ED4, As Sherry mentioned, 9 of us (Ole, Sherry, Jim O., Tom V., Mike P., Ed, Ron, Chris, and myself) opened the Corral Hollow Trail on Thursday. A couple very large trees across the trail, one suspended 6+ feet in the air resting on a 8" diameter tree, and 4-5 feet of snow made this one of the toughest years by far. Everyone pitched in and we had the trail cleared by 4pm.
With our goal completed, we decided to tackle the Mattley Loop Trail on Friday. We ( Tom V., Jim O., Jim V., Mike P., Ron, Chris, and myself) met with Lonnie at 8:30am to give him an update on the trails and then we went to work. We began on the "tree side" of the loop, as opposed to the "snow side". Only 1 large 40" diameter tree (I know this because my 3' bar did not cut all the way through) and a handful of smaller trees across the trail. We flew through the first section and made it to the 7N-09 intersection in less than an hour. We proceeded down the rocky section and missed the right turn down the hill to the steep off-camber section of the trail. The trail that we were on was well traveled and very nice. This was a new trail for everyone there. It led us to a gravel road and we turned right to get back to our original trail. We quickly found the bottom of the steep, off-camber section and headed up it. That was a blast. All of the drivers got real serious going up that hill! We had a few more trees to clear and we popped back out on the main trail and headed back to the 7N-09 intersection for lunch right around noon.
After lunch we decided to tackle the "snow section" from the bottom up. Nobody ever claimed that we were rocket scientist!! After a 15 minute dusty cruise down the gravel road, we headed up the trail. I just need to say, the meadows up there right now are really breath taking!! After a leisurely drive up the trail, crossing the meadow, we ascended to the first of 4 big snow drifts. Everyone grabbed a shovel and we cut a trench to keep our vehicles on the trail. Jim O. was the lead and had to winch through to break trail. From that point, everyone else strapped each other through. This continued as we slowly progressed up the trail. It was a lot of work, but everyone had a smile on their face. We cleared the top of the hill around 2:45pm and headed back to camp to clean up and head home.
So, if you have read this far, the Mattely Loop Trail is open!! There is no need to head up there next weekend and work. I know this will be exciting news to some people and a disappointment to others who were looking forward to heading up there. To the people who were looking forward to getting out of town next weekend, I say keep your plans and leave your shovel and work gloves at home and go enjoy the trails!! It is flat out awesome up there right now and I hear the fishing is pretty good at Lake Alpine. The work weekend just became a relaxing weekend. There are a lot of other trail down from ours to explore as well. The possibilities are endless........
Regards,
Jason