Trail Maintenance on the Continental Divide Trail

Hi Sam,

I've been outside almost every day since June … unfortunately it's been mostly spent right outside our door on a large home repair project.

But a friend and I have adopted adjacent sections of the SHT north of Two Harbors and we'll be there next weekend doing semi-annual maintenance. Turns out that trails don't maintain themselves …. who knew? heh-heh

Jim – what campsite/trail section have you adopted?

I did one day with Trail Keepers of Oregon working on rerouting a trail on Angel's Rest, mostly using a Pulaski to make a trail with the correct pitch.

About a quarter of the time when I go backpacking, I take a folding saw or lopers, especially in the spring when there are many branches across trail. If you cut the branch off at least 3 feet from the center of the trail then it's good. Sometimes I'll cut it further, especially if that makes it flush with a main branch.

I figure we're short of budget to clear trails and that helps. Especially if I'm hiking in, like 10 miles, and then clear a section of trail, it's not that much work for me but would be a major pain to get a crew in there to do it.

Every bit helps, Jerry.

Jim – what campsite/trail section have you adopted?

A good friend and I have adopted a pair of adjacent sections that run from where the Lake County Demo Forest spur joins the main trail to the third the Reeves Road crossing (not too far from the Reeves Road trailhead/parking lot. Why it doesn't include the couple hundred yards of remaining trail to the parking lot remains a mystery to me. It takes us two days to work that 9 mile stretch and we camp at Stewart River which is very close to the midpoint.

The Stewart River campsite has already been adopted but we hope to get on a waiting list for that too. Will likely make a few tent pad improvements in the meantime … seeing that we'll be camping there twice each year for the foreseeable future.

Good on you for adopting a section. And good luck in pursuing adoption of a site.

Sam,

I've done at least one week-long trail maintenance project each of the last ten summers, most of them through the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation (www.thebmwf.org) in Hungry Horse. Last summer I did a second trip, with the Continental Divide Trail Alliance (www.cdtrail.org)(I believe Ryan Jordan is on CDTA's board), working on the Shoshone Lake Trail in Yellowstone NP. It's great to have a week away from the Internet and telephones, and I like the work. CDTA and BMWF are always looking for volunteers, and both have many weekend projects. More volunteer work is on my agenda if I can ever sell my house here and move to Montana.

Richard

The BMWF and the CDTA are great organizations, Richard. It's a bit of a bear when you have to travel in order to help out but you might be able to find a smaller organization that's located in your neck of the woods too.

Sam, After I move to Bozeman getting some service trips organized for or through a local nonprofit is also on my agenda. I tried with the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, but their trips are all one-day affairs, usually fence removal. I need to get to know some of the USFS folks in Livingston, Big Timber, and Bozeman. Richard

There are a number of organizations doing volunteer stuff 'round these parts. Gallatin Valley Land Trust, Wilderness Recreation Partners, Montana Mountain Bike Alliance, Backcountry Horsemen, CDTA – – just to name a few.