Trail Work at Fragrance

The Washington Trails Association is a great organization, and I got to learn a bunch about them firsthand this weekend. The Wasatch 100 is one of those 100s that has a trail work requirement---first, you have to lottery in, and if your name is picked, you still have to complete 8 hours of trail work, before you're approved to run. I set aside this weekend to fufill this requirement, and I did it through the WTA. I joined WTA when I got home, having enjoyed the experience so much--they're awesome.
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WTA works with the Forest Service, the National Parks, the State Parks, and probably other organizations, to provide volunteer service for trail repair. Dollars are tight for the government, and trails don't get many of them. Since 1950, Washington has gone from 12000 to 9000 miles of trail, often because trails can't be maintained. Often times the Parks have just enough money to cut away the fallen timber, but shoring up switchbacks, fighting erosion, and building routes takes a lot of people. This is where WTA has been great.
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WTA runs trips all over the state. You can visit their website at http://www.wta.org/, and choose all sorts of places to volunteer. The coolest thing to do is to go on a weeklong trail work party in the backcountry. They ship all the gear in on mules, and set up camp for a week. From basecamp, crews will do all sorts of sophisticated trail work. The company is good--everyone is outdoors types, with all sort of knowledge of trails, flora, fauna, et al. I'll be taking a long look at possible week-longs next year.
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I chose to do my time up at Fragrance Lake, off of Chuckanut. I run there all the time, its near enough, and I figured I'd get to see the results of our work often enough. We actually got to drive up to the lake on a closed road--that was a first. After going over safety issues, we set about repairing a switchback, and building a rock wall to shore up a second switchback. With roughly 15 volunteers, we got a lot done in a single day. It was fun, as we took breaks whenever we needed to, chattered, and got to spend the day in the woods. I also learned about the Washington State Native Plant Society today--another pretty cool group, if you like plants.
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As far as running goes, I punted on today, since I worked hard enough up on the hill (even if I did drive up there). I did buy a cool Marmot Precip, which I've wanted for a long time, for rainy days. They're supposed to be the ticket. Yesterday, after class, I went up Mount Galbraith, got lost in Wonderland, and had a good old time. The mountain biking ramps are insane on Galbraith. Tomorrow I'll do something, but now it's time to focus on NB2V.