The Rambler

Front three: Cindy Crass,
Chris Chambreau and
Laurie Chambreau.
Middle four: Bob Cady,
Candy Cady, Kelly Kager
and NPS Ranger, Chris
Robinson.
Back row: Connie Blaine,
Anya Byers, Dave
Rumbello, Tamara Nauman,
NPS Ranger, Gerrish Willis,
Brian Benecivengo, Steve
Peterson and James Ashby.
6/27-7/3/2010
The
Weed
Warriors
win
another
battle
and pose
for their
picture in
the hole
before
filling it
in.
YAMPA/GREEN WEED WARRIOR TRIP
After the previous evening’s welcome and swag fest with Tamara and Kelly, we put in at
Deerlodge saying goodbye to the mosquitoes with no regret. (Gerrish did provide early
warning.) Our first and continuing Weed Warrior task was searching for the invasive and
elusive leafy spurge. Bad news—it was pretty difficult to find except for one big patch up the
draw from Anderson Hole. Good news—it was pretty difficult to find because so much of it
had been eradicated.
We had beautiful camps at Mathers Hole and Laddie Park. At Mathers Hole we camped within
safe distance from a hawk nest with little ones and very protective parents. Laddie served up
box elder bugs. Other wildlife treats were many geese families, a merganser family, a rare
snake, and especially the mountain goats riverside and at Jones Hole right next to where we
were working.
The work was hard but productive. The leafy spurge hunts were a test of patience and
good eyesight. Our two long days of tammie pulling tested the equipment and the strength
of the arms, shoulders and back. The deepest hole was 5 feet and the biggest stem-root
was a good 6 feet across. We named the most troublesome stems. The biggest was Rush
Limbaugh with his buddy Glenn Beck. The ones named after the worst boyfriends were also
buggers. We exhausted one come-a-long until Steve Anderson fixed it.
The floats, the side trips--Mantle Cave and at Mathers Hole and Jones Hole, the rapids--
Warm Springs and Moonshine, the rainbows and the people were all memorable and well
photographed. The food was amazing and tasted so good after so much work. Steve
Peterson serenaded us with his guitar. We got leis for our Hawaiian dinner. We left behind
big piles of brush, roots and stems. Now there are areas that now see the sun and in the
future will hopefully be fish spawning grounds.
Accordingly to Dudley, co-organizer, our efforts were appreciated. Tamara emailed him that
we did a great job and she looked forward to next year’s trip. If you haven’t done it, please
do. It’s definitely worth it.
SUBMITTED BY CYNTHIA CRASS
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