June 2013 Trails and Camp Work Projects

June was a particularly active month for all the busy volunteers in MVBCH! The month started right up with Trails Day on the 1st and the annual clean-up of the Twisp River Trail....

Sixteen members showed up and some of the certified chain sawyers (Steve Campbell, Bill Ford, Joe Hebert, Willie Kemper, Ken Shannon and Pete Stoothoff) cleared the logs remaining after all the preliminary work done on the trail in the previous few weeks. We had a go at brushing but we needed a few more people on the job to complete that. Carol Hebert did her usual great job of cooking the hot dogs and the potluck dishes left us probably better fed than we should have been!

Bill goes after one more log!

Gravel was delivered to the Twisp River Horse Camp on June 3^rd by Mike McHugh. He brought several loads from the Forest Service gravel pit on the TR road and dumped gravel at each camp site. Larry Zimmerlund brought his tractor and spread the gravel to ready it for the final raking.  Mike also emptied the manure bunkers while he was at the horse camp. Bill and Larry started to cut out the North Creek Trail #413 while waiting for the gravel to arrive.

Larry moves the gravel to the sites

Mike brings in the gravel

 

Bill and Keith Zielke cut out the rest of the 14 trees to the wilderness boundary on North Creek Trail on June 4. There were two trees beyond the wilderness boundary and before the washout which needed to be cut with cross cut saw. These were completed on June 10 by Bill and a Washington Trails Association crew who turned up at the trail head at the same time as Bill and Jan Ford did! Bud, Barbara and Maureen from the WTA were camped with 8 other WTA members at Poplar Flat and worked during that week on Twisp Pass Trail, Copper Pass Trail, South Creek and Louis Lake Trails and probably East Fork of the Buttermilk Trail.

Bill and WTA team cut out logs

Keith works on North Creek Trail

Bill and WTA team crosscutting

Keith Zielke and Ken Melvin cut out Eagle Lake Trail # 431 on June 7. Cathy and Bennet Upper, Bill and Jan Ford, and Roger Jackson cut out 178 logs on Falls Creek Trail on June 8.  After crossing the creek about half a mile up the trail (and cutting out 20 logs) Bennet and Roger took the ridge trail and Cathy, Bill and Jan took the lower trail. Bennet cut out about 50 logs and Cathy and Bill took it in turns to cut or swamp to the next creek crossing. The distance traveled on the lower trail was about three miles.

Cathy and Bill work the lower trail

Cathy sawing and Bill swamping

Cathy and Bill make a rest stop

The Twisp River Horse Camp Work Party was on Saturday June 22 when 10 volunteer members raked and shoveled the gravel and got it well smoothed out.  Pete Stoothoff tightened some of the high lines, and he and Joe Hebert cleared dead trees from paths and the main picnic area.

Rakes in hand ready to get to work on the TRHC

Finishing up the camp sites at the TRHC