Dirt Work (30 page)

Traildogs' Index:
A Life in Statistics

Seasons of trailwork: 16

Parks/districts worked for: 3

Pairs of work boots worn out: 5

Peaks climbed in Glacier: 32

Fingers broken: 2

Cost of two hernia surgeries in 2007: ~$45,000

Annual allowance for official NPS uniform in 2008: $115

Rides out of a hitch on a horse or mule, in 6 seasons: 2

Mules that had to be blown up after dying on the trail: 1

Hands with carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms: 2

Months to get carpal tunnel worker's comp claim accepted: 4

Peaks climbed in the Alaska Range (Inner and Outer): 10

Gabe's and my combined hours of unused NPS sick leave: 514

Fastest time up Sperry Hill: 1 hour 45 minutes

Longest one-way hike for work: 18 miles

Number of times my saw nicked my chaps: 1

Diameter of largest downfall bucked: 40 inches

Rank of “fuck” and its forms on list of favorite trail crew cuss words: 1

Range of hourly wage over twelve seasons and three employers: $12.12–$24.91

Age of longest-worn item of trails clothing (gray Capilene shirt, cut-off sleeves): 14 years

Percent discount most pro-purchase gear programs offer: 50%

Percent of my technical clothing purchased on pro deals: 99%

Capilene long underwear tops in current closet (all weights): 13

Known cases of giardia: 6

Largest one-day elevation gain (paid): 4,847 feet

Maximum calories consumed in a workday: ~8,000

Minimum respectable number of beers brought into a hitch: 1 per day

Maximum respectable number of beers brought into a hitch: no upper limit

Rank of Pabst Blue Ribbon on trail crew “favorite beer” list: 1

Number of PBR fans in blind taste test who chose PBR as best of three beers: 0

Search-and-rescue incidents participated in: 8

Number of times missing person was found by my party: 1

Pairs of shorts I own (including bike shorts): 5

Pairs of boots I own (including ski boots): 20

Lowest temperature I've felt in Interior Alaska: 68 degrees below zero

Highest temperature I've felt in Interior Alaska: 91 degrees

Minimum time to plug in engine block before starting truck at 20 below: 2 hours

Gallons of wild berries harvested in a summer: 2–10

Sockeye allotted on a household dip-netting permit: 30

Average number of pint jars used to can one sockeye: 4

Maximum price I've paid for a gallon of unleaded gas in Healy: $5.11

Creek or river crossings the highway makes between Stampede and the park: 14

Closest proximity of a moose to our cabin wall: 2 inches

Most caribou seen on an afternoon ski: 30

Months of year with wolf scat on back trail: 12

Number of friends with 1–20 sled dogs: 15

Number of friends in Healy with a heated garage: 2

Acknowledgments

I've worked with so many remarkable people. A cold beer to these standouts, who taught me skills and stories: Aric, Burke, Dundas, Frislie, Kenny G, Amy G, Eldon, Craig and Tim, Dan J, Rhonda, Kirby, Shelley, Casey, Stoney, Ric, Allan, Jillian, Oberg, Sethro, Corey, Allie, and Zastrow. High fives and a fist bump to all the crews: my tribe. Special thanks to Mike Shields, godfather of Alaska trails and a generous mentor. If it takes me twice as long to learn half as much, I'll be lucky.

This book is a communal story, but factual blunders and technical errors are thoroughly mine. Many anecdotes herein have twenty versions. Traildogs, if I poached your story, or got some detail wrong, I'm sorry. Such are the limits of oral history.

Thanks to: Sherry Simpson for early conversations about dirt, Ron Spatz for stalwart belief. Linda McCarriston for modeling brave. Generous experts, for reading pieces: Charlie Reynar, Steve Haycox, Ernestine Hayes, and Carmen Adamyk. All the editors who published excerpts. Cheers!

About Charlotte, E. B. White wrote, “It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.” I've had way more than my share. For timely input, thanks to Cole Ruth, Angela Small, Susanna Sonnenberg, and Mark Temelko. Liz Bradfield was invaluable, reading far above and beyond, always with her poet's sharp ear and generous heart.

My family—Mom, Dad, Julia, Liz, Bill—has buoyed me with its highest confidence, modeling for me all manner of authentic lives. My
nieflings
keep me tuned to the future of this enthralling world. My large and boisterous extended clan is the best kind of family tree. Lane and Leslie gave me Gabe, and much more. Countless dear friendships have sustained me. So many shiny pennies: I'm rich.

Thanks to the Alaska State Council on the Arts, the Rasmuson Foundation, the Headlands Center for the Arts, Vermont Studio Center, Breadloaf, and Fishtrap, arts lifelines all.

Thanks to the shepherds: my agent, Janet Silver, who edits keenly, advocates wisely, laughs easily, and loves books. My patient, generous, and spirited editor, Alexis Rizzuto, whose own dirty hands bettered this work in many ways. Everyone at Beacon who helped this book emerge. I could not imagine a finer crew.

From Willa Cather to Jim Harrison, Mardy Murie to James Welch, deeply emplaced writers influence me; a deep bow to that lineage. Grateful thanks also to independent bookstores and those who help them thrive.

All dirt work strives for solid grounding; Gabe Travis is mine, on hitch, at home and everywhere else. He has technical skill, a great ear, and a naturalist's instinct for detail far surpassing my own (Get those ground squirrels out of the trees!). Thank you, my dear one, for every last thing.

Finally, I owe so much to public libraries, public universities, and public lands. Three cheers for the many unsung patrons of the arts in this country, and the many tireless conservationists; without them, we'd all be a great deal farther up shit creek.

Works Consulted

Abbey, Edward.
Desert Solitaire.
New York: Ballantine, 1968.

Armstrong, Robert H.
Alaska's Birds.
Portland, OR: Alaska Northwest Books, 1994.

Birkby, Robert C.
Lightly On the Land: The SCA Trail Building and Maintenance Manual.
Seattle:
Mountaineers Books, 1996.

Buchholtz, C. W.
Man in Glacier.
West Glacier, MT: Glacier Natural History Association, 1976.

Edwards, J. Gordon.
A Climber's Guide to Glacier National Park.
Guilford, CT: Falcon Publishing, 1995.

Glynn, Thomas.
Hammer. Nail. Wood: The Compulsion to Build.
White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green, 1998.

Hayes, Ernestine.
Blonde Indian.
Tucson:
University of Arizona Press, 2006.

Hesselbarth, Woody, et al.
Trail Construction and Maintenance Notebook.
Washington, DC: United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service, 1997.

Holleman, Marybeth.
Alaska's Prince William Sound.
Portland, OR: Alaska Northwest Books, 2000.

Manning, Richard.
A Good House.
New York: Penguin, 1993.

McClanahan, Alexandra, and Hallie L. Bissett.
Na'eda: A Guide to Alaska Native Corporations, Tribes, Cultures, ANCSA, and More.
Anchorage: CIRI Foundation, 1996.

Sherwonit, Bill, ed.
Denali: A Literary Anthology.
Seattle:
Mountaineers Books, 2000.

Sibley, David Allen.
The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America.
New York: Knopf, 2003.

Sloane, Eric.
A Museum of Early American Tools.
Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2002.

Snyder, Gary.
The Practice of the Wild.
New York
:
North Point Press, 1990.

Thoreau, Henry David.
Walden and Resistance to Civil Government
, 2nd ed. William Rossi, ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 1992.

BEACON PRESS

25 Beacon Street

Boston, Massachusetts 02108-2892

www.beacon.org

Beacon Press books

are published under the auspices of

the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations.

Grateful thanks to the editors of the publications listed below, where earlier versions of material from this book first appeared: “Hunkered at the Gateway” in
Permanent Vacation: 20 Writers on Work and Life in Our National Parks
(Tahoe Paradise, CA: Bona Fide Books, May 2011); “Hunkered at the Gateway” (excerpted from above) in
National Parks: Magazine of the National Parks Conservation Association
(Winter 2012); “Xtra Tuf” and “Soul Food” in
Cold Flashes: Literary Snapshots of Alaska
(Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2010); “Dirt” in
A Mile in Her Boots: Women Who Work in the Wild
(Antioch, CA: Solas Press, 2006).

All events and characters herein are based on real people and situations, with no intentional composites. Names have been changed, except with express permission otherwise.

© 2013 by Christine Byl

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

Text design by Wilsted & Taylor Publishing Services

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Byl, Christine.

Dirt work : an education in the woods / Christine Byl.

pages cm

ISBN 978-0-8070-0100-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-0-8070-0101-1 (electronic)

1. Byl, Christine 2. United States. National Park Service—Officials and employees—Biography. 3. Foresters—United States—Biography. 4. Nature trails—Alaska—Design and construction. 5. Nature trails—Montana—Design and construction. 6. Park facilities—Alaska—Design and construction. 7. Park facilities—Montana—Design and construction. 8. Denali National Park and Preserve (Alaska) I. Title.

QH31.B95A3 2012

363.6'8097986—dc23                                   2012034479