Hitch leader: Ben Dunphey
Members: Shannon Apgar-Kurtz, Shannon Montano, Kenny Grilliot, Baba
Due to the large fires here in the Salmon-Challis our trails project was moved from the Cape Horn Guard Station to the Wild Horse Guard Station. While there we worked on the Burnt Aspen Trail. This is another law suit trail, which a judge closed due to the effects of motorized use and for just lack of general up keep. We spent most of our time split into two groups. One group worked on putting water bars into the trail to help sheet water off to prevent erosion and the other group spent their time adding checks and backfilling the trail to prevent any further erosion and entrenchment from occurring.
The highlight of this hitch was our weekend adventure down to Craters of the Moon National Monument. This is the location of a volcano that is currently dormant. Located within the Monument are several old caves that were formed by lava passing underground through tunnels. We spent the entire day crawling through these caves with just our headlamps and flashlights. It was a pretty cool experience seeing these underground worlds and having the chance to explore some of the tight craws and large caverns. We would highly recommend that if any one is ever in the area that they stop and take the time to explore this amazing area.
Work totals:
Tread maintained: 206 ft.
Waterbars: 24