Spring ’25 Wrap-up

The Spring ’25 work session was a very productive one. We had 8 volunteers, with 5 working most or all of the week and 2 first-timers.

We completed all but one tread repair project that we noted during our 2023 traverse of the trail plus a couple new ones, removed many new obstructions, and destroyed a few outcroppings of Rosa multiflora.

The flood of Nov ’24 was much worse than I thought in the Steel Creek area. The tool crib where we stored our gear had been under 4-5′ of water and 2 of the storage tubs with cooking/eating gear were still full of river water. We spent much of the 21st hosing-off mud, washing, rinsing, and sterilizing everything that was salvageable.

Our trail work began on the 22nd by clearing brush from the section between Cedar Glade and the Pruitt trail head. We returned the next morning to Ozark Campground with a sawyer to clear 8 trees from a 1/4-mile stretch just upriver.

About 400′ downriver of the Steel Creek Overlook was a short and overly-steep area where there were probably some steps that had gone missing. We restored 6 of them (above the existing 4) to make the area much less dangerous to pass through – especially coming down hill.

Near Shop Creek (above Camp Orr) the tread was very narrow due to debris coming down the slope and badly damaged by hikers walking on the outer edge to get through a tree top on the trail. We removed the tree and left the tread pretty much as good as new.

About 1.25 miles downriver of the Steel Creek Overlook is the infamous landslide of Nov ’24. It’s about 30′ across and 2.5′ deep – spilling a lot of trees and soil over the bluff just 30′ below the trail.

On March 19 I did a recon trip with 3 BNR employees to inspect and measure the damaged area and the surroundings. On the 26th we got the authorization to address this problem, after BNR did their assessment and compliance work.

We dug tread across the area and blended it into the surviving tread on each side, making it much easier and safer to traverse this area. We even had 2 or 3 groups of hikers come through while we were working.

There is about 20′ of unstable soil above the slide (and below a bluff) that might still come down at some point so this is an area we will have to monitor and re-work as needed.

Just 100′ downriver is a feature called by some the Fisher Point Overlook with a view across the river to Big Bluff and its Goat Trail. Trees had begun obscuring that view but now – from the middle of the landslide area – we have an expansive new overlook that will probably not become obscured by trees for several decades. Lemons to lemonade?

Finally, we began another end-to-end traverse of the trail with the section from Boxley trail head to Walker Mountain Road. The brushy area we mowed last fall still looks good. We’ll check it again in the fall and set a mowing schedule to keep it this way.

We ended our week with a visit to Hideout Hollow, a bit west of Erbie, Friday morning. The trail is wide and badly eroded and needed only minor lopping along the edges. I was last there in October 2012 with Ken Smith and a couple others so I was way overdue for another visit. The trail seemed completely unfamiliar while the bluff shelter was familiar but bigger than I remembered.

After lunch on Friday we cleaned the Ranch House and packed our gear, storing it high on some shelves in the tool crib this time.

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