Sunday, June 1, 2008

my recent trails conditions report

i've been spending a lot of time on the methow valley
trails since moving here two weeks ago and i thought
i'd share with everyone the conditions i've found.
below is a list of trails i've ran in the last week or
so and their condition:

5/23 twisp river trail
from war creek camp to scatter creek trail. trail was
in good shape only a half doazen or so down trees and
the brush was not too bad but could use a triming.
creeks were high but crossable.

5/23 slate creek trail
from twisp river trail to ~6600ft
no snow until around 6400ft. great views. trail brushy
for the first half mile or so. one big tree down and a
couple more small ones.

5/23 scatter creek trail
from twisp river trail to ~5000 ft.
this trail get less sun than the slate creek trail so
snow level a was more than 1000ft lower somewhere
around 5000ft. i don't remember any significant down
trees or other problems.

5/24 wolf creek trail
trailhead to unnamed peak 8082 near gardner mtn.
trail in general was in great shape; a little brushy
in just few brief spots; very little snow for such a
deep valley. patchy snow started at 4200ft ended at
4600ft and stayed snow free until gardner meadows.
the south and east facing slopes of gardner mtn were
mostly snow free. the north fork ford was high and
fast but crossable--there's also a good tree to cross
over on just up stream 100ft or so i was told.

5/25 pearrygin creek trail
lower trailhead to upper trailhead
this trail has lots of potential for a great early
season trail(i was able to run in in early may aswell)
close to town but needs work i counted 84 down trees,
all but 10 or so in the highest mile or so.
thankfully most trees are small enough for a small
chainsaw but some will need a biggun. it also needs
some brushing out in key spots and the erosion matting
on the low end just above the creek is starting to
fail thanks to the cows walking on it.

5/25 pearrygin ridge trail
entire length
this trail is in pretty good shape and in a week or
two (when the rest of the snow melts off) will be
nearly perfect. there's 13 or so small down trees in
the first mile from the trailhead but after that i
don't really remember any more than 1 or 2. there was
patchy snow briefly just past the side trail to the
peak but then no snow at all unto the downhill to
beaver meadows. the snow was about 2ft deep for about
a mile and very slushy despite having snowshoes i sunk
in about 4-6 inches every step and had to re-tighten
the straps often. i highly recommend waiting for the
snow to melt quite a bit more before trying this
trail. there is also just as much snow or more on the
other side of the meadows but the meadows are snow
free.

5/25 blue buck trail
entire length
this trail is my favorite so far of all the trails
i've ran in the valley. there is snow on the upper
parts on about 1-2 miles on either side of beaver
meadow. but most of the trail is snow free and has
very few down trees.

5/25 lightning creek trail
first mile to jct with blue buck
trail is a little brushy but otherwise great.

5/30 lookout mtn trail and ridge trail
entire length of mtn trail and most of ridge trail
all of the trail we ran was snow free. we would've
gone all the way to black pine lake but ran into a
bear cub when we were almost there-- seemed like a
good spot to turn around :) just a few down trees on
the ridge trail which by the way was not always easy
to follow other wise both trails are looking good.

5/31 wolf creek trail(again)
entire length-- made it all the way to n. gardner this
time! great views!!!
a lot of the snow had melted since last week and by
next weekend there will probably be zero snow all the
way to gardner meadows. the trail seemed a little
more brushy this week and will probably get worse
until trail crews or volunteerrs get to it in june.
but overall it's still in great shape and getting
better as the snow melts away. horses may find the
last tree or two tricky up in the old burn before the
meadows otherwise the 6 or so trees won't slow anybody
down.

that's all i've got of recent reports. if folks see
things differently or have reports form different
trails please share!

if you've got any questions or if you'd like to run
trails with alison and i we'd love to have folks join
us send me an email jvarner1313@yahoo.com we normally
run for an hour or so in the evenings on weekdays and
then on the weekends we run 4-12 hours.

1 comment:

adam said...

Thanx for the trail reports. Sounds like you have already run most of the trails near Twisp and Winthrop! With all this rain I am starting to get a bit hopeful that the melt is speeding up!