USFS updates popular Spring Creek Trail

The Forest Service worked on a portion of a seven-mile trail near Plains to make it more accessible to the public and they had a blast - literally. 

Travis Pfister of the Plains/Thompson Falls Ranger District set off six explosives two weeks ago as part of major operation to renovate Spring Creek Trail - aka Trail #370 - some 10 miles northwest of Plains. The Forest Service does a lot a trail work every year, but they don't normally use explosives, said Mikey Church, the recreation staff assistant with the ranger district in Plains and the primary coordinator of the project. Trail #370, however, had a lot of big stumps and boulders in the way, and it would have been too time consuming to remove those by hand.

Church and his six seasonal trail crew members were focusing work on a half-mile stretch of the trail about three miles from the trail head, mostly using chainsaws to clear fallen trees, and picks, shovels and sledge hammers to clear a corridor to widen the trail. They also built retaining walls out of wood and rock to support the trail, which in some cases was almost nonexistent. "This is hard work. I think digging is the hardest part," said Evelyn Laws, a Plains High School English teacher who's in her third year as a seasonal trail worker. "I teach during the year, so I get to shut my brain off for this," said Laws, whose husband Jaron, also a Plains teacher, is a seasonal firefighter with the Plains district. Shannon Lundberg of Plains was the only other local on the team, which included Levi Mendoza of Missouri, Joseph Sanchez of California, Chris Hulling of Massachusetts and Myranda Hagemann of Nebraska, the team leader. 

"I'm proud of the crew. We have a bunch of new faces on the crew, but they all have come together with different skills and strengths to get a lot of high quality work accomplished," said Church. 

It took Pfister and the team all day to remove two boulders, one that weighed some 15 tons, and 25 large stumps. To prepare the spots for the blasts the previous day, the crew took turns using a gas-powered rock drill to put a dozen 18-inch deep holes in the boulders. Holes were also dug around and into the stumps. Charges were placed in the holes and set off electrically by Pfister, who strung several charges together in order to detonate them at one time. The blasting was done through a signal transmitted from a control box, which sent the electric charge to a detonator, said Church. "The detonator initiates a low energy directional explosion in a fuse, which is connected to each piece of explosive. Boom!" said Church.

The crew began work on Trail #370 on June 8, working 10 hours a day for 12 days - 120 hours - finishing up two weeks ago. The work site was approximately three miles up Spring Creek Trail just off the Weeksville Road. A crew from the Montana Conservation Corps took over on the trail last Tuesday and were scheduled to complete the job this week. 

The trail goes from the valley floor and steadily climbs to Big Hole Lookout, which will be open as a recreational rental cabin next year. Church said this was the first major work for Trail #370 in 10 years. It had immensely deteriorated over the years and had crossed Spring Creek four times, which wasn't part of the original trail design. There are places where the trail had totally disappeared and other places where the trail collapsed into the creek and became impassable. "Users began crossing the creek to follow the path of least resistance. This resulted in four creek crossings in a quarter-mile stretch," said Church, who added that the reroute, the repaired trail, will eliminate the creek crossings and confine the trail to one side of the creek, which ranges in depth from about six inches to a foot during the summer. Church said they want to keep the trail from crossing streams to protect the travelers and the stream. "It is best to avoid creek crossings altogether when possible. People will take considerable risks on wet logs to avoid getting their feet wet, and motorized and heavy stock use contribute to stream bank erosion," said Church, who on some other trails has constructed foot bridges for crossing streams, such as a 35-foot long wooden bridge complete with a handrail on the West Fork of Swamp Creek Trail two years ago. In some places at Spring Creek the work involved clearing and building a new trail corridor, which meant removing obstacles, according to Church, who has contributed to about a dozen big trails projects since joining the Forest Service in 2014.

The Plains/Thompson Falls Ranger District works on 20 to 25 trails each year, clearing fallen trees and repairing damage caused by motorcycles and horses. Church said the mission of the Forest Service is to "sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the nation's forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations." He said trail maintenance is important because it provides high quality recreational opportunities and improves the quality of life for local residents and can attract visitors who spend money at local businesses. "The biggest thing is to make the trail safe and convenient so people will use it," said Church. It was when he did a stint with the Montana Conservation Corps that he decided on a career with the Forest Service. Four years ago, he was the seasonal leader for the Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) crew when they were repairing trails. Normally, the YCC helps with season trail work, but they couldn't this year due to the coronavirus.

Spring Creek Trail is open to hikers, mule and horseback and motorcycles, but it is one of the trails that is under consideration to prohibit motorized vehicles. "The trail is falling off the mountain so when horses or mules are on the trail, there's a chance they'll punch right through and fall," said Church. He said Trail #370 is particularly popular with the horse riding community. It was members of the Wild Horse Back Country Horsemen that used their horses and mules to haul heavy equipment and supplies to the work site for this project. John Errecart, a retired Forest Service man and a member of Wild Horse Back Country Horsemen, and Cheryl Burt, also a club member, packed in about 750 pounds of gear, including the rock drill, block and tackle equipment, webbed strapping, fuel, and gabion baskets, which are eight-foot long by four-foot wide and four-foot deep metal wire boxes that will be filled with about 200 pounds of rocks and placed just below the ground surface to add stability to the trail.

It took Errecart and Burt two days to get their loads to the work site. The two decided to walk and lead their animals instead of riding because they had to stop periodically and adjust the loads during the trek. Some parts of the trail are so steep and narrow, it would have been difficult to get off their mounts to tighten the loads.

A portion of the money that paid for the Spring Creek Trail project came from the Sanders County Resource Advisory Committee (RAC) , which awarded them almost $30,000 that will be used on three different trail projects. Church said the Forest Service kicked in $15,000. "The support from Sanders County RAC has allowed us to increase our capacity by funding additional seasonal trails crew members to work in this and other projects," he said.