The final Board meeting of 2011 was held on November 5th in Loomis California. It was a very productive meeting and should keep our organization running smoothly well into next year. It was decided to have a fun trip on the Applegate Trail and two work parties on the Beckwourth next field season. There’s always lots of room on the work parties, but the fun trips have a limited number of slots available and it’s first come, first selected.
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Upcoming Activities:
Our 2012 banquet will once again be held at the Sands Regency Hotel and Casino in Reno, Nevada. The date is April 14th, so be sure and mark your calendars and join us for some great food, fun and information sharing.
We will be setting up a block of rooms at $51.08, the banquet dinner will cost $31.50/person, and a farewell breakfast the next morning will be $18.00/person. All of these include tax and gratuity.
The first Board meeting of the new year will be held before the banquet in a meeting room at the Sands. All members are welcome to attend Board meetings.
More information will be posted here as things are finalized.
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Our fun trip for next field season will be on the Applegate Trail. This will cover the portion from Rye Patch Resavoir in Nevada to Goose Lake in California. This is a great trail to drive and it will take you from the Nevada desert to the mountains of California. There are several locations on this trail where you will be able to see wagon ruts ground into solid rock, emigrant names written on rock walls and the scenery is outstanding. There will be more information regarding this outing at a later date, but you need to be advised that a four wheel drive vehicle is a must and the section through High Rock Canyon is very brushy. This trip will take place from September 21 - 24. Terry Hardwicke will be the trip leader.
As an aside, the Applegate Photo Tour was recently updated with new photos and narrative and will give you a good idea of what’s along the trail.
There will be two main work trips next year. Both will be on the Beckwourth Trail in preperation for the publishing of its Driving Guide later in the year.
The first party will be on June 22-24 where we will replate 23 markers and relocate five of them.
The second party will take place on September 7 – 9 where we will replate 22 markers. Bill Bishell will be the trip leader for both of these work parties.
There will be more information and sign up sheets at the April banquet. This will be your first opportunity to sign up for these trips.
UNSCHEDULED FIELD TRIPS:
Now that we are in the middle of winter and with snow in the mountains our field activities have really slowed down. Even so, there will still be a few outings where we do marker maintenance or to check out driving information to be used in the preparation of our Trail Guides.
If you are interested in participating in these kinds of trips, please contact us at:
trailactivities(at)emigranttrailswest.org
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LATEST ACTIVITIES:
Our latest unscheduled trip was out near Elko, Nevada on November 17th. This was a spur of the moment trip as we had day or two of decent weather and a pressing need to move Marker HN-34. This is the last marker on the Hastings Cutoff Trail and is where the Hastings joined the California Trail. The marker location actually was fine, but it was on the south side of the Humboldt River and was no longer accessible due to the deterioration of a private bridge crossing the river. We are in the final stages of republishing A GUIDE TO THE CALIFORNIA TRAIL ALONG THE HUMBOLDT RIVER and Marker HN-34 is mentioned in this guide and we needed to get the marker in place with the correct GPS coordinates before we could get the Guide to the publisher. The work went off without a hitch and now we can drive to this marker and not risk falling into the river.
Three vehicles and seven individuals made the drive out to Elko. First they pulled the marker, filled in the hole and then cleaned the area up so there is no sign of disturbance. This is on private property and the ranch has been good to us in letting folks enter their land to view the marker. Next we had to drive a half hour to get around the bridge in question to plant the marker in its new location. It was a long way around to end up moving the marker a couple of hundred yards. After digging the new hole, hauling rocks, mixing concrete and cleaning up the area the marker is in place in its new home. It was a job well done and will enable us to get the latest guide to the printers.
Here’s some photos of the crew in action.
Here’s the marker pulled out of the ground
Removing the old concrete to lighten it up
It took four of us to load 250 lbs of marker
Bob did a great job cleaning up the area
The marker in its new location
Another unscheduled project successfully completed! Thanks to everyone that helped.
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Well, we have finally finished the Carson Trail!!! As those of you that have purchased our CARSON TRAIL DRIVING GUIDE are aware, Marker C-20 was not installed and was left blank in the book. This was due to problems getting permission to locate the marker where we wanted it. Just recently, permission was granted and a few of our members didn’t waste any time and took the previously completed T marker and went out along the Carson River and installed it.
Here’s the dedicated and happy crew that finished off the Carson markers for us.
There will be an errata sheet sent out to everyone that purchased the guide. If you don’t receive one in the mail by the end of December, contact us at trailactivities(at)emigranttrailswest.org and we’ll get one out to you right away.
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Beckwourth Project:
As mentioned above, the Beckwourth Trail will be our main focus of activity in 2012. Besides the two formal work trips, there will be monthly work parties starting in April to do on the ground checking of the trail to map it to currant standards and to locate portions of the trail where we’re not sure of its location.
If you’re interested in working with us on any of these activities, contact us at trailactivities(at)emigranttrailswest.org
We can use all the help we can get and here’s a chance to have fun with fellow trail enthusiasts and get to do some hands on trail location and marker work.
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2011′s scheduled outings are history. Here’s what we accomplished.
The Hastings Cutoff Fun Trip:
On May 20 – 23, the Hastings Cutoff Fun trip was held as planned. We had a small but committed group and the entire trail from marker HN-1 through
HN-34 was covered in three days.
Denise Moorman, one of the members on the trip, kept a journal of our travels.
See her Journal here for the details and photos of this fun trip.
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The 1st Johnson Cutoff Work Party:
On June 28th and 29th the Johnston Cutoff Work Party installed eight new markers along this trail. We had a good turnout and everyone had a great time.
There is a brief write-up on the outing here.
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The Carson Fun Trip:
On July 15 – 18, the Carson Fun trip took place as planned. The weather really cooperated in that it wasn’t hot in the desert section and when we hit the mountains, it warmed up for comfortable travel. But, we had to skip several markers as there was still snow at the higher elevations due to the harsh winter we experienced. This will leave us something to do later!
You can check here for a diary write-up of this trip.
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The 2nd Johnson Cutoff Marker Installation:
On September 20-21, the second Johnson Cutoff Marker installation work party went off without a hitch. The weather was good and all the markers were placed in record time thanks to all the hard work of the many members that attended.
Here is a write-up of the outing.
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Lassen Trail and Bruff’s Camp:
This trip was held as scheduled. The weather cooperated and all went well. We were able to clean up an important area and have a lot of fun doing it. Check here for a write-up on the outing.
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A work party to fabricate markers:
On April 7th, nine of our members met in the Sacramento area for a work party to begin the task of assembling the next batch of markers to be installed on the trails. Our stash was getting low and we have an ambitious marker installation schedule for the next few years so we needed to get things going before the summer season.
We have a large quantity of railroad rail stored at a member’s residence and it was time to convert the rail to something more useful. The work consisted of cutting the rail to the required lengths for uprights, crossbars and the short pieces that help to hold the marker in the ground.
The other activity that was done was to drill and countersink holes in the crossbar piece to accommodate the aluminum plaques that will be attached when the final location for each individual marker is determined.
The cutting and drilling took up most of the day so the final task of welding the three sections that make up a marker were left for another day.
If any of you would like to help out in the future, or just sit around and watch, let us know. The more the merrier and it’s a good way to get to know folks.
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GUIDELINES FOR ALL TRAILS WEST FIELD TRIPS
Come prepared to travel on rough, rocky roads in remote areas. This means that the vehicle you are driving should be a rugged, high-clearance vehicle, preferably equipped with 4-wheel drive, and in good mechanical condition. Your vehicle should have heavy duty tires with adequate tread depth. In addition, each vehicle should be equipped with drinking water, a CB radio, a cell phone, a shovel, a cutting tool of some kind and a tow strap.
If you do not have this type of vehicle and are still interested in joining us on a trip, please contact the trip leader. Many times there will be room in someone else’s rig and arrangements can be made to accommodate an extra passenger.
Also, if you do not have a CB radio we may be able to come up with a loaner or two.
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Annual Activities:
Trails West has three main types of activities during the year. First is the Annual Banquet and General Membership Meeting. The second is our two or three trail marking and marker maintenance outings. The third type is “fun trips” where we follow a paticular trail without performing any work activities. This outing is led by someone familiar with that trail and we stop at historic spots and learn about what went on there and hike significant sections of the trail.
In addition to these main activities, Trails West volunteers also occasionally engage in other activities such as:
- Driving the various segments of the trail to inspect markers already installed.
- Fabrication of new markers. This requires cutting the rail and welding the pieces together to form a marker. The finished marker consists of a top bar, a stem and a bottom bar. It is about 6 feet in length and weighs about 200 pounds.
- Engraving of inscription plates.
- Experimentation with new methods of attaching inscription plates to the rail markers.
- Researching the many emigrant diaries and journals to locate material relevant to the various locations that we envision installing markers.
- Writing Guides to the various segments of the trail. These Guides are designed to allow the modern traveler to drive the historic trails from their beginning to the various ends in northern California and southern Oregon. In addition, these Guides give the traveler information about the country he or she is traveling through.
BOARD MEETINGS – We have three Board meeting a year which all Trails West members are invited to attend. One meeting is held in the Sacramento, California area, one meeting is held in the Reno, Nevada area, and the third meeting is held the morning of the annual Banquet in Reno.
ANNUAL BANQUET AND GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETINGS – There is an annual banquet, including assorted activities, held each year in Reno, Nevada. Dates, location and agenda are announced well in advance.
SUMMER SEASON FIELD TRIPS – There are at least two work field trips and one fun trip held each year. The trips are discussed at the Annual Banquet and the specific trip information is posted on the Trails West website well in advance of each trip. The Trip Leader contact information is shown in case anyone needs additional information.
THINGS TO REMEMBER – Since we often travel on rough roads during our field trips, all participants must have a vehicle with high clearance and a CB radio. Safety and sharing vital information while driving the back country make the CB radio necessary. Most of our field trips are multiple days and it will be necessary to either camp with us or plan motel stays in the nearest town.