The Snowmobile Alliance of Western States (SAWS) recently organized a cleanup day at Lake Ann in the Wenatchee National Forest (WNF) northeast of Lake Cle Elum in Washington State last Saturday, June 25th. This area is a very popular winter recreation destination for many snowmobilers, and it is also part of a larger 15,000 acre area of WNF, that has been proposed for wilderness designation (I-90 Wilderness Study Area). The White Knuckle Jeep Club (WKJC) volunteered to provide the majority of the jeep transportation to nearby Van Epps pass. We also had a few SAWS members who brought their jeeps too. Tim Foss, Trails and Wilderness Manager with the WNF Cle Elum Ranger District, also participated in this event and drove a forest service jeep, for a total of 10 jeeps.

SAWS and the WKJC do not support the designation of additional wilderness acres, especially in a national forest such as WNF that already has nearly 45% of the forest as designated wilderness, but I will save that speech for another day. This day was all about working together to help keep our forests clean and open for all forms of multiple-use recreation to enjoy.

The turnout for this event was amazing. It was a beautiful sunny morning when 30 plus snowmobilers and four-wheelers met at 9:30 AM in the Fortune Creek drainage of the upper Cle Elum river valley. People came from all over Washington State, some traveling more than three hours from their homes to reach our meeting site. We all signed forest service volunteer labor forms, then I quickly laid out the day’s agenda and everyone scrambled for open seats in our waiting jeeps. One volunteer remained behind to watch over our vehicles in the parking area.

Our caravan of jeeps proceeded about 1.5 miles up Fortune Creek road and then we continued up the Van Epps Jeep Trail (4W302) another 3.5 miles to Van Epps Pass. It took us approximately an hour, with no major mishaps, to cover those 5 miles of jeep trail to reach the pass at 6,000 feet elevation. Tim Foss asked for a few volunteers to hang back and assist him with trail maintenance (water bars) in many locations along the trail. We also had another volunteer remain with the jeeps while the rest of us began our 1.5 mile hike to Lake Ann.

Once we reached this gorgeous alpine lake and surrounding meadows, we spread out around the lake and began gathering whatever garbage we could find. After more than an hour, with close to two dozen people combing the area for trash, we re-grouped to review what we had collected. We were pleasantly surprised to have found such a minimal amount of trash - less than half of a kitchen size garbage bag - and a sizable portion of this waste was empty propane tanks from backpacking cooking stoves. We had a quick snack for lunch and proceeded back down the trail to our waiting jeeps.

We were back to our parked vehicles by 3:00 PM. Many of the volunteers later gathered at our cabin in the Cle Elum area for a potluck BBQ. I extend a big thank you to Owens Meats of Cle Elum for donating Jalapeño and cheese hotdogs for our BBQ. They were a very tasty treat after a long day of volunteer work for the forest service. I would like to thank every single person that sacrificed their busy schedules to help us out on this perfect summer day in WNF.

I spoke with Tim Foss a few days after our cleanup, and Tim stated “I was really pleased with all of your efforts…I figure that 170 hours or so of volunteer labor was provided during the cleanup event…”. All of your efforts are also greatly appreciated by both SAWS and I.

Below are a few pictures from our day:

http://www.snowmobile-alliance.org/images/Lake%20Ann%20Group%20Pic.JPG

http://www.snowmobile-alliance.org/images/Lake%20Ann%20Jeeps%20at%20parking%20area.JPG

http://www.snowmobile-alliance.org/images/Lake%20Ann%20Jeep%2001_sm.JPG

http://www.snowmobile-alliance.org/images/Lake_Ann_Checkout2.JPG

http://www.snowmobile-alliance.org/images/Lake_Ann_Checkout4.JPG

http://www.snowmobile-alliance.org/images/Lake%20Ann%20Group_sm.JPG

http://www.snowmobile-alliance.org/images/Lake%20Ann%20Camp%20Stove%20Garbage.JPG

http://www.snowmobile-alliance.org/images/Lake%20Ann%2001_sm.JPG

http://www.snowmobile-alliance.org/images/Lake%20Ann%20Mount%20Daniels%20View.JPG

http://www.snowmobile-alliance.org/images/Lake%20Ann%20Kathi%20and%20Ris.JPG

http://www.snowmobile-alliance.org/images/Lake%20Ann%20Lunch%20Break.JPG

http://www.snowmobile-alliance.org/images/Lake%20Ann%20John_W.jpg