[RodF]

Every year, there's one windfall tree down that poses a problem I just don't know how to tackle. This is the story of this year's "Problem Log". A month ago, our group cleared Slab Camp Trail...

Daniel and Don overcome timber bind, by Rik

Rik, Don, Tom & Daniel rebuild tread at rootball tipout

Rik, Rod / Don Juan, Don Too, Tom, Daniel

... and I hiked on up the Gray Wolf Trail to scout what work we had to do this year. (The next 5 miles through Buckhorn Wilderness to the Park boundary are going to be reopened for stock this summer. A broken crib, in a place so steep it can't be worked on without ropes and harnesses, and an overhanging cliff that needs to be blasted, are being contracted out by Olympic NF. So our goal was to restore the rest of this trail to stock standards, which we did on a 3 day trip I'm very proud of in May - photos here - but that's a separate story.) Hiking 5 miles on into the Park, about 3/4 mile below Camp Ellis, I found the trail obliterated by this 3 foot Doug fir and its 12 foot rootball...

Problem Log 2009

PL09 rootball hole

Standing on PL09 stem, note tread on right and left edges of photo

What can we do with this??? Behind the rootball is a hole 3 feet deep and wide and 10 feet across that looks like it would take a bucket brigade a full day to fill. Above that is a steep hillside, with potential reroute blocked by two 2 foot diameter, 50 to 70 foot tall, leaners that cannot be felled safely without taking out several even larger old-growth firs. Below it is a shallow ravine filled with several previous windfall logs - it would be a couple days' work to clear and fill that mess. So my best guess is we'd have to cut the stem close, then chain the stump and use our 2 ton come-along and 70 feet of steel cable to try to haul the rootball upright and back into place, restoring the tread. Egad, what a job! There's only one solution: get Don in here! And this week, we did just that. First, I'd talked to Tom, eastern Olympics trail coordinator for Backcountry Horsemen of Washington. (He individually logged over 800 hours of volunteer trail work in the Olympics last year! More about Tom here.) Tom eagerly volunteered to pack in our 2-ton come-along, 70 foot spool of steel cable, cable clamp and 12 foot chain - without his help, we just couldn't attempt jobs like this.

Tom leading Buster and Chief

We went in Tuesday, and cleared the Three Forks Trail from Deer Park. It drops 3200' in 4.2 miles to Three Forks Shelter. Wednesday, we cleared and rebuilt tread on the 2 miles of trail from there down the Gray Wolf River to the Park boundary. Thursday, we started up the Gray Wolf, clearing a couple routine piles of windfall on the way...

above Gray Wolf Camp, before...

...and after

... with the goal by the end of the day of clearing the trail up to, and simply taking a look at, "Problem Log 2009", to try to formulate a plan that would be safe and might work. Tom was scheduled to pack the heavy equipment in Friday. First, a word about Don. Don is a local legend. He's been hiking, fishing, hunting and packing in the Olympics for over 50 years. As construction carpenter for K-Ply in Port Angeles, he build piers, loading docks, A-frames and mill buildings - he knows how to do things. He also ran his own custom cabinetry shop in Joyce - he's a craftsman. Long before he stumbled upon WTA's first work party in the Olympics in '99 and met Greg Ball, he'd been an active trail volunteer for Olympic National Forest. Build a footbridge with whatever you can carry in 5 or 10 miles - no problem! As a "blue hat" senior crew leader with WTA, Don has been on -heaven knows, way over a hundred- trail work parties in the last ten years.

Don: "What do I know, anyway?"

Don at Cedar Lake, by ScottM

Anyway, Don looks at this mess for 5 minutes... looks up above and down below to see if we can get around it, shakes his head... looks harder, and finally says "ya know, I can see light through that root plate... bet we can just cut right through that." So, the first thing was to just try to clear the place out so we could see what we were dealing with. We climbed up on top of the rootball, started cutting and tossing limbs, handing the chainsaw back and forth, and removed two small windfall logs that fallen on top of this rootball. Then we just got the handsaw and axe out and started cutting roots. An hour later, it was clear we had a plan...

2' hemlock lying atop 3' PL09 fir on right

hemlock removed, 2' of rock fill in place

... and we started pulling large rocks to fill the hole left behind the rootball. Ya know how it is... it's 5 o'clock, and you're tired, but do you want to hike all the way back up here tomorrow just to do the last couple hours work? Another 2 hours of grub hoe work, and we'd pulled more than a foot of clay onto our rock fill foundation, and had a 4 foot wide, stock passable, trail again!

logs cleared, tread work underway

PL09 is no longer a Problem!

When we were almost done, Margaret, who teaches over 5000 kids per year at Olympic Park Institute, hikes back down the trail. She'd passed through with a day pack this morning, so we'd been expecting to see her by now. But turns out she'd gone all the way up to Cedar Lake - 8-1/2 miles and 3100' elevation gain - and back! Whew! She says "I fell through this rootball this morning, so have been dreading coming back through it all day - and I can't believe it, it's gone!"

Don Stoneman

Margaret & Rod say "Cheers to you, Don!"

We stumbled back into camp about 8 pm, called Park Dispatch on the radio and had them phone Tom to tell him he didn't need to pack all that heavy gear in after all! But trusty Tom showed up Friday, just after we finished breakfast, ready to pack all our gear out. Even brought a second horse for us to ride up that 3200' elevation gain to Deer Park! Whatta guy! I couldn't believe we did that! In ten minutes, Don had not only figured out what had totally stumped me, but within 4 hours had finished the entire job! Sheesh! So these annual "Problem Logs" are only a problem for me, not for Don!

[reststep]

Great report Rod. Thank you to you and all the crew for their hard work clearing the trails.

[touron]

Very interesting photos and report. Thanks for your efforts!

[Magellan]

I like your storytelling Rod.

[silence]

really enjoyed your story rod ... you guys rock!

[bobbi]

trail volunteers tear down problem log thank you so much!

[sarbar]

Hehheh..totally cool!

[Scrooge]

You know my take on it. ..... Rod, Don, the whole crew. Plus one for margaret. And a couple more for the Olympic National Forest and Park managers, who make the work of the Grey Wolf Trail Crew possible.

[ScottM]

Great job guys. I wish I could have been with you. Looking forward to seeing you guys up Heather Creek this week.

[Tazz]

cool! Thanks for sharing!

[Slugman]

I'm going right now to put on my Backcountry Horsemen of Washington t-shirt.