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Scorpions Trail Crew, Pleasant Hill, OR (2026)

12/24/2025

Last week’s “Scorpions On The Trail” Work Summary

Tuesday December 23rd – A small but motivated crew of four Scorpions (Sig, Hal, Alex and Jean) continued work on post fire trail recovery at Clark Creek trail #3456. We had just completed logging the trail out the previous Tuesday but expected a new crop of logs to be down after last week’s wind event. When we arrived at the TH, Alex conducted a quick survey around the 1-mile loop trail to see how many new logs were down while the rest of us grabbed tread tools and continued working the tread. The tread is heavily overgrown with grass and vines. The trail was previously brushed so we could concentrate on scraping the organics off the tread to expose the mineral soil, repairing damaged sections and restoring a decent out slope for drainage. This is slow, tedious and hard work but the result is something that looks like a trail again.

Alex returned from his short survey hike and reported only 4 logs down over the trail. A tangled mess of 3 were just at the beginning and then another larger log about ¾ of a mile around the loop. Hal and Alex tackled the log tangle while Jean and I continued working the tread.

The weather was cool but dry until about 1:30PM when it started to drizzle. We got about another quarter mile of tread restored and Hal and Alex made the tangle mess of logs go away. We packed up and headed out around 2PM just as the heavier rain was starting. We will be back next week.

Hope to see you on the trail soon.

Next week's project: Fall Creek Trail Restoration - Tuesday Dec 30th
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/z1uqw

12/18/2025

Last week’s “Scorpions On The Trail” Work Summary

Tuesday December 11th – A crew of 12 Scorpions continued post-fire restoration work on the Clark Creek trail #3456 in Fall Creek. A crew of 4 with two 32” bar chainsaws headed in to buck up 4 large logs we left from last week. The rest of us continued working restoring the tread. We were all lucky to have a beautiful sunny day for trail-work.

The logout crew got the remaining logs bucked up but it took most of the day since they were all large (up to 45”) and of moderate to high complexity mostly on steep slopes. The tread crew worked sections of the tread around the 1-mile loop. We widened, repaired or restored drainage structures and removed organics from the tread. We also took some time to measure the fire damaged puncheon, bridge and a series of steps that all need to be replaced.

By about 2:30PM we wrapped up and headed home. We will be back since there is still lots to do. I would like to thank the crew for great work as usual and extend a warm welcome to first time Scorpion Roy. We hope to see you again on the trail soon.

Saturday December 13th – A crew of 3 Scorpions joined forces with 6 others from the Camas and Salamander crew to continue work on the Rebel Creek trail #3323. The Camas crew has been spearheading a multi-year effort to restore this 11.5 mile loop trail (Rebel Creek 3323 and Rebel Rock 3324) which burned in the 2017 Rebel Fire. Tread work, brushing and of course logout was the theme of the day.
Two of us rattled our brains with the power brushers beating back the low growth (vines, ferns, Or Grape) to open up the trail corridor for the first 1 plus miles. Two forged ahead with a chain saw to buck up the new logs that were down in the first mile. The rest worked on widening and repairing the tread which was long overdue. It was a beautiful cool and dry day to be out on the trail.

Tuesday December 16th – Four new logs were reported down on a winter trail section of the PCT at Pengra Pass. The report said that these logs would be very difficult to get around on skis or snowshoes without 3-5ft of snow. A team of 3 Scorpions headed up on Tuesday to take advantage of still snow free roads to try and drive close to the logs from Gold Lake Sno-Park. We were able to drive directly to Pengra Pass and hiked east on the PCT to buck up the four logs all conveniently located within a half mile of where we parked. We were very lucky to have an unexpected dry and partly sunny day. The next morning the Willamette Pass road cameras showed fresh snow on the roads.

Hope to see you on the trail soon.

Next week's project:
Fall Creek Tread restoration - Tuesday December 23rd
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/85e4a

12/05/2025

Last week’s “Scorpions On The Trail” Work Summary

Tuesday December 2nd – A crew of 9 Scorpions started post-fire restoration on the Clark Creek trail #3456 in Fall Creek. This trail severely burned in the Bedrock Fire in 2023. The trail is a short 1-mile nature loop starting and ending at Clark Organizational Camp on FR18. Although the trail is relatively short it took over 3-hours to scout it before the trail work day. Heavy post-fire brush growth and lots of large logs obscured the trail and made it very difficult to follow. Using an old GPS track we were able to mark the 1-mile trail with ribbons so it could be more easily followed.

We split into three work crews. A crew of 4 headed off with two 32” chainsaws to tackle the mostly large logs that littered the trail. Fortunately, all the logs were on the lower half mile of trail close to the road. But some were complex jackstraws that took quite a bit of time and thought to clear. A crew of 3 started brushing out the heavy blackberry and shrub growth. The final crew started recovering the tread which was overgrown with organics and damaged from burnt roots, root balls and slides.

By about 2:30PM the brushing crew completed almost a half mile of trail, the tread crew recovered about one third mile of tread and the logout crew bucked up about a dozen logs leaving 4 big ones for next time. We will be back at least two more times before we get the 1-mile loop completed.

Hope to see you on the trail soon.

Next Week's Projects:
Thursday Dec 11th - Clark Creek brushing, logout and tread-work
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/2pxx8

Saturday Dec 13th - Rebel Creek-work and brushing
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/fvd3v

11/23/2025

Last week’s “Scorpions On The Trail” Work Summary

Monday November 17th – A crew of 10 from Arclin Industries in Springfield joined 2-Scorpion leaders for a day of trail work on Fall Creek trail #3455. Arclin has been coming out with us two times a year for the last three years for some corporate giving. After a tailgate safety session at the TH we split up to form a brushing team and a tread work team. It was misting slightly as we started work but there was no wind and it was good temperature for working. Starting from the TH close to road 1821 we headed downstream. The brushing crew led the pack with 2-power brushers and two swampers with rakes to clear the cut debris. This trail was burned over by the Bedrock fire in 2023 and fire following growth like thimble berry, raspberry vines needed to be tamed. The brushers made it a little over a mile downstream.

The tread needed significant widening and organics removed. This is tough work, but the Arclin gang made it look easy. We skipped a few sections at the beginning so they could mostly work with a view of the beautiful Fall Creek with its deep pools and deep channeled basalt underwater channels. By about 2PM it started to drizzle a little more steadily and we called it a day.

I want to thank all the Arclin volunteers for joining us in our efforts to restore the Fall Creek trail. There is lots more to do here and we will be returning frequently over the winter months.

Thursday November 20th – Another large crew of 10 Scorpions returned to continue work on the Fall Creek trail. This time we started at the Dolly Varden TH. A brushing team of 2 (Brad and Jean) headed upstream with the power brusher to continue brushing from where the Nov 6th crew stopped. The rest of us with tread tools and loppers continued widening the trail tread and restoring drainage structures. We all made 1.7 miles upstream to where the trail is blocked by several logs with root balls on a very steep slope. You can climb up and around the blockage. We are waiting for USFS guidance on how to repair this section. The soil is very unstable and a reroute may be required. There is about a half mile left to work on the upstream side of the slide. We will get to that after Thanksgiving.

Friday November 21st – On Friday Doug, Mike N., Steve and Brad traveled up to the Marilyn Lakes trail in Mike's truck. Arriving at the trailhead around 9am it was a crispy 28 degrees with a light layer of snow. Steve and Brad started at the number 2 trailhead while Mike and Doug started at the Gold Lake trailhead. Both teams arrived at the trail junction about the same time and continued logging to the south end of the Marilyn Lakes. We managed to clear 28 trees from the trails making this winter smooth sailing for the skiers and snowshoers.

Hope to see you on the trail soon.

Next Project: Fall Creek brushing, tread work and logout - Tuesday December 2nd
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/pxy53

11/15/2025

Last week’s “Scorpions On The Trail” Work Summary

Thursday November 6th - A crew of 7 Scorpions started post Bedrock Fire trail restoration on the Fall Creek trail #3455. They started from the Dolly Varden TH on road 18 and worked on widening the tread and brushing for roughly a mile upstream. Big thanks to the crew for a great start. There is a lot more to be done and we plan on working on this trail through the winter months.

Hope to see you on the trail soon.

Next week's project: Fall Creek trail work continued - Thursday Nov 20th
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/enxs6

10/25/2025

Last week’s “Scorpions On The Trail” Work Summary

Tuesday October 21st – A crew of 5 Scorpions (Sig, Brad, Brian R., Garrett and first time Scorpion Brian Mi.) headed up to start a logout of Grasshopper trail #3569 between Grasshopper Mt and the west TH at road 19-1927. The trail was scouted several weeks prior so we knew there were about 150 logs down on a 4-mile segment of the trail between Grasshopper MT and FR1927 TH. We drove up to the TH on FR1919 and hauled 2-chainsaws and associated gear 1.8 miles up the connector trail and across the meadow towards Grasshopper Mt climbing 1000ft before the fun began.

It was a beautiful crisp fall day with great visibility. It was about 40 degrees when we started hiking but the climb warmed us up quickly and we all shedded layers on the way up. Once we arrived at the first log we split into 2-chains saw teams and started making lots of noise and saw dust. The logs came one after another so each team would skip a half dozen or so we had room to work without constantly leap frogging each other. We got to enjoy some pretty great views of the Sisters, Broken Top, Bachelor Butte, and more. At about 2:30 we finished the day by cutting out a large argumentative log that was situated in a spot of the trail that made it difficult to move. We eventually convinced it to go away and started the hike back after bucking up about 60 logs in .6 miles. We will return on Thursday to continue work on this trail from the west end. Welcome to the crew Brin Mi.it was a pleasure to work with you.

Thursday October 23rd – A super crew of 12 Scorpions headed up to the west TH of Grasshopper on FR1917. We formed 2 chainsaw teams and 3 XC teams. The chainsaw teams hiked in a little over a mile and left the first 20 logs or so for the XC teams. We all proceeded to buck up logs as we climbed the trail about 1300 ft to the ridge. In the early afternoon the XC teams caught up with the noisy chainsaw teams. Fortunately, there were no unpleasant altercations between the XC and chainsaw fanatics. We continued cutting until about 2PM and then headed back after enjoying the views from the ridge.

We ended up clearing another 3 miles of the trail towards Grasshopper MT and bucked up about 70 logs. There remains about a half mile to logout before reaching the stopping point of Tuesdays crew. Those last 40 or so logs will be under snow after this weekend. A big thanks to both crews for some hard work and some great progress to clear this trail. Next year we will get it all done after the snow melts

Hope to see you on the trail soon.

Next Project: Fall Creek Trail restoration - Thursday November 6th
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/x22rm

10/17/2025

Last week’s “Scorpions On The Trail” Work Summary

Thursday October 16th - A lovely fall day in the woods for eleven Scorpions. We arrived at Fingerboard Prairie TH to sunny clear skies and cool temps, great working weather! Plan was to finish up the last section of Deer Butte Trail (in the Mt. Washington Wilderness) from the TH up to jct with Benson Trail. With eleven folks, we had plenty of saw and brushing teams. Logs across the trail ended up being very light and we made it to the jct before lunch. We enjoyed our lunch with a view of beautiful Prince Lake. After lunch we took some extra time to do more brushing and work on an overhanging log that was long overdue for removal. It required three cuts in total to remove safely and ended up being a fun project. Great to have the last section of the trail finished just in time for the winter snow. Thanks to all for a great day!....Garrett

Hope to see you on the trail soon.

Next week's projects:

Tuesday October 21st - Chainsaw logout of Grasshopper Trail
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/rwtrw

Thursday October 23rd - Chainsaw and XC logout of Grasshopper trail (continued)
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/emahp

10/05/2025

Last week’s “Scorpions On The Trail” Work Summary

Wednesday September 24th – Sig, Jean and Mike S. hitched ride with a forest service crew up a 4WD road at Willamette Pass Ski resort. The FS crew was heading up to Maiden Shelter to stock it with wood for the winter. They dropped us off at Taits XC-winter ski trail which we then proceeded to log out. We logged out and cleared debris off the top of Taits and then headed steeply down the Tie trail which intersects the PCT just below Rosary Lakes and cleared about a dozen logs in total. We hiked out to a car we staged at the PCT trail head. The trails ready to go, just need to wait for the snow to arrive.

Thursday September 25th – A crew of 10-Scorpions returned to the Eugene to Crest trail segment starting from Little Bunchgrass off road 24-2408. The previous week we brushed out and improved the tread on the first mile heading east towards Big Bunchgrass by Eagle Creek Road. Today two crew members continued brushing from where we left off for about another ¾ miles where the trail gets very rocky and the brush is not as thick. The rest of us hiked 2.2 miles to the first high point at 5200ft. After enjoying the views of the Sisters and more we started working on restoring the trail tread which was severely damaged during the Cedar Creek fire in 2022.
Two crew members headed back towards the brushing crew to work on the tread. There were lots of sections needing drainage structures and eliminating berms and slough on the tread. The remainder of the crew worked east restoring tread foot by foot as we went. Evidence of a trail vanished numerous times through the heavy burn scar, and we had to spread out with our GPS devices looking for signs of a trail and connecting them back up as close to the original alignment as possible. In the first half mile from the high viewpoint there was very little brush, just mostly snags, shattered rocks and charcoaled logs. There was bear grass however and we tried to dig out as much of it as possible when it was growing directly in the trail and a few logs we cut with hand saws. After a half mile we started getting into thicker brush mostly ceanothus.

At the end of the day, we managed to recover about .6 additional miles of trail which should now be easy to follow. We turned around when the trail started to climb again up to another ridge. From the Little Bunchgrass TH it is clear for about 2.8 miles east. We have about 2.8 miles to go before reaching Big Bunchgrass.

Hope to see you on the trail soon.

Next week's project: XC-Logout of Deer Butte trail - Thursday Oct 11th
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/y835r

09/20/2025

Last week’s “Scorpions On The Trail” Work Summary

Saturday September 13th - A twelve-person crew (Sig, Brian, Alex, Mike K, Holly, Meg, Peggy, AJ, Matthew, David and new Scorpions Peter and Jonathan) worked on the South Waldo trail between the Jim Weaver and Mt. Ray trails. Starting at Shadow Bay and in great weather, we cruised the already cleared Shoreline and Jim Weaver trails. Once on the South Waldo, operating in three saw teams, we leap-frogged our way up South Waldo logging out and brushing. The log load was modest but, of the logs we had, some did not go quietly to the side of the trail. By lunch we made it to the intersection with the Mt. Ray trail. Having accomplished our goal, a team of four pushed up the Mt. Ray trail to get two large logs off the trail while the rest of the team turned around and brushed further and worked drainage along the way back to the lake. We arrived back at the cars earlier than usual. Thanks to a strong crew for their hard work getting this section of trail cleared. It was a great day on the trail….Brian R.

Thursday September 18th – A crew of 9 (Sig, Mike S., Mike K., Alex, Brad, Jonathan, Brad, Tom B. and Chris) headed up to work the Eugene to Crest Trail from the Little Bunchgrass TH on road 24-2408. After a 90-minute drive we arrived at the TH, loaded up our tools and headed in. This section of the trail climbs about 450 ft in the first 2.2 miles to an elevation of 5495ft. The first mile was moderately burned in the Cedar Creek Fire. Thick stands of Bear Grass, Fire w**d, Ceanothus and other fire following bushes needed brushing off the trail to reopen the corridor. The tread also needed some deberming and digging out organics from the center . A crew of 7 focused on these tasks. We sent Tom B., and Mike K. ahead to buck up 3-logs that were down about 1.2 miles in and then to continue hand saw brushing 2-3” diameter snags that were bent low over the trail by the fire and perhaps the snow load.

The intensity of the fire increases significantly beyond the 1-mile mark. As we climbed up the ridge the views of the adjacent valleys were stunning. We could also see Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Washington, the Sisters, Mt. Bachelor and Diamond Peak. By 2.2-miles we were at the 5495ft high point. The trail pretty much disappeared here. The high intensity burn left a moonscape of large charcoal logs, ash like soil and fallen rocks. We searched around for a while with our GPS maps and finally found a short trace of a trail. We marked it and will return next week to start recovering the tread and no doubt do more route finding.

Hope to see you on the trail soon.

Next week's project: Tread work and brushing on the Eugene to Crest trail from Little Bunchgrass - Thursday Sep 25th
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/agb49

09/13/2025

Last week’s “Scorpions On The Trail” Work Summary

Thursday September 11th – Ten Scorpions returned to continue postfire trail restoration work at Black Creek in the Waldo Lake Wilderness Area. This was our fourth trip to this trail since it was severely damaged in the Cedar Creek fire in 2022. We cancelled last week’s trip there due to the high smoke levels from the Emigrant Creek fire. This week after the much welcomed rains the area was smoke free and quite wet.

We drove into the TH at the end of road 2421 with permission from the Forest Service since all the roads into the Cedar Creek burn zone on the west side are closed to the public. Various road closures and logging work forced us to take a circuitous route, but we finally arrived at the trail at bout 9AM after a 2-hour drive.

During our last three trips there we were making good progress on restoring the tread after the Cedar Creek fire, but we were stuck on 2 very difficult logs that required multiple days to safely buck up. A team of 4 were left to continue to work on one and a team of three continued on the other. The rest of us armed with tread tools continued up the trail rebenching the tread which was mostly eroded away or buried by fire debris and filling lots of large burned-out root holes with rock and soil.

The persevering log crews succeeded in getting the logs to unconditionally surrender. They caught up with the tread crew shortly before lunch and continued logging out the trail. We finally made it to Lillian Falls about a mile in and had lunch enjoying new views of Lillian Falls and the cascade coming down from Bingo Lake which most of us have never seen before through the dense forest growth. The intense burn here changed the views quite a bit.

At Lillian Falls the trail takes a sharp turn up a long switch back on a very steep side slope. The trail was always difficult to maintain in this section. We had completely reworked this tread 3 years ago just before the fire. Today there was barely a trace of it. Rocks and logs slid down the steep slope and pretty much obliterated the switch back. We cut through a thick pile of downed and tangled snags at the beginning of the switch back and then started working our way. We made it probably 100 ft before calling it a day.

Hope to see you on the trail soon.

Next week's project - Eugene to Crest Trail from Little Bunchgrass. Brushing and tread work. Thursday Sep 18th
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/p24ji

08/29/2025

Last week’s “Scorpions On The Trail” Work Summary

Thursday August 28th – Eleven Scorpions returned to do some postfire trail restoration at Black Creek in the Waldo Lake Wilderness Area. This was our third trip to this trail since it was severely damaged in the Cedar Creek fire in 2022.

We drove into the TH at the end of road 2421 with permission from the Forest Service since all the roads into the Cedar Creek burn zone on the west side are closed to the public. The drive was longer today since road 24 was closed for extensive road work. We drove on a winding detour through the cedar creek burn zone to bypass the road construction. The detour climbed to about 3000ft offering some interesting views through the forest of burnt snags. We could see the developing smoke plume over the ridge from the Emigrant Fire. The air quality and visibility on our side of the ridge was good as we dropped back down to road 24. That detour took about another 20-minutes. We finally arrived at the TH and broke into three saw teams and a tread crew.

We hiked in about a mile climbing about 400 ft and arrived at the big sap loaded log that we started working on last week. We left a crew of 4 here to continue working on that log which required more chopping and chunking with Pulaski’s that cutting since the sap rendered the saws useless after just a few minutes of cutting. This week they came armed with extra solvent for saw cleaning and big chisels to help with chunking and chipping.

The rest of us hiked in for another 10-minutes and began working on the tread and the next section of logs. One crew tackled a large 3 plus ft diameter log that we previously cut. The fire caused the log to slide down and close the gap on the trail pinning itself against the lower cut section. It brought piles of rock and dirt with it burying the lower part of the log.

The remaining saw team went on and managed to buck up or move 3 or 4 logs before arriving at the next monster project log. This was a log on a very steep side slope with root ball attached and nestled behind a large snag. It took them most of the day to safely make the two cuts and remove the cut section off the trail.

The air quality was getting much worse as the day progressed and by about 1:30PM we decided it was time to go. Both logs previously mentioned are still a work in progress waiting for our return next week.

Hope to see you on the trail soon.

Next Projects:
Thursday September 4th - Black Creek XC-logout and tread restoration
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/3w1jx

Saturday September 13th - South Waldo Lake Trail XC-logout
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/ceua4

08/23/2025

Last week’s “Scorpions On The Trail” Work Summary

Thursday August 21st – Twelve Scorpions returned to do some postfire trail restoration at Black Creek in the Waldo Lake Wilderness Area. This trail was severely damaged in the Cedar Creek fire of 2022 and we have not been permitted to work it until now. We last worked the trail just a few days before the fire started.

We drove into the TH at the end of road 2421 with permission from the Forest Service since all the roads into the Cedar Creek burn zone on the west side are closed to the public. Once there we formed 3-XC saw teams of 3-each and a 3-person tread and brushing team. We hiked roughly a mile to where we stopped working a week ago. We were hoping to make it another mile today but that was not to be.

Two saw teams started work on a large log we prepped for bucking last week. Two cuts could be safely started at the same time. We will call this the sappy log for reasons that will be clear shortly. The third saw team scrambled over the sappy log, not without difficulty and marched about another 100 ft to the next large complex log on a steep side slope complete with a large root ball 100 ft above the trail on the steep slope resting against a snag that was leaning over the trail between the saw crews. Two of the tread crew started brushing from the TH to the Wilderness Boundary to try and get rid of the ceanothus bushes that can quickly grow into a dense forest. Once done they would hike in and join the rest of the crew. The third tread crew member started benching the tread from where we left off last week. This trail is mostly in steep side sloped terrain and without maintenance and traffic gravity just pulls the soil, rocks and postfire debris off the slope onto the trail. Plus 3-years of fire following plants have taken root in the original tread.

The teams on the sappy log were excited to get the two saws quickly singing. Unfortunately, it was an abbreviated overture. After getting an inch deep one of the saws struck a water and sap vein and the log started spewing out sappy water enough to drench the pants on one of the sawyers. The second saw was also picking up thick deposits of sap which trapped the wood shavings and bound up the saw. Someone had a small bottle of Purell which helped to dissolve the sap from the saws. That plus Wash and Dry wipes kept them going for another half hour or so until they couldn’t saw effectively. They decided to abandon the two-saw approach and just cut narrow parallel kerfs and chunk it out with a Pulaski. One saw team eagerly marched ahead leaving the one crew reinforced by some of the tread crew to continue to chunk up the log.

Meanwhile the other saw team about 100 ft away worked on the large log that was severely top bound. Every wedge in sight was driven into the kerf as far as it would go. It took a while to get the first cut close to the release point. They switched to the Katana-650 to finish the cut but before doing so they cleared away the sappy log crew from the trail since they were in the line of fire of the leaning snag if the root ball shifted and knocked it down. It took another 20-minutes to complete the cut and fortunately the root ball was motionless. The sap log crew got back to chunking. After lunch the second severely end bound cut was done and the log segment was rolled down off the trail. But not as easy as it sounds. Two pry bars, lots of legs pushing and some colorful language was required to convince it to go elsewhere.

The other saw team, that escaped from the sappy log, also encountered large argumentative logs in full sun just a short way up the trail. By 2PM the temperature was getting in the mid-80’s and we decided to call it a day. We made good progress although we only cleared and rebenched about 300 feet of the trail.
Viewing the trail further up we saw quite a few large and complex logs awaiting our return. The sappy log is still a work in progress and will also be there for us.

Hope to see you on the trail soon.

Next week's project: Black Creek trail #3362 in Waldo Wz, logout and post fire tread restoration - Thursday August 28th
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/5vxkn

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