The Loma Prietan
September 2002
Mountain Huts Need Helping Hands: You Can Help!
The Sierra Club owns and operates four backcountry huts in the Donner Summit/Lake Tahoe area for cross-country skiers and snowshoers during winter months. Each September and October, weekend work parties of volunteers help prepare the huts for another season.
This year, as always, stocking the cabins with firewood is the top priority. But there are other projects, ranging from cleaning windows to posting new signs, that give everyone a chance to participate. A special project at Peter Grubb Hut will be starting construction of a new outhouse. We are also hoping to install solar electric lighting at Peter Grubb, the oldest and most popular of the huts.
Bradley and Ludlow Huts can be reached via forest roads, but Peter Grubb and Benson require a short backpack. The Club provides food, tools, and supplies; you will need overnight camping gear, a healthy attitude toward manual labor, and a desire for fresh mountain air mixed with fall colors and (maybe) a touch of frost in the morning. A Friday night dinner and Saturday breakfast at the Club's Clair Tappaan Lodge in Norden are available at no cost to volunteers heading out for that weekend's work party.
No previous work party experience is required. In fact, many participants don't even ski or snowshoe; they just like the idea of getting outdoors and contributing to a good cause.
For more information about work parties (or winter use of the huts) contact Dick Simpson, 650/494-9272 or rsimpson@stanford.edu.
The tentative schedule for work parties is:
Sept. 7- 8: Benson Hut
Sept. 14-15: Peter Grubb Hut
Sept. 21-22: Peter Grubb Hut
Sept. 28-29: Peter Grubb Hut
Oct. 5- 6: Ludlow Hut
Oct. 12-13: Bradley Hut
Oct. 19-20: To be determined
Oct. 26-27: To be determined