We had a beautiful night for our first Adopt-A-Trail Night of the season, which took place on Tuesday, May 8^th. Our crew was made up of thirteen volunteers, 2 Sawtooth National Forest, Ketchum Ranger District Recreation Staff members, and myself.

We did maintenance on a section of Harper’s Trail, where the trail is in the meadow, and above the BLM Lake Creek Trailhead. In one area, in particular, the trail had become ditch-like and hard to navigate.

Part of the work involved the installation of drains along the trail, to help it shed water, and to help reduce the likelihood that the trail would continue to degrade and become more deeply cut.

Another aspect of the work involved “grubbing-in” the ditch-like conditions; using mattocks and other tools to cut, push and drag trailside-soil onto the trail tread. The grasses and small plants that were displaced in this grubbing work were removed and the soil that remained was put in the trail tread and compacted. Additional soil was gathered from several nearby borrow-pits, adding to the soil we placed onto the trail. This had the effect of lifting of the trail tread into a more sustainable and useful position.

After a couple hours of work the fun was carried back to the trailhead where we grilled hot dogs and cracked open some cold beverages. Thanks BCRD and Sawtooth Brewery for taking care of our post-work appetites!

Thank you volunteers Jeff Williams, Gary Gruver, Eric Heywood, Laurie Leman, Mike Keenan, Chris Keenan, Neil Zussman, Cathy Whinnem, Greg Travelstead, Christy Blackstead, Chip Deffe’, Miles Deffe’, Chloe Deffe’.

The next Adopt-A-Trail Night is on the fourth Thursday in May – on May 24^th from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on the Parker Gulch Trail. We will be cutting back sagebrush and other plants that are encroaching on the travel way. Please mark your calendar and come help. For more information about volunteering check out the BCRD Summer TraiLink site’s Volunteer Info page.