Partner Accomplishments through June 11th
While MVTC’s small but mighty crew is logging trails across the forest, we’re heartened to know that our partners are also accomplishing great work keeping trails open and accessible across the Methow Valley. This blog post highlights some of the accomplishments undertaken by partners with volunteer and professional trail programs from May 1st, 2025, to June 11th. It's an impressive roster of work and a testament to the valley's dedication to public service and stewarding public lands.
Human and Equine volounteers from the BCHW pose for a photo with MVRD staff at the Andrew’s Creek trailhead.
Backcountry Horsmen of Washington— Andrews Creek Trail, Memorial Day Weekend: A crew of equestrian volunteers, accompanied by Foerst Service Staff, spent the long weekend working on the Andrews Creek Trail. This thoroughfare into the Pasayten is always a big lift to get open. The crew made substantial progress during their four-day work party. They cleared logs to the snowline approximately nine miles up the trail. Deferred brushing of willows and slide alder was also accomplished during the long weekend.
MVTC plans to clear the remaining six miles of trail in late June to finish clearing this Pasayren artery to the Cathedral area.
Methow Valley Ranger District—Chewuch Trail 06/02-06/05: Two of the four Methow Ranger District trails staff spent four days clearing logs on the Chewuch Trail from the 30-mile trailhead. The duo made it six miles up the trail during their work week and were glad to make progress maintaining access into the Pasayten Wilderness. The duo spent some time cleaning up chainsaw cuts in the Wilderness from an unknown sawyer. Regardless of intentions, chainsaw use is still prohibited in Wildenress. The cleanups were to clear logs to equestrian access standard, 4’ from the tread center. Another volunteer crew from the Backcountry Horsmen of Washington has this trail on their docket later in the summer.
Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance Methow Chapter: On top of their new trail builds at North Summit, Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance’s professional crew has been busy keeping mountain bike trails well-maintained across the valley. Evergreen has logged 25 miles of trail at Sun Mountain ( around 150 trees removed this spring). In addition to the early season push, they re-loged out most of the Sun Mountain area trails after the late May wind event.
At the Loup, Evergreen staff and volunteers logged out the following trails: Bear with me ( 1.5 miles), Oso Peligroso ( 3 miles), Ursus ( 1.0 miles), Telemark ( 2.0 miles), and Fozzie Bear Inventions ( 0.8 miles).
Last evergreen staff partnered with volunteers from the motorized trail community to clear the Bear Mountain and Middle Fork trails in the Tripod area.
Methow Trails: In addition to their annual summer maintenance on the ski trail network, Methow Trails has taken on two additional projects this summer. First, their property's mountain bike skills park is now open for business! This resource is a great place to work on riding for all ability levels. It’s in a shady corner of the property close to the entrance and should be on every local biker's list to check out.
Second, Methow Trails is repairing the iconic Tawlks-Foster Suspension Bridge in Mazama. The work period is approximately 5/13-6/30, and work days will typically be Tuesdays through Thursdays.
The bridge will be CLOSED to trail users on work days for public safety and liability reasons.
If no work crew is present, the bridge is open as usual to all users.
Other Work Accomplished:
Billy goat and Larch Pass trails were cleared to the Wilderness boundaries on June 1st by local stock outfitter Darwood Outfitting. Valley volunteers' trip report to Hidden Lakes indicates that heavy logs are across the Hidden Lakes Trail to the cabin. Most trees are small in diameter, but hikers should expect to crawl through trees past the wilderness boundary until work can continue.
A trail runner with a hand saw cleared Slate Creek Trail to its terminus at Slate Lake on 06/10. He encountered eight trees obscuring the trail and cut them out to stock speck(4’ from tread center). Powerful work for a solo volunteer day!
Testing the limits of a Silky Katana boy with a 40 minute cut on Slate. Really impressive effort!
I’m tired from recounting all that hard work. I hope you can get out and enjoy some of these trails.