“Hot saw!” Camryn Bauch shouted, signaling that she was starting her chainsaw.
The forest filled with cries of “Hot saw!” as more saws roared to life and a half-dozen newly-minted sawyers started bucking dead trees into logs that their crews could move away from the Switchback Ridge Trail.
As a member of the Montana Conservation Corps (MCC), Camryn was working a hitch alongside PPLT Trails Coordinator Collin Ahlemeier. Collin led several hitches on the Switchback Ridge Trail near the Continental Divide this summer. More than twenty MCC crew members came from across the country to learn to buck, brush, and reroute. Crew members camped near the trailhead for a week or more and cleared miles of heavy blowdown and hazard trees between Tenmile Creek and the Continental Divide. Unlike most of her crew, Camryn is a Helena native who gets a kick out of clearing trails she’ll hike with friends and family in the future.
Switchback Ridge Is The First Project In The Most Ambitious Trail Maintenance Season In Prickly Pear Land Trust’s History.
In a typical year, PPLT hosts two dozen volunteer trail work days (mainly in Helena’s South Hills) and hires MCC crews for a week or two. This trail season, PPLT is partnering with the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest and MCC to maintain about 12 miles of trails over eight weeks. The conditions and the work is more like a backcountry hitch in the Bob Marshall Wilderness than an afternoon in the South Hills.
This trail season could be a springboard to larger public lands projects, and our growing trails program promises to bring our community conservation mission to more people across our region. It’s a win-win for trail lovers and the future of conservation in Montana.
