We're here in the Teton wilderness we started out yesterday at the Angles
trailhead up my togwatee pass, headed down the Angles trail and up the South Fork
Buffalo trail, so we're along this South Fork Buffalo River right now and in a
place called Pendergraft meadow.
The Teton wilderness is a big wilderness as
part of a big complex of wildernesses including the Washakie Wilderness and
then the southeastern corner Yellowstone National Park so it's a huge wildland.
The wilderness itself is about 585 thousand acres, so well over a half a
million acres and it was designated in the original Wilderness Act in 1964 a
very special place, the Teton wilderness is known for the summer elk populations
grizzly bears, every host of wildlife you can think of from sandhill cranes to
bald eagles, moose, wolves, really the full complement of wildlife that live in the
lower 48 States.
We have about 450 miles of trail here in the Teton wilderness so
a big part of our workload in here is maintaining the trail system and we have
a relatively small crew.
All the work we do per the Wilderness Act is done by
traditional tools: crosscut saws, double bit axes, polaskis, shovels.
Every bit of work that's done to repair the tread
or maintain a drainage structure or cut logs out that are from across the trail
are all done with primitive tools, which is really a great sense of pride for the
crews because it harkens back to the Wilderness Act and really the beginning
of the Forest Service, which that was the way all the work was done back then.
Given the size of the wilderness and how many miles of trail we have and then a
lot of the river crossings are actually pretty swift and deep and stock work
really well for getting all the tools and the crews to where they need to get.
An average loop up here a short loop is 30-plus miles so in order for the crews
to be effective and have the ability to to have a little bit more
flexibility to get their work done, the stock are pretty critical for packing
everything in.
This is one of the premier wildernesses for extended
progressive trips for stock users because there's a fair amount of graze
out here it's not your typical rock and ice wilderness there's big open valleys
like you see here in the South Fork the Yellowstone Meadows, Pacific Creek,
because the wilderness is that headwaters of some of the major rivers,
the Yellowstone, the Snake and the Buffalo Forks it provides a really great
camping opportunity for people and backpacking definitely is common too.
We've got 45 miles of the Continental Divide
Trail, so yesterday we saw through hiker that was going all the way from Mexico
to Canada and that's getting to be more and more common as well.
We're so fortunate to have the Teton wilderness,
it really is a treasure.
We ask folks to treat it that way because they
collectively own it as the public lands.
Some of the things that really go a long ways to preserving the wilderness
out here is yeah absolutely packing in packing out what you pack in folks
sometimes will try to burn glass bottles or tin cans and their fire pits
and we always end up picking that out and it just becomes trash so basically
anything you bring in, take it out, because we have a substantial grizzly
bear population up here it's also really critical that people are abiding by the
food storage regulations we have and at some of these camps there actually are
bear boxes they can use and then a lot of times you know it's it's a matter of
hanging your food or if you're using stock similar to what we are on this
trip, the bear proof panniers work really well for keeping all your food and
toiletries and one more reminder for stock folks is that grain, any of the
processed pelletized grain oftentimes does have molasses in it so it is a
attractant for bears as well so you do need to store that as well.
The Teton wilderness can provide you a lifetime of
opportunity and experience the 450 miles of trail you would literally have
probably spend a lifetime to explore it.
Some of the nation's best wildlife, cleanest water, and beautiful parks and
meadows you're going to see anywhere and the amazing thing is, is you own it.
We all do it's your public land its wilderness that was created for you in
1964 and it continues to exist let's all take care of it.
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