Route 1, Box 34 Mammoth Lakes, California 93546 (W/H) 760-935-4955 Fax 760-935-4955 maypilot@allvantage.com
Background and Capabilities In the summer of 1978, I began my trail work experience as a wilderness ranger for the US Forest Service in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains. We would carry a shovel, knock loose rocks off the trail and do minor repairs. Then in the early 1980's, through a contract with the same people in the same mountains, I did my first contract trail repair work. These jobs were usually close to the road-heads making hiking out to a car camp or even home possible. The work was basic trail maintenance. Brush, tree and small rock removal, trail tread widening, designing and building workable drainage features and small reroutes around meadows and streams. aaa Wood wall, Vertigo Trail. City of Burbank, CA Installed by Richard May Construction in a joint venture with Bellfree Contractors, Inc. aaaa By the late '80s I was working on larger contracts with various partners, still with the Forest Service and often in the same Sierra Nevada Mountains, but the work was a little more involved. I hired a crew. To reach the work sites we set up camps ten and twenty mile hikes in from road's end. Larger rocks required drilling and blasting. We hauled eight-foot-long 2-person saws into Wilderness areas to fell 5-foot diameter hazard trees. We learned to work with the magnificent granite blocks the Sierra Nevada are made of. We built stone walls, known as "dry wall" for their absence of mortar, around switchbacks and along eroding hillsides. We built hundreds of rock waterbars, rectangular stones placed end to end and buried diagonally across the tread, to prevent erosion caused by melting winter snows and summer thundershowers. We learned to move large rocks, too heavy to carry, with 6-foot steel bars, an inch at a time, to build natural stone stairways. Where erosion had taken its toll and nothing else would work, the answer was rip-rap. Emulating the meticulous work found in Yosemite National Park, the same technique immortalized by poet Gary Snyder, we had our first exposure to this art in the remote Emigrant Wilderness beyond the northern fringe of Yosemite. In rip-rap construction, rocks from the surrounding terrain are selected for their shape, size, durability and appearance. Through hard work and diligence, by carry, drag or roll, they are transported to and gathered around the work site. Beginning with a large keystone at the bottom to keep gravity at bay, stones are fitted one by one so that each stone simultaneously fills its portion of the gully, fits tightly to the adjacent stones and provides flat secure footing on top. Inch by inch, rock by rock, day by day, an unsalvageable piece of trail is transformed into an individually styled natural stone walkway that will last for centuries. On a good day ten feet of trail may be repaired. On a bad day only a stone or two may be fitted before an impasse leaves the builder wandering the hillsides for that next rock that fits just right. In 1990 the business became Richard May Construction, Inc. While the core of our work remains wilderness trail construction and reconstruction, each year we continue to seek new horizons. Currently we also build footbridges, paved trails for bicycle and high use areas, log walkways, elevated pathways and viewing platforms, safety fences and guard rails, and use a small excavation machine to expedite non-wilderness construction. We can also accomplish rock and tree removal in remote and difficult sites through blasting as well as non-blasting methods. Much of the work continues to be contracted with the Federal Government, but I am seeking more work with states, counties and municipalities. Inquiries from private agencies both profit and non profit, as well as individuals are also most welcome, so please call. Whether you are looking for a bid to build a completely designed project or just want to toss ideas around, give a call. Sooner or later all inquiries are answered. Figure later if it happens to be a slow rip-rap day. – Richard May

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