160326 – Trail 266 – Blow-down removal
We took another slog up Glacier View Mountain via Trail 266 on Saturday, March 26. Besides encountering a couple more blow-downs in need of removal, we saw recent wolf tracks and scat. heaven knows why that wolf was coming down off Glacier View, but at least the trail was clear.
No, really. We actually did a small trail project in February, not to mention a nice little ski trip.
On February 23, a couple of us — myself (Bill Walker) and Greg Evans — headed up Trail 266 towards Glacier View Peak from the trailhead near the Camas Road. We removed 22 blow-downs from the first mile of trail and had lunch with a view.
Trail 266 – Trailhead at Camas
Trail 266 – Lunch With a View
A few days later, a group of us had a pleasant ski up Road 909 from the Hay creek Road. Everyone had a good time. Upholding NFTA tradition, we cut out a couple of blow-downs on the way back.
Road 909, Hay Creek Drainage – Left to right: Greg Evans, Ceder, Randy Kenyon, John O’Hara, Joyce O’Hara, Debo Powers, Bill Walker and Rachel Peura (behind the camera)
It was a nice start to what should be a good trails season.
Here are a few, brief trail condition reports. Short version: Most trails discussed so far are in fair to good shape, with the exception of Demers Ridge, which is awful.
Greg and Sue Evans said that the Demers Ridge Trail [Trail 266 from the north] to Glacier View Mountain is in terrible shape. They counted 192 blow-downs. However, others report that the route up Glacier View on Trail 266 starting from its southern end near Camas junction is in good shape, with very few obstacles.
Debo Powers turned in several reports…
“…I did hike to Thompson-Seton [Trails 79 and 28] and I was surprised at how much the brush has grown back. It’s only mid-calf high instead of head-high, but it has grown back so lush that you can’t tell that we cut it last year! I was surprised because it looked so scalped last year when we finished! Nature is resilient! My pant legs got soaked walking the lower trail on Tuesday morning [July 15] after the Monday evening rainstorm. The trail is fine for this year, but we should put it on our list for next spring or early summer. There are also 7 logs across the trail, so we will want to do some cutting next year, too.”
“The trail to Thoma that starts on Frozen Lake Road [Trails 18 and 15] has a brush problem in one short stretch, but I imagine that Leif will take care of that sometime this year. His re-supply mule train came up the other route from Trail Creek Road [Trail 15 from the south] on Thursday [July 17], so that trail has probably been cut out to make room for mules. I haven’t hiked it though.”
“The trails to Hornet [Trail 349] and Cyclone [Trail 40] are in fine shape.”