and again, we made the trip. Yesterday I tubed down the Animas River, two tall boys of PBR as my flippers. Unfortunately, only one of them survived the rapids. Today is the day “Jane,” my trusty trail sidekick, has decided she has waited long enough. After 23 years, she will lose her virginity to “Dick,” a handsome yet slightly odd wilderness ranger. Next week, we pack our horses, Chester and Nelson, with enough food for 10 days, and we are off to the wilderness to disassemble then reassemble an avalanche-torn bridge.

As most people close to me know by now, I like to travel. And I like to hike. So why not combine the two and get a paycheck by working in a national park for the summer? I took off from Knoxville in mid-May on a very boring roadtrip through Arkansas and Oklahoma, a popular route for dead turtles and armadillos. Texas was a blur. My destination was Durango, Colo., a gold-mining-turned-vacation town that boomed in the 1870s. At that time, it was home to the Utes and the Navajos, so you can guess what happened there. It’s located in the southwest corner of the state and is a mecca for mountain bikers, hikers, horseback riders, water enthusiasts and environmentalists. Some might recognize it from the classic movie National Lampoon’s Vacation. Most of the movie was filmed here but made to look like other locations. The final leaping scene of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was filmed up the road at Baker’s Bridge. The beauty of Durango is that it can trick you like that. Desert, rivers, snow-capped mountains, lush green yards full of columbine and lupine can all be found here.  There’s also a lot of money in this town.  Oh, and everyone has a dog. And the dogs go anywhere and everywhere. It’s one of those towns where the only unattractive people are the tourists.

I work for the Forest Service in the San Juan National Forest. My title is “trail crew member.” Doesn’t sound too official, which suits me just fine. We pick trails on the map within our district and hike them to clean water bars, remove rocks, cut down logs over the trail and provide general trail maintenance.  At the end of the day, we make camp in the woods and usually take a dip in the closest icy creek. It’s not uncommon to break out a bottle of Jack Daniels and a deck of cards and laugh until our stomachs hurt. Not a bad way to spend the summer, especially when the trails have such tempting names as Ice Lakes, Emerald Lake and Turquoise Lake. I guess I would be sugar-coating it a bit if I didn’t mention that one unlucky crew member has to lug a chainsaw or a crosscut saw to the destination and back. That’s no fun, especially with a hangover. And sometimes it’s a pain in your ass when you can’t use a chainsaw in the wilderness. That makes for a very long day when you’re cutting out an avalanche or the charred remains of the fire that swept through here five years ago.

The weekends are for heavy drinking and road-tripping to the likes of Mesa Verde, Great Sand Dunes, Moab and Telluride. We took a particularly good roadtrip recently to Piedra River Hot Springs, where large, toasty rings of water are surrounded by Freezing River. A surreal and perfect Sunday accompanied by some cheap box wine and good friends.  I miss my family and friends and my little nook in Knoxville, but I know it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.  Life is too short to stand still.