By Rich Landers
The Spokesman-Review
A November storm left a nasty surprise for Forest Service trail crews heading out in the Blue Mountains in southeast Washington and northeast Oregon this summer.
“There’s more timber down this year than I’ve seen in the 30 years I’ve been on trails,” said Rich Martin, trails coordinator for the Pomeroy District and a large chunk of the Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness. “We were averaging 50 downed trees per mile.
“On the trail from Teepee Trailhead to Oregon Butte, we had to get a fire crew in to help or we’d have never got the three miles cleared to get the lookout (staffer) in there.”
Hikers who think the blowdowns are a hassle can at least be relieved that they weren’t the contractor who sealed a deal with the Forest Service to clear the trails — before the big storm.
“One poor contractor bid the job on the Wenaha River trail last year and came in and couldn’t believe the mess the winter left him,” Martin said. “But he had some strong boys with him and they just pulled out of there this week.”
Martin reported the Wenaha River trail is cleared out and there’s been a lot of other reconstruction work. The river trail, which starts at the Grande Ronde River near Troy, Ore., is free of snow earlier than most places. It was particularly popular even with Western Washington hikers this year.
“The snowpack kept them from going anywhere else for a long time,” Martin said. “But we couldn’t ride a horse across the river until late July. The river was high that long, and the water just kept coming and coming.”
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