This is a plan where the citizens proposed that this airstrip is an important resource for pilots who come from all over the country to land at this runway, campout and enjoy the scenery. Automobiles and other vehicles are kept away at the trailhead. “We proposed to the BLM that we have to make the runway safer for pilots. Over the years the Back Country Pilots Association has built up a budget for this project. The project has gone through the required processes. The BLM wrote an environmental assessment. The proposal has gone through the public scrutiny of hearings and comment periods and finally the BLM said you could move forward with this project. They also said do not do anymore than you said you would do” said Durtschi.
MEXICAN MOUNTAIN AIRSTRIP LIKE NEW
The Mexican Mountain back country air strip over the years has grown in with weeds and debris. The Back Country Pilots Association with the help and support of the Recreational Aviation Foundation started a project to make repairs to the strip. Steve Durtschi, President of the Back County Pilots Association and RAF Utah state liaison hired Bonner Brumley and his crew to work on the Mexican Mountain Airstrip repair project. Durtschi, three years ago started working to get permission from the BLM to repair the Mexican Mountain airstrip and make it safer for pilots landing there.
The Brumley crew traveled to the trailhead three and half miles from the Mexican Mountain Airstrip on Sept. 20. There the crew unloaded equipment, sorted out their equipment and made up heavy packs that were then loaded on the mules for a short journey to the airstrip. They camped and worked at the airstrip for 10 days. The Brumley crew is made up of Professional Trail Builders. Bonner Brumley, Tyler Bransford and Tagge Viter of White Bird Idaho arrived Friday evening September 19 at the Huntington Airport pulling a horse trailer hauling two mules, two Airedale dogs along with a pickup load of camping gear and trail construction equipment to restore the Mexican Mountain Airstrip.
Bonner Brumley said he and his crew usually work for the US Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management in Idaho and Montana building and repairing Wilderness trails.
The reason mule drawn equipment was used for this project is because the airstrip is in the Mexican Mountain Wilderness Study Area. The mules were used not only as pack animals but they pulled the equipment to plow up and smooth the soil of the airstrip
The big Belgian mule Ellie was used to pull an implement known as a Trail Ace (developed by Bonner Brumley) to break up mountain soil. Other parts of the runway material had to be broken up with a pick and shovel before it could be moved around. The dirt was generally moved from place by members of the crew carrying two buckets filled with dirt suspended from a wooden yoke across their shoulders. The men also used grubbing hoes, mattocks and their hands to remove tamarisk and other shrubs from the runway.
Durtschi said Wilderness Study Areas are part of the Federal Land Policy Management Act of 1976. This little airstrip was built in 1975 and predates that law and is allowed to continue to exist. There is no road to the airstrip. The nearest road is three and a half miles away. The Wilderness Study area is being managed as if it was wilderness and is controlled by wilderness guidelines and work ethics. Bonner Brumley’s specialty is working in wilderness areas.
Bonner estimated they moved the equivalent of six to eight dump truck loads of material. This was all accomplished with two mules and three men.
The work of restoring the runway was similar to a two-foot wide trail 20,000 feet long. Or like two miles of trail two foot wide. He also estimated they leveled out about 20,000 square feet of surface removing the lumps that would ruin an airplane. Part of that restoration was to repair 500 foot of the airstrip that had gone back to nature with shrub like vegetation.
Lee Jeffs of Castle Dale was on hand to offer horses for carrying people and supplies from the trailhead to the airstrip. A week or two before this event Jeffs took Durtschi, Brumley and Leon Defreiz to the airstrip using horses. There they were able to review what was going to be needed. Durtschi reported he and his wife Cathy flew down on Friday morning to the Mexican Mountain Airstrip.
Then on Tuesday flew to the Huntington Airport to get supplies and back to the Airstrip on Wednesday. They were there for eight or nine days. Durtschi said we brought the trail team in and they cleaned the existing runway. Part of the runway had been unusable. They widened the runway to its original full width. They removed the weeds, the clump grass and tamarisk off of both sides. They graded the two parking areas and filled in two low spots that get muddy with fill from the side. The runway used to be over 1,450 feet long and is about 1,800 feet long now. The cost of this project to the Back Country Pilots Association was approximately $13,000.
“We felt this project was very worth while because Mexican Mountain is one of the premier back country landing strips. Pilots come from all over the country to land there. Our object was to not only make it safer, but to make it better,” said Durtschi.
Submitted on October 27, 2014.
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At about this time, every year, we have this conversation at the RAF about what our year end letter (code for asking for your financial support) should say to you, and about the RAF and the accomplishments of the past year.
Our many RAF supporters have such vast and varied experience, and we’re capturing some of their words of wisdom to share with you. This guest editorial is by Stef Goza, a pilot and an RAF Alaska liaison.
Bill credits aviation for much of his success in business and the ability to serve his companies and family. What began in a Champ, and a Tri-Pacer owned by five people, turned into what Bill calls, “a key business tool” in which he accumulated 9,000 hours – in a Cheyenne, a Pilatus, and a TBM, where ninety-five percent of his flying was for business. “My retirement enabled me to recall ‘Why I Learned to Fly’, a slogan from an old RAF video.” Bill’s son, Patrick, purchased the C185 they now share. “While attending a business function, some associates arrived in corporate jets. As they joined up on the tarmac, the jet pilots gathered around Patrick’s 185, and one of the passengers asked, ‘What’s special about this?’ No explanation needed for this RAF audience,” Bill says. “My involvement in the RAF is, in a partial way, repaying the rewards aviation has endowed me with. Having been involved in many worthwhile nonprofits, this is one where financial support is only part of the picture. Physically participating in great projects that have a lasting effect, with good people, returns a great personal benefit,” he says. “My only regret is that I wasn’t there at the start.” Bill and his wife Jane are privileged to be able to split time between their long-time home in eastern Nebraska and Scottsdale, Arizona. While still serving on several boards, he enjoys golf “about every third shot,” biking, cars, and reading, but always looks forward to the time he can be involved in the RAF. “It’s flying with a purpose,” he adds. Bill can be reached at bdugan@theraf.org
AR Ambassador
A Christmas gift of flight lessons from his parents started Scott Anttila’s aviation journey in 1985. “I learned at Johnson Field, a small grass strip tucked into the woods in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and that early exposure to simple backcountry flying stuck with me,” Scott says. Growing up in the U.P., he spent a lot of time outdoors and found that flying was another way to get to the places he liked to explore—especially the ones most people never saw. As he earned more ratings and eventually moved to the Detroit area for work, Scott realized he needed a way to stay connected to northern Michigan. He bought an airplane and used it to get back to the smaller airstrips and lake country he enjoyed. Along the way, he also flew gliders out of Frankfort, soaring along the Sleeping Bear Dunes and towing sailplanes over the Great Lakes. “Those flights gave me a different appreciation for the landscape and made me even more interested in the small, out-of-the-way airports scattered around the state,” he says. Visiting those kinds of places, Scott first came across the Recreational Aviation Foundation. He started using RAF-supported airstrips both inside and outside Michigan. “I noticed how well-kept they were and how much access they opened up,” he says, adding, ”Over the years, I’ve watched a number of grass strips close, which made the RAF’s mission feel especially important to me. Maintaining these airstrips keeps aviation connected to the outdoors and makes it possible for more people to reach the quiet, remote areas that inspired me to fly in the first place.” Scott joins the other two RAF Michigan Liaisons, General Grant and Tanmoy Ganguly. He can be reached at santtila@theraf.org . Submitted December 11, 2025.
