We used to work it from both ends. Pup Creek being the division and often a bad crossing in the Winter and during the melt anyway.

After the burn the lower end is usually the worst. Buckskins continuing down the hill. And by now I am sure it is quite brushy in places.

One ravine always has a mud movement and there is high instability just before Pup Creek. (Any one have a picture of that little falls that use to be there?)

The other Indian Henry end was always less work, except for the few large blow downs.

Poisin oak at the first switch back from the Fish creek end and under the powerlines above the Narrows.

We usually skipped scouting because there is always work to do.

D.

We are doing an work party with the Forest Service.  So we submit a work plan before the work starts.  More paper work and front end work.  But we have access to more materials, can do more intensive work if needed, and are covered by FS insurance during the work party.

The work plan near RiverSide Campground for May 11 is approved.  Basically:

- Fix the slide near the campground (watching out for the hanging stump)

- Fix an erosion problem

- Fix the trail bed near the Scotch Broom field.

- work on some cut throughs if we have time.

Of general interest, the FS has evidently eliminated the Estacada trails department and moved those responsibilities to Hwy 26 Sandy/ZigZag. This has been a long time coming and comes on the heels of significant seniority losses in Estacada.

The model is to sub contract everything. Bagby, the campgrounds, and now the trails.

The FS likes the PCTA because they are deep pocketed and provide a barrier between indivuduals who care and senior staff who want to manage by contracts.

The last several years, I believe now all the former individual volunteers for Estacada have been driven off.

The Riverside and Clackamas Trails are the easy high attention trails. The real work remains further afield and difficult to reach.

The elimination of trails from system will be next. Indeed, the loss of Fish Creek Mtn from the new quads may not be a mistake.

Trailadvocates will need to keep doing the thousands of anonymous small deeds throughout the District as before to keep the trails we have. Every stick, rock and tree is special, when it's off the trail.

I wish them well and hope they have fun.

D

The Forest Service reduction is a factor here. We started with a FS representative from Estacada and in mid process got switched to a coordinator working out of ZigZag.  Fortunately we are a wider organization so I had already been working with the person in ZZ on Mt Hood trails.

We are not PCTA.  TrailKeepers of Oregon is a regional organization and definitely does not have deep pockets.    But the issue is that the FS wants to work with groups they have a relationship with, trust, and can do larger jobs. 

In this case we asked the Estacada FS trails person about doing work in the Clackamas area.  The two trails we are working on this spring were a test to build the local relationship.  If it works out then we can officially work on other trails.

We are looking to work closer to people familiar with the local trails.  If we can provide a crew, or just the organization and a person trained in trail design to keep a trail open we would like to.  Every stick is important, but sometimes it takes a crew to dig out a slide or reroute a trail to keep it open.  With FS cutbacks that will be more often a volenteer crew.

Curtis