AK Corp Team 1: Week Five

• 

Mt Baldy Wrap Up

This was our final week on Mt. baldy for the summer. We’ve done a lot of work on this trail (we see it as our baby), but we are called on to more great projects in equally great places in Alaska.  The trail is not completed, but a SCA High School team is taking over where we left off.

 

The trail will follow the orange flags. (Before)
New Bench Cut. (After

The week started out on clearing the way for Phase 3. Phase 3 is a new beginning to the trail that starts in an alder forest. That means a whole lot of hand sawing. Our chainsaw crew joined us on the second day, that moved us along a little quicker. We spent the next few days cutting bench (making trail). The crew has become a well oiled machine and the amount of trail constructed started flying by. All in all this week 650 feet of constructed trail which includes; an entrenched sweeping turn and two switchbacks, roughly half of Phase 3 is now done.  The weather was great the whole time we worked on Phase 3, which let us focus on getting trail built and the time sure flew by.  During our final full day we received a visit from the crew leaders that are taking over and leading the High School crew.  It was great getting to show off our trail and explain how we do things.

 

Just a recap of the work done on Mt. Baldy including Phase 1, 2, 3:

2250 ft of trail
3 switchbacks
1 climbing turn
1 entrenched sweeping turn
8900 square feet of re-vegetation (which we got to see sprout!)
5 weeks of great fun and awesome people

 

New sprouts!!

Best of luck to the High School crew that is taking over. Have fun on Baldy, we sure did. The crew is now in Denali National Park this week. We all really wanted to finish our work on Mt. Baldy, but Denali is a good excuse to move on. Tune in next week for some how-to to invasive plant removal and our next, most excellent adventure.
 

May the Conservation be with YOU!

 

Student Conservation Association