[pct-l] PCT Log Out - Snoqualmie Pass Washington, August 20th, 27th-28th

[Barry Teschlog]

Here's an announcement that's just chock full of opportunities to help out the PCT in Washington.

Our USFS friends in the Cle Elum Ranger District, responsible for 
maintaining much of the PCT on either side of Snoqualmie Pass have asked us volunteers for additional help with the log out process.  This last 
winter was very hard on the trail, dropping trees all over the place and their trail crew is simply overwhelmed.  A mile or so north of 
Snoqualmie a couple weeks back, the USFS had to blast a mess that was 
too unsafe to cut with saws.  Now, they've discovered another mess 4 
miles north of the pass and there are still miles of trail that they 
haven't even seen yet due to snow.  South of Snoqualmie Pass, we 
volunteers made great strides with a couple of days of logging, clearing most of the trees for 2+ miles of trail, but we know there is more out 
there.


Our original plan for August 27th 
and 28th was to do some tread work, but with all the trees still down, 
we're going to switch to log out at the request of the USFS.  So, here's the upcoming schedule:

Saturday, August 20th:  We'll log out heading south from Windy Pass, about 5 trail miles south 
of Snoqualmie Pass.  We discovered several trees down within a few miles of this location.  We took out ~7 trees on our end of July weekend 
project, but there are more to the south we didn't get to.  We'll cut 
out as many as we can using cross cut saws.  If you'd like to help on the 20th please e-mail me off list.  This will be a single day event, running from ~8:30 in the morning 
until ~3-4 in the afternoon.  I'll send out detailed driving directions 
to those that sign up.  Anticipated safety briefing time is 8:30AM, so arrive 
~10-15 minutes before this to get geared up and signed in.  


Saturday and Sunday August 27th-28th:  This will be a car camp optional weekend 
where we'll work on the PCT a bit further south of Snoqualmie Pass.  
Come of one or both days.  We'll access the trail off of Exit 62 
(Stampede Pass) from I-90.  The exact location of the car camp and where we'll clear will be determined this weekend.  A couple of us are going 
to head up to the trail and scout out exactly how many logs are down, 
how big, etc.  From Trip Reports on WTA.org and NWHikers.net, we know 
there are trees down in this area.  We'll likely set up a car shuttle on this one so we can cover about 3-5 miles of trail per day on a one way 
hike, clearing as many trees as we can over this distance.  This will be a PCTA sponsored weekend - if you car camp with the crew starting Friday night, breakfast, lunch and dinner on 
Saturday and breakfast and lunch on Sunday will be provided.  For those 
coming for the day, we'll likely have a somewhat earlier that usual 
start time to allow for the car shuttle at the start.  Also of interest - on the 27th is the Cascade Crest 100 mile ultra run on the stretch of 
trail we'll be working.  This will be clearing the trail "just in time" 
for the runners, who will likely get to our work area about when we're 
wrapping up for the day.  To sign up 
for the full weekend (or either day) contact Merrit Hoeh, PCTA volunteer coordinator who is CC'd on this e-mail or call her at 916-285-1838.

For all 3 of these days, a special appeal to those with sawyer 
certification:  We can use you!  If you're a "B" or "C" cert we (and the PCT) can really use you on these days.  If you have your own saw and accessories (wedges, axe, etc) that would be great as well - we have several in the cache, but if you want to cut with your own saw, I'm perfectly happy with that.

Tools & 
hard hats are provided and no experience is necessary.  You do not need 
to be certified to be on the saw, just under the supervision of a 
certified sawyer.  You will need long pants, long sleeves, boots, sturdy work gloves and a day pack with lunch (BYO for the 20th, provided for 
the 27th-28th), water, rain gear, bug spray, etc (basically, all the 
things you'd bring for a day hike).

Thanks for your consideration and hope to see you out there on these days.

Barry
North 350 Blades.