The moon is setting behind peaks of the Cirque of the Towers that loom some 1500 ft high above the valley floor
(Photo, ©, 1996 by Frank R. Leslie)

2001 Wind River Trip Updates

01/23/2002

Disclaimer: This page is for approved trip members only. You may have found it otherwise, but if you are an applicant not yet approved by the trip leader, remember that there is no promise of acceptance conveyed by this information. Approved members will want to read this trip Newsletter.

Acceptance requires contacting the trip reservationist, Tara, Sierra Club at (415) 977-5686, to place a trip reservation. (It's run like a motel reservation service.) This is best done with a deposit charged to your credit card of $50 to capture a position on the trip before someone else gets the last one! You can also get on a waiting list in case someone cancels, which will automatically advance you into the applicant list if they cancel.

To be approved, you must be a club member, submit the personal information, liability release, and medical forms to the trip leader within three weeks of sign up, and be contacted by the leader as to your approval. The forms are sent to you, and are also in Portable Document Format (PDF) at the club website at http://www.sierraclub.org/outings/national/participantforms/index.asp. To print them you will need to install Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer, which you can download for free from the Adobe website. 

Because of the possibility of tetanus, you must have had an inoculation within the last ten years at the time of return from the trip. (Your doctor's nurse can give the injection at a cost of perhaps $10 total; let me know if the cost is higher now.) The trip leader has the ultimate decision of who goes on the trip. Most people who choose to apply for mountain service trips are in pretty good shape already.

What's new!

Periodically, new information will be added here. Bookmark this site and check back at this website frequently. I'll probably update it monthly at first, as the reservation forms arrive here about the second week of the month. We need at least 12 participants (other than staff) by four weeks before the trip for the home office to approve the trip to go. Some applicants don't commit until June or later (causing much aggravation and uncertainty for the leader and other trip members). More casual messages may appear on the email list at the address that was given above. Be sure to subscribe to it.

Please help publicize the trip by posting this poster and tear sheet where it will attract others to our trip. Cut the tear sheet on the solid lines from the sides to a three-inch gap at the center so that each bottom-most strip can be torn off the rest of the list.

Summary: As of 7/24/2001, we have 0 applicant(s) and 14 approved participants of the needed 8-12 or so total needed for the trip to be authorized.

There's 0 "not yet approved" Applicants. (Send me your forms within three weeks of sign up with the trip reservations office!) There is no one on the wait list. Keep in mind that I will be in Lander about six days before the trip, and if you have not been approved before then, you won't be going with us.
There have been 25 paper brochure requests as of this date, but many people now look on the main website and print their own copy.  

The lists below are sorted by zip code to aid in finding possible ride partners, if desired. Zipcode sorts show who lives near you.

Not yet approved applicants with reservations are from these cities:

1  
2  
3  
4  

(Must send me completed info, liability release, & medical forms and get my approval to go on the trip. If no forms are received in a reasonable time, you can't be approved.)

Approved participants are from these cities:

1 
2  12309 NY Schenectady, Paul S.
3  12309 NY Schenectady, William S.  
4  44615 OH Carrollton, Judy S.
5  44720 OH North Canton, Rhonda H.
6  48103 MI Ann Arbor, James B.
7  52531 IA Albia, Marvin J.
8  62703 IL Springfield, Mark R.
9  94301 CA Palo Alto, Carole S.
10 82003 WY Cheyenne, Richard S.
11 97520 OR Ashland, Kate T.
++++++++++++++++++++++Minimum Level+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
12 97520 OR Ashland, Lewis N.
13 94110 CA San Francisco, Stephanie M.
14 00000 xx yyyyyyy, Lisa L.
15 will not be released at request of USFS due to logistical aspects
16 ++++++++++++++++++++++Possible level++++++++++++++++++++++

(* Minor conditional issues are to be closed before the trip)

Wait List:

0 wait list applicants as of 7/24/2001

1
2
3

Withdrew or transferred:
10930 NY Highland Mills, John P. (transferred)
02478 MA Belmont, Jody L.
81503 CO Grand Junction, Barbara P.
81503 CO Grand Junction, Noelle B.

Disapproved in 1999 (First applicants I have ever had reason to disapprove):
T. W., CA; would not send forms (6/10/99) [ A caution from the 1999 trip]
P. W., CA; would not send forms (6/10/99)

Trip Updates, Comments, and Miscellaneous

Many questions are answered in the Frequently-Asked Questions (FAQs) list. Please let me know if there are other questions, and I will try to update the FAQs list.

Trip updates below are presented in last date first order.

As of 7/24/2001: Updates on our trip

7/24/2001:

All are approved and I'm sorting through all my stuff to get ready to go.

6/6/2001:

John P. transferred to another trip, and Lisa L. has applied.

5/1/2001: Two more applicants from Oregon have been sent a greeting letter. What a diverse group we will be!

Jerry and I now have Delta reservations to fly to SLC on August 1, 2001, with shuttle reservations to Lander with the Wind River Transportation Authority. We'll be going to the Staff Seminar again in June, helping to teach Wilderness First Aid (what to do when the ambulance isn't coming).

Jerry is back from a successful Big Sur/Ventana Wilderness, California service trip where she cooked for the trip. We adjusted the recipe list for 15 mouths.

4/13/2001: All applicants have been approved. I'm still working on this revised website, learning a new program and also sorting pages into folders. Probably frustrating you with the broken links but I am trying to clear them as quickly as possible. Let me know if there is something in particular that you are trying to see and I'll focus on that. Jerry goes off to cook the Big Sur, CA trip next week. It will take them two days to hike in, stopping to work trail along the way.

2/12/2001: It's good to see so many sign-ups this early in the year. I'm trying to close loose ends on the website upgrade. As usual, info received directly from the club office supercedes anything that I might have that is left over from the previous year. At the moment, it appears we may camp by Dutch Oven Lake just off the Moss Creek Trail. You can find this west of Mt. Chauvenet about two miles.

1/4/2001: I'm pleased to see the early reservations! I'm still reviewing and updating the website.

_______________________________________________________________________________

From last year:  7/21/2000: Jerry & I will be staying at the Maverick Motel in Lander. Expect to be there evening of 8/2 (it takes a long time to shop and package the food for the panniers). I've found the elist email message approach to be very fast and convenient for temporary or transient information. I regret not cross-posting everything  to this webpage, but my time is limited. Vicki Gullang has a new number at the USFS Lander Washakie Ranger Station. (307) 857-1646 [use the 307-332-5460 number].

6/2/2000: I have now added an assortment of 18 photos taken a few years back by past crew member Ed Sweeney to our eGroups website. Ed has granted me permission to use them, but he holds all rights to further use. You can see the Bears Ears, Sand Creek, and our camp area (again, the USFS may have a higher priority project in a different area for us). You can find these at http://www.eGroups.com, where you sign up for free access service at no charge. Then you can get to the full Wind River 2000 site http://www.egroups.com/groups/windriver2000, (click that to see if you are signed up) where the photo files are at http://www.egroups.com/files/windriver2000/. You can also see the members' list and the calendar. I haven't tried the chat section (it's for us members only), but we might email arrange for a time to try it, for those who like. Should you have any difficulty getting to them, let me know and I'll try to help. As list moderator, I may not see the same webpages that you do, though. Enjoy the views!

6/2/2000: Just got this info from the Teton Group. ___________________ Frank, Thanks for your e-mail. That sounds like an awesome trip. The Teton Group, as well as the Wyoming Chapter, oversees this area. Major issues in the Wind Rivers are grizzlies, the roadless initiative, and proposed oil and gas leasings near Dubois in the Shoshone National forest. There is a lawsuit underway to stop these leases from going into effect. Mainly because of the critical habitat for bears, wolves, and elk. Grizzlies have been recolonizing many areas of the Wind Rivers, so being bear aware in the backcountry is a huge issue. Also the inventoried roadless areas in the the Shoshone National Forest and the Wind Rivers is vital for grizzly recovery. Another concern is making sure black bear hunters are well educated in identifying grizzlies and black bears. Two grizzlies in the Shoshone National Forest near Cody were killed by black bear hunters already this spring. This becomes more crucial in areas where people are not used to having grizzlies around. Let me know if there is anything we might be able to do to help you. Thanks again, Tom Mazzarisi Chairperson of the Teton Group

Just for reference, the only bears normally found in the Popo Agie are the black bears, not grizzlies. Frank

4/30/2000: In case you haven't used it, I'd like to acquaint you with a Travelocity email report. At http://www.travelocity.com, you can set up the departure and destination cities that you desire. The service tells you the current flights and prices for the route and dates you want. You can then set up an automatic email when the trip price changes $25. It's surprising how much variation there is. Below is one of these reports. If you don't have Internet but have email at home, go to a public library to set it up. The responses will then go to your email address. Of course, you can always use a free email address at hotmail.com from a public computer. I have occasionally made a 24-hour hold reservation this way, then calling Beyond-The-Bay travel agency (that trip staff are required to use) to retrieve the reservation and better it if they can. On the trip to the Outing Staff Seminar this year, they got $40 cheaper for us the following Monday!

3/23/2000: This site covers the Fremont County where Lander is. http://www.state.wy.us/state/virtual_map/fremont.html

jokemaster@ottawacomputer.com writes:

We just received this alert from the West coast. Be cautious! The British Columbia Department of Fish and Wildlife is advising hikers, hunters and golfers to take extra precautions and keep alert for bears while in the field.
They are advising people to wear noise producing devices such as little bells on their clothing to alert but not startle the bears unexpectedly. They also advise us to carry pepper spray in case of an encounter with a bear. It is also a good idea to watch for fresh signs of bear activity.
People should recognize the difference between black bear and grizzly bear droppings. Black bear droppings are smaller and contain berries and possibly squirrel fur. Grizzly bear droppings have little bells in them and smell like pepper.

(This is a joke!)

Here are some update lists from previous years to give a sense of what happens.

This map shows the general area of Moss Creek

This is an email list that will allow you to post messages to the other trip members for coordination, etc. Mail to the list as the WindRiver 2001 elist(Windriver2001@egroups.com)

Don't have email? Try this web-based email service without any costs.

Check your time. UTC (Universal Coordinated Time is 4 hours fast of Eastern Time during DST; 5 hours fast during ST (for Eastern Time). Mountain Time (MT) is 3 hours slow from ET and 1 hour fast from Pacific Time (PT) http://www.time.gov