Trailblazer: Notes from Yosemite

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Editor’s note: Princeton resident Brian Taylor, 25, is spending several months working in Yosemite National Park. He has agreed to send letters to the BCR, telling readers of his experiences. Taylor does not have access to any electronic equipment — cell phone, lap top, etc. All correspondence from him is via handwritten letters.

Hello. I am writing to you today from Yosemite National Park, which will be my home for the next five months. You may be asking yourself how can one of the most renowned national parks become somebody’s home. How this dream became a reality is that I applied through Americorp. Americorp was introduced during the Clinton presidency as a way for people to serve their country. This program is a little different in that it is in conjunction with the California Conservation Corps and the National Park Service, along with Americorp.

I am currently living with 14 other individuals. Ten of them are between the ages of 19 and 25, and all applied the same way I did. The other four work for the National Park Service.

Now to explain what it is we do to serve our country. The job is rigorous; it involves maintaining existing trails within Northern Yosemite. This means hiking to a trail and then cleaning any brush, debris, large sticks, fallen trees at least 4 feet on either side of the trail. This is important because it makes the trails more accessible to hikers. It also makes it nearly impossible for the hikers to lose the trail, which is a matter of safety. Besides this, we improve or add swales; swales are important because it is basically places for water to run off the trails. This also makes the trails safer and lessens the impact of erosion.

The program also includes classes which meet four nights a week. These classes are on a variety of subjects, including the history of the area, the flora and fauna of the area. There are classes on safety and how not to impact the area in which we live and work.

This is just an introduction to what we are doing, and I hope through my correspondence you can enjoy this journey with me. I will be telling you more about the work we do, what camp life is like, our journeys on the weekend as crew when we are not working, the nature that surrounds us and the 14 people I will be working, living and growing with over the next five months.

Right now, we are located at Lake Eleanore, and in a few weeks, we travel to Pate Valley. There is so much to share, so much of the wonders of nature that often in our day-to-day lives we don’t notice. I hope to give you a glimpse at what I find on this journey.

Here is a schedule of a regular day:

5:30 - 6:15 a.m.: Make sack lunch.

6:30 - 7 a.m.: Breakfast.

7 - 7:20 a.m.: Breakfast clean up.

7:30 - 7:45 a.m.: Group stretching.

8 a.m. - noon: Work (hike to trail and work).

Noon - 12:30 p.m.: Lunch

12:30 - 5 p.m.: Work and hike back to camp.

5:30 - 6 p.m.: Dinner.

6 - 6:30 p.m.: Dinner clean up and chores.

7 - 8:30 p.m.: Class

8:30 - ?: Free time. Usually I’m in bed by 9 p.m.

We work one week at nine-hour days, Monday through Friday. Then the next week, we work three, nine-hour days and an eight-hour day. That gives us a two-day weekend the first week and a three-day weekend the next. The weeks alternate like that.

The weekend we can go wherever we can hike, but in groups of four. We have to be back by 4 p.m. Sunday. The weekends are the true adventures.