A team of eight participated in a BCRT to log out the Halliday and North Fork Sullivan Creek Trails. An additional task was to scout and flag the remaining mile of trail on Slate Creek for a future pro-crew work party to where clearing was put on pause in 2024. Half of our group worked on this while the rest completed log out to just prior to the wilderness boundary on North Fork Sullivan Ck. Trees were numerous and it took the better part of two days to complete the Halliday and North Fork Trails down to the creek crossing below. We left one large tree which we deemed too risky to remove about a 1/2 mile up Halliday. This will make the trail impassable for stock until it is removed.
We opted to establish camp at the trail junction at the top of Halliday, 4.25 miles from the trailhead, and worked our way up from there. Our water source was about 1/4 mile below.
The third day was anticipated to be difficult and it was indeed. We hiked to the junction of The Slate Creek Trail and began our adventure initially finding tread easily but soon entered a burn zone where trees were piled in jackstraw fashion from well over over a decade of closure and two consecutive fires. We did some rudimentary cutting through the obstacles for easier passage and managed to flag the trail to within about 0.10 of a mile of our intended goal. We had reached our turnaround time and energy was waning by that point so we reluctantly headed back toward camp.
Surprisingly, brush wasn't as bad as anticipated as vegetation wasn't yet leafed out but the sheer number of trees to clamber over and around became an exhausting exercise. Old cut logs and bits of tread were the only signs that there had ever been a trail here. We used a combination of Gaia and USGS maps for assistance but neither was accurate 100% of the time so it was crucial to put our eyes on the ground which was not always easy.
Our fourth and final day was spent brushing Halliday and clearing drains on the way back to the trailhead.
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