Hap Wilson's Wilderness 3-Book Bundle

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Hap Wilson. Hap Wilson's Wilderness 3-Book Bundle

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The Cabin

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TRAILS and TRIBULATIONS

CONFESSIONS OF A WILDERNESS PATHFINDER

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I try to remember my days as a ranger as one of the best times of my life, that I was doing something good for the wilderness and for the people who love to travel its waterways. It was one of the hardest jobs imaginable, but in the end we had cleared over a hundred kilometres of wilderness trails and flown out three thousand bags of packed garbage from campsites. Yet, after almost three decades of conflict, the establishment of token parks, and the shutting down of the Temagami District office, the fight still rages on with no apparent logical end in sight. The only absolute truth in all of this is that everyone is just getting older … the forest continues to disappear and we have not grown any wiser from our mistakes. My job as a park ranger and technician gave me a privileged view of the inside workings of a bureaucracy that failed Canadians. The deliberately skewed orientation toward the wholesaling of resources consolidated my mistrust of the “system” as a perceived company of experts. And I knew exactly where their Achilles heel was located.

Illegal trail building can do harm to the environment if not carefully executed. Mountain bike enthusiasts are notorious for building new trails on private or government lands and are often caught, punished accordingly, and the trails removed. These ventures are usually self-serving with no intent to help save an area from development. Well planned and conceived hiking trails, including water trails or canoe routes, work favourably in garnishing public support. However, a poorly constructed trail can have a rebound effect if improperly established. Portage trails need to be carefully scrutinized for historic or cultural importance and cleared accordingly. New hiking trails must also conform to the doctrines of sustainable trail-building techniques: avoiding fall-line or steep inclines where runoff may occur; avoiding cutting trees more than four inches in diameter; and avoiding sensitive flora and fauna. If an illegal trail conforms to proper trail construction methodology and there is no harm done to the ecological integrity, the local forestry office has less of a case against the perpetrator. Trail construction should be done in the off-season with the employment of hand tools only. On average, two seasoned trailbuilders can construct five hundred to a thousand metres of trail in a day’s work using nothing more than a Pulaski (a single-bit axe with an adze-shaped hoe extending from the back), loppers, and rake. The pay is lousy but the associated benefits are enormous.

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