 Surreal scenery in the burn area |
from Martin Kubik
As far as the Kekekabic Trail is concerned, I backpacked it November 6-8. The trail is in sorry shape. In the fire burned down area, in east third, I walked off the trail about half a dozen times, the trail disappears in front of ones eyes! At least two times I ended up bushwhacking cross country to the next land mark. One of those places was the same spot where the two women hikers from Duluth got lost. Without visible tread on ground and without marking it is easy
The central blow down segment is heavily overgrown with brush, sometimes in middle of the trail. The west segment has many treefalls and the balsam fir branches extend into the trail.
I came across several areas that were well brushed, and free of treefalls, but majority of the Kek needs a lot of TLC. My hope is that we can rally volunteers to clear it and the USFS to tolerate temporary marking in the no-man's-land of the burned down area until the tread is reestablished.
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1 comment:
Besides blazing, there are other ways to define a trail in Federally-designated Wilderness. Many of these techniques involve the complete use of natural materials. In McCormick Wilderness on the Ottawa National Forest in Upper Michigan, we used such methods as brush barricades at critical turns and lining the trail tread on both sides with small logs and branches in areas in areas where blazes and understory are sparse.
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