Date: July 21-24, 2020
LOCATION: Snow lakes trail, the Enchantments
AUTHOR: danna greenberg
Stewardship Type: overnight Trail Work
After camping out off Icicle Creek road, we met at the crowded Snow Lakes trail head Tuesday morning- the four of us, NSM Steward volunteers, as well as Jake and Anna, who work for the Access Fund full time. We set off on the 6 miles of switchbacks, Jake carrying a sledge hammer and the rest of us with our camping gear.
Access Fund and the USFS were spending a few weeks in the Enchantments restoring parts of the Snow Lakes trail. Since the area is designated wilderness, mechanized equipment is forbidden and all the trail work has to be done with human effort and simple machines.
We arrived at Nada lake in the afternoon and got to work. That day’s task was moving a ridiculously large granite boulder (it was like 5 ft. tall!) off the trail. Jake and Anna expertly rigged a pulley to a nearby tree and then around the boulder. We cranked the pulley and pried up the boulder with metal bars to loosen it. Our massive effort moved it inch by inch until it rolled off the trail and crashed down into the trees.
The next 3 days passed in a similar pattern. We’d leave camp by 7a.m. and hike a mile to the switchbacks we were working on. Jake and Anna taught us how to pry up boulders, trim branches out of the way, build out trail with hoes and pick-mattocks and crush up small granite pieces with a sledgehammer to fill up holes in the trail.
Most hikers who walked by took the time to ask about the work and thank the group. At the end of the day, we’d hike back to camp, eat dinner and swim in the lake. It was late July and the trail work was tiring, so diving in the lake felt great.
It was extremely rewarding seeing the trail we were cleaning up come together, and I felt lucky to be camping out in the Enchantments with an awesome group of women and many mountain goats. Looking forward to more NSM Stewardship trips.