[Hulksmash]

I decided to check out the damage at big4 on my way back from Bedal basin. As usual i found the parking lot full. However the picnic area was empty. I found the river eazy to cross. Yes it was cold, but it felt good on my nettle ravaged legs. I'm 5'10" and the water bearly went above my knees. On the other side i saw dozens of familys with children of all ages. The trail was crowded! Yes there are lots of trees over the trail, but i think reports of how bad it is were overstated. A simple bow saw could take care of a lot of it. However there are some big ones which will take more effort. And that's only a small portition of the trail. It probably only a couple of hours worth of work with a chain saw. In the blow down area, i saw a family with a four year old. This kid was having a blast climbing over all those trees. When i reached to snow field there was a number of snow ball fights going on. A snow ball fight on a hot july day, what a great way to cool off! Content with this short trip i turned around. On the return trip I removed my pruning saw from my pack. Some hikers were asonished to see someone with a saw. I couple of people even helped remove some of the branches. I continued a little further. There was a couple sitting on one of the benches, next a thick spot fallen tree's. I started to clear a hole. Then the woman asked "do you work for the forest service?" I said "no i'm just a random guy with a pruning saw." The guy just sat there like a statue. I was there for sawing away for probably ten minutes. Then i cleared the branches off the trail I even had to go around the couple just sitting there, with the branches. They just sat there silent. I found there non reaction odd. Perhaps they were just tired. I only put a small scratch in the work need to be done to clear the trail but it's a start.

I took a ton more pictures while i was there. Mostly of family with children. I chose not to post them. Simply because while on the trail i had a brief conversation with some one about being suprised that there were that many familys on the trail. The comment i heard was " If i had children I wouldn't bring them here." I realized that there could be some fun crashing safe T natzi that might recognoze these people and hastle them. I bet the drive to big 4 was way more dangerous than wadeing the river. Hope this does't get booted for being too political

[treeswarper]

If I was hiking by, I'd help throw limbs off for a few minutes. That's just common courtesy. Kind of like talking to a farmer and pulling a few weeds while doing so. Good for you!! Now, save up and buy a Stihl or a Husky and return. You'll get a hat too!

[Scrooge]

Hulksmash said