Volunteers gear up for a summer of trail repairs across Washington

A few weeks ago on a Thursday outing deep in a forest northeast of Issaquah, we came to a point where the trail just disappeared. Buried, under a foot of sword ferns, a tangle of roots, vines and logs, and masses and masses of lumpy organic duff stuff.

No matter. This was a Washington Trails Association (WTA) outing. A work party. Which means the 17 partiers came equipped with Pulaskis and shovels and loppers and grub hoes and bow saws and McLeods and, for good measure, a chain saw. The foot of lumpy bumpy overgrowth didn't stand a chance. In 2-½ hours, it was chopped, Pulaskied, raked, hoed and sawed into a smooth 5-foot-wide dirt thoroughfare fit for an easy stroll in dress shoes. (Albeit a pair of retired dress shoes that one doesn't mind getting a little dirty.)

All in a morning's work for WTA.

An offshoot of the old "Signpost" magazine, begun in 1966, the Seattle-based nonprofit organization promotes and preserves trails in Washington. Along with a mostly monthly magazine ("Washington Trails") and invaluable Web site (www.wta.org) that offers up-to-the-moment trail conditions and trip reports, the group organizes some 750 work parties each year.

Trail work

Information

To volunteer for a Washington Trails Association (WTA) work party, go to www.wta.org and click on "Volunteer," or "Trail Work," then "Join a Work Party." (Or call 206-625-1367.) Some upcoming work party sites include:

Grand Ridge Trail, near Issaquah, today through April 7 daily (except Monday).

Beaver Lake Preserve, Sammamish, Sunday.

Beacon Rock State Park, near Vancouver, Wash., April 7-8.

O'Grady Park in the Green River Natural Area, near Auburn, April 10-13.

Miller Peninsula Trails, near Sequim, April 12.

WTA also offers weeklong volunteer vacations in which participants work on trails in some of the most spectacular settings in Washington state. Cost for non-WTA members is $125, which includes food. ($100 for WTA members.) Trips range from easy car camps to those involving strenuous backpacks of more than 6 miles with 2,000-plus feet of elevation gain. Below are some volunteer vacation options. For more information, contact WTA.

May 19-26: Domke Lake Trails, near Lake Chelan. Moderate.

May 26-June 2: Clear Fork Trail (Cowlitz River), near Packwood. Easy.

June 30-July 7: Teanaway area, near Cle Elum. Car camp.

July 28-Aug 4: Killen Meadows, near Mount Adams. Moderate.

More opportunities

The following organizations also offer trail work parties. Contact them for current work schedules:

Volunteers for Outdoor Washington, www.trailvolunteers.org or 206-517-3019. Current projects include the Iron Goat Trail, Interlaken Park, and Gold Creek Pond Trail.

Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust, www.mtsgreenway.org or 206-382-5565. Offers work parties to places such as Rattlesnake Mountain and Squak Mountain, and on the construction of Snoqualmie Point Park.

On any given day, as many as four groups of tool-wielding WTA trail lovers, the vast majority of them unpaid volunteers, are out working in the mountains, forests and beaches of Washington, building new trails or helping fix and maintain existing ones. And what's beneficial to the hiking community as a whole is great for the individual soul as well.

A "magical" feeling

"There's just something magical about working hard for seven hours, going home and soaking in a hot tub, then lying in a bed and sleeping the sleep of the dead, knowing that you've really accomplished something," said Mike Owens, of Sammamish.

Owens, 70, is a WTA crew leader who takes part in four work parties each week. He's been working with the organization for 10 years. Lately much of his focus has been on trails in this Grand Ridge area, a winding ribbon of trail connecting the forests and greenways near Issaquah Highlands, Sammamish and Duthie Hill Park.

"It's this deep, dark forest of old second growth," Owens said. "You can walk in from a development and in five minutes swear that you're in some wilderness out in the middle of nowhere. For a trail in an urban area, it's really something."

If there was ever a year when trail-work partiers were needed, it's this one. Last fall's mega-storm that dumped 18 inches of rain in 36 hours and unleashed $36 million worth of damage to Mount Rainier National Park wreaked havoc on many of Western Washington's natural treasures. Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, particularly the Darrington and Skykomish ranger districts, saw bridges wiped out and roads and trails washed away. Among the major casualties was the popular Big Four Ice Caves where bridge and trail damage is estimated at $500,000.

Areas damaged by 2003's mega-rainstorm — Suiattle River Road, White Chuck River Road and Mountain Loop Highway among them — certainly weren't helped by last fall's blast. Repair to trails in those areas has been pushed back. In all, Mount Baker-Snoqualmie damage from winter storms is estimated at $11 million.

More storm damage

Farther south, the Gifford Pinchot National Forest suffered $18.2 million worth of damage to trails, campgrounds and access roads to Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. On the peninsula, Olympic National Park damage is estimated at $3 million, including a major washout on the Hoh River Road, used annually by some quarter-million visitors.

While it lobbies for federal money to help with repairs, WTA is planning work parties as snow level and conditions allow. Starting in June, the group will offer five work parties each week in Mount Rainier National Park along with two weeklong volunteer vacations. As the snow melts and reports of storm damage come in, WTA says it will increase its presence in the backcountry.

Like clockwork

"Ten thirty is a candy bar; 12:00 is lunch; 2:30 we quit," said Owens earlier in the morning as the Grand Ridge Trail crew got down to work on the outing near Issaquah. "It doesn't get much better than that."

Crew members hacked away at the overgrowth.

"You keep chopping away and digging down until you get to the lighter soil below — that's the mineral soil," said Seattle's Rose Alfred, a volunteer regular. "You've got to get all the roots out, otherwise they'll trap moisture and it'll all grow up again."

Fifty feet up the trail, a couple of volunteers dug at a buried, rotten tree root. It had to be removed, otherwise it would attract moisture and that spot in the trail would become a perpetual mudhole.

Another 50 feet along, Jim Caesar, Jim Boyce, and Jim Gauthier dealt with a downed alder tree that blocked the proposed route.

Most of the volunteers were part of a regular Thursday group of about 10 retirees. "It's good exercise, it's healthy and it's fun," said Seattle's Dick Axon, who volunteers with WTA twice each week. "And when you hear that someone like Pete (assistant crew leader Pete Dewell) is 77, someone you can't keep up with no matter how hard you try, you think, 'Oh my God, it must be good for you.' "

Caesar started working with WTA last year and has participated in three WTA summer volunteer vacations, where folks spend a week working on trails in the mountains in some of Washington's most spectacular spots.

"There're a lot of worthy causes out there, but if you don't have the organization, it can be kind of tough," Caesar said. "WTA is not only a great group of people working for a great cause but they have really great organization."

By the end of the day, the crew had cleared the way for 200 feet of new trail. At this rate, the trail should be complete sometime later this year. The public, however, won't be allowed to use it for about a year after that; a new trail, especially one built to accommodate bikes and horses as well as hikers, needs that long to settle.

A Grand Ridge work party was scheduled for the following day and several times each week for the next month or so. Boyce, whose pants were held up by a pair of suspenders that said "Washington Trails," planned to be there for many of them, as would several from this regular Thursday group.

Said Boyce: "You've got to take care of the trails, or you're going to lose them."

Mike McQuaide is a Bellingham freelance writer and author of "Day Hike! Central Cascades" and "Day Hike! North Cascades" (Sasquatch Books). He can be reached at mikemcquaide@comcast.net.