We got a lot of snow last winter, and the avalanches that resulted have impacted our trails in big ways.
Big winters bring big avalanches and debris piles.
Professional and volunteer crews have been busy sawing through the tangles, then re-cutting them out, once they have melted-out more.
Volunteers with the Wood River Trails Coalition. On to the next mission.
In June, motorcyclist volunteers with the Wood River Trails Coalition cut-out the lower portions of the Warfield Trail. They worked their way up from the low end of the trail at the Warm Spings Creek crossing. After having cut-out a couple of miles, they were halted in their tracks. They had reached a giant pile of avalanche debris that towered over their heads. It was clearly that day’s turn-around point.
Warfield Trail is buried somewhere under that mess.
Alerted to the situation, the Ketchum Ranger District’s Trail Coordinator Justin Blackstead took a look at the situation. He determined that that attempting to cut-out the debris would be unsafe. Instead, Justin and the crew laid out a new alignment that would take the trail around the impacted area.
Looking up the slide path from the Warfield Trail.
In early July, the KRD crew got to work on the project with the assistance of a youth crew from the Student Conservation Association. The KRD was able to arrange for the help through a grant from the Idaho State Department of Parks and Recreation. The reroute project was recently completed and the Warfield trail is again passable, and cut-out, along its entire length.
New, rerouted alignment of Warfield; around the debris.
Thank you to all the people who pulled together to get this work accomplished!