July 5 - July 12, 2011
The Wallowa-Whitman trail duo has returned from yet another extremely productive hitch. We moved across 3 different locations over the duration of the hitch. Our first location was the West Fork Wallowa trail. On Tuesday, we hiked up about 4.5 miles to stash some group gear and cut out 5 downed logs on our way. On Wednesday we went with John Hollenbeak, our coordinator from the forest service office, to Lostine Canyon. We fell and cleaned a tree for a single-stringer bridge that needed replacing. On our hike out, we cut out 6 downed trees from the trail. We returned to the West Fork until Saturday and cleared the trail up to Six Mile Meadow, a popular destination for visitors and horseback riders throughout the summer. In total, we cleared 53 downed trees off the trail. 4 or 5 trees were major problems, fully obstructing the trail.
On Saturday, we met up with Trevor Knight from the SCA office in Boise. We hiked up the Hurricane Creek trail, which was rocked by an avalanche at a chute called Slick Rock Creek. Snow, rocks, and debris covered the trail, but we deemed it safe to cross and set up camp a quarter mile past the avalanche. On Sunday and Monday we were extremely productive as we cut out 53 trees on Sunday and 32 on Monday. One of the trees on Monday was 2 feet in diameter and consumed a lot of our morning. We used a pry-bar system to remove the log from the trail, which worked quite well. Also, towards the very end of the day, Trevor had a mishap with the axe and sliced his toe while trying to limb a tree. He successfully hiked out with weight on his back on Tuesday morning and made it to the hospital where they gave him 4 stitches. He was a great sport about everything and was constantly smiling despite his setback. Later that day, we de-rigged from the hitch and said goodbye to Trevor the next morning. It was a lot of fun to work with him and have his energy on the crew. Thanks Trevor!
-Joe
Hitch Totals:
Miles of trail cleared for hiking: 11.5
Number of trees removed from the trail corridor: 144
Number of trees prepped for bridge construction: 1
Number of tasty loafs of backcountry bread baked: 8, mmmmm
Number of toes gashed: Just 1!
