That Long Black Train...

One of the cool things about being on the Hot Shot Crew is the travel. Our small size makes it easy for CFI to send us wherever we're needed. Last week, while we were waiting for the snow to melt on our scheduled project peaks, we drew a quick work detail to Durango.

About 250 miles from our home base near Leadville, Durango is the hub of the San Juan Range, and the home of the CFI Chicago Basin Crew and our Southwest Conservation Corps partners. We drove down Monday to take the Durango-Silverton railroad to the Needleton trailhead and help the Chicago Basin folks start packing in their gear, which I believe measures somewhere in the thousands of pounds in total weight.

Riding the restored, narrow gauge steam train was scenic and fun in a novel way, but it also created an odd dynamic. The thing is packed with tourists, and we're there on work assignment. People were leaning out the windows to watch and take pictures as we scrambled to unload everything from the boxcar, and just about every passenger feels compelled to wave as you sit near the tracks taking a lunch break. It's not that big of a deal, it just made me feel a little bit like I was at an amusement park!

Our campsite was near the tracks along a beautiful stretch of the Animas River, in the most lush forest I've yet seen in Colorado. Tall willows and aspens, 24 in. diameter Ponderosas, and blooming Columbine were all nearby. We tented down in small grassy patch behind an old mining shed.

This was our first crew hitch, and we learned a few good lessons that we'll be able to apply to the rest of the season. The biggest is that if we want to make a bear hang we're going to need to get some stuff sacks to hold our food. This past week, we ran up everything in plastic grocery bags. They lasted the whole hitch, but probably wouldn't have hung there a day longer. Rips and tears were starting to develop and a bottle of hot sauce spilled all over our lunch stuff.

Our work consisted simply of taking the three months worth of gear for the Chicago Basin Crew and getting it all into mule-packable bundles. We

wrapped up ice chests full of food, propane tanks, rope and tent gear, tools and rubbermaid style containers called action packers (just to name a few) into even weight bundles in various types of saddle bags. In the morning Wendell, a laid-back old cowboy who generously offers his time to be our packer, and Shaun, the Chicago Basin project leader, would bring down the mules to get saddled up. The animals do the hardest work, carrying 100 to 200 pounds each, nine miles up the trail to the base camp site, then coming down and doing it all again the next day.

We ended our week with a quick lunch visit to Silverton and a night in Durango, much to Ben's chagrin, watching the Celtics lose to the Lakers in game seven of the NBA finals, before driving back to Twin Lakes on friday. Have a great season Chicago Basin Crew! The Hot Shots were happy to play a small part in your success this year.

-Dan