Update: Went out 22SEP22 and cleared beyond the river up two miles of the Pilot Ridge trail. Photo link below.
15SEP22: Our primary objective for this day was to clear the fallen, blocking tree over the Pilot Ridge trail (#652), about a half mile above the river and 2.5 miles from the North Fork Sauk River trailhead (trail#649). We departed the trailhead about 0900 and hiked to the river crossing where there are some logs to use if you wish to keep your feet dry. There were four of us - two tried to cross on the rocks, and the two that ended up with dry feet used the logs. There were several logs between the river and our primary objective that were easy to walk over so we left them for another day. The diameter of the tree was about four feet, and took three cuts that kept us working until about 1810; a good, long day. Some hikers, coming down from the Blue lakes area told us that there were some other trees down on the Pilot Ridge trail, but none as large as this and all easy to get over/around.
Trail #649, from the trailhead to the river crossing, is in very good condition. We ran into a Darrington Ranger District trail crew; and WTA crew that were getting work done over several days while camped by the trailhead. Especially noticed was the new work on a turnpike that required many buckets of gravel. Only Fall colors noticed was the Devils Club leaves turning their burnt yellow color.
Comments
Nice sized tree. Thanks!
Posted by:
RichP on Sep 17, 2022 06:02 PM
Those videos were very interesting. Makes it quite clear that you need a high level expertise to do this safely. Thank you!
Posted by:
Maddy on Sep 18, 2022 08:32 PM
Really appreciate this trail work! Thank you!
Posted by:
hanuman on Sep 28, 2022 08:09 PM