July 2022 Big Bear Today Magazine

Page 2—June 2022
From the Publisher
1st volunteer ranger,
woman to solo PCT,
Teddi’s full of stories
F
irst
woman to hike the entire Pacific
Crest Trail, all 2,600+ miles of it.
Alone, at age 49, and she went north
to south, starting in Manning Park in
Canada, instead of the usual Mexican border
beginning, which some said at the time
wasn’t possible because of snow.
First volunteer ranger in the San
Gorgonio Wilderness. In 1972, while Teddi
Boston was teaching backpacking, an edict
came down from Forest Service headquarters
in Washington D.C. to put a female in
uniform in the remote area just 30 minutes
or so from Big Bear. On foot, since all the
other rangers in the area were horseback.
“Great!” Boston recalled during our
late June interview, appropriately decked
out in John Muir mountains shirt and sitting
under towering forest pines. “Now I
won’t have to get a permit!”
Fifty years later, she’s still volunteering,
now with San Gorgonio Wilderness
Association (SGWA), making her the longest
tenured volunteer around. If you’ve
hiked into San Gorgonio Wilderness anytime
in the past five decades, chances are
you’ve come across Teddi Boston.
Perhaps it was at Fish Creek Saddle,
where for 14 years she spent summers in a
six-man tent outfitted with sleeping cot,
folding table and American flag flapping
in the breeze. “Probably the highest flag
flying in the country,” she said, noting the
10,000 ft. elevation.
Or you might have come across her
on hundreds of miles of trails that crisscross
the remote area, because she’s been
on them all as part of her duties. Sometimes
she would hike down to Dry Lake or
Big Tree, other times up to the top of 11,502
ft. Mt. San Gorgonio. “I’ve been 20 times
to the top or more,” she said. “I liked July
4th up there. You can see fireworks from
east to west, magnificent.”
Teddi Boston is 95, no longer spending
summers at the saddle, which she did
well into her 80’s. The 2015 Lake Fire
roared through the Wilderness but spared
her Fish Creek Saddle camp. Then came
Covid-19, followed by the El Dorado Fire.
“The fires and Covid wiped me out,” she
said. Along with a heart murmur, from
treatment for breast cancer in the 1990’s,
when she had radiation above her heart.
“I don’t hike anymore because of the
murmur,” she said. “I can’t go up to high
elevation.” Even though she’s now a volunteer
at Camp de Benneville Pines, at
around 6,500 feet on Jenks Lake Rd., backing
up to her beloved San Gorgonio Wilderness.
She means 10,000 ft. Ridge!
You might meet Boston at Saturday 7
p.m. ranger talks all summer at Grayback
Amphitheater on Hwy. 38 near Big Bear.
Hosted by SGWA, the evenings feature interesting
forest topics and free hot chocolate,
coffee and cider, dutifully passed out
by Boston, making sure she doesn’t spill.
Indeed the season’s first talk over
Memorial Day weekend was by Boston,
presenting her epic Pacific Crest Trail hike
that put her in the record books. PCT had
only been officially designated eight years
earlier and Eric Ryback is credited with its
first solo hike, south to north, in 1971. For
which he got a book deal and notoriety.
Boston heard about the PCT while
hiking the John Muir Trail in 1972 with
her daughter and some of her friends. “That
trail needs my footprints,” she thought to
herself. “Psychologically it made more
sense to start in the north, walking toward
home. It took two years to plan.”
This was 1976, tail end of the Mini
Ice Age, when western snow was abundant.
So Teddi packed snowshoes among 60 lbs.
of gear and set out on May 1, with 10 feet
of snow on the trail. obscuring it and all
markers.
“For 30 days I didn’t see a single person
in Washington,” Boston said. To keep
her bearings she used map and compass.
When she finally saw ground and her first
marker after a month, she was less than 10
feet off the trail! Incredible navigation!
Crossing the Columbia River on the
Bridge of the Gods she had to pay a quarter
(now hikers cross free). PCT wouldn’t
be completely finished till 1993, so Boston
had to negotiate 800 miles of Jeep roads
and animal trails. She scratched her cornea
on a tree branch and had to leave the
trail to see a doctor, returning against his
advice a few days later.
Water in the Mojave Desert is always
a PCT worry but Boston got plenty, courtesy
of the remnants of a tropical storm.
Her husband, who had told her she couldn’t
do the PCT alone, was waiting at the border
when she arrived, after 169 days.
As the first woman to solo the PCT
she didn’t get the acclaim Ryback did. A
few newspaper stories—one that got her
fired when her boss read she was using sick
time to hike—were it.
But she’s been rewarded with a lifetime
of stories since. Hear more of her PCT
story at her next ranger talk on Sept. 3.
Have a good one.
Marcus
ON THE COVER: Scott Hindell takes daughter Sofia for a ride on a waverunner, getting wet
the ideal way to cool off on a hot July day!
—BBT photo by Marcus Dietz
Volume 34, Number 1 July 2022
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6
8
9
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Publisher
Marcus G. Dietz
Associate Publisher
Sandra L. Dietz
Publishing Consultant
Bret Colson
Technical Consultant
Charles Dietz
Photography/Distribution
Steve Dietz
John Daskam
Mark Gauger
In This Issue...
Big Bear Today
New Wavernners, Pirates at Holloway’s
The extensive fleet of waverunners at Holloway’s Marina and
North Shore Landing got quite the workout during recent busy
summers. So ten new machines were added in the off-season
from Yamaha. Or take the family on a pontoon or power boat,
and you’re sure to have a great time on Time Bandit pirate
ship, sailing with canon fire, booty chest and more.
History, Serenity at Beautiful Bluff Lake
Bluff Lake is a different type of lake with no recreation, save
for a wonderful one-mile loop around its shoreline. Here nature
rules with only the sounds of the birds and the water
interrupting complete silence. At one time this was a stopover
on the trip up the mountain; today’s it’s stunning to look at!
Spirits of the West, Live Bands at Wyatt’s
Pay tribute to the hard-working American cowboy with two
days of Wild West fun at Wyatt’s. Start with Friday’s museum
fundraiser and then head into Saturday’s big day with live
action gunfights, vendors, tequila and whiskey sampling and
more. Hot live bands all month long too!
Music in Mountains Back, Bands at Wyatt’s
Discovery Center’s popular Music in the Mountains outdoor
concert series returns after its pandemic-driven hiatus. The
stars come out under the stars starting with the music of John
Denver presented by Jim Curry. Followed by the Long Run’s
tribute to the Eagles, Journey music by DSB and more.
Champion Lodgepole, Gunsight Trail Sites
It’s hard to get to but Champion Lodgepole Pine is a worthy
destination for a great hike on Siberia Creek Trail. It’s thought
to be the largest tree of its kind in the world at over 110 feet
high! Continue further on the trail to the Gunsight for more
adventure. Our report, in four-color, on The Back Page.
Teddi Boston on her pioneering PCT trek;
meet her at ranger talks! Story this page
DEPARTMENTS
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3
13
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From the Publisher
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