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Scorpions Trail Crew, Pleasant Hill, OR (2026)

06/06/2026

Tuesday June 2nd - Brian, Jeff, Ron, David, and Garrett returned to Pat Saddle Trailhead on Tuesday to continue working Olallie Trail further into the Wilderness. Once they got up to the saddle where we left off last time, the work began. The sun was hot and the logs kept coming. Lots of smaller log tangles and constant work in the old burn area kept them very busy. By lunch time, they managed to just reach the fringes of the green forest.

After a restful lunch in the shade, they encountered a big tangle of old dry logs and a pile of green trees with branch tangles two feet deep. They worked each end of the tangle, chopping and cutting, finally meeting in the middle at the end of the day. After a rest, they headed back towards the cars. In all, they made it just under a 1/2 mile from the saddle jct. The good news is that the big log tangles finally seem to be thinning out now that we are in the green forest.

Thanks to all for a great day of sweaty work!

Thursday June 4th - Matthew, Sue, and Garrett headed back to Olallie Trail on Thursday to continue pushing further on the trail now known as "The Trail That Keeps On Giving". On the drive up, about half way up Forest Road 1993, a large bear ran out in front of the car. It saw us and then galloped along the road in front of us for a short distance, before running into the woods. It was a great treat and start to the day!

Once at the TH, we hiked up the trail to where we left off last time and started work. Our two newest certified sawyers ran all the cuts that day, doing a great job and having a fun time. We had several larger logs that proved challenging on where to place the cut rounds. The largest was a 24" log that we ended up just squeezing the cut round between two smaller trees and rolling off the trail (the bar proved invaluable many times). We ended up turning around about half way between the old guard station location and the (abandoned) Bear Flat Trail jct. Now that we are finally in the green forest, the log load seems to be lightening up to a more manageable amount.

We are finally far enough in on Olallie Trail that the hike in is further than we can reasonably do as a day trip, so we'll try to plan a campout sometime soon to continue. Otherwise, it's probably about time to start working up the popular Olallie Mountain Trail soon.

Thanks for a great day and fun wildlife sighting!

Tuesday June 4th – A crew of 5 Scorpions returned to the Middlefiork trail to start logging out downstream from the Indigo Springs spur trail. With two chain saws and a small battery powered pruning saw we worked our way through thick brush and logs brought down by the Emigrant Fire. We made it .4 miles before calling it a day.

Friday June 5th - Five Scorpion crew members teamed up to lead another great crew of 11 from Arclin Industries. This was Arclin’s second day of corporate giving this spring. They had so many sign up for the initial event that we had to split them into two different trail workdays. Once again, we returned to the Middlefork trail #3609 to continue restoration of the trail after last summer’s Emigrant fire.

We all arrived at Indigo Springs and had a tailgate safety session before distributing tools and divided up forming two tread teams and one logout team. This section of the trail did not burn as intensely as it did by Chuckle Springs but it did create a mess of the tread, burned 3 bridges and brought down many logs buried in branches and debris. We had previously logged out the upstream section from Indigo Springs to the burn boundary and downstream from Indigo Springs for about .4 miles. Today we were going to try and complete the logout downstream another 1000 ft or so to the burn boundary and work the tread in both directions.

The tread crews quickly got to work a short distance away from the Indigo Spring TH. They filled large burnt root holes with rock and gravel and dirt. They also cut out many burnt roots sticking 6” or more above the burnt tread. The logout crew with two chainsaws hiked in .4 miles to where we previously stopped and started cutting their way into the trail choked with brush covered logs. It was very slow going and they had to search for the trail several times since it was obscured by dense debris piles. Shortly before lunch they came across a 53” diameter Doug Fir. We had lunch pondering what to do with the mother log while two of the young energetic Arclin crew members cooled themselves by splashing around in the beautiful Middle Fork River.

We decided to skip the mother log for now and focus on completing the logout to the burn boundary. By about 1:30PM we finally made it after bucking up a last 20” cedar. We walked a 100 yards or so on the trail out of the burn boundary and was refreshingly green and clear. By the time we got back to the 53” log it almost 2PM our turn around time. The downstream logging crew arrived to greet us just as we decided to leave the big log for another time and a bigger saw. There is a way to get around it.

We all hiked back to the TH and the upstream tread crew had just arrived there as well. Both tread crews completed work on about .4 miles of trail and the logout crew made it to the burn boundary leaving only 1 53” mother log for others to admire. A huge thanks to Arclin for their enthusiasm and energy which resulted in some great work today.

After 7 trail work days on the Middle Fork trail with 68 volunteers and 533 crew hours we have completed logging out the trail in the 5 miles engulfed in the Emigrant Fire (save the one 53” log). The trail tread has also been restored in that section. Bridge repair remains to be done and the USFS is working on getting approvals and funding for this.

We hope to see you on the trail soon.

Next week's project: Eugene to Crest trail logout from Little Bunchgrass TH - Thursday June 11th
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/bdlbn

05/29/2026

Last week’s “Scorpions On The Trail” Work Summaries

Tuesday May 26th– A crew of 7 Scorpions headed to Umpqua National Forest to logout two trails, Martin Sharps #1416 and Bohemia trail #1407. Some large 36-40” logs were on both trails along with quite a few smaller logs. Fortunately, all were less than 1-mile in.

We split into 2-saw teams with and started work on the trails with saws ranging in bar length from 24” to 40”. Fortunately, most of the logs did not put up much of an argument and both teams completed work in the early afternoon.

Thursday May 28th - Brian, Matthew, Alex, and Garrett headed up to the Crossing Way TH to finish off crosscut logout on McBee Trail (to the jct with Elk Creek Trail). They arrived to cloudy skies with a tease of sun. Before starting the longer hike to where the McKenzie Trail Crew left off work, they spent a good 20 minutes brushing out the short section of trail that crosses the brushy meadow right at the TH. Afterwards, they dropped off the loppers back at the car, grabbed the crosscut saws, and headed up the trail.

After a long hike, they finally reached the start of the dozen of so logs that needed to be cut. The rain started at about that time too. They leapfrogged down the trail, cutting as they went. Thankfully, the rain mostly let up for lunch, then returned for a mild mist/drizzle. They reached the last reported log tangle before the Elk Creek Trail jct and finished up in a short tease of sun. They even had time to cut out a difficult hanging log that might have required horse packers to duck as they went under it.

Started the long slog back to the car, finally reaching it after a 10+ mile hike. The trail is now clear all the way to Elk Creek Trail jct, a great accomplishment! Thanks to all for making the long hike in the wet to get the last few logs cut out!!!....Garrett
Thursday May 28th – A crew of 8 Scorpions headed back to work on the Middle Fork trail #3609 in the Emigrant Fire scar. Our mission was to complete the logout and tread repair starting 1-mile upstream from Chuckle Springs. Last time we stopped work about .3 miles away from the end of the burn zone leaving 3 large 26-32” logs left and of course the usual fire debris and tread damage.

We all hiked in about a mile under cloudy skies until we reached the first log. A team of 3 remained to start bucking up the remainder of the large logs while the others went ahead with tread tools and several Katana-500’s to repair tread damage and buck up the remaining smaller logs.

By early afternoon the tread crew returned after completing work on another mile of trail turning around just upstream form Beaver Creek. They found the saw creek in the process of bucking the last of the large logs and helped roll a roughly 700lb round off the trail.

We have now completed logging out from Indigo Springs to Beaver Creek. Tread has been restored from Chuckles Springs to Beaver Creek. We still need to work a very difficult section downstream from Indigo Springs and repair badly damaged tread between Indigo Springs and Chuckle Springs.

We hope to see you on the trail soon.

Next week's projects:
Tuesday June 2nd - Middle Fork trail chainsaw logout
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/p8u9e

Tuesday June 2nd - Olallie trail XC-Logout
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/4txi6

05/23/2026

Thursday May 14th - A crew of 2 Scorpions (Alex and Steve) went to log out Shale Ridge trail #3567. A previous scouting report indicated this should be a quick outing. Here is their report.

What was anticipated as short workday with time to explore other areas turned into a full workday arriving back in town around 5:30 pm. The culprit in this was a 33-inch Douglas Fir.

We decided to cut the side closest to the root ball first. In just a few inches of sawing we started to hear cracking. Another three or four inches, first of multiple slabs occurred. Tried starting another cut on the opposite side only to encounter top bind. Moved back to the root ball side, sawing past the slabs, only to run into bottom bind near the end of the cut. Using three different saws (a trip back to the van by Alex) and an under bucker we finally completed the cut (12:30).

After lunch, we managed to complete the second cut. Cleared an area off the trail for the round. As we pushed the round it went a half of a turn and split almost in half! With a lot of effort, we managed to place each half off the trail. Hindsight, another person would have helped….Steve

Tuesday May 19th - On Tuesday May 19th, a strong 10-person crew worked the Olallie trail from Pat Saddle. After an initial small Scorpion outing about a month ago and 3x USFS crew workdays, we started cutting still only about 1.6mi from the trailhead due to this season’s heavy log-fall. Four saw teams leap-frogged up the trail with the saddle (at 2.2mi) tantalizingly close yet seemingly out of reach. With the turnaround time looming, and the downed logs appearing to be endless, the teams finally cleared the trail up to the saddle with enough time to nab a couple more beyond the saddle. The trail beyond the saddle as well as the trail up Olallie Mountain both received heavy doses of downed logs as well and there is plenty more to do to open the mountain trail as well as continue the Olallie trail deeper into the Three Sisters. Thanks to everyone for coming out for a hard day on the trail…Brian R.

Thursday May 21st - Four Scorpions (Brian, Jeff, Matthew, Garrett) returned to the Erma Bell Loop to finish what we started a few weeks ago. While getting ready at the TH, there was another hiker also getting ready to go to the lake and fish. Turns out he was the same person we met when we were there working a few weeks ago. He was very appreciative of our efforts and we gave him a flyer and encouraged him to join us sometime.

Once on the trail, we hiked to Middle Erma Bell Lake where we left off last time and got to work. The log load lightened up considerably, and we made it all the way to Williams Lake (and drove in the golden spike) by 11:30am. Then we turned around and worked back towards Taylor Burn. We cut out the last log in view of the TH kiosk at Taylor Burn, and then had a nice lunch at one of the picnic tables. Afterwards, we walked to the Judy Lake Trail and worked that back to the Erma Bell Trail, cutting out the few logs we encountered. On the hike back to the car, we had time to cut out an overhead log that had been there for a few years as a bonus.

So, the popular Erma Bell Loop is now logged and clear, as well as the two trails to Taylor Burn. I think this is the earliest in the season we have even be able to achieve this. Thanks to all and well done!!..Garrett

Thursday May 21st – A crew of 11 Scorpions headed to Black Creek trail #3551 in the Waldo Lk Wilderness area. This area burned heavily in the Cedar Creek Fire 2022. We made 4 trips there late last year to work the trail for the first time since the fire. We only made it 1-mile in due to heavy log load and tread damage. This year we started again. We had a crew of two work the first half mile outside of the Wz boundary with a chain saw. The rest of us headed in forming 4 XC-teams. There were about a dozen new logs down in the first mile including a few big ones with rootballs. Fortunately, we were able to make it to Lillian Falls about 1-mile in to where we stopped work last year by about noon.

After lunch we proceeded up the switch backs working the tread inch by inch since it was all washed away and buried in fire debris. The switch back is about .4 miles long and climbs 340ft. We made it maybe halfway. One crew member went ahead and ribboned the remaining section of the switch back so it will be easier to follow next time.

We hope to see you on the trail soon.

Next week's projects:
Thursday May 28th - Middle Fork Trail chainsaw logout and tread restoration
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/h6h0q

Thursday May 28th - Crosscut logout of McBee Trail
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/owk4u

05/15/2026

Last week’s “Scorpions On The Trail” Work Summaries

Tuesday 12th - A crew of 5 Scorpions returned to work on the Middle Fork trail in the Emigrant fire burn zone. We entered from the Chuckle Springs spur trail and hiked roughly a mile downstream to where we had previously stopped working. We had about .2 miles of trail more to clear before we hit the spot previously logged out by a Scorpion crew working upstream from Indigo Springs. Although it was only .2 miles it took us all day. Big logs and lots of debris and tread damage resulted in slow progress. But we did get it done. A full three miles of the roughly 6-miles of trail in zone trail has now been logged out and the tread has been repaired and restored on 2-miles. We are going to take a short break from working the Middle Fork trail to get to some Wilderness trails but we will be back soon to continue.

We hope to see you on the trail soon.

Next week's projects:
Tuesday May 19th- XC logout Olallie
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/fx7ht

Thursday May 21st - XC logout and tread restoration on Black Creek
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/098on

05/09/2026

Last week’s “Scorpions On The Trail” Work Summaries

Tuesday May 5th - A crew of 5 Scorpions returned to Fall Creek trail #3455 to continue post Bedrock Fire recovery work. We entered the trail from road 1828 and hiked about 1.5 miles downstream to where we previously stopped work. We focused on logging out the trail heading towards the point where we completed logging out upstream from Bedrock CG about .7 away. On the hike in we were surprised to see how much the brush had grown in the first part of the trail close to the creek. We had it all cleared a short 4-weeks ago but now the Fireweed is up to our waist. Further in the brush is not too bad.

Once we reached the first log which was on top of an old bridge we broke into two chain saw teams and started making noise. By about 2PM we made it almost .4 miles to a rocky flat area where Portland Creek drains into Fall Creek. We have about .3 miles to go before we complete this section of trail.

Thursday May 7th - A pile of nine Scorpions started work on the popular Erma Bell Lakes Loop. This popular loop is always a favorite and we try to get it logged out for the many trail users as soon as possible. With this season's lack of snow, we were in there a full month earlier that usual. We even saw two hikers that day, who both expressed thanks for our work. At one point in the morning, a few mosquitos said hello, then disappeared for the rest of the day. Could be a sign that the Great Hatch isn't far off.

We split into two teams, Team Otter Lake (5 people) and Team Erma Bell (4 people). Team Erma Bell went counter-clockwise on the loop (passing by Erma Bell Lakes first) and had a number of good logs to cut, with a few larger ones that required careful planning on how to get the rounds off the trail. One ended up needing a third cut to free the round due to lack of space to cut the needed angle. In all, they finished at the waterfall at the outflow of the middle lake.

Team Otter Lake went clockwise on the loop (passing by Otter Lake first) to get a start on the reported big tangle/mess areas. They ended up being less time consuming than originally thought, finishing both by lunch time. In the end, the team made it all the way to Williams Lake, well done!

There are only about a dozen logged left, mostly at the bottom of the loop. What a great day and well done team!!....Garrett

Friday May 8th – Three Scorpions led a crew of 12 employees of Arclin Industries and the Willamette Valley Company to continue post Emigrant Fire recovery work on the Middle Fork trail #3609. We entered the trail by Chuckle Springs and hiked roughly .3 miles down past the impressive Chuckle Springs to the junction with the Middle Fork trail. The previous week we worked downstream, today we hung a left and headed upstream. The trail from this junction upstream was in the hottest area of the Emigrant fire and was previously burned in the Tumblebug fire of 2009. On a previous scouting trip, we flagged the trail to the end of the burn zone about 1.5 miles upstream using a GPS track because it was very difficult to follow in spots. The trail was littered with many charcoaled logs some over 30” in diameter as well as lots of burnt branches, brush and root holes.

Seven of us split into 2-saw teams and started bucking up logs. The rest of the crew armed with loppers, hand saws and tread tools started clearing the corridor and restoring the tread. This section of trail climbs several hundred feet above the Middle Fork. Prior to last year’s fire you could hear the creek roaring below but had only limited views of it. Now it’s totally open with some amazing views of the gorge where the rivers cascades down a steep narrow grade. It was a beautiful day, no mosquitoes yet but plenty of charcoal around to paint our faces with. By about 2PM we made it .9 miles upstream and started to hike back. The tread on the way back looks great, all the debris was been cleared, a nice wide corridor and the large root holes were filled in with rock and tamped down. We have about .3 miles to go further upstream before we exit the burn zone. We will be back here soon.

Arclin Industries has been coming out with us to do trail work twice a year for the last 4-years or so. They are now joined by employees of the Willamette Valley Company. They are always enthusiastic and do great work. It is a pleasure for us to work with them.

We hope to see you on the trail soon.

Next week's project:

Tuesday May 12th - Middle Fork trail logout and tread restoration
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/y3j1j

05/02/2026

Last week’s “Scorpions On The Trail” Work Summaries

Saturday April 25th - On Saturday 4-25-2026, Brian and Garrett returned to Separation Lake Trail, taking advantage of clear skies and a beautiful day. They made their way down the trail to the destruction area, and (following nicely detailed directions from the McKenzie Trail Crew) flagged out the suggested reroute/diversion around the piled jackstraws of logs. The reroute will include cutting about 6-8 logs (one is about 36" but should be fairly straightforward) and a good amount of tread work. The total length is maybe 150 feet, and it ties very nicely back into both ends of the trail. We will coordinate with the McKenzie Trail Crew on that project sometime in the future.

Afterwards, they continued on and resumed logging out where we left off last time. The objective was to get the rest of the scouted logs cut out. Once they finished up with the bigger timber beyond George Creek (and found a pair of safety glasses in the process), they finally made it down to the bottom of the canyon and had lunch in sight of Separation Creek. Afterwards, they skipped over a 30" log to cut out the rest on up the trail, then returned back to the big log for the final project of the day. The big log was a lot of sawing, but on the ground and straight forward. They ended up staying later to finish up and finally got the big round pushed out of the way.

Made the loooooong slog back up out of the canyon, getting back to the car right at 6:00pm. Tired but very satisfied that everything was accomplished. So, the trail is logged and clear from the TH all the way to Separation Lake, except for the destruction area. We'll coordinate work there with the McKenzie Trail Crew for sometime in the future.

Thanks for the great day!

Saturday April 28th - Brian and Garrett decided to take advantage of the low snowpack and headed up to Olallie Trail out of Pat Saddle Trailhead on Tuesday 4-28. We drove up the "back way" due to the construction closure at Cougar Dam. The road was snow free with a few down log messed that had been minimally cut out enough to allow a car to pass through (hopefully they get cut back further soon). On one section, there was a logging project that had chewed and roughed up the roadbed a bunch, but not enough that we couldn't drive over it (hopefully that gets smoothed out/repaired when they are done). Made it to Pat Saddle Trailhead and used the chainsaw to cut out two logs across the trailhead loop parking area. As a bonus, we chainsaw cut out two more logs on French Pete Creek Trail just outside the Wilderness Boundary. Afterwards, we finally geared up for crosscut work and headed up Olallie Trail towards Olallie Mountain.

We had average downfall to cut out while still in the green forest, then encountered lots of piled log messes as soon as reaching the first old open burn area, approx .6 miles from the trailhead. We spent time looking over some of the messes, having lunch, and cutting out a few hazard rollers (in prep for having a big crew working in there later). We also cut out a few more logs that our two person crew could manage, then decided to hike up to the jct with Olallie Mountain Trail to see what we could find.

We discovered that winter was not kind to Olallie Trail. We counted over 100 logs that need to be addressed up to the jct. Some are small-ish, some can be moved with bars, and some are large and complex. There are a number of complex logs on the open sideslope on the last uphill section just before reaching the Olallie Mountain Trail jct. We briefly looked further down the trail and counted a dozen more logs before loosing sight of the trail. All of this will take multiple crews multiple days to get cut out and clear.

So, plenty of work to do on Olallie Trail just to even reach the jct with the Mountain Trail, with some areas having some complex log tangles (25"+). The work starts about .6 miles from the trailhead, so a big crew with lots of saws and bars will not have far to hike before the fun starts.

No shortage of work for us this year!

Thursday April 30th - Nine Scorpion crew members drove to the Chuckle Springs Trailhead and started working on restoring the tread from the spur trail from the parking lot down to Chuckle Springs and to the junction with the Middle Fork trail. Many crew members filled their water bottles with cold spring water.
We then continued downstream where we logged out the previous week restoring and repairing the fire damaged tread. We made it past the burnt second bridge and filled in large holes with large rocks and made the trail both visible and decent. We still have about 1/8 of a mile to log out between Chuckle Springs and Indigo springs plus about a mile more of tread to restore. We also need to log out and work tread upstream from the Chuckle Springs/MFT junction.

We hope to see you on the trail soon.

Next week's projects:
Tuesday May 5th - Fall Creek trail chainsaw logout
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/hnjnb

Tuesday My 5th - Erma Bells/Williams Lk XC-logout
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/ixkvg

Thursday May 7th - Erma Bells/Williams Lk XC-logout continued
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/b13gp

04/25/2026

Thursday April 23rd – A crew of 11 Scorpions started post Emigrant Fire restoration on the Middle Fork trail #3609. The Emigrant fire started by a lightning strike on August 24th, 2025. It burned over 33K acres and damaged about 5-miles of the Middle Fork trail. The most severe trail damage was upstream from Indigo Springs for about 3.5 miles. When the fire reached Chuckle Springs it burned extremely hot in the 2009 Tumblebug fire scar. Numerous bridges and puncheons were burned, the trail is littered with many large 100 to 300 year-old trees , the tread is heavily damaged and in places the trail is very difficult to find in spots unless you have a GPS track to follow. This is a very popular trail with equestrians, hikers and bikers and offers stunning views of the beautiful Middle Fork river.

The roughly 1.6 mile section of trail between Indigo Springs and Chuckle Springs has close to 90 - logs down and lots of debris. Our focus on this first restoration trip was to start the logout. We split into two crews. A crew of 5 with two saws started from Indigo Springs and worked upstream. A second crew of 6 and 3-saws started at Chuckle Springs and worked downstream with hopes of connecting with the Indigo crew before the end of the day.

Both crews encountered many logs between 30 and 40 inches in diameter, some required complex cuts and were on steep side slope with logs on top. The tread was often uneven and loose due to burnt roots and lots of debris and limbs, burnt rhododendrons, etc. Very slow going. The brake on one of the Chuckles crew larger bar saws broke halfway through the morning. Fortunately, we had a spare 32” Husky in the truck at the TH which was not very far away.

At the end of the day the Indigo crew made it about 1.1 miles upstream. The Chuckles crew made it .4 miles downstream. We never heard each other’s saws going but we were only a few tenths of a mile apart. We had set a turn around time regardless of where we were at 2PM. So, we both packed up and headed back to the respective trail heads at that time. Although the crews did not meet up, we all felt we made good progress considering the challenging cutting.

We will be back next week with a tread crew to work downstream from Chuckles and perhaps a saw team to try and complete the last .2 miles of logout on this section. Lot’s more to do, but it is a start.

We hope to see you on the trail soon.

Next week's project: Tread work on the Middlefork trail Thursday April 30
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/a91kk

04/18/2026

Last week’s “Scorpions On The Trail” Work Summaries

Tuesday April 7th – A crew of 8 Scorpions returned to Fall Creek trail #3455. This was our 12th trip there this year trying to restore the trail after the Bedrock Fire in 2023. We are currently working on the trail down stream from road 1828. This has been the toughest stretch of trail to work due to dense and heavy brushy growth and many logs. We hiked in to where we previously stopped working just upstream from Puma CG. We sent one crew member ahead with ribbon to continue marking where the trail is since it is very difficult to follow through the brush and log piles. Two saw teams started buzzing and the brushing team went to work. By the end of the day at around 2PM we finally made it past Puma CG, maybe another third mile of forward progress. We have less than a half mile to go before we connect with our upstream work from Bedrock.

Thursday April 9th - What a great day on Separation Lake Trail. A whole pile of 11 Scorpions headed into Three Sisters Wilderness Area eager for some good timber to cut. They were not disappointed. We split into 4 saw teams and headed out under mostly clear skies and calm weather. We leapfrogged each other, cutting out the logs up to the destruction area. Once there, we nibbled a bit on both sides of the destruction, while a few crews pushed on to the "lesser" tangles and messes. So many complex and interesting logs met their fate at the teeth of many saws. Some notable things were:
- A huge rootball sitting itself back down in its hole after the log was cut (this really helped clear the beginning of the destruction area).
- A big "4 cut" log (2 cuts waaaay off the trail to drop it down so we could reach it, then two more cuts at the trail to open up passage).
- Many booms and echos through the forest as large logs were cut and crashed down.
- One particularly innocent looking log that proved to be so problematic that it had to be chunked out on both sides, sucking a bit of our souls with it.

We are about 1/2 mile beyond George Creek, with more to do as we get near the bottom of the canyon (plus the destruction area project). On the long uphill hike out we were accompanied by rain, thunder and hail.

Thanks to all for a great and productive day, as well as staying safe through all the complex cutting!

Thursday and Friday April 16-17 – A crew of 10 Scorpions did a 2-day trail work stint at Drift Creek Wilderness Area in Siuslaw NF. We were provided with one of the Foerst Service houses in Waldport to stay for 3-nights and possibly 3-days of work. Our mission was to clear the Horse Creek South trail of logs so the rangers could bring in a youth crew later two work on several slides about 3 ½ miles in.

On Thursday morning we arrived at the TH at about 9:30AM. Two of us lingered behind the main crew and cleared the 1.6 miles of trail leading to the wilderness boundary. The rest sprinted in with 3 big XC-saws, Pulaski’s, 3-Al pry bars, under buckers and other assorted tools to battle with the wilderness section logs. The log load was light and relatively straight forward until we got to the first slide. A large ~ 3ft diameter cedar limb sheared off its mother tree (~ 6-7ft in diameter) from up high. It took out a 24” fir on it’s way down and they both buried the trail with tons of debris. Half the crew stayed here to first try and uncover the hidden trail which included a switchback and to hopefully figure out how to safely buck up the two logs.

The other half of the crew went maybe a quarter mile further to the second slide area. There three trees on a very steep side slope brought down a hillside of soil and rock completely burying the trail. Two large (3+ ft) logs were perpendicular to where the trail once was and were very difficult to get over. The upper ends of the logs, about 20 ft up where against a large fir rootball. It was not clear if the rootball would stay put if the lower logs were cut or moved.

Both crews took plenty of time assessing the hazards and debating options to hopefully come up with a safe attack plan including walking away and proposing a reroute. By the end of day 1 the first slide area was cleared of one of the two logs. The large cedar remained. The second slide crew had formulated a plan they would ponder and sleep on.

On Friday we again hiked in and started work on these two slides. The first slide crew completed the cut of the cedar using underbuckers. Fortunately one cut with prybars and muscles aided by log rails and gravity convinced the cedar to move off the trail. Two crew members remained to try and make the tread at least passible.

We hiked passed the second slide crew and continued logging on our way down to Drift Creek. The logs came fast and furious and large or small they were all difficult and argumentative. We did more underbucking and single bucking on this trip than we have all year. We were within sight of Drift Creek when we decided to head back. We were all just too tired to safely work on the few large logs left before trails end. We had to stop on wait at a safe distance for the second slide team to complete their last cut on the logs across the trail. They had determined the rootball up high was stable and had already got one of the two logs off the trail. We watched as they completed their last cut on the remaining log and were then treated to a lesson in serious pry bar abuse. Using three Al-pry bars on a steep slope they rocked and rolled the log section for quite a while before it finally got the message and rolled off the trail. Fortunately, we were too far away to hear any of the colorful language used during the symphony of pry bars.

After a brief end-of-day discussion we decided that our primary mission to clear the logs so a tread crew can repair the slides was accomplished and we would not return on Saturday for the last few logs. In two days we hiked about 15 miles and bucked up and removed many complex logs. Thanks to the great crew for all the hard work and detailed assessments that enabled clearing this section of trail safely. Also, big thanks to Siuslaw NF for the invite to do this work and for providing accommodation.

We hope to see you on the trail soon.

Next week's project: Middle fork #3609 trail logout Thursday April 23
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/yfygl

Scorpions Trail Crew

06/06/2026

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05/23/2026

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