Trip Report: Hiking Trail Maintenance Bonneville Shoreline trail Ferguson Canyon

Hiking Trail Maintenance Bonneville Shoreline trail Ferguson Canyon By Kyle Williams
HIKE	05/22/2021	NTD

After pausing trail projects last year due to Covid, the Wasatch Mountain Club has ramped up our trail work again this year, with 2 work days already. Both days we worked on building a new section of the Bonneville Shoreline trail that will run from near the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon to Ferguson Canyon. It is a lot of work, and is still not ready for use. The work involves manual digging out of the trail on the steep hillside, creating a 3 foot wide path. Tons of dirt, trees, roots, and rocks were dug out by hand, and other bigger rocks were hauled in to shore up the trail in some places. Tools included Pulaski (part axe, part hoe) , pick, shovels, McLeod (like a huge hoe) and pruners. Sadly, It doesn't look like we will get to use dynamite.... As we got more and more tired from the work, we discussed why a “trail cat” machine could not be used on this, as it is on some other “non-wilderness” trails, and we were told that because the trail is (partly) in the BCC watershed, the regulatory approvals would have pushed the work start to very far out in the future (if ever at all!) , so it was decided to do it “by hand” and just gitterdun. If you ever hike or bike on trails, I hope you will consider joining us on this very worthwhile effort. There will be many opportunities to help until winter forces us to stop. Watch the WMC activities calender for event listings, and sign up for the hiking, biking, or conservation emails for last minute listings and updates. Not every project is hard work in hot conditions! , and every project can certainly accommodate every level of effort and ability. Some days involve building new trails, other projects will involve trimming overgrown bushes or repairing the path of existing trails. Please join us. You will be glad you did, and you can then stop feeling guilty for using trails when you have not helped build or maintain them! Trail work offers you many ways to have a better night's sleep! We shout out a huge thanks to everyone who showed up and worked in very hard, hot dusty conditions! May 22 , sponsored by the good crew of the US Forest Service. Those who worked : Ken Engstrom, Teri Jenkins, Alex Arakelian, David Andrenyak, Chris Koch, Evette Raen, Sue Baker, Ray Daurelle, Kyle Williams June 5, Sponsored by the crew of the Cottonwood Canyons Foundation. Workers: Linda Buck, Evette Raen, Alex Arakelian, Teri Jenkins, Tony Zimmer, Hardy Sherwood, Randy Long, Kyle Williams. A special shout-out to the good folks at the Cottonwood Canyons Foundation! https://cottonwoodcanyons.org/ They are a non profit organization that focuses on “Supporting the Environment of the Cottonwood Canyons Through Stewardship and Education “. They raise funds to support several full-time employees to work on building and maintaining trails in the Wasatch! If you are not able to come help physically to work on the trails, you may consider donating to this group so they can hire more people to do the work! They also sponsor a huge Wildflower Festival in the canyons each year, July 10,11,17,18. Visit their website to learn more, and to register for the events.