Massages, 400-thread-count sheets and the finest cuisine don't figure into Ben Chagnon's vacation plans. Instead, the Ottawa chiropractor's idea of the perfect getaway involves lifting boulders, pruning thorny shrubs and washing dishes. And as if that isn't bad enough, he actually pays money to do the work.
“There's no phone, no TV, no pagers,” the 34-year-old Chagnon said of the American Hiking Society's Volunteer Vacations program. “You go out in the bush, and no one can get you. You spend evenings by the campfire chitchatting. For $100, it's well worth my time.”
Chagnon is among 600 people who spent more than 25,000 hours last year trimming, chopping, moving, raking and building to improve and maintain trails in national forests, state and local parks, and Bureau of Land Management areas.
Under Volunteer Vacations, founded 30 years ago, participants pay $100, plus transportation, to go on one- to two-week trips. Food, cooking utensils and tools are provided, but the volunteers bring their own tents, sleeping bags and other gear.
The hiking group's emphasis in 2004 is restoring wilderness areas, in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the Wilderness Act of 1964. The act promotes conservation and restricts grazing, mining, timber cutting and mechanized vehicles in about 105.7 million acres of wilderness, according to the University of Montana's College of Forestry and Conservation.
One-third of this year's 105 service projects, which range from moderate to strenuous, are in wilderness areas, from Steens Mountain Wilderness in Oregon to Dolly Sods Wilderness in West Virginia.
“Most people do it because they love the land, and they want to make sure the trails are still there for future generations,” said Shirley Hearn, American Hiking Society volunteer coordinator. “People also use it as an excuse to get out there and see the country.”
That's what Chagnon does. He's been on six projects in two years, four of them in Arizona. He's worked at Saguaro National Park east of Tucson, the Arizona Trail in the Tortilla Mountains northeast of Tucson, Hassayampa River Canyon Wilderness northwest of Phoenix and, in February, Eagletail Mountains Wilderness west of Phoenix.
The airfare for the 5,000-mile round trip from Ottawa is worth it, he said. “I like the desert. I just fell in love with it when I went the first time. The saguaros are fantastic.”
Chagnon's also made some good friends, among them Tammy and George Vadasz of Phoenix, whom he met on a previous Volunteer Vacations project in Arizona. They also made the Eagletail Mountain trip. So enamored were the Vadaszes with Arizona after volunteering at Hell's Canyon Wilderness Area near Lake Pleasant in 2001, they sold their house and quit their jobs in New York and moved to Arizona.
“We love it,” said Tammy Vadasz, 42. “If you love to be outdoors and enjoy hiking, it's a good way to give back. You get a chance to see places and camp in places and work in places that you might not ever be able to see.”
Norma Miller piggybacks her hobbies — birding, kayaking and camping — onto her Volunteer Vacations. The 57-year-old Tucson woman has done eight projects in Arizona and California since 1998, and each has been “peaceful and awe-inspiring.”
She, too, has been mocked by those who don't understand the pay-to-volunteer concept.
“I can never get enough. This is, to me, a bargain.”