Back Out With The Boys

At the end of June I had an invite from my friend Dave to join him and the boys on a log out of the Smithbrook Trail near Stevens Pass on State Route 2 in Washington State. You know, the short access trail most people take to get to Lake Valhalla or Janus Lake to Grizzly Peak.

Dave was the crew lead on one of the first PCTA work parties I went on in 2016 that hooked me into both trail work and crosscut saw work. So much fun! Although my relationship with the PCTA has become a little complicated since then, I look fondly back at our time out cutting logs off the trail. I learned a lot from him (and the boys).

Anywho, Dave’s partner in crime, Jim, scouts Smithbrook every year and then Dave puts a crew together to clear it for the season. Smithbrook is an important access point not only for hikers but for any stock that might need to get up on the PCT.

Dave sent me an email (a group of us) letting us know there was going to be a work party and he would post it in a few days on the PCTA website so if we wanted to go, look for it. It had been a few years since I had cut logs so I jumped at the chance. Plus, I would get to catch up with Dave and Jim!

I forgot to take a picture at the beginning of our work but hopefully you can tell what a nasty pile of downed trees we had to contend with that day. Most were in a pile up about 1/2 mile from the trailhead so that is where we spent most of the morning. I started snapping after we had swamped around the big logs, that is cleared all the smaller branches and debris, and cut a main log into more manageable pieces.

I seemed to be the only one concerned about the mosquitos in my group. This picture is proof I can no longer see details on my iPhone without my readers.

After a break for lunch and chatting, we moved up the trail to find a few more logs before the junction with Union Gap that Jim had wanted us to remove.

It turned out that this big one was not that hard for me and another volunteer, Joe, to push off the trail and then rotate on the outside edge of the trail. We did have to cut a few small trees so that it could roll further down and away from the trail itself. You don’t want to stack too many cut logs along the trail, there will always be more trees that will fall and you don’t want them to collect making clearing more difficult.

We were walking back down the trail and through our handy work about quarter to 3pm.

Dave stepped out of the picture for me in this one, pretty smooth huh?

It was really nice to get out with the boys and catch up on what they have been up to. Lot of laughter as well as refreshing up on some of my sawyer skills. My B sawyer status has lapsed but I still know a thing or two. And it was nice to not be the lead, just a regular volunteer.

Oh and another thing I was reminded of, always check your toe socks before you leave home to make sure you don’t have two of the same foot or else you may need to wear one of them backwards!