Winsor Trail Tread Maintenance

This project focused on rehabilitating a section of the Winsor Trail between the Ski Basin trailhead and the termination of the first long switchback above the trail head, approximately a half mile of the trail. Most of the trail was in a severely degraded condition with large rocks and roots protruding up from the trail and representing a trip hazard. In some cases, the track was overly narrow, and in other cases, hikers had created side-by-side (dual) tracks. Much of the trail was not graded so water drained off the trail instead of down the trail tread. At some locations, this was causing severe erosion of the trail.

The number of TERMITES volunteers working each project day varied from 2-6 volunteers. Each team is led by a team lead, and where crosscut sawing was required a US Forest Service-certified crosscut sawyer was present to guide the sawing operation.

Trail maintenance activities lasted much of the 2023 maintenance season with teams working on average of one or two days per week to complete the project. Due to heavy winter snow, maintenance activity on this section of the trail did not begin until late June 2023. Maintenance activities included: 1) Removing rocks and roots from the trail; 2) sawing and removing newly fallen trees blocking the trail; 3) sawing and removing tree and tree debris encroaching on the trail; 4) where multiple tracks existed, combing them into a single track using the best of the two tracks into the new single track and closing the old track, and 6) grading the track to facilitate drainage. 7) Employing a new technique, a battery-operated reciprocating saw was used to saw roots with larger roots that represented a trip hazard. This not only reduced the labor required to remove roots from the trail, especially large roots, but it also reduced the time required to cut large roots.

Activities associated with this project included team members using the crosscut saw and smaller pruning saws to cut large and smaller trees, using a battery-powered reciprocating saw for sawing larger roots, using a Pick Mattock for digging around large roots and roots, using the Pick Mattock to grade the surface of the trail and facilitate drainage, and a rake for moving loose dirt into holes in the trail created by the removal of rocks and roots, and for removing loose rocks from the trail and for trail tread finishing.

Because this is a heavily used trail, trail maintenance caution signs and other steps, including stopping work or halting trail users, were employed to ensure trail user safety. 

Maintenance work was completed on approximately 95% of this section of the Winsor Trail.

Trail maintenance tasks remain to be accomplished on a limited number of very short trail sections that were skipped in 2023. The skipped trail sections are scheduled for completion during the 2024 maintenance season. The project will then shift to the second switchback where the same types of maintenance activities will be performed. However, it is believed that the second switchback will be less of a challenge than the first switchback.