Trail Mix

by Larry Scott, Trails Chair

“Port Ludlow – A Destination Hiking Village”

In the last Voice article, I provided an example of what Trails does about maintaining the over thirty miles of our own Port Ludlow community trails. It was an extensive To-Do list of tasks that included clearing downed trees, dropping and clearing leaning trees, adding steps, replacing steps, widening a trail, adjusting for the wet/mud, and so on, and so on; just a myriad of things to do both small and large. It stretched from one of our newest trails in the North the Oak Bay Trail (OBT) on Pioneer above the Firehouse to one of our oldest trails in the South the Around The Bay (ABT) at the far end of Ludlow Bay Road. And it also listed tasks to be done even further South on the DNR and Teal Lake trails, and West for the Timberton, both McCormicks, and Creek View Loop.  (See portludlowvillagecouncil.org/committees/trails for more information.)

This Trail Mix edition will be shorter than usual because I want to save a little space for both a before and after picture. The trail in question was the Mt. Wilder to DNR trail that connects to the Olympic Terrace Trail near Crystal Court. There were three locations where blowdowns blocked the trail because of the so-called atmospheric river storms we had in December – lots of rain and gale winds.

Blowdowns on Mt. Wilder trail. Photo credit: John Fillers

Pictured here is the area where a typical local tree brought its entire root system down with it when it decided to take a rest. Upon being notified, part of our core group of dedicated Fun Day volunteers responded and did a remarkable job in opening up that trail again in a very short time.

(L to R) Larry Scott, Jeff Sarantopulos, Mark Makarowski, Tim Rensema opening up the Mt. Wilder trail. Photo Credit: John Fillers

If you want to come out for a Fun Day of camaraderie while helping to improve our community, send me an email at mclgscott@cablespeed.com. “Let’s Keep Improving our Trails.”