Adopt-A-Trail

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

Adopt-a-trail

Corral Hollow and Mattley Ridge Loop By Chris Mains

Wow, what a fun 2 days.

I arrived at Horse Gulch campground on Wednesday night. I had the whole place to myself until about 11:30 pm or so when Jason, Jim, Ron and Mike arrived.

The next morning after everyone was fed and rigs were prepped we headed out to begin the opening of the Corral Hollow trail. In addition to Jason, Jim, Ron, Mike and myself were Tom V, Ole and Sherry. It was pretty uneventful until after the cabin. We found a couple of trees that needed to be cut up, so out came the chainsaws.

Ole and Jason made short work of the trees and the rest of us pushed them out of the way. A short time later we came to an area that usually has some snow in June and boy did we find snow….and a very stuck and abandoned Jeep Grand Cherokee. The Grand was blocking the trail so with a little digging and a tow strap it was soon moved to the side so that we could attempt to continue on. It was tough going getting past the first couple hundred or so feet, but with Jim’s and Tom’s winches everyone was through in short order. We came across a little more snow up at the top which turned out to be not much of a problem and then we stopped for lunch at a spectacular view spot.

After lunch we began our descent towards Hwy 4, but soon came across a huge fallen tree that was suspended above the trail. It was an extremely dangerous tree to remove, but after much discussion and planning the group managed to lower the tree to the ground, cut it up and move it without any injuries. The remainder of the journey was uneventful.

Day 2 was the Mattley Ridge Trail. We had 4 rigs with me, Jason, Jim, Mike, Ron, Tom and his brother Jim in attendance. We decided to start out on the side that we knew would not have snow. Actually, there was very little that needed to be done. I believe we had to cut one fairly large tree early on and then drag a few smaller ones out of the way.

I guess at some point we missed a turn that would have taken us onto a difficult steep off-camber trail. So, we ended up on a trail that was new to me. It was very tight in spots but not too challenging. Eventually we ended up on a gravel road that we thought might take us back to 7N09, but in actually put us at the bottom of the steep off-camber trail. So, of course we decided to go up it. That was very cool. The off-camber stuff definitely keeps my attention. Couple that with some really tight spots, very steep climbs with a poor traction surface and you have some serious fun. We have to do that again. After that excitement we stopped for lunch. After lunch we decided to tackle the other side of the trail from the bottom up. Gravity was not helping us. We shoveled, winched and strapped our way to the top with Jim leading the way. It was epic. In the end the trail was opened at we headed back to Horse Gulch to pack and head home. A hot shower was waiting.