Trail creation up Middle Ridge on the South Side

TRAILS: 4.25 hours: 3:00 PM to 7:15 PM

Started clearing a link between the south edge of RMZ unit #3 up the Middle Ridge to the skid road system in South Side unit #4.

Trail establishment/clearing on south side of creek. Cut open the link between the South Bank trail (near the middle of the property where it meets a side ravine), up South Middle Ridge to an isolated remnant grove, then on up the ridge to within a few hundred feet of the road system. Massive blow-down of large and small hemlocks (from the 2007 windstorm) to cut through – slow but steady progress. Invasive blackberry is spread widely throughout the clear-cut, but the new saplings are already well above the elk-cropped blackberry, so I am only removing ones that are in or next to the trail. Starting to see a lot more cedar seedlings popping up – much smaller than the hemlock regeneration, but not as scarce as I first thought. These can be favored during the first round of thinning in about 5 years.

Middle Ridge in the South Side unit.

Middle Ridge rises up from Clearwater Creek on the right side of this photo, passing through the sparse remnant stand of hemlocks and alders on the left side of the photo, where the skid road system is accessed.

This photo is taken from the High Road in the SE quadrant, looking NW  across Clearwater Creek drainage to Long Island in Willapa Bay on the far horizon. (Photo taken on 11/23/2013).