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There are 84.3 miles of the PCT in the Carsonora Area. The Area is one contiguous segment of the PCT, and responsibility for it is not divided up for volunteers. However, the Area encompasses two Forest Service Regions, three National Forests, five Ranger District and three wilderness areas. Carsonora Area Volunteers generally have participated in training conducted by the PCTA, TRT or the USFS and some have received significant on-the-job training from nationally recognized sawyer and trail builder, Dolly Chapman and members of her Humboldt-Toiyabe NF trail crew. The Area Coordinator handles all the finances for the Carsonora Area, buying food, tools, and supplies as necessary.
The selection of work projects is driven primarily by reports from thru-hikers or the personal experience of the Area Coordinator. Agency personnel have selected a few projects as well. Projects are posted on the http://pcta.org website as soon as they are identified. Oftentimes however, weather and other factors necessitate a project that may not be identified early enough for inclusion in the December PCTA Communicator or before the February or March edition. Project details are e-mailed to former volunteers, and posted at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/carsonora/. In addition, the Area Coordinator and or the Regional Rep have conducted “clinics” at the REI store in Reno.
Transportation to project assembly areas is the responsibility of each volunteer. Volunteers come to projects with their own shelter, eating utensils, appropriate clothing, etc. Menu planning, food purchasing, and cooking are done by one lead-cook or the Area Coordinator with help from others as needed or offered. Tools are stored at the Area Coordinator’s home and are transported to the site along with the kitchen and food items by the Coordinator and/or others who volunteer to help. All volunteers are provided with PPE if they don’t have their own. All are given instruction on the proper use of PPE, and tool safety talks are routinely held each day before work begins. Crew members are invited to share concerns or observations of potential safety issues from the previous day without fear of retribution or scorn. The Area Coordinator maintains the tools and secures replacements or parts as necessary during the off-season. To assure that they are not lost, tools are checked out and accounted for at the end of each day, even when cached at or near the work site.
The Area Coordinator communicates with agency personnel via e-mail, phone or personal visits. Projects are submitted on the standard USFS Form 1800-8 Agreement for Sponsored Voluntary Services as soon as they are identified. The Area Coordinator files project reports at the end of the season. These reports contain a description of the work accomplished, work remaining, any safety issues that occurred, and a list of all the volunteers that participated, including their names, addresses, and miles traveled to provide their services. The Area Coordinator uses standard PCTA spreadsheet forms to report pre-project, project, and post-project hours contributed by volunteers. Standard PCTA expense reimbursement forms are used for financial reporting.
The job of the Carsonora Area Coordinator is a bit time-consuming but rewarding and we have been blessed in the past to have some exceptional crew leaders. Generally the Carsonora Area Volunteers have been exceedingly good people (some exceptional), hard working, unselfish and diligent trail builders – willing to put in long hours getting to camp, hiking to work sites, and chipping away at the hard rock that prevails in the high country in our area. I suggest that crew leaders accurately measure (in 10ths of a mile) and photo document each project site before and after every day’s work. Doing so will make reporting accomplishments much easier at the end of the project or the season. At the request of one of the ranger districts in our area we have also started using GPS points on the photo reports and this has been quite popular.
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Overview
