Be ‘wicked careful' on wet trails
By JOHN CRAMER of the Missoulian
HAMILTON - As if he didn't have enough to do, Steve Bull stood along the Mill Creek Trail and pounded a stake into the damp ground Friday.
Bull, a wilderness trail crew leader on the Bitterroot National Forest, where trail work has been delayed by the dense snowpack, put up a warning sign for hikers and stock users: Be Careful.
A 25-foot saturated section of the popular Mill Creek Trail recently collapsed after irrigators installed a pipeline below the trail and improperly graded the slope, causing it to shear off.
But the collapse also served as a general safety reminder on all creekside trails this spring as runoff from an above-normal snowpack boosts water levels and velocities to rates not seen in a decade.
The rate of runoff will be largely determined by springtime temperatures in the next few weeks - a sudden heat wave will unleash torrents from the mountains, while gradually rising temperatures will release runoff more slowly.
“People need to be wicked careful,” Bull said. “There's a lot of energy potential up high” in the snowpack.
Soft, wet ground conditions have delayed the opening of a number of forest trails and roads across the Bitterroot National Forest.
Also, budget constraints for the U.S. Forest Service have caused cutbacks in on-the-ground services nationwide, including maintenance and reconstruction of improperly designed trails, at a time when national forest recreation is rising across the West.
The Bitterroot National Forest has about 1,500 miles of trails, half of which should receive maintenance each year, but the agency would need at least triple the current number of permanent and seasonal trail crew workers to achieve that goal, Bull said.
That backlog doesn't include trails that need to be reconstructed - about
90 percent of the Bitterroot's trails are inappropriately designed, including user-created paths, trails made by miners, livestock and irrigators or Forest Service trails that aren't up to modern standards, Bull said.
Trail crews, which clear downed trees each spring, have been slowed by the lingering snow - which continued to fall in flurries Friday as a cold front moved through - but crews have started clearing main trails on the Bitterroot.
The Nez Perce Pass remains closed by snow, so trail clearing on the Idaho side and at high elevations on the Montana side will be delayed two to three weeks.
Bull's crew will start working Monday to install a temporary tread around the sloughed off section of the Mill Creek Trail, which is about a quarter-mile from the trailhead northwest of Hamilton.
The temporary tread should take a day to complete, but another 125 feet of the trail could collapse because it also has been undermined by the irrigators' improper grading of the slope.
Hikers can use the temporary trail with caution, but stock users should avoid the area until the tread is reestablished.
The collapsed and endangered sections of the trail should be permanently stabilized by summertime with rocks, logs or a retaining wall.
Meanwhile, rapidly rising runoff should put all creekside trail users on the lookout for risky situations, officials said.
Roughly 25 percent of the Bitterroot's trails are near creeks.
Creek crossings may be dangerous and some trail sections may be submerged by high water.
If trail users - especially people with young children and dogs - are uncertain about the depth and velocity of a rushing creek, “they should turn around,” Bull said. “Don't take any chances.”
Trail users should be prepared for sudden changes in the weather, including a sudden boost in air temperature, rainfall and winds.
Those conditions can cause creek levels to rise quickly and break off snags, or trees that died in wildfires.
