Trail Clearing to Lizzie Creek Cabin

Reports from the previous season described the ski access to Lizzie creek cabin as very slow going due to lots of partially buried alder, so Yyen Gallup, Michael Spagnut, and I set out with chainsaws to try and improve the trail. It was the final weekend of October and bluebird, but quite cold. The summer trail was actually in pretty good shape but was flanked with large amounts of alder that presumably gets knocked over the trail by the weight of the snow. On Saturday we started hiking at 9 and did a good job clearing the first half of the route by around lunch, and then just hiked the rest of the way to the cabin as we figured the second half was the harder half. It was indeed the much harder half and got very snowy and dark before we made it to the cabin. On Sunday we were quite tired, but managed to at least improve the condition of the upper half of the trail and made it back to the car by dinner. Now we just have to wait for the snow to fall so we can find out how good of a job we did…

The Gates of Shangri-la, near Lizzie Creek Cabin