Volunteers keep the Big Sur backcountry wild but maintained.

Katie Rodriguez here, a little sore from last weekend’s shenanigans in Big Sur.

It was my first time backpacking in Big Sur. To my surprise it was a very temperate, quiet trip out to Barlow Flat Campground along Pine Ridge Trail, the same trail that takes you out to Sykes Hot Springs.

“Very unusual,” says Connie Willett, a volunteer with Ventana Wilderness Alliance who greeted me at the trailhead. We were talking about the number of visitors she checked in that day, which was low. “Usually it’s packed this time of year.” 

It was music to my ears. When it comes to backpacking, Big Sur has always given me a pause, primarily because I’ve heard so much about the crowds—an incredibly lame excuse but one that still makes me apprehensive about certain trips. The infamous trail to Sykes Hot Springs being one of them.

As I was sitting on the curb adjusting my backpack, we chatted for a while and she shared with me all the work the nonprofit does in the Big Sur backcountry. They’ll do educational outreach about Leave No Trace (leaving a campground more beautiful than when you found it), greet people at the start of popular trails and track how many visitors are coming through.

Before I started hiking, she says, “Oh, and if you want to volunteer, we’re always looking for more people to help with trail maintenance. It’s a really fun way to learn about new trails, especially in Ventana Wilderness.”

As soon as I got back I reached out to find more information on this—and obviously, share with all of you. What a cool way to learn about the types of vegetation out in the backcountry, especially the regrowth following fires in recent years, and get familiar with trails you might not have explored on your own.

The Ventana Wilderness Alliance has a cadre of about 150 volunteers, a mix of ambassadors (doing things like what Willett was doing at the start of the trailhead) wilderness rangers, and trail crew—people who lead the volunteer trail crews out to do maintenance.

The nonprofit, which has four full-time staff members, works alongside the U.S. Forest Service to keep the backcountry well-maintained and wild. I chatted with Richard Popchak, director of communications, who described wilderness protection as an ethic: that recreation is a part of wilderness, but not the main purpose.

Their goal, he adds, is to educate people to accept wilderness on wilderness terms, and to work with people to protect the backcountry in its natural state.

That said, the backcountry can be messy and truly wild. Poison oak is everywhere, bugs are too (the biting flies just cooled down a bit from June—now come the mosquitoes). Many of the volunteer groups aim to go out for trail maintenance in the spring or late fall, when the soil is ideally more saturated (making it easier to pull out certain types of vegetation), and the poison oak is less inflamed and oily. Group leaders try to organize trips—often one to two nights—over the weekends. Tools and training are provided, and food is often done potluck style.

Interested in volunteering? You can get started by signing up for the Ventana Wilderness Alliance Meetup group here.