Ranger District, YVFC team to improve Vinal Creek Trail
The Three Rivers Ranger District
Recreation and Trails crew partnered with the Yaak Valley Forest
Council (YVFC)’s Conservation Education program to complete work on
Vinal Creek Trail 9 that accesses Fish Lakes.
The YVFC has initiated a program aimed
at conservation education of high school-age students in the local
community.
Peter Leusch of the YVFC approached
Mark Mason, Recreation Specialist on the Three Rivers Ranger
District in regards to this program and how they could help out
with some work on trails in the area.
The district has more than 400 miles of
hiking trails to maintain, many with bridge, puncheon and other
structures. The very popular Vinal Creek Trail had an old boardwalk
that has been in need of replacement and the YVFC and Forest
Service decided to take on this project cooperatively.
The district provided the planning,
design and project oversight for this and the YVFC sought out
grants for funding the purchase of the materials needed and labor
for the removal of the old structure and construction of the
new.
Mason provided Leusch the list of
materials and the approximate cost during the spring.
The YVFC was able to find funding for
the purchase of the needed materials and the project was scheduled
for August.
The easy part was purchasing the
materials; they now needed to be moved up to the site on Vinal
Creek Trail 9 – 1.75 miles. Materials included treated six by six’s
that were 10-feet long and weighed up to 100 pounds each.
There were 24 of these beams plus 2x6s,
2x10s and 4x4 materials all which were treated wood. Then there
were nails, tools and other items necessary to complete the
project. The new boardwalk has a total length of 40 feet.
The Three Rivers Ranger District trail
crew and district stock provided the muscle and packing expertise
to move the small mountain of materials to the site.
Cindy Betlach of the Three Rivers
District provided the stock packing knowledge along with the
faithful mules April, Nevada, Katie and horse Blackjack.
Trail Crew members, Haakon Karuzas,
Steven Reid, John McCrate, Zack McDougall, and Tom Roeder along
with the district stock helped to pack the materials to the site
the week before the project. There were more than 5,000 pounds of
materials and tools packed into the site. Packing took two days of
arduous labor by all.
The first day of the project Cindy
Betlach and two of the trail crew worked with YVFC members in
lining out the removal of the old boardwalk and the construction of
the new.
YVFC members working on the project
included: Leusch, Matt Bowser, Jeff Johnson, Frankie Colors, Brandy
Bowmaster and Fishburn Lawson. Two high school students Kahli and
Shaela Carmignani rounded out the YVFC crew.
The next three days the YVFC crew was
able to remove the old boardwalk and complete the new
boardwalk.
Cooperation between the YVFC and Forest
Service along with the students made it a very fun and fulfilling
project.
A lot of planning and intensive labor
went into completing the new boardwalk but it was exciting to see
the structure completed and being used by recreationists.
The District and YVFC are planning
future joint projects.