It was a busy week on trails and pathways.  We string trimmed the old horse trail that parallels the Wilson Centennial Pathway as a way to give people a quieter multi-use trail to spread out on during busy commuting hours on the pathway.  Use it as a mellow horse ride, a place for your kids on strider bikes, or a jog on dirt to take it easy on your knees.  We also installed the new Willow St. Bike Lanes to provide a safe route to school and across town.  You can now bike safely and take trips to the grocery stores, Garaman Park, the post office, the library, the Flat Creek, Wildlife Lane, and Snow King trailheads, the fair grounds, Phil Baux Park, Snow King Mountain Resort, the town and county buildings, the Genevieve Block Park, the schools, and Rec Center just to name a few.  Since it looks like rain this weekend maybe take it easy on the trails and stick to the pathways.  Leaving ruts, foot prints, and hoof prints on the trails keeps water from shedding off of the thousands of drainage features we maintain each year and that means the trails stay muddy longer after it rains.  The crew also cleared Big Rocks and lower Blacks, History, and Crater which can provide some snow free loops on Teton Pass.  We will make our way up lower Phillip’s Canyon and Ridge trails next week and try to push up Game and West Game.  Munger Mountain is also all clear and a great option right now.  The Cache Game trails are mostly dry except for the upper reaches of Wilson Canyon, West Game, Game, and Cache.  The warm temps later next week should help open those up so endure the rain and look forward to that!

Another snowy and rainy week means trails are still melting slowly and the dry ones are a bit muddy.  Ease into tomorrow afternoon and head to sunny aspect first and then explore some of the shady trails on Sunday when its sunny.  We worked with the BTNF crew this week to clear and clean drainage on Putt Putt, KC, Kellys, Lindas, Josies, and Wilson Canyon so those all should be in good shape.  Game Creek is cleared too up to the W Game junction and is pretty dry until you turn that north facing corner just before the junction.  We worked some more at connecting sections of the S 89 Singletrack that was covered up during the highway expansion, so thats a good option to connect from the South Jackson neighborhoods over to Game Creek.  We will head out to Munger next week and start hitting the lower parts of the Teton Pass trails as they melt out with what looks to be a sunny and warmer start to next week!

This week crews worked on a variety of projects.  We installed a new feature at the Blair Dr. Bike Skills Park, we sprayed musk thistle in Game Creek, we prepped the OPR pad for the new toilet, we fixed barriers on Phillip’s Ridge and History Trail, we updated signs near the Crater Lake junction, we fixed we cleared Phillip’s Pass, we measured and prepped lumber for a new bridge on the Arrow trail, we GPS’ed some user created trails, we worked with Pine Glades on their neighborhood connector trails, we installed new signs on the Adam’s and A&W trails, and continued improving the A&W trail with volunteers on Thursday evening after some much needed rain.  The trails should be in great shape with the recent moisture, so get out and enjoy them this weekend!

Its been a busy week on Teton Pass.  The crews cleared Arrow, Snotel, the Ridge, Ski Lake, and upper History.  There were lots of big trees down from heavy snow and winds over the winter.  Almost all of the trails are dry with a few lingering snow drifts.  We will continue to work on upper Black Canyon and Phillip’s Pass next week.  If you see trees down on the trail use the trail maintenance request button on our site to report them and if possible send a picture of the tree.  Some are easy and take a few minutes to clear, and others like the 4 tree pile up shown above take a few hours.  Around Snow King there are some trail closures tied to the construction of new ski runs and infrastructure.  Make sure to check their information posts before heading out on the trails to get up to the minute info on whats open and closed.  We had a successful National Trails Day improving the connector trail from Adams to Wilson Canyon.  About 35 hearty volunteers helped us rebench the user trail and we will continue working on it over the summer.  Feel free to follow the pin flags and help to burn in the trail to access the pedestrian underpass to the pathway at Adams’s Canyon.  We hope this will provide safe access from the south Jackson neighborhoods to the public lands and trails on the east side of the highway.  Have a great sunny weekend out on the trails!