Turner Creek

The first Saturday of this month, we had the first Bull/Jake work party in as long as I can remember. Last year there was the Rainbow Family Gathering, then some bad weather, then the government shutdown, then more bad weather, and now, forever later, we're finally getting back at it.

About 10 folks showed up to work. Debbie took one crew over to the 83 Bypass to continue gravel-armoring a section near the road that got some machine work a year or so ago, but needs armoring, long term. I took a crew to Turner Creek to work on the section that drops down to it from FS77 at the intersection with 77A.

Sadly, that section violates pretty much every rule of trail design. It's technically bench-cut, but there are no rolling dips, no grade reversals, and though, I didn't have a clinometer on me, it doesn't strike me as being 1/2 backslope either. Not to mention its proximity to a creek. Fortunately, that is dry most of the year. For now, rerouting it is out of the question, so we're making do with what we've got.

J.K. cut some turn-outs into it a few years back. Only one of them was still functioning, so we re-established those.

There was a great deal of semi-decayed deadfall in the area as well, so we placed it such that it encouraged folks to ride out of the path that water liked to take, and raked/established new lines where we wanted people to go. "Turn the trail, not the water" as they say.

We actually made quick work of that, so we headed down toward 28C and reestablished two of the turnouts on the little chunk that drops from Turner Creek down to that road. Then we just worked Turner Creek proper in the direction of 28A until it was time to head back. This was mostly deberming and knicking, so we got a lot of it done.

I had a great couple of guys working with me that day. One of them was primarily a trail runner. The other a mountain biker. Both worked super hard. The mountain biker guy really knew what he was doing, and the trail runner guy was just indefatigable. It was the kind of crew you always hope to get!

When we got back to the lot, lunch was ready and included, among other things, watermelon. I swear, there is nothing more refreshing in the world.

I'm already looking forward to next month. I'm hoping to start working up Bull proper at some point. I've got some RTC ideas that I'd like to implement up there. We'll see...