Hikers: Pat, Lincoln, Luna
Weather: 40s and 50s, Sunny
Miles: 15.0
Elevation Gain: 2950 ft
Duration: 9.0 hrs
This was my first maintenance trip to my newly adopted trail, the 2.5-mile section of the Isolation Trail from the Davis Path to the Dry River Trail. It also turned out to be the first hike with our new dogs Lincoln, and Luna.
I had never hiked the section of trail that I adopted, but I had seen the end of the trail on the Davis Path and it looked very overgrown and hardly passable. One of the reasons I decided to adopt the trail was that I knew it needed work, and I felt it would be very rewarding to make a big difference. My goal on this first trip was largely to see what I was up against so I only brought a saw and some loppers. With the saw, I hoped to clear out all the blow downs and make the trail passable, and with the loppers, I wanted to cut back the overgrowth as much as possible.
In some ways, the trail was in better shape than I expected. I didn’t come across any major blowdowns; it appears the Forrest Service was able to send a trail crew through this year. The trail was still heavily overgrown. By the time I reached the Davis Path, I was absolutely soaked from constantly pushing through dew soaked branches. I spent three and a half hours clipping back branches that were extending over the trail, but I doubt I even covered a half-mile of trail. Obviously, there is a lot of brushing work remaining, but otherwise the trail is in decent shape.
It took me about 2 hours to drive to the trailhead from home, 2 hrs to hike the 5 miles of the Dry River Trail to the beginning of my trail, and 1 hour and 15 minutes to hike the 2.5 miles up my section of the Isolation Trail.
It’s a nice hike, and the dogs did very well, despite getting bored during my trailwork.
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