July 6th was going to be a busy day for our work party. There were 8 volunteers signed up but as the forecast worsened the cancellations started arriving. By the time we hit the trail, there were three souls that braved the misty conditions to do a day’s work on the trail.
For the day we focussed on installing an extra step in the eroding bank, stabilizing the bank by installing extra width on one of the steps, hauling more debris into the off route sections, and trimming wood obstacles that could hook a hiker’s foot. A big part of the project is doing sustainable work that withstand the test of time, and that means controling the flow of water. Much of the trail erosion has been made worse by the waterfall that forms on the trail and flows down a large portion of our section.
Next steps will focus on sweeping debris from the exposed rock slabs, raking gravel to remove large boulders, moving buckets of gravel to fill depressions, trim the path that’s becoming bushy, and install some hand lines from old climbing rope to help folks that want the help to get over the rock step.
Sadly, I’ll close with a note about our materials. The RDN conveniently dropped most of the materials on the fire road at the lower section of our section. Everything that was left her has been stolen. My best estimate is that they have taken a bin of staples, 80 pieces of rebar, 4 sheets of bridge decking, and tenty 4x4x4 and fifteen 4x4x8 cedar beams. The good news is that we probably didn’t need as many as we had delivered, but it was good to have them on hand for options.
