Heavy Rain Damages Scenic Trail
The recent heavy rains damaged several sections of the Taft Tunnel Trail, which locals hope to turn into a biking and hiking trail.
The trail runs from Idaho’s Lookout Pass to Taft, Mont., then back into Idaho to meet the North Fork of the St. Joe River.
The most serious damage on the southern end of the trail is a washout of a gravel slope used to span a canyon. Water pouring down a hillside ripped away a 200-foot stretch of the slope, roughly 100 feet high.
“It’s almost a vertical drop-off,” said John Neirinckx, operations engineer for the U.S. Forest Service in Coeur d’Alene. “It’s very dangerous.”
The section is about 2 miles south of the west portal of the Taft Tunnel, which spans the Idaho/Montana border. Loop Creek Road, which leads up to the trail, was closed at Pearson due to road damage.
The washout was caused when a diversion ditch carrying water from Moss Creek clogged, and the water ran downhill, turning the railroad grade to mud. The resulting slide carried off 100,000 cubic yards of the railbed.
Neirinckx said the Forest Service hopes to repair the damage with emergency federal highway funds money. He was unsure of the cost.
The Forest Service has been flying over the forests to determine the damage to roads and hillsides from recent rains.
, DataTimes