[at-l] Maintainerous question...

[Casey Horrigan]

There are a few other reasons why a cut may not be made all the way
through. This coming from someone who gets paid to clear trails.

technically, downed trees are not removed for hiker's convenience,
they are removed for resource protection only. So any tree that is
considered an "easy over" or an "easy under" should remain on the
trail, as to protect the primitiveness of the backcountry. a tree
should only be removed if it will cause hikers to have the need to
navigate around the downed tree causing widened tread way and bootleg
trails (or braiding) so a low lying tree on the ground could justify
as an easy over without. the need to remove it.

Another reason is if the tree is Hardwood (any maintainers here can
feel my pain) it can take HOURS to make one cut through the tree, let
alone 2 cuts. And for a trail worker like myself, I generally only
carry an Axe (not a chainsaw). One hardwood tree will dull down my
blade to the point that it wont even cut through an easy soft wood
tree. So depending on the amount of downed trees I have to contend
with on a section of trail, I may opt to only work enough on a single
tree until it is an easier pass, and move on to a more obstructing
tree, with the goal of making as many miles of trail passable as I
can. I have worked on a few hardwood trees that had to be removed and
its taken days to get all the cuts done. (which is another point,
whoever made that cut, may not have been finished, they could have
just not had the time to make all the cuts and plans on returning.)

I hope that helps.

Casey "Dingle"

On 2/17/07, Trailwife at aol.com <Trailwife at aol.com> wrote:
> Sometimes I do various things a little differently when working on the trail.
> The reasons will be varied, some times, just to get other people thinking
> about trail maintenance, Maybe if they think about it they might become
> maintainers. Other times it just breaks the routine.
>
> ORR
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-- 
Casey's Stories and Writings: www.AT04.com/casey

"...the stark reality of death, that half-dreaded, half-invited angel
ever brooding in the shadows of the climber's world." - Guy Waterman