Clackamas River Trail work party report March 22, 2016

[Nurse Elaine]

Clackamas River Trail is a popular trail that was closed earlier this year due to many trees down from high winds. The work party was the second one this month that focused on two areas of major damage caused when root balls pulled away the trail. The two sites are very close together in the wilderness, about 3 miles from the Indian Henry trailhead.

Volunteers included 11 students from Willamette University who were doing a service project during spring break. They were all new to trail work, learned a lot (we hope!) and were safe, efficient helpers.


Meeting at the trailhead for the safety and tool talk


Pat Keavney giving instructions at the work site.



Moving logs downhill to the damaged trail sites.



The root ball pulled the trail away. Work party two weeks ago started the repair with the two peeled logs in the center of the picture. Log scaffolding will be placed in the root ball hole to support the trail long-term.



Lunch break on a newly peeled log!



Learning the art of peeling logs.


Long peeled log was moved to the damage site. It was placed in a temporary location off the trail and will be used to anchor the scaffolding into place.



At the second damage site, logs are pulled into position. They will be built up to trail level allowing for repair that will eliminate the need for hikers to scramble through the root ball crater.

[Hagbard Celine]

Thanks for the what looks like super hard work everyone!

I spent a night there with my boy last spring and was wanting to take his mom this year, is the trail now passable by the adventurous?

[aiwetir]

It was pretty passable before the work party IMO. There was one log that was a pain to crawl under but safer and iffy to go over (if you slipped you might keep going). There's one part that seems undercut and another where you might have slipped in the mud if you weren't careful. Just about as risky as Eagle Creek maybe.

[dfs1109]

is the trail now passable by the adventurous?

I know a friend did about 12-15 miles round trip on this trail a couple of days ago. However, the trail is still technically closed due to blow down but still passable.

Daniel

[gratefultrails]

Great to read about some love for the Clackamas. It seems to me to be an area with some heavy impacts from both Mother Nature and humans. Nice to see people being kind, and I hope the area will continue to improve from the fire/storm damage and pervasive illegal shooting

[BigBear]

I appreciate the work the volunteers did in removing blowdown from the trail.

Since the Fish Creek TH is now charged a fee from a private party and not the USFS, I can't help but wonder if any of this organization's employees were helping maintain the trail they so eagerly charge a fee to hike? My guess is that they were not on hand for the work, just the money.

[Splintercat]

Thank you, Elaine and volunteers! Nicely done! (great pics, too!)

Tom

[miah66]

I'm seeing a bunch of broken links in the pics. Thanks for the hard work volunteers!