More Updates on Trails

Don Hecker, a new member of our Chapter, cleared over six miles of the Twisp River Trail from the site of the fire front 0.6 mile west of Poplar Flat back E to War Creek Meadow. Don is a mountain biker and scouted the trail on his bike first before going back with a friend, Karl Kaiyala, also an MVBCH new member. They cut out 18 trees including a very large ponderosa east of Slate Creek and Darwood’s camp. There remains over a third of TRT to be cleared to the west end – all in burnt areas.

May 22: South Creek Trail—Big tree down just past bridge over Twisp River

May 22: South Creek Trail—Mary McHugh, Pete and Bill adjusting Mocha's load

May 22: South Creek Trail—Burnt out shell of huge tree. Chain saw has a 25 inch blade

East of Scaffold looking W

May 22: South Creek Trail—Pete has just cut the last log of the day

East of Scaffold looking W

The Latest Update on Trails

We'll have to get a lot of trail work done in a short time in order to make the best use of the extra crews available to us. As well as WTA, there will be trail crews from AmeriCorps and Ecology Youth Corps coming in this year to help work on the trails after the 2018 fires.  We need to clear trails to the wilderness boundary, so that the crews are not held up getting into the wilderness on trails near the horse camp. (If these trails are not cleared, visitors to TRHC will have nowhere to ride.)

TRT needs TLC

May 5: TRT East of Scaffold looking W

Trail work up Twisp River started hard on the heels of the Spring Ride. On May 1st, Bill and Jan Ford started to clear Twisp River Trail (TRT) from its east end at the Buttermilk Snow Park. It took them four outings (44 V-Hours) to cut out the trail to the War Creek Bridge and a further 4 hours for Bill on his own to reach the 4-mile mark at Twisp River road. They returned each evening looking as if they had been in a coal mine and their clothes were black!

The trail was badly burnt nearly all the way with only a few places where it had a mosaic burn. Tread was badly affected by falling rocks and by tunnels and holes where roots had burnt out underground.

May 5: TRT East of Scaffold looking E

Rendezvous/Lewis Butte Clean-up Work Party

May 18th was a bright and sunny day when Mike Murray, Ashley Ahearn, Denny Weston, Rick Jones and DK Williams worked to clean up what appears to be miles of scattered, broken and tangled fencing wires along the new Riser Lake/Lewis Butte trail. DK took all the wire to Cascade Concrete for disposal/recycling a few days later.

 

Patterson Mountain Ride 2019

On May 14th members Jackie Iddings, Julie Johnson, Betty Wagoner, Mark Brantner, Fran White, Ann Port and new member Alyssa Jumar enjoyed a ride on Patterson Mountain. As they started out, the weather looked like rain, but there was only a slight sprinkle which didn't deter the group in the least. As in years previous, the sunflowers and lupine were in full bloom and the Greasewood had lots of new white blossoms up and down its branches.

It's a beautiful vista from the top of Patterson Mountain; the Methow Valley and the valley going up towards Mazama, and even north toward the Pasayten Wilderness. A special thank you to Moccasin Lake Ranch for allowing us permission for the ride.