debris with a capital D...

I made it out for a hike the other day on a section of the Thousand Hills Trail to scout debris conditions after our recent snow events -- quite a bit down, some of which is pretty big. I haven't made it out yet to check a couple sections that are seeing a lot of beaver gnaw. My guess is that it's pretty ugly. I hope you guys are faring better over in your neck of the woods. Can't wait to start getting some good singletrack under those tires soon.

Hey Jeff,
I hiked at IC yesterday starting at #21 and headed down and jumped on the new section going south to intersection of BH and then dropped down, crossed the creek and back up through the valley and then to my van. I logged the loop on the my GPS and was surprised that it was a tad under 4 mi. I really thought it was closer to 5. I was surprised there wasn't more debris on the trail, although I have walked through at least 3 times previously. There are 2 trees that are leaners that need to be removed. Also, there was debris in the creeks from all the run off and we had a few short sections of trail where the run off had jumped onto the trail tread and did a little damage. We will need to clear out those drainages and maybe do some armoring to prevent the same thing happening in the future. Maintenance is never complete and it is better to fix those sections before they get really bad. As I posted on the Green Hills email list, that is why the trail tread needs to be built right next to the edge and plan grade reversals as check dams for water. Anytime the trail tread crosses a watershed it is important to make sure you are forming a "smile", starting high and exiting high, so the water can't jump on the trail and erode the tread. Sometimes it is real difficult to follow this rule when the trail shares old road ways where there is not enough adequate out slope. This is where armoring comes in handy if you have access to flat rock. If not, that little single track/mini trench will just continue to get deeper in the future.

Happy trails