Backcountry Musings

I hope you had a great father’s day weekend–the weather was amazing.

Tom asked me to send you some photos of our trail clearing activities up on the Rapid Creek Trail near Donnelly off of the Paddy Flat Road. Bart, Tom, Tracy Z and I did some much-needed overhead brushing for the first 5 miles of the trail north of the trailhead on Saturday and Sunday. Most of the trail was cut out but there are at least 3 or 4 short, wooden bridges over boggy spots that are rotting out badly, are uneven, broken, and are already dangerous for horses and hikers. The worst bridges are within the first 2 miles of the TH. We made it into Rapid Lake, Boulder Lake and Anderson Lake. The Rapid and Anderson Lake Trail spurs had some pretty serious logs that still need to be cut out (we did not take a chainsaw on that part of the trail). Trails are threading around those spots.

We also had some time for fun brook trout fishing at several of the lakes and Tracy Z played her new mini banjo one night and there was good food and salmon on the barbie.

We are looking forward to our Kennally Creek trip with you in a few weeks!  Sharie

Posted: 19 Jun 2021 06:57 PM PDT by Laurie Bryan (The Sage Writer)

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   Trail: Boundary – E. Pine Creek
   Miles: 10.5
   Riders: Laurie – Rob – Bill – Linda – Brandy
   Horses: Jack – Payette – Tucker – Misty – Moosely -? -?
   Dogs: Poor Hank was not happy hanging out in the trailer.

Notes: I took a break from fence building and joined the SBBCH for a trail cleaning project on Boundary. This area was one of the first projects we did when I joined SBBCH years ago. At that time, we built up a boggy section of trail by pulling out the old boardwalk, hauling in gravel from the creek and creating a drain/culvert for the water to pass without making a huge bog. We were surprised to see it in great shape after all these years.

Much of the trail had already been cleared by another group (presumably a dirt bike group) – We did a little brush clearing and weed pulling. We did remove a few logs while diverting the trail around a dangerous section too close to a burned out log. The roots were burned away leaving treacherous holes…some of which you can’t see until your horse looses a leg in one.

Mother and daughter team: Linda and Brandy – joined us from the Heartland Chapter.

Great day with some old friends I haven’t hung out with in while. Hope to do it again before too long.

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