Methow Trails Summer 2018

Methow Trails | 17 Trail Karma Ever wonder what the connection is between trail work and trail karma? When you are out enjoying a favorite trail and you stick a tough landing, don’t rupture a tire after pitoning a rock, or avoid an injury after rolling an ankle we figure that you have enough karma in the Karma Bank. You need to keep building this karma, and one excellent way to do it is to contribute to the construction and maintenance of the trails you enjoy. Give back, both to have ownership in the trails you love and to actively build your trail karma so it’s there when you need it. Methow Trails holds work parties every third Thursday of the month, as well as on other dates depending on what projects we need help with. In the Summer of 2017, Methow Trails, with trail karma volunteers… • built the railings on the new Homestead Bridge near Sun Mountain • cleaned up a large pile of trash at Cub Creek Trailhead • brushed and thinned on the Cougar Bait trail • installed a cattle guard roller in place of a swing gate (see page 16 story) on Buck Mountain • reworked a problematic turn and a water crossing, also on Buck Mountain • installed two more cattle guard rollers at fence crossings on Rader Creek • brushed out Black Bear and Rader Creek trails to improve sightlines and make them safer • picked up rocks and cleaned up corral debris at the newly reconstructed Mazama Trailhead • led a huge three-day “Save A Trail” effort to make the Falls Creek Trail (USFS #518) passable again. This work was in the name of the Methow Valley Trails Collaborative and in conjunction with the Backcountry Horsemen, Washington Trails Association, Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance and the Forest Service. More than 60 volunteers came out, making this effort to save the trail to Burch Mountain a huge success We have an exciting and ever-growing list of projects to completewell into the future. You can findout about the work parties we do from our website, blog, and Facebookpostings.Youcanalsoemailusyourinterestat jon@methowtrails.org , and we’ll send these trail opportunities directly to you. We look forward to working with you to improve our trails and to keep that karma topped off. Thank you to all who have joined our growing roster of trail work volunteers. We hope you are finding your Trail Kar- ma Bank is topped off and ready when you need it.