NW Forest Pass and Missing Amenities

[drm]

While the toilets are popular, those picnic tables look awfully silly. Not sure I've ever seen anybody sitting at any of them at trailheads. Occasionally on a hot summer day I might use them briefly when I return from a hike as they are often in the shade. But mostly they are just gaining moss. I'm thinking, for example, of the one at the Trapper Creek trailhead.

[retired jerry]

I'm thinking of the one at the North Burnt Lake trailhead. The moss is definitely winning.

[bobcat]

When I have seen trail crews of any description in the past couple of decades they have invariably been gangs of volunteers. The evidence of heavy trail work I've seen, where heavy tools and big saws were obviously in play, always used to meet the highest standards of excellence up to about 1990. Now it is of uneven quality, sometimes well done, sometimes hastily and somewhat cursorily. This speaks to a very basic change in how the FS maintains trails; it's not just a lack of money, but a very fundamental change in their operating standards as a result of that lack.

You are partly correct about quality. The FS does have its own crews that work on a limited time schedule. Mostly they are sawyers bucking blowdown and felling standing trees (Volunteers are not permitted to do the latter); they also put in major infrastructure (bridges, etc.). As for volunteers (including "volunteer" inmate crews), organizations like TKO and the PCTA generally work a trail until it is up to the specified standard. I have seen other examples where a group has come in and done a shoddy job or not even finished and the trail is left like that for years (although it might be better than it was before). The FS doesn't do anywhere near as much actual of the labor intensive tread repair itself any more because of shrinking budgets. In a given area, you can probably make the correlation these days between quality of trails/tread work and the number of volunteers out there actually doing it. These days, the farther you are from a major city (volunteer source), the worse the trails may become.

On the subject of passes, the Oregon Dunes NRA (Siuslaw NF) is an excellent example. I think all the trailheads require passes and they all fit the criteria although a number only have that single picnic table in a grassy area in the middle of the parking lot. As for security, since they are all close to Highway 101, they all probably get regular checks on someone's beat.

[drm]

The issue of trail quality brings a minor rant on my part. I've been on plenty of trail maintenance trips and have seen cases of extreme effort to fine-tune trails that were already adequate. I understand that there are difference classes or ratings for trails, but this is separate. I once saw 2 or 3 guys literally spend a half day swinging sledgehammers at a mostly buried large rock that was sticking maybe 6 inches above the trail surface to get it level. This was not a frontcountry trail rated to be highly developed. Some trip managers see it as a competition to see whose groups can get the smoothest cleanest trail (that includes removing a pine needles, etc). For me, I want fallen trees removed, washouts fixed, etc, the big stuff. Having a crew spend half a day on the small stuff when major issues exist a half mile up the trail was very frustrating.

[retired jerry]

yeah

I like it when a big tree falls across the trail so they just re-route the trail around it. The fallen tree is actually an aesthetic feature. No need to cut that tree.

The Paradise Park trail has all those trees across it above the junction with Zigzag Trail. But there's an easy walk-around. I think maybe even the trail used to go there. They should just reroute the trail rather than remove those trails.

If they just ignore it a use trail will develop, although that can often be problematic, not be on a stable surface, e.g. going through a swampy spot