Just as every mile on the PNT provides a unique hiking experience, it also creates a unique set of challenges for trail maintainers. To create a continuous pathway from Crown to Coast, we’ve made it our mission to ensure that every mile gets its due no matter how challenging it may be to service.
For PNTA trail crews, this can involve spending extra time working in Washington’s remote Pasayten Wilderness, lush temperate rainforests, and other areas where frequent maintenance is needed. In recent years, our crews have also spent an increasing amount of time working in areas that have been impacted by wildfire.
After large wildfires are put out, nature needs time to reflourish and trail crews will have extra work to do to give her a helping hand. To protect trails in these vulnerable and recovering areas, crews may need to inspect trails more frequently and take extra steps to protect the tread from further damage.
Above: The Spur-Walker Fire burned 23,331 Acres around Mt Bonaparte in 2021. PNTA crews have spent two seasons working to repair the trail from the fire and subsequent washouts.
Once clingy and full of organic life, after an intense fire, soil can become loose and prone to erosion. Trails in steep terrain are especially vulnerable to further damage from heavy rain or snow. Crews may also spend more time building things; creating or replacing trail structures, and “realigning” and repairing damaged tread until native plants can stabilize the area again.
Above: A PNTA trail crew rebuilds a puncheon walkway in a ghost forest left by the 2015 Stickpin Fire in the Northern Kettle Crest Trail System.
In forested areas, fires can leave behind “ghost” or “snag forests” containing seemingly countless standing dead trees. It’s no secret that more trees fall per mile in these places, but did you know that removing each of these logs can require more effort as well? During a wildfire, bark can become carbonized and wood can become fire-hardened. These logs can be slower to cut and with more effort. Seasoned sawyers know that they can dull cutting tools much more quickly and change the experience of using a crosscut saw. Carbonized logs don’t produce noodles, only sawdust, and working with them can make for a tough and dirty job.
Above: In the fall of 2022, six miles of the PNT in North Cascades National Park were badly damaged by wildfire. 2024 will maker our second season working with the park to restore and reopen the PNT between the Chilliwack River and Whatcom Pass.
Brushing also becomes a beastly task for crews working in burned areas. In ghost forests, fast-growing woody saplings, like alder and willow, don’t have to compete with mature trees for sunlight cast across the forest floor. In these hot shadeless conditions they can grow even faster and will quickly create bushwhack-like trail conditions if not for vigilant maintenance. The Stickpin Fire, which burned the PNT in the northern Kettle River Range in 2015 is an example of an area that has required twice the typical amount of brushing, even 9 years after the fire was put out.
Despite these challenges, this is our way. Working in challenging weather conditions and tough environments and learning how to “suffer well” is a formative part of the trail crew experience at the PNTA.
Get updates on our progress working in burned areas like North Cascades National Park, here and on our Facebook page.