Wednesday, April 09, 2003 - Page updated at 12:00 a.m.
Snohomish
County recreation
Volunteers
carve walkers' way through wilderness
By Diane
Brooks
Times Snohomish County bureau
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| BOB
CHESTERMAN |
| Edmonds-area
resident Duane Acheson, 83, left, last week helps Bob Keeney,
55, of Seattle saw through a log blocking a new section of the
Lime Kiln Trail east of Granite Falls. |
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ALONG THE STILLAGUAMISH RIVER — When Bob Keeney plays hooky from his
Seattle plumbing job, he really enjoys himself.
There's nothing quite as satisfying as a 90-minute, one-way trek through the
mud and rain, carrying huge clippers and a 5-foot saw to hack fallen trees that
block a future trail.
Keeney, 55, hasn't counted how many trails he's worked on over the years —
he guesses it's somewhere between 200 and 500. And that doesn't include all the
impromptu trail work he does while hiking, when he finds downed trees or mucky
terrain blocking his path.
"Much of what I know about this business, I learned at the knee of my
granddad and my dad, who both worked as civil engineers for the city of
Seattle," he said while laboring on a recent trail-building project at
Snohomish County's Robe Canyon Historic Park.
"This is a means of transmitting those talents and skills forward to the
next generation and do some public good."
Keeney is among hundreds of volunteers responsible for the existence of a
pair of riverfront trails winding through the 1,000-acre park along a former
railroad route built in the 1890s to carry ore from the Monte Cristo mines.
Volunteer
work
Volunteers for Outdoor Washington plans 28
trail-maintenance and trail-building projects in
Snohomish County between now and late October. Projects
include the Old Robe Trail and Lime Kiln Trail at Robe
Canyon Historic Park, as well as Lord Hill Regional Park
near Snohomish and Bald Mountain Ridge Trail east of
Mount Pilchuck. Information: www.robecanyon.org,
www.trailvolunteers.org
or Steve and Nancy Dean at 360-652-7181.
Snohomish County also sponsors volunteer projects at
county parks, trails and beaches. Information: Tom
Wunderlich, 425-388-6604.
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In 1995, the county opened the two-mile Old Robe Trail, accessed off the
Mountain Loop Highway northeast of Granite Falls. A Boy Scout troop began
brushing out the trail in the late 1960s, and more than 20 years later,
Volunteers for Outdoor Washington added the final touches, building stream
crossings, retaining walls and switchbacks.
Building Lime Kiln Trail
Now Keeney is helping that volunteer group with its latest Robe Canyon
project: building from scratch the 3-1/2-mile Lime Kiln Trail, which the county
hopes to open this fall or next spring. Its trailhead will be off Waite Mill
Road in the Swartz Lake area southeast of Granite Falls.
Keeney estimates he has devoted about 70 days to the two trails, which lie on
opposite sides of the Stillaguamish River's South Fork.
A 150-foot railroad trestle once spanned that whitewater stretch of river,
but it collapsed years ago. Snohomish County hopes someday to connect the trails
with a pedestrian bridge — an expensive, unfunded undertaking.
When the Lime Kiln Trail opens, most visitors probably will take for granted
its gravel surfaces, the graded routes along steep hillsides and the efficient
drainage ditches dug alongside flat stretches.
But it's taking scores of work parties to tame that gorgeous stretch of mushy,
lowland forest.
Last week, 10 volunteers — three women and seven men, ranging from 42 to 83
years old — met in Granite Falls to car pool to their latest work site, the
far end of the new trail. Parking on a logging road near the trail's midpoint,
they slipped into rain gear, stuffed their pockets and packs with extra work
gloves and headed for the river.
As work commutes go, the trip was heavenly. Heavy, lush moss blanketed the
trees, and the rushing, silty river glowed a pale, silvery green. A bald eagle
soared overhead near a treetop nest where volunteers last year watched a pair of
eagles tending their brood.
White trillium and yellow skunk-cabbage blooms edged the trail, which was
built by previous work parties.
The main trail — named for an abandoned lime kiln along its path — will
end near the old trestle, with a one-third-mile riverside loop carved into the
slope next to the rail grade.
Providing that 'wow' sense
Steve Dean, leader of the volunteer group's work at Robe Canyon, said he had
decided to add the loop to give trail users a jazzier goal.
"Our feeling was people would try to get up close to the river (anyway),
and we wanted to provide that 'wow' sense at the end of the trail," he
said.
The recent work party's goal was to thresh out a section of the loop, using
long-handled axes to scrape away vegetation and several inches of organic soil
to reach mineral soil. Future work groups will dig deeper into the hillside to
create a level grade.
After Keeney helped saw through two trees blocking the trail, five men used
ropes to haul a 1,000-pound tree section about 70 feet uphill, to a spot where
it's needed to support the path.
Other projects included creating a rock-wall foundation to support another
section of the loop, excavating an old tree stump and its root wad, and dumping
buckets of rocks onto a stretch of trail that must be raised.
People at their best
The group paused for a short lunch break up on the main railroad grade, and
the volunteers reminisced about previous trips to the site.
Kim Carlson, a Marysville woman who often brings her husband and sons on
trail-building projects, turned to the men in the group.
"Remember all the rocks we rolled down here for you last fall?" she
said.
They used a rope to drag a 300-pound rock, she recalled.
Those rocks were used to support a trail grade cut into a 60-degree slope
above a stretch of rail right of way that had reverted to a wetland. It took
four days to build that 200-foot stretch of trail.
Dean, 48, said he sees people at their best when they come out for trail
projects. The work helps build camaraderie, he said.
"I think the overarching thing for volunteers — whether they're
working at the food bank or building a trail — is they want to leave their
mark on the Earth and feel like they've left the place better than they found
it," he said.
"It's the most rewarding thing I've ever done."
Diane Brooks: 425-745-7802 or dbrooks@seattletimes.com
Copyright
© 2003 The Seattle Times Company -- Reprinted by permission.
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