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The North 350 Blades are a newly organized group of volunteers, only starting during the 2010 maintenance season. Our purpose is to make the North Cascades section the crown jewel of the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail.
We’re currently focused on that section of the PCT extending south from Snoqualmie Pass for about 30 to 40 miles or so. As the group name implies, we hope to expand our reach to cover the entire 350 miles of the North Cascades Region, from White Pass in the south to the Canadian border in the north.
The idea for the Blades grew out of experiences on this section of the PCT during section and thru hikes – it was in tough shape in many places, and needed some TLC. Brush and eroded tread are the 2 areas that will receive our attention in the near term.
Many of the Blades are veteran trail maintainers who also volunteer with the Washington Trails Association. Others are new to the game and are learning on the job and at training events such as Trail Skills College in Cascade Locks. We’ve recruited from the ranks of the WTA, on the PCT-L e-mail list, via PCTA e-mails, Facebook, NWHikers.net and out on the trail when we see hikers.
Our goal during these initial couple years is to build the volunteer base by hosting several weekend car camp work parties as well as numerous single day events. By initially taking on small projects, we can have an immediate positive impact on the hiker experience while in this organization building phase. One advantage to the area we’re working on is that access is extremely good. Few parts of the trail are more than a couple miles from a forest road crossing. This allows new volunteers to try out trail work without a huge commitment.
The weekends will be mostly focused on tackling specific tread restoration projects – installing check steps on eroded sections of tread, reconstruction of failing turnpikes, elimination of slough and berm and annual maintenance such as drain clearing and log out.
Single day events tend to focus on brushing, although there will likely be a few dedicated brushing weekends. The trail south of Snoqualmie Pass is through a checkerboard of former clear cuts and old growth / mature second growth. This provides optimal growing conditions for copious huckleberries in the former clear cuts. These huckleberries are tasty treats during thru hiker season, but the brush also soaks hikers on the plentiful damp days here in Washington. In this non-Wilderness area, we employ brush saws to speed the work significantly. We have found that a 4 person crew with a saw can clear about 1,000 feet of trail a day – many times what could be done with hand tools. As this area hasn’t seen much sustained maintenance over the years, there is a substantial amount of brush to clear to get this section of trail back up to standard
In the future, we expect to expand to include deeper forays into the back country and tackling more complex, longer term projects. We also anticipate building toward having regular teams dedicated to specific sections of the trail or projects – section stewards and “brushing days” for example. With the limited maintenance season here in the Northwest, July through September, we need to do a lot in a short period of time.
Tools and hard hats are provided courtesy of the well stocked PCTA cache. Project planning and coordination is with or by the local PCTA Regional Representative who is the primary point of contact with the USFS. |
