By Gail Wood
Without question, it’s not your typical work party to fix the trails at the Capitol State Forest.
On March 29, about 200 people – an odd mix of riders on mountain bikes, quads, mules, and horses – will work together on the trails, moving about 10,000 pounds of gravel to repair a mile and a half of trail. A common goal, keeping the trails open, brings this unlikely team together each year.
It’s the ninth annual Great Gravel Pack-in. Last year, about 120 people, including Peter Goldmark, the Commissioner of Public Lands, showed up for this work party.
“We’re expecting the biggest turnout ever this year,” said Bob Stover, the coordinator of this year’s event and a volunteer member all nine years. “I don’t think there’s anything like it in the country.”
Each year volunteers play a key role in keeping Department of Natural Resources (DNR) recreation areas open and safe for the public. A decade ago, Ed Haefliger came up with the crazy notion of teaming up this diverse group of trail users. It’s a group brought together by their common interest – trails in the Capitol Forest.
“This is the poster boy for DNR’s volunteering,” Haefliger said.
Typically, the hikers, bikers, ATV riders and horseback riders don’t mix. They all use different trails. On this day, they’re working together as a team.
“What’s neat about it is you have so many different user groups coming together,” Stover said. “Some don’t agree with each other. But the thing is we’re out there working together.”
Haefliger, a horse and mule packer in the Olympic National Park for 16 years, figured having multiple use groups pulling together meant more work could be done. For help, he went to Christine Redmond, who is now the volunteer coordinator for Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife.
“She deserves a lot of the credit,” Haefliger said. “She took the risks and put this thing together.”
This year the work party will be repairing a trail used by ATVers and motor bikes. A big contributor this year will be the Tacoma Trail Cruisers, a bike club that will fix a spaghetti dinner for the hungry crew when the day is over. Everyone working that day is to meet at the Tacoma Trail Cruiser’s property is near the Capitol Forest at 9 a.m. The property is just before Notchka Road, just off Wadell Creek Road.
“In the past, we’ve worked on horse trails,” Stover said. “We’re returning the favor by working on an ATV trail this year. As a result, I think we’re going to get a lot more people coming out.”
The first year of the Great Gravel Pack-in, there were about 30 volunteers and about 15 mules and horses. A couple of years ago, 143 volunteers endured the cold and stormy weather to haul gravel and fix trails around the Mima Falls Campground. Besides spreading the gravel and fixing trails, they pulled weeds and rebuilt a culvert. Costco donated hotdogs, buns and chilli that day.
Whatever the weather, rain, snow or sunshine, the work party gets the job done each year. They’re like the United States Postal Service.
“Rain, snow, mud, blood or flood,” Haefliger said. “It doesn’t matter. They show up.”
Nearly every month, Kelly Wood leads of group of motorbike riders into Capitol Forest to do some trail repair.
“The DNR really relies on volunteer groups,” Wood said. “We love to do it.”
This year, volunteers will walk one-half mile to where the gravel will begin to be dropped and the repair begins, making for short access.
It’s the first year Haefliger isn’t the coordinator of the event, planning everything. Stover, who has been involved with gravel spread every year and job shadowed Haefliger last year, has taken over as the event coordinator. Haefliger is still involved. This year he’s organizing the mule and horse gravel carry.
“They couldn’t believe I gave it up,” said Haefliger, who is 71 and a retired fireman.
But overseeing the mule and horse gravel drop has enough challenges.
“There’s a lot of logistics to it,” Haefliger said. “Because you don’t have a loop you have to figure out how two groups won’t run into each other.”
What’s impressive is the work is all volunteer. There’s food and snacks during the day, but the real reward is the satisfaction of helping to fix the trails and keeping them open.
“If they say tomorrow ATVers can’t use the trails because they tear it up so much, who is going to be next,” Stover said. “So we really do have to work together as one to keep these trails open. If not, we’re going to lose them.”
