It was last August that we hiked the Macbeth Icefields trail, encountering over 100 deadfalls blocking the route. Catherine posted a story about our day after that trip.About a month ago I posted a note about the day four of us collected chainsaws and assorted implements of trail maintenance and cleared the deadwood in a morning's work.
Apparently, word has circulated, because many people have been using the trail in the past month. This last Sunday, 15 of us got together and hiked in. Total distance was about 14 km round trip and about 1200 meters of elevation gain. It was certainly nice to hike a trail without having to clamber over and under deadfall and apparently many others appreciate the cleared trail as well. In addition to the 15 of us, I counted 8 other hikers during the day.
The Macbeth Glacier certainly has retreated quite a bit since a picture of it was published in "Where the Locals Hike", our local trail book.
I'm pleased that so many people are out enjoying the trail to this scenic area. It certainly shows that a small group of locals can make a difference when the branches of government responsible for trails simply cannot deal effectively with trail maintenance. It's time for a change in how things are managed and maintained. That bit of organization is our next challenge.
1 comment:
thankyou for doing all that trail work so others can enjoy the backcountry. I was fortunate enough to be a Park Ranger in the days before privatization and to see the state of affairs now is disturbing. The more people out experiencing the beauty of Macbeth the greater the chances of keeping places like Jumbo free of commercial development.
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