Crew members will depart from the Powwow Hiking Trailhead (EP #86), backpacking in either 1 (Isabella) or 6 (Pose Lake) miles. Exact location will be confirmed as trail conditions are assessed. The crew will base camp for 2 nights and clear trail near camp using a variety of tools (hand saws, loppers, root slayers).
Crew members will carpool to Lake Jeanette Campground on Wednesday afternoon where we will set up late and car camp for the night. Early the next morning we will depart the Sioux Hustler trailhead and backpack 12 miles along the western side of the loop to the Pageant Lake campsite where we will basecamp for three nights. We will clear the trail with saws, loppers, and root slayers near Pageant and Range Lake.
Crew members will paddle and portage from Lake One to Lake Three, stash their canoes and hike 2-3 miles south on the Powwow Trail to set up a base camp. The goal is to put the final trail clearing touches on the west side of the trail, a main area of focus over the last 2 years.
Rain, wind, sleet, and mud couldn’t stop Crew #5 this past weekend.
The crew cleared 1.5 miles of the Powwow Trail from brush and treefalls as well as hauled a latrine to the Rock of Ages Lake campsite.
Crew #4's initial day on the Sioux-Hustler Trail was quite warm, and they capped it off with a swim at their campsite on Agawato Lake. However, a short-lived but severe storm that evening downed trees across the lake and behind their campsite. Temperatures steadily dropped over the weekend, and on their final day, snow flurries accompanied them as they hiked out.
In total, the crew cleared approximately 75 treefalls to restore the trail from the entry point to Emerald Lake.
Crew #2 experienced temps in the low 40s overnight and highs approaching an unseasonably warm 90F during the day on the Sioux-Hustler Trail. Crew members cleared 9.25 miles of tree falls (127 trees in total!!) from the Sioux-Hustler trailhead to the Devil’s Cascade campsite and the Shell/Little Shell campsite spur.
“Wilderness to the people of America is a spiritual necessity, an antidote to the high pressure of modern life, a means of regaining serenity and equilibrium.”
