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Snowshoe Trail Work for Fall 2022

Dennis DeLapp, Mike Bodel, Dave Alward  and I made great progress Tuesday on implementing the new Dutchman Tie Snowshoe trail. It was a nice partly cloudy, smoke-free day following a little light rain early in the morning. Work started at the Common Corridor and the trail was cleared and marked (see photo of Dennis & Mike installing a reassurance bracket) from there to the joint ski & snowshoe crossing of Dutchman Flat.  Some follow-up work, trimming for marker visibility, a quick pass with a chainsaw for a few larger blowdown and installation of new junction signs, remains before the trail can be called complete. These will remain on the “to-do” list while we move on to Edison.

We will now move to Edison to establish the 1) re-route of the Long Loop Snowshoe Trail, 2) new Tesla Short Tie and 3) the AC/DC Shelter Tie. These are shown as yellow-highlighted/red-dotted lines on the attached map. As with the Dutchman Snowshoe Tie, there are 5 steps to implementation:
 
1) re-capture the flagged route from last winter 
2) brush and light trim (katanaboy) to establish the track
3) Install reassurance brackets
4) final clearing as necessary (chainsaw and/or x-cut)
5) Installation of temporary and then permanent junction signs

Although the the fire crews have Edison SnoPark closed, we can access the area for the re-route of the Long Loop via FS road 600, south of the SnoPark. I plan on scouting this access road next week, likely Wednesday, to ensure it is clear. Provided the road is open, I planning to get started implementing the re-route on Tuesday, October 4th. I’ll send an update out later next week. Let me know if you are interested in scouting on Wednesday.

This coming Tuesday, Sisters Trail Alliance has scheduled a work session to flag a short re-route of the Peak View Snowshoe trail at Three Creeks SnoPark and has asked for my help. The re-route is a short section (see map)  just after cresting along the first ridge and crossing Warren’s Loop. This has been a troublesome area due to the barren wind-swept ridgeline and drifting snow. The will plan another work session to actually clear the re-route. After the flagging, I’ll likely hike the snowshoe trail with a katanaboy to Jeff View shelter for a little exercise. Holler if you are interested in coming along….though I suspect we will have more folks than work.