This week the crew dodged some hail storms while working on the Skyline trail with the Montana Conservation Corps.  The MCC crew finished their 8 day hitch and helped to narrow and improve 1.2 miles of tread on the eastern end of the Skyline ridge.  The youth crew had a big day on the Ski Lake trail clearing 104 drainage features and several large trees between the lake and the ridge.  We also installed 22 more of the new trail signs around Snow King, we will get more out next week and then have several volunteer groups in August who should help us finish the Snow King area trails.  A note about these signs, they are part of a several year project to map and define USFS system trails, and match with the town and county signs on roads and pathways to help people seamlessly navigate from their homes to an adventure in the forest and back safely.  They are all labeled, numbered, and gps’ed for Teton County Search and Rescue to better locate any injured trail users.  That being said, be safe out on the trails this weekend so you don’t need to call our friends at TCSAR.

Big week on the trails with lots of folks out enjoying the holiday weekend.  The crew spent Monday  prepping for the Montana Conservation Corp crew which gets here next week to work on the center section of the Skyline trail.  This meant moving twelve – 40 pound “cubies” of water up 1.5 miles up to the Coors Light saddle (the mid way saddle on the western climb of Skyline, named for the discarded beverage of choice left behind at an old hunting camp we found there).  A big thanks to Engine 441 from the USFS for helping with this.  We then worked the trail from the Cache Game divide down to the bridge on Cache Creek, fixing tread, rock raking, and improving water bars.  We also added big rocks to the section of the Cache Trail where the river was washing out.  We saw ~70 bikers, hikers, and runners on the Skyline, Cache, and Game trails.  The crew also finished the reroute in Game Creek around 3 seeps and rehabbed the muddy mess.  The Operation Purple military group from Teton Science School came and helped at Wildlife Lane on Thursday.  46 hard working volunteers built a short reroute to bring the Linda’s and Wildlife Lane trails to 1 junction point on the KC trail.  They also rehabbed the old trails and opened up the line of sight at the junction.  We also hosted another group from TSS that helped us to close and rehab an old alternate trail in the Sink or Swim area that was unsustainable.  The Youth Crew then moved into Tank Top Thursday and prepped the slab for the new bike locker storage at Stilson.  All in all a fun week with great help from volunteers.  If you would like the opportunity to volunteer come out Monday from 4-8 to the joint volunteer day with MBT and TFR on the Black Canyon trail from Teton Pass to Mount Elly.

All the trails on Snow King, Teton Pass, and Munger are open including Skyline!  Crews had a busy week doing maintenance on turnpikes on the History Trail and removing a 60 inch diameter Douglas Fir that had fallen over the winter.  Then they worked with a volunteer groups from Teton Science School to remove invasive species in Game Creek including Musk Thistle and Houndstongue.  Crews also worked on a reroute around several seeps on the Game Creek singletrack.  We had a chance to work with the USFS River Rangers to make an evac trail near the 3 Oar Deal rapid and brush cut the overgrown first mile of Cabin Creek.  Finally we finished of the week by clearing 62 trees off of the Skyline Trail which is now open!  The wildflowers are beautiful up there right now so hopefully you get a chance to go for a hike or a ride up there this holiday weekend.