The enormous amount of snow we received last winter really took a toll on the backcountry trails. I’ve received reports of many trails that are impassable do to downfall and excessive snow in the higher elevations.

I took Tanner up the Morrison creek trail to do some volunteer trail clearing. We didn’t make it 1/2 mile up the trail and ran into 2′ of snow. Rather than fight the snow we elected to back out and ride in on the granite creek trail, which is couple miles back down the road. Granite trail runs at a lower elevation so didn’t run into any snow, but wow did we run into downfall to cut.

This area is wilderness so chain saws are prohibited. I probably cut 40+ trees in the next 2 days. Most of them to large to move so they had to be double cut to remove the section on trail.

If you’ve ever been out on the trail, come around a corner to a scene of large downfall that someone has already cut through, then you know the value of volunteers and forest service trail crews. It is important to contribute back when you can.