Crew member Max Miller from Michigan completes various stages of moving, setting and tapping in rocks for check dams.

 David Chojnacky photos

Douglas Spring trailhead in Tucson’s Saguaro National Park East is well known to the masses who hike or jog the popular system, but few likely have any idea about the heavy maintenance and restoration work that keep the trails in place — or the giant rocks hidden under many of the slopes they tread.

But on a recent spring morning, that work was underway near Bridal Wreath Falls, about 3 miles up the Douglas Spring Trail.

Here, a dozen members of the Saguaro Trail Crew had set up their workplace for the next few days. Along a stretch of trail just above a wash, they were building what looked like large stone “steps” up the trail ascent.

The “steps” you see on Douglas Spring Trail are actually small “check dams,” explained Zak Beyersdoerfer, assistant volunteer coordinator and trail crew member.

“Hikers complain about them because they are hard on the knees, and horses try to avoid them making side trails which defeat their purpose — but we put them in to create a level area that slows down water velocity to retain soil,” he said. “The goal in building trails is to conserve soil and reduce erosion.”

For a mild grade, like the Bridal Wreath Falls section, each check dam had an almost level soil bed up to a “dam” rock with a short drop to the next dam bed. A completed section looked like mellow steps with a large flat soil bed in between. Because of grade, a steep area like the first climb up from Douglas Spring Trailhead, may require shorter beds and higher “dams,” appearing much more like a steep staircase to the unhappy hiker.

“We try for a maximum of 8 inches with each step rise to try to balance soil retention with hiker comfort.” But some rocks on the trails exceed that height, he noted.

The magic of the check dams is hidden beneath the surface. Crews transport, dig holes for, bury and perfectly set large rocks to create the dam that holds the bed in place.

But the real magic of the check dams is hidden beneath their surface. The crew transports, digs holes for, buries and perfectly sets large rocks to create the dam that holds the bed in place. Therefore, the visible “step” is generally a much larger rock buried deep beneath the surface. In addition, small rocks are carefully placed and tapped into tight alignment on either side of the large rocks to get perfect dam height to minimize soil erosion.

A completed set of about nine to 10 check dams showed only the large flat “steps” and not all the intricate rock work beneath.

For the most part, an individual crew member could create a “check dam” using hand tools.

Crew members could be seen moving a large rock over half their size by using a steel bar for leverage. The big rocks are collected and rolled down from the wash. Using pick and shovel, a builder digs holes for rocks placed as foundation of check dam — both the flat rock buried under the bed and rock dam that will hold back water. When rock is moved into a pit just right, the builder chisels it to fit, then places small rocks on the side called “gargoyles” to closely fit rock into place. The builder uses a soft hammer with sand to bang rocks into place without cracking them.

And yes, sometimes after working for hours getting a big rock placed, a tap from the hammer and it splits. Trail work teaches patience, Beyersdoerfer said. It might be a half or entire day just shaping and chiseling rocks into place for one check dam.

“If you get frustrated with the work, it’s you, there is nothing but patience here,” Beyersdoerfer said. “The Sonoran desert has taught me. It has such resiliency. It keeps things in check and then springs forth when it’s time.”

Besides the daily hiking (6 miles round trip for this particular project) and physical work, “you get to put your own artistic touches on the rock work,” he said.

Life on the trail

Observing several crew members at work, care, patience and artistry were evident.

Saguaro trail members come from all over the country. This group included folks in their 20s and 30s from Michigan, Delaware, Maine, West Virginia and California. Beyersdoerfer is from Georgia.

He started his trails career working for American Conservation Experience (ACE) — a national group based in Flagstaff (with other regional offices) that recruits and trains trail crews for projects all over the country. This turned out to be a common start for several of the trail crew.

Beyersdoerfer has worked in Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina; parks in New Jersey and Georgia; and in Arizona and Grand Canyon National Park, the Havasupai Indian Reservation and Tonto National Forest (Pinal Mountains near Globe.)

After a couple of years’ change from trail scene as a gardener (which evoked an interest in natural history and biome ecology), Beyersdoerfer took a job with Saguaro in 2001. “The West had left a lasting impression.” With an academic background in film and sociology, he liked the mix of outreach, trail work and conservation education. In the summer, he works with the park’s Youth Conservation Corps (a federal program that gives youth summer jobs in national parks, forests and wildlife refuges).

The trail crews are seasonal. Saguaro National Park hires 24-25 people (four crews of six members) during its winter season November-May; along with six to 12 trail crew members in the summer. Saguaro is ideal for many seasonals, who also work temporary jobs in colder climate areas like Rocky Mountain or Yosemite national parks.

A trail runner heads back to the trailhead as sun sets over the Douglas Spring Trail.

“When the snow flies, it’s time to move south; when the snow melts it’s time to work in the mountains,” explained Louis D ‘Andrea, a West Virginia native on his second tour at Saguaro. “Coming down here for the winter is nice.” He has worked in Adirondack State Park in New York, at Yosemite, and all over Arizona. His summer job is on the Monongahela National Forest in his home state. How long will he be a trails professional? “As long as my body holds up.”

Rory McLaughlin from Delaware started his trails career with ACE in California, cutting out fallen logs on the John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada mountains. It’s his ninth or 10th season alternating months in the southwest and in the mountains. “For a while there, I was hitting a sweet spot with eight months on and four months off.”

While the two crews were working on Bridal Wreath, two more were rebuilding eroded sections on the Quilter Trail, a section of the Arizona Trail on the south side of Rincons linking Manning Camp and Hope Camp trails.

At the start of the season, in November, all trail crews were working on West Turkey Creek Trail between Miller Canyon and Deer Head Spring on the east side of the Rincons with two base camps: one a the bottom end of a trail in lower Turkey Creek near Miller Canyon and one at Spud Rock Spring, an official Park Service campsite near the top of Mica.

The Spud Rock camp was luxury: a large canvas cook tent, wood burning stove, solar power lights and other equipment packed in by Saguaro’s packer and mules. “We had a Thanksgiving feast,” Beyersdoerfer added. No camp cook: each crew member took turns preparing a favorite meal for all. An unexpected snowstorm in early December shut down that operation.

For December and January, the crews rotated through Organ Pipe National Monument near Ajo, working on trails and sealing old mines with native rocks and soil.

Not all parks have trail crews, so Saguaro often loans out its crews to Organ Pipe, Tucumcari, Coronado and Chiricahua monuments, all nearby desert areas.

This month, crews are working on a nearly level trail west of Douglas Spring trailhead, installing logs and moving tools between work sites. Some members are already leaving for their summer jobs; a few will stay through May for wind-down work including logistics, gear inventory, sharpening tools and sanding down handles and hammers.

The summer trail crew “tries to stay ahead of the heat,” often working from Manning Camp at 7,920 feet on a flank of Mica Mountain, working on the large trail system that loops Mica.

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