Tour These Trail Maintenance Projects: A Summer Status Report

Trails crews are really workin' it on trail right now. So far this year, we've cleared 2,520 drains, cut 1,297 logs and hung out with 1,424 new volunteers!

A triumphant return to the North Cascades National Park resulted in a truly remarkable puncheon project; a partnership with EarthCorps created an ADA-accessible trail to Suntop Lookout, a horribly muddy section of trail at Cape Disappointment got some stairs, and the Chain Lakes trail at Mount Baker got some much-needed TLC.

Before and after on the Chain Lakes Loop. Wow! Photos courtesy Arlen Bogaards.

Northwest Washington

• Join us in the North Cascades
• Lake Ann, Ptarmigan Ridge, Table Mountain and Panorama Dome all have work scheduled in August and September. Join us to work on trail tread and drainage!
  
  Featured: Youth & Families work party at Horeseshoe Bend
  
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WTA returned to work in North Cascades National Park for the first time since 2016. Our pro crews have been clearing trails in fire recovery areas and a team of sturdy volunteers made short work of a big project: going from mudhole to magnificent puncheon in 4 days.

Over at Hayes Lake on the Chain Lakes Loop near Mount Baker, Great American Outdoors Act funding in the Heather Meadows area allowed for tread and drainage repair on this heavily used loop (see above).

Puget Sound

WTA crews helped create the state's first ADA-accessible trail to a fire lookout last month! WTA's Zachary Toliver lead an EarthCorps BIPOC crew for two days, creating a lovely, flat, graveled route that leads to the lookout. The accessibility to a lookout for mobility-limited people is huge — here's to more projects like this in the future.

Crew leader Zach Toliver takes a selfie with the Earthcorps crew. WTA and Earthcorps worked together to build the first ADA-accessible trail to a fire lookout in Washington state! Photo courtesy Zach Toliver.

We also broke ground on a new-to-WTA location — Big Rock Park South outside Sammamish. The project started in June and thanks to the 153 volunteers who joined us here, we're almost done creating 800 feet of new trail thanks to 8 work parties; 4 of them youth and families!

On the Hester Lake trail down the Middle Fork Road, a backcountry response team (BCRT) crew installed two bog bridges as well as 7 stone steps. They also took care of some much needed brushing and log removal, making Hester Lake a much nicer destination for hikers, and another backpacking option for folks in this popular recreation corridor.

Central Washington

Back in the spring, more than 30 WTA volunteers spent two BCRTs and two volunteer vacations breaking ground on new trail along Lake Chelan’s south shore. Once complete, the new trail will offer six miles of hiking departing from 25 Mile State Park.

This is a fantastic and much-needed day hiking opportunity near Chelan that revives parts of an abandoned trail built by the Civilian Conservation Corps almost 90 years ago.

One more BCRT will head back to the South Shore trail in September — wanna come with us?

Southwest Washington

Earlier this year, crews completed a complicated stairs project at Cape Disappointment State Park — a small but really helpful improvement for that particular trail.

A mudpit is transformed into a lovely set of stairs. Thanks, volunteers! Photos courtesy of VanMallych (r) and DaphneF (l).

Olympics 

Two intro-to-backcountry-response-team trips in the Olympic Peninsula got a ton of awesome work done. On the Lower South Fork Skokomish Trail, four new-to-backcountry-trips volunteers completed 200 feet of new trail realignment, removed multiple logs across the trail, and decommissioned 230 feet of old trail!

Over on the Dosewallips River Road another intro BCRT brushed out the trail and moved a large section of a log off the trail.

Eastern Washington

WTA crews finished the new Etter Ranch Trail, the new Cliffs Extension Loop & the long-time Hauser Conservation Area project in the spring, and now we're looking forward to the final BCRT of the season. It'll be at Jackson Creek on September 7-10, and there are still some spots available! We hope to meet an Idaho Trail Association crew at the state line while bringing this great trail back up to standard.

If you can't get enough news about trail work, check out recent trip reports from WTA work parties to see what's been recently repaired and ready for you to visit. If you were on one of these trips, file a report if you haven't already!