September 25-26, 2021
On Saturday, September 25, those that could find the Marble Mt. snow park met up and worked out a plan for the day with our Forest Service partners. Our ONC- PDX group of five and one Forest Service worker with a chainsaw headed up the west leg of the Sasquatch Trail while two Forest Service workers with snow poles and stakes headed up the east leg on their quads. Our ONC-PDX contingent worked on limbing and cutting trees and hanging diamonds on the trail’s west end. We had fantastic clear fall weather as we worked up the hill, passing the lower connector trail. Finally, about 3 PM, we met the Forest Service as they rode down the hill toward us. They had completed installing the snow poles in the meadow and were heading back to H.Q. We continued up the hill to the middle trail and stashed our ladder, diamonds, and hammer for the night before heading down for some much-needed refreshments and dinner.
Sunday morning, we met up with two new forest rangers and worked out our plan for the day. The rangers worked with Kate McPherson to remove small trees on the middle trail while the rest of us continued around the Sasquatch trail clockwise. Kate and the rangers finished the middle trail at about 2:30 PM. The rest of us continued until about 4 PM when we ran out of time and batteries for the saw. We were close to finishing, but we still had about 2 miles to walk out, so it would be good enough until we can come back to finish it off. I feel good about limbing, brushing, and installing diamonds on 5 ½ miles of trail. It is an excellent reward for a two-day weekend.
So many thanks to Mary Hepokoski, Susan Watt, Don Erickson, Kate McPherson, Jeff Edwards, and Margaret Sutko.
Time for people to come out and enjoy and wonderful ski loop beside Mt. Saint Helens.
Reported by Ken Wenzel
