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KarlK Member
Joined: 18 Jun 2009 Posts: 584 | TRs | Pics
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KarlK
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Thu Dec 09, 2021 11:07 am
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The Monument Creek trail # 484 originates on the Harts Pass road some seven miles NW of Mazama, heads NE, and enters the Pasayten Wilderness after ~ 3.5 miles of relatively easy undulating travel paralleling the Lost River.
At ~ 4 miles, the trail bisects Eureka Creek (~2600’elevation), and then climbs relentlessly to a long, high sidehill traverse that eventually reaches the final switchbacks to Pistol Pass, situated at ~7100’.
Beyond this unfolds a riches of hardcore wilderness, with its many hardcore wild beasts, some perhaps yet uncatalogued, and all surely unaccustomed to encountering tasty hominids owing to very poor trail conditions and the demise of the stock bridge that spanned Eureka Creek until the deluges of 2006.
My first experience with the trail involved a solo loop adventure in The Before Times. This encompassed Pistol Pass, Lake of the Woods, Shellrock Pass, Robinson Pass, and featured many sightings of wild beasts, all catalogued so far as I could tell. I'd dearly love to do that loop again.
Unfortunately, the trail is clobbered by more blowdown than my three cats have fleas, and afflicted by many sections of badly degraded trail tread along with multitudinous sections of major brush encroachment until one reaches the long, high sidehill traverse (the indefatigable Eric Gilbertson noted in a 2018 report that “By around 6,600ft, though, the trail cuts left and is then somehow in excellent shape all the way to Pistol Pass.” (https://www.countryhighpoints.com/pasayten-peakbagging/).
Oh, and there's the potentially lethal matter of no friggin' bridge across Eureka Creek. A number of hikers have had near-death experiences while wading across Eureka creek, which runs deceptively high and fast until summer is well ripened; during spring and early summer, fuggedaboutit.
This trail is the subject of major restoration work spearheaded by a very determined guy named Mike acting with the welcome support of Methow District Ranger Chris Furr and District Recreation Manager Rosemary Seifried.
Crew Leader Mike has been working on this trail for a number of years (here's a report from 2019: https://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8029936), and barring a major asteroid strike or somesuch, Mike will be working on it well into the future – indeed he has a 10 year plan. Accordingly, I’m inclined to call this thing Project Monumental.
The bridge replacement is a screaming priority, and to address this need, retired structural engineer, Pasayten trail philanthropist (more about that below) and trail fixer Joe Hofbeck designed a footlog bridge based on forest service specifications.
Joe and Mike worked with Rosemary et al. to shepherd the design through the not entirely painless process by which things reach the go stage in the forest service realm. (For my part, I'm happiest being a grunt on the pointy end of trail projects and such, and my hat's off to the Mikes and Joes of the world who are willing and able to wrestle the permission duck into submission. (Subdued permission duck is ideally served with high quality amber restorative)).
For this phase of Project Monumental, Mike recruited eight crew members, while the FS supplied four, consisting of two sawyers, Landon (the district’s Trail Manager and head sawyer) and Colin, very ably aided by AnnaMarie and Conner.
On October 6, Mike, accompanied by the vanguard contingent of our merry group of trail fixers, hiked to the spacious campsite on the N side of Eureka Creek. They set up a big group tarp, and set to the varied and glamorous tasks of trail work – brushing, treading, sawing and muscling or engineering big heavy things off the trail. On the 11-th, JoeH and KarlK hiked in and joined the fun. The FS crew arrived early on the 12-th and felled the pre-identified big Douglas Fir donor tree. Then, most of the group went to work on peeling the donor log, which is to be emplaced next year, while several of us went up the trail to do saw work. On the 13-th, Sandra and I were joined ~ 1.5 miles up the trail N of Eureka Creek by the very able DonH.
I’d like to give a special shout-out to Joe and Dianne Hofbeck, funders of The Dianne and Joe Hofbeck Pasayten Wilderness Trail Fund. This mechanism annually provides salary support for USFS seasonal trail fixers for work specifically in the Pasayten. This past summer, the PWTF supported five trail crew members plus one stock packer for 65 days.
A report on their accomplishments is at: https://pasaytentrailstrust.org/index.html. It’s well worth reading.
Bridge site and footlog read to be moved Landon (L) & Colin Starting Facecut One of the Sill logs Work on a Sill log Big log at switchback -Before Big log at switchback -After. Tread work will be next year. Now pushing off the chucks cut on Tuesday when the below campsite area now cleared. Rock in the trail Rock in the trail removed
Karl J Kaiyala
call-151, geyer, reststep, Slim, Nancyann, NWtrax, iron, hapemask, RichP
Karl J Kaiyala
call-151, geyer, reststep, Slim, Nancyann, NWtrax, iron, hapemask, RichP
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RichP Member
Joined: 13 Jul 2006 Posts: 5628 | TRs | Pics Location: here |
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RichP
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Thu Dec 09, 2021 11:49 am
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This is great and welcome news. What a fantastic idea for a trust to benefit many over time. Thanks to the Hofbecks, volunteers and FS staff.
Looking forward to hiking back up over Pistol Pass before my legs won't get me up there anymore.
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neek Member
Joined: 12 Sep 2011 Posts: 2329 | TRs | Pics Location: Seattle, WA |
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neek
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Thu Dec 09, 2021 12:04 pm
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Exciting! Thanks for the report. Can't wait to test out the new bridge after it's in place. Will it be at high risk of suffering the same fate as the old bridge though? Anyway let me know if you're ever looking for someone to trek in some beers to one of these parties!
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Stefan Member
Joined: 17 Dec 2001 Posts: 5084 | TRs | Pics
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Stefan
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Thu Dec 09, 2021 12:13 pm
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Wunderbar to everyone involved!
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cathorse Member
Joined: 16 Jul 2003 Posts: 77 | TRs | Pics Location: Seattle |
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cathorse
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Thu Dec 09, 2021 5:51 pm
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Thanks, Joe and Dianne, and thanks Monumental Team!
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brewermd Member
Joined: 02 Jun 2008 Posts: 159 | TRs | Pics
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brewermd
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Thu Dec 09, 2021 6:26 pm
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puzzlr Mid Fork Rocks
Joined: 13 Feb 2007 Posts: 7216 | TRs | Pics Location: Stuck in the middle |
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puzzlr
Mid Fork Rocks
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Fri Dec 10, 2021 10:40 pm
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This was informative and fun to read. Thanks for taking the time to tell us about it. It takes a lot of effort to keep the wilderness trails open.
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scottk Member
Joined: 09 Jul 2013 Posts: 47 | TRs | Pics
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scottk
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Sat Dec 11, 2021 4:42 pm
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Very excited to head back in there. We came out that way in 2013 (not knowing the bridge was out). Very thrashy in places although the creek crossing was pretty safe. I've wanted to do that loop again but didn't want to fight the brush and downed trees. Kudos to everyone helping make it more accessible.
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sooperfly Member
Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 1232 | TRs | Pics Location: North Central Wa. |
Awesome work, thank you for the pics and write up!
One of my friends packed the timbers in there with his pack string in 1964. He was bummed when he heard years ago the bridge washed out. I'm going to share this with him, I'm sure he's going to be happy about it!!!
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Slide Alder Slayer Member
Joined: 14 Jan 2002 Posts: 1960 | TRs | Pics
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Time flies, I did not realize my last trips to Lake of the Woods were in 2009 and 2010. Glad to hear they are building a bridge, great work. I never did take the exact same route to and from, always some diversions, so many little side trails.
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