Written by Max Skolnick-Schur, Field Crew Leader.
We drove up the bumpy McKnight road again to the McKnight Cabin, with plans to continue our work from the previous hitch on the Black Range Crest Trail. We were doing a little bit of everything this week. In total, we brushed and spot-treaded 1.37 miles of trail, cut 67 logs, built six cairns, constructed five drains, and built one check dam. By the end of the hitch, we had worked our way to about 0.15 miles past the junction with Lake Trail #110.
This week our small but mighty crew removed lots of locust, aspen, and raspberry from the trail corridor. Armed with loppers, hand saws, tread tools, and a crosscut saw, the brush did not stand a chance. We were able to move fairly quickly through much of it, opening up the corridor and making the trail much easier to follow. Most of the logs down across the trail were fairly small and quick to cut, but there were also a few larger-diameter trees that took quite a bit more effort to remove.
Throughout the week, we were welcomed by beautiful views of the Gila and Aldo Leopold Wildernesses. Though there were not as many as the last time we were here, the raspberries were still plentiful. A few of us had also attended an invasive plant training the previous week, so we entertained ourselves along the trail by trying to identify the various grasses we encountered.
There were quite a few thunderstorms this hitch as well. Most days we spent at least some portion of the day sheltering from lightning and rain. Even with the storms slowing us down, our small crew still managed to get quite a bit of work done and push farther north along the Crest Trail.
