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 We are launching the Bayfield Area Trails Economic impact study trail user surveys. We need your help. Trails! Hiking, XC skiing, snowshoeing, biking …. presumably trails in the Bayfield Peninsula are valuable and attract people to the area to visit and live.
We need volunteers: If you’re not the type to run a chainsaw, swing an ax, or build rock steps, this is an excellent opportunity to support Bayfield Area Trails. We are looking for folks who are willing to sign up for 2-hour shifts at a trailhead where they will greet trail users, conduct a short interview, and enter interview results into a database via a personal tablet or phone. Volunteers will receive training and will be provided name tags and a Bayfield Area Trails ball cap to identify them as trail volunteers. Volunteers will have lots of flexibility to sign up when times are convenient for them; and they may choose to work with another person or alone. Timing: We plan to conduct the first volunteer training the week after Labor Day and to start trail surveys by September 15th. Sign up here: If you are interested in possibly volunteering, please sign up here. We will invite you to the training and give you a chance to give it a try! Please sign up via this link.
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 At 9 am on Friday August 16th, Nan Fey, Bob Feyen, Neil Howk, John Ipsen, Kate Kitchell, Ted May, and Kris Wegerson met at the Mount Ashwabay parking lot to work on the Upper Pileated Woodpecker connector trail between the Jolly Long Link and the Ashwabay parking lot.    Kate, Neil, Nan, John and Kris removed rocks from a portion of the trail where Bayfield County plans to bring in machinery to mulch the trail surface in early September. This will be followed by Doug Olson’s handiwork to install rock in a drainage that crosses the trail and to elevate the trail surface and create drainage to make the trail fully passable prior to the end of the season.    Ted and Bob worked on stabilizing a footbridge that was impacted by flooding earlier this summer. Neil, Nan, and Kate hauled rocks from the creek bed to armor the streambank around the bridge. Ted, Kate, Kris, John, and Bob also dug some water bars across the trail on the slope leading down to the bridge to prevent erosion from heavy runoff and foot traffic. Ted, John, Kris, and Neil returned on Saturday August 17th to install steps/water bars on the Pileated Woodpecker Trail just south of the spur trail to Chickadee Point. They installed 15 steps along the switchbacks on the steepest part of the trail. Additional steps are still needed, but these new ones should help divert water from running down the trail as well as create steps for trail users where the clay soils can create slippery conditions when wet or icy.
Although the trail remains closed at the Red Dam gate behind the Les Voigt Fish Hatchery, it can be accessed from Mount Ashwabay as it connects to the Jolly Long Trail that ultimately leads to the Jerry Jolly Trail network from Star Route. This work puts us several steps closer to having a full trail connection between the fish hatchery and Mt. Ashwabay. Stay tuned for more progress!  Ten volunteers tackled several tasks in the Big Ravine on Friday August 2nd and Saturday August 3rd to repair damage after the June 19th flood and to make the trails more sustainable. On Friday August 2nd, volunteers took on three projects along the Gil Larsen and Pine Bluff Trails. The lower Gil Larsen Trail was widened and moved away from the edge where the creek was undercutting the bank. A timber was set along the trail to guide hikers away from the edge.
Bill Bieganek refurbished a section of rock armoring in the trail where runoff had destabilized the rocks and washed away the soil. His experience with building lots of mountain bike trails was especially helpful. Gene Lemmenes worked on the cable steps at the top of the trail by filling in rocks and dirt where the steps were starting to become unstable. Other finishing touches completed by the crew included resetting rock steps, stabilizing the trail edge with rocks, cutting the backslope in a few locations to reestablish a wider trail tread, and raking leaves off of the trail to enable hikers to use the entire trail width. Hemlock Heights looks almost new again! Thank you volunteers!
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