Trails are still muddy

Katie at Slippery Falls

  It rained almost 1″ on Sunday the 31st adding to the more than 16″ that fell during the month of May. Trail crew members are still assessing what needs to be done when it dries out and is safe to navigate the many trails we have in the five natural areas.
  As part of a crew that hiked Spring Lake natural area on Monday (6/1) we found most trails had long stretches of muddy tread. Much of this is clay and quickly cakes to boots and is hard to remove. Also in abundance are fire ant nests and mosquitoes, both in quantity will turn a pleasant hike into a miserable experience.

Joel looking downhill

  The restrictions of closed trails that protect Golden Cheek Warbler habitat were lifted and we were able to navigate all of Blue Stem and Roadrunner trails.
   Future trail work will include additional water bars to deflect water off the trails and even re-routing of old Jeep-track trails to single-tread that doesn’t follow a straight-line and incur erosion. Both are labor intensive and require numerous visits to get it right. (An example is the re-route on Exogyra that breaks the long downhill stretch.)
   The trails in the understory look good and should dry by the weekend.  Volunteers are always welcome to assist (click ‘Contact Us’ tab).  –LJ