Trail Tending by the Mazamas

100 YEARS OF HARD WORK

Photo by Ali Gray.

by Rick Craycraft

On March 2, 1920, the Mazama Executive Council sanctioned C.J. Webb to form the Trails Committee, in order to establish and maintain trails in areas where Mazamas recreated. Just over two months later, on May 16, a throng of 75 to 100 “Mazamas and friends” built a one-mile trail from the outlet of the Bonneville Fish Hatchery to Wahclella Falls, along Tanner Creek. With those numbers they completed the work in an astonishing one day and the finished product was immediately dubbed Mazama Trail. That event was the formal beginning of the trail building and maintenance tradition within the Mazamas. Between then and 1933 there were 14 more “Trail Days” that established and improved trails both in the Columbia Gorge and in the Mt. Hood vicinity.

Many of those trails were designed to give motorists on the newly constructed Columbia Gorge Highway easy access to scenic highlights. In addition, there was other trail work that wasn’t as clearly sanctioned. In the days after he joined the Mazamas, in 1927, Don Onthank seemed to think that finding a likely place to go straight uphill, then convincing others to follow him over time, constituted establishing a trail. A.H. Marshall took much the same approach, brushing out trails as he went and then bringing back others later to tramp them down. When Mazamas came to a thorny spot around some rocks on the Tanner Creek trail in 1924, Everett Philpoe took it upon himself to blast them out of the way with explosives. Records are unclear as to whether the Forest Service was even aware of this behavior.

The Trail Committee’s tenure came to an end in the early 1930s due to multiple developments. In 1931, the Mazamas built the lodge that was the predecessor to our current one. In 1934, the Climbing Committee was formed to specifically

manage the climbing aspects of our activities. The Local Walks Committee (renamed Trail Trips in 1953) retained their focus on hiking; and subsumed the Trails Committee. Subsequently, focus on trail construction and maintenance went into a prolonged decline. During the Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps did much of the local trail work, and Mazama volunteer labor shifted to the Lodge through World War II.

In September 1944, long-time member Fred Cleator, a retired forester famous for establishing both the Skyline Trail and the rudiments of what became the Pacific Crest Trail in Oregon, got involved in efforts to make what is now Forest Park a protected area. He had discovered a section which could be developed into trails leading to a meadow below an impressive ridge. It was to be known as the Mazama Forest. After getting the go ahead from Mazama Council, Cleator and Harrie Jennison threw themselves into the undertaking, with plenty of willing volunteers, for the remainder of the 1940s. They had envisioned a hiking and nature retreat area for the Mazamas, overlooked by a ridge of intentionally planted stately trees, each named after a former Mazama president. This trail is still there and today is known as the Hardesty Trail, named after Local Walks founder William Hardesty. Tragically, just as this endeavor was gaining momentum, a careless fire (much like the 2017 Gorge fire) swept through the area and undid much of the work to that point.

However, this vision of Cleator’s reawakened the practice of trail maintenance in the Mazamas. Slowly, starting in the early 1950s, Work Trips, as they were called, began to appear in the Mazama Bulletin, first to restore the Hardesty Trail, and then to return to the Columbia Gorge. With fits and starts over the next few years, Mazamas stepped up to improve existing trails. Don Onthank led one of his few official work parties. Sometimes the leader of such an outing was just listed as “the committee.” The Nesmith Point trail got a lot of attention in those days. Carl Neuberger appeared to lead the way to improving the trail up Mt. Defiance. Harrie Jennsion continued to plug away at the Mazama Forest.

In 1957, Neil Baldwin began leading Mazama Work Trips. By 1959 he was the chair of the Trail Trips Committee, and by that time he and Wayne Wright were on the schedule consistently, roaming the Gorge to improve whatever demanded attention. This period could rightfully be called the beginning of Trail Tending as we know it today.

With a committed force like Baldwin at the head, momentum grew. He renamed these work trips “Trail Improvement” during his tenure. Over the course of the 1960s, in a pattern that fell out before and after the summer climbing season, the Mazamas expanded their efforts to include trails from the Columbia Gorge to the Oregon Coast.

As we turned the corner into the 1970s, trail tending continued to ramp up. Neil Baldwin stepped away, and people like Roe and Eleanor Heller and Ray and Phyllis Davis stepped in to continue the work. Basil Clark returned to Oregon after a lengthy absence and took up the cause. Two people who would be with us for years to come, Elinor Levin and Bus Gibson, became a presence. All those names dominated the Work Trip schedule for the next two decades.

Are you, the person reading this article, the one to help revive trail tending in the Mazamas? Right now, in conjunction with the Pacific Crest Trail Association, we are planning later this year to construct a trail tending equipment building on the Mountaineering Center property (we need help with that, too). Monumental challenges face the health and preservation of our local trails. We have the tools; we have the structure in place. What we need now is YOU. continued on next page