More Changes~

Widened!

No rain!  Sunshine!  Our first opportunity to go up & chainsaw all the downfall that's blocked my trails out for two-weeks now.  The first change was obvious - someone had driven a backhoe through the trail - breaking off the small Alders along both sides. 

12-9, Where the backhoe must have come in~

This is the closest access - so I know the tree above has been cut out.  I should be able to loop through the construction again.

Gosh - guess they had to turn around!

 At the end of this trail - is the log that was down just before the drop to the outflow of the Wetland.  That stopped him, steep & extremely wet.  Of course - I could add that it's supposed to be illegal to go within a certain distance of the wetland...

Butch & the Mcculloch's last hurrah~

As Butch worked to start his notoriously hard to start McCulloch - the pull string broke.  Hike back to the truck, trip to town, visit to Glens & out he came with a new to us - used Stihl!  I did ask about the McCullough - it went to the bone pile :-)

On to the big stuff~

The Stihl is lighter & did a really nice job cutting through the big stuff!  I was amazed at how much the big one above moved as Butch made the cuts.

Further up~

Further up toward Cottonwood Cathedral - there was this one.  We'd gotten over it, but since we were here - it got cut.  Our final surprise came at the Cottonwoods, where someone had cut them out.  They'd come in the other access gate from the Development.  Now, I'm interested in riding out to see if they've done anything else, since this is not their property.

Butch's work on our way back~

We didn't make it pretty this time.  As we discussed, I may have this access for another week or another year - who knows.  Either way - no purpose in doing any more than necessary - since It could all get dozed anytime now.  It's impossible to reach Planning & Development by phone...  I need to make a trip to their offices in Everett & I dread that.  Just to remind them that the Wetland is here & find out if there's any chance that the Native Growth Protection regulations will protect it?   Not that they care - how could they - when they approved these Rural Cluster plans originally?  To keep from being sued by the Developer - from what I've heard...   Soon, we'll be down to the last tree standing...