LAKE WENATCHEE -- A crew of teens in hard hats and grimy jeans snips, saws, rakes and digs their way up the lushly-forested three-mile trail to Heather Lake, an alpine lake in the Henry M. Jackson Wilderness a dozen miles west of Lake Wenatchee.
By clearing trail under contract with the U.S. Forest Service, these members of the Northwest Youth Corps crew earn money and learn important lessons that are better taught in the woods than any classroom.
The nine young people who work here carry axes, picks, shovels, saws, loppers, brush rakes and pulaskis used for trail clearing. They sleep in a tent at night. They shower once a week, if they're lucky.
There are no cellphones, iPods, laptop computers, video games or TVs here.
Started in Eugene, Ore., in 1984, the Northwest Youth Corps puts teens ages 14 to 19 to work in the same way the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) put men to work in the 1930s. The objective is to give kids an outdoor experience on conservation projects and building trails while learning about nature and the value of hard work with others.
More than 900 were employed this year, many of them working on local trails in the Okanogan and Wenatchee National Forest. The organization has a satellite office at Lake Wenatchee.
"We didn't know what we were getting into," said Valerie Lovasz, 19, an Evergreen State University student originally from St. Louis, Mo. Interviewed in late August, the crew had been out in the woods for nearly a month. They carried 60- to 80-pound packs six miles into Pratt Lake to clear trails in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest one week. They did erosion control on the Pacific Crest Trail near Deception Lakes another week.
Some crew members had rarely camped or spent time in the woods, said crew leader Ryan Thiele, 24. Some were video game junkies who had trouble learning in school. None had worked nearly as hard before, but all are proud of what they've achieved.
"It's given them pride of ownership to be working on these trails. There's an understanding that our work has a lasting value," he said.
"We were pretty sore at first, but you only get stronger," Lovasz said. "You don't see how much society affects you until you leave it. I came out here to learn how to survive. This is getting back to nature."
"This is hard work, much harder than I expected, but it's very satisfying," said Isaiah Smith, 17, of Duvall. "I love not hearing cars and civilization. It's a great escape from stress."
