Horsemen Clear Trails

Twelve Spokane-area horse riders drove more than 600 miles round-trip and labored a week recently to clear trails in the Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness in southeastern Washington.

In what has become a tradition of volunteer service, the Inland Empire Chapter of Backcountry Horsemen joined with horse groups from Lewiston, Walla Walla and Tri-Cities for back-breaking work to cut blowdowns and reshape trails ravaged by winter floods and storms.

The groups concentrated their efforts on the Wenaha and South Fork Wenaha trails. But in a week, they could clear only about seven miles of trail.

“The trails are in really bad shape,” said Chris Bolich, one of the local volunteer organizers. “We cleared 19 windfalls out of the first mile of trail from the Wenaha River toward Indian Camp. We lost count after that.”

Chain saws cannot be operated in the wilderness, forcing the volunteers and Forest Service workers to clear the trees using cross-cut saws and other hand tools packed in with their horses.

A rock slide near Milk Creek turned back the volunteers until the Forest Service can go in with explosives, Bolich said.

A road washout along the Grande Ronde River near Troy forced the long drive to Elgin, Ore. to gain access to the trails.

The workers managed to salvage some recreation out of the dirty work by recouperating around the traditional campfire for stories and musings about encounters with stubborn stumps, free-thinking horses and bear cubs, elk, deer and coyotes.

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