Trail revision across Clearwater Creek

TRAILS: 1.25 hours: 12:00 PM to 1:15 PM

Opened up a new upper creek crossing between the North Side and South Side trails in RMZ unit #3.

Trail revision across the creek. Opened up a new route across the creek at the upper end where the north and south side trails meet. The previous route was across “stepping stones”, but only works during low flows. About 25 feet upstream is a collection of old, large, mossy logs that bridge the creek, so I cleared paths to and across them. Extended the trail on the north side past the seep up to the log jam through dry terrain. Still need to carve the trail for better footing and deal with the wet section at the seep.

Newly opened creek crossing over big, mossy logjam.

About 25 feet up from the stepping stone crossing, this logjam will work for high water events. It has obviously been in place for a long time, with the creek managing to flow under and around it during many years of heavy rains.

Original creek crossing over stepping stones.

Even with an extended winter drought, the stepping stones are partially underwater and this crossing can only be used during extremely low-water conditions (unless you have rubber boots!).