First there was Paul. Then there was Gary. And now, there's Dean.

Since the time Rough Country Four Wheelers began volunteering in the Medicine Bow National Forest, they have retired two Forest Service employees in addition to keeping miles of road and trail open.

Their third, Dean Lebeda, has been with them for about 15 years. He says the group's work has been instrumental for places like the Muddy Creek Road as well as other areas.

Like many agencies, underfunding and understaffing makes it hard for Forest Service employees to keep up. Volunteers have helped ease that burden.

"The Muddy Creek Road probably wouldn't be open without the work the Rough Country Club has done," he says.

About a month ago, I got a call from one of the founding members, Rod Pepper, who talked about this upcoming project.

I hadn't had much experience with four wheeling clubs in the past save for a short discussion with a previous neighbor about his funny looking truck.

When I talked to Pepper about their club, it was hard not to conjure up images of monster trucks mowing down forests.

It's safe to say that historically, four-wheel clubs don't necessarily have the best image, but as with most cases, this is the classic "bad apple" example.

"A lot of people mistakenly think that every person out there in a jeep is going off the trail and tearing things up, but like everything else, one bad apple spoils a lot," Pepper says.

Lebeda agrees.

"I think a lot of people believe they're just out tearing up the roads, even going off roads wherever they would like to go. And I think there's a certain element that does that. That's not the case, I think, with the groups I've worked with."

The reality seems to be quite the opposite of that commonly held misconception.

The club has been volunteering annually for the Medicine Bow National Forest for more than 20 years, fixing trails, closing illegal trails and laying corduroy, a section of logs that are secured together to prevent further damage.

"The forest service is really short handed. Their biggest problem is lack of man power," Pepper says. "We can go in and do projects that they don't have the man power to do."

He writes about the first year they began their volunteer work in a chronological history he put together for the club's website:

"The Muddy Creek trail was on [the Forest Service's] closure list, so we adopted it just to keep it open. After 10 years of working on it (or defunning it), we have it nearly paved now! But, it was either lose it or pave it, so we decided that since it was a lost cause anyway, we might as well get some mileage out of it."

Part of their work has been closing user-created trails. Pepper says they have seen an increase in illegal routes with the recent popularity of ATV's.

"It seems like there's more every year," he says.

But those problems aren't confined to ATV users.

"People drive around mud holes and they drive around this or that and it creates illegal user-created routes," Pepper says. It's the few that go out there and tear things up that make it hard on the rest of us."

Pepper admits the motivation behind the volunteer work is two-fold. Part of it helps the club's image. Part of it helps the public.

"Everyone that uses the forest, benefits from what we do," Pepper says.

Since Lebeda began working with the group, they've had numerous projects.

He says there are about 6,800 miles of road in the Medicine Bow, and it's hard to find the resources to keep it all.

Rather than try to repair some of those roads, they end up closing them.

"We just don't have time or money to work on those lower-level roads like that," he says of the Muddy Creek Road.

As for the club itself, Pepper says it has had its ups and downs in the past, but has maintained a steady membership throughout the past 20 years, one of the longest running clubs in the country.

Hopefully the years to come will continue to have the same spirit of volunteerism that the past 20 have.

Shauna Stephenson is the assistant features editor. She coordinates outdoors coverage. You can reach her at 702 W. Lincolnway, Cheyenne, WY 82001, by phone at (307) 633-3186 or at sstephenson@wyomingnews.com.