With winter just around the corner, volunteers are busy preparing area snowshoe trails.
In fact, they did get caught in winter on a work trip to the Paulina Falls area on Monday, Oct. 29. There were three to four inches of fresh powder at the Paulina Falls parking area. This came after a work outing the prior week in which volunteers worked on the clearing and marking the new Peak View snowshoe trail out of Upper Three Creeks Sno-Park near Sisters.
For the Oct. 29 Paulina effort, the group divided into three teams, reports organizer Bob Timmer. Jim Elliott and John Stockham started down the Ponderosa Rim Trail. Dave Alward, Mathieu Federspiel, Karen Scrabeck and Bob headed down the Paulina View Trail, and Dennis DeLapp and Mike Maidl moved the vehicles down to 10-mile Sno-Park and then headed up the Ponderosa Rim Trail.
“With the Ponderosa Rim Trail having been cleared last January, only four new blowdown trees needed clearing,” Bob reports. “In contrast, on the Paulina View Trail,
26 blowdown trees needed clearing. In addition, 100-plus saplings — either arched across the trail or growing within the trail –needed cutting.”
The volunteers placed four new trail-marker diamonds.
“Both trails are ready for winter,” Bob adds.
The previous Monday, on Oct. 22, volunteers teamed up with the Sisters Trail Alliance and Forest Service volunteer coordinator Jessica Larson to clear and put up signs for the new Peak View snowshoe trail from Upper Three Creeks Sno-Park to the Jeff View shelter. Volunteers joining Bob on the CONC work crew included Dennis DeLapp, Dave Alward, Christie Crowe and Karen Scrabeck.
“Work proceeded with a first group of four sawyers and swampers clearing (following the 12-inch clearing height and size guidelines) the trail of blowdown and patches of dense saplings,” Bob explains. “The second group installed the snowshoe assurance diamonds and trimmed branches for sign visibility.”
Most of the trail was marked with the new one-piece, side-mounted aluminum blue diamonds with reflective shoer decals, although some of the conventional on-the-tree ones were used for parts of the trail.
Funds for the new diamonds – along with tools to maintain ski and snowshoe trails – came from a $4,200 grant the Nordic Club received this summer from the Deschutes Trail Coalition. (See previous story on grant by clicking this link.)
“Six blue poles were set across the open burn spaces, and temporary junction signs were set at the trailhead and at the Jeff View shelter,” Bob reports.
“Permanent junction signs will be ordered for installation, perhaps with the first snow. Two more blue poles will also be set through the burned areas just beyond the southern crossing of Warren’s loop.”
