Logout, Washouts, and Chasing Snowlines, April 2026

It’s a low snow year and the earliest start to the MVTC’s trail season ever. In our collective memory, dating back to working in the area since 2016, we can’t remember having access to some of the summer trails this early in the year. While we can’t control the weather, we can get out on trails and start clearing blowdown. MVTC brought on our seasonal Trails Coordinator at the start of April and hit the ground cutting. This is our third year with this position, and in 2026, we switched Nicks. Nick Monro has stepped into the role after a successful year leading our backcountry crew and has almost a decade of experience working on trails in the area. We couldn’t ask for a better candidate.

Nick M. M working with a long time MVTC volunteer, Karl, to clear logs from Wolf Creek.

Since March 30th, we’ve been out clearing trails and assessing damage from this winter's rain, in particular from the December atmospheric river storm sequence that occurred in the region. All trails that we have worked on so far this April have had heavy log loads and cutting with several notable washouts.

This early April, the Collaborative, along with the help of several solid volunteers, has worked on the Monument Creek Trail, Cedar Creek, Wolf Creek, Twisp River Trail, and has also assisted the local Methow chapter of the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance (EMBA) up at the Sun Mountain trail system.

So, what have we been working on?

We logged out the first 3.5 miles of the Monument Creek Trail to the Eureka Creek Footlog. Encountered heavy cutting, 80 trees cut out, with a surprising number of green trees down. Ran across 2 notable washouts around mile marker 3, and are getting a plan together to address those in conjunction with the Forest Service this spring. Cedar Creek Trail is cut out to the Falls about 1.7 miles up the trail, again, heavy cutting, 75-80 trees cut out. 3 notable washouts within the first mile that are unfriendly to stock or bikes, and we have a plan together to address that damage later this spring. We’re looking for volunteers to help fix these washouts later this month. We made slow but steady progress on Wolf Creek, with the road and the first 2 trail miles cut out. The same goes for the Twisp River Trail, slow and steady, with the trail logged out from the Buttermilk TH up valley to the War Creek road. All trails we worked on had patchy snow that is rapidly receding as I type this, and all trails mentioned, we cut out the roads to get to the trailheads.

Our director, Allen, out of the office clearing blowdown from Cedar Creek.

Looking forward to getting more work done this spring around the District.