Northwest Timber Trail and ETM; New Tread 050312

Northwest Timber Trail

It is May on Tiger but we are still dealing with winter's storm damage.  A tree fell over one of the bridges on the Northwest Timber Trail damaging the wooden railing. And, we're here to stick a band-aid on it; in this case removing split rails and patching on a new one.  After measuring and cutting the lumber the railings were drilled in with screws.  Safe crossings on the Northwest Timber Trail.

East Tiger Mountain (ETM); New Tread

This week was a pretty wild one. Monday April 30th was the last time we were up here, and that was a short day.  Due to wet and windy conditions we ended up with Jesse's Mountains to Sounds Crew in the lowlands.  The crew then spent two days at the bunker site on Rattlesnake, and for the last day of the week, today, a bridge repair ending with a quick day on top of Tiger.

Sam from the Issaquah Mountains to Sound Crew joined us for the second day in form of a crew swap.  The great thing about the WCC program is that members are allowed to swap crews, one member for another, to get a taste of what the other crews are working on. 

 With the saturated ground shoveling soil back and forth just created muck.  However there is more to building new tread than digging; piling duff on the downslope side of the trail.  There are situations where the tread is on solid ground or we place a log leaving an edge with a steep drop off.  To increase the lifetime of the trail we stabilize it with duff.  

We stabilize it by initially placing a log braced between two trees and build up from there.  The tree doesn't necessarily have to be green, a recently felled living tree, but it does have to be sturdy enough to hold some weight for a few years.

More logs are then placed building up towards the trail decreasing the steepness.

And, after we are satisfied with the slope the logs get covered with duff.  Most of the time duff is a big problem when it is on  the trails because it holds water and breaks down easily decreasing the lifetime of a trail.  On the other hand it can increase the lifetime of a trail when used properly.  When the duff is braced correctly it will allow time for the organic material to break down and bind together.  That's one great looking duff pile.