More North Country trail maint!

On Saturday morning with NOAA predicting moderate temps, we headed back to our section of the NCT to do more clearing of it. The weeds are getting to be chest high after all!

Trail mutts know to stay close by, when equipment is being loaded.

We of course went to our favorite camping site on Gardner RD.

1st thing, I spied a juvenile chipmunk in the camp wood pile!

After camp was set up, we drove around to check out the 2-track
going to a parking location with better assess to the trail.
Instead we found trees across the road.

No problem for a trusty pole saw!

 

1/2 an hour later we moved forward.
This was to be the theme for the weekend.

This is the cabin road we've used in years past.
The water across it was deeper than we cared to test.
It's been such a wet summer.

Back to camp, we packed our tools and hiked west on the
beaver dam bypass trail.
Soon we found more trees had fallen across it.

While working on that we heard chicks squeaking high in the canopy
and then saw sap suckers coming and going to feed them.
We'd never seen them at a nest hole before.

And then more trees were found across the trail.
We'd just been here 4 days ago!

After that was cleared, we headed west again.
This is a log beavers had left on the trail.

More trees that recently fell.

After clearing a mile west, we headed back to camp and
I got a nice cool drink in Tank creek.

What a day!  Now we relax by the fire and get ready to eat.

Hummmm salad.

And steak on the fire.

This is what camping and trail work, is all about.

We had such a nice evening to relax.

The next morning, it was gorgeous out.

Hummmmmm camp favorite, pancakes and bacon.
I had lame kibble.

We hiked down the gated FS road, in to the top of the Ontonagon river gorge.
Our plan was to start clearing our way east, towards our camp.

Instead of that, we found trees had fallen across the trail in each direction
from the FS road. This is the trail that head down to the river.
This is not our section, but we cleared them anyway.

Pole saw was used again and again this weekend.

This is looking better.

All cleared!

Now we finally head down our section, and we find a tree
 had fallen across it within 100ft.

All better!

Then the grass, weeds, and saplings were mowed.

This is Darling creek.  We hoped to clear the trail further east than here!

We found the creek was so deep and wide, we didn't care to try wading
or jumping across.This was the 1st time we'd ever not crossed it.

We walked back the 1 1/2 miles on this road.

I've been up all day and just can't stay awake any longer, 
10yo trail dogs do that ya know.