I have been hearing a lot of angry hikers that the USFS has not been doing a good enough job in trail maintenance and it has been bugging me. Even after telling people that almost all trail work is done by volunteers and pcta volunteers… They just want to complain to the pcta. I am not sure if/when hikers will realize that they are the ones that should be signing up for maintenance after they have finished… But people could actually be working as they hike as well. I came across 9 trees similar to the one below and they all had alternate paths around them which ranks similar to switchback cutting in my head- the multiple trails around areas leads to more erosion and a much dirtier appearance.

It only took about 4 minutes to set my pack down and break the branches of this one… And then close the old detour around it. When I get back to Washington… I will be joining the good folks in WTA for their trail work parties whenever I can. I didn’t take pictures of all of the issues but some simple ones looked like the detour path was about one year old. That is the end of my rant… I am happier now 🙂