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Scorpions Trail Crew, Pleasant Hill, OR (2026)

04/03/2026

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

Tuesday March 31st – A crew of 6-Scorpions made a very unusual early season visit to log out Pioneer Gulch trail #3630 in the Diamond Peak Wilderness area. Normally this area is inaccessible due to snow until mid to late June, but this year it was snow free all the way to the junction with Diamond Peak trail at 5700ft. We were requested to log it out early so back country skiers would have easier access to 8000ft snow covered peak and enjoy approximately 2000ft of vertical before the snow disappears.

We were racing to beat the snow that was forecasted on Wednesday through Thursday down to 2500ft. We arrived at the TH in light drizzle and temperatures in the mid 40’s. We formed two saw teams and headed up. The very steep trail is 1.5 miles long and gains 1000ft which makes it popular with skiers and summer climbers, you get to the fun stuff quickly. The trail was heavily burned over in 2024 and we got to see how our restoration work from last year held up. Not surprisingly, for such a steep trail a few sections had some drainage problems but much of the trail was in good shape. The saw teams leapfrogged each other up the trail and bucked up about a dozen logs on the way to the up. We also did some tread repairs.

Another unusual thing about this early season logout is that there were no mosquitoes. Generally, we are covered with Deet and netting when we work here in June through July. Although the snowpack is missed, we all enjoyed a rare mosquito free day at Diamond Peak.

We hope to see you on the trail soon.

Next week's projects:
Tuesday April 7th - Fall Creel chain saw logout and corridor clearing
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/b838x

Thursday April 9th - Separation Lk trail XC logout
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/ic9oo

03/28/2026

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

Monday March 23rd – A crew of 10 Scorpions headed to Umpqua National Forest to logout several trails in the Brice Creek drainage. We formed two crews of 5 with 2 chainsaws each. One crew headed to the aptly named Hardscrabble trail. We stumbled our way up this steeply graded trail starting at Mineral CG and bucked logs as we climbed. Fortunately, the logs were scattered in the first mile of trail so we were spared an even steep part of the climb. This area was burned over lightly by the 2024 Lane 1 fire. We completed our work and were driving home by about 2PM.

The second crew drove further up Brice Creek Rd and logged out Craw Fish trail and several sections of the Trestle Falls trail. They worked a little harder and had some larger and more complex logs. They completed their work and headed home around 3PM.

Thursday March 26th – A crew of 11 Scorpions returned to continue Fall Creek trail restoration after the Bedrock fire in 2023. We started from road 1828 and hiked downstream about a mile to where we left off the previous week. The restoration work on this section of trail is very difficult and slow going. There is pile after pile of fallen limbs, bark and fire debris all strangled by tenacious super thick stands of vines. The logs are mostly buried under these piles and must be hand cleared before the chain sawyers can buck them up. Quite a few log tangles still attached to root balls made the bucking challenging.

The trail was only scouted for the first mile because of the thick growth. Once we reached the end of the scouted portion, we sent a crew member ahead with ribbon to continue marking the trail so the remaining crew could continue clearing without worrying about getting of the trail which would have been very easy to do. By about 2PM we made it maybe another half mile at the most. We are almost to Puma CG. Still lots more to do but the trail looked great as we hiked back to the cars. We will be back soon.

We hope to see you on the trail soon.

Next week's projects:
Tuesday March 31 - Pioneer Gulch XC logout
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/ge80v

Thursday April 2nd - Fall Creek Trail restoration
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/gudab

03/20/2026

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

Tuesday March 17th - Nine Scorpions took advantage of the lack of snow and started crosscut logout on Horse Creek Trail in the Three Sisters Wilderness. Scouting report showed a number of logs down (including a few fun log tangles) and a big root ball that had blown out part of the trail. We split into two saw teams, and a root ball team. The saw teams working their way up the trail, cutting as they went. They had lots of fun at the log tangles, rolling two large logs down the hill and exploding a dead snag in the process.

The root ball team headed straight up to the root ball. They discovered that it was larger and more complicated than originally thought. The final plan ended up involving cutting a chunk of the root ball log out and routing the trail around the big root ball. The fixed section looks good, if a bit tight (fine for hikers, more problematic for horses). At some point we'll need to get back there and do some additional tread work, but it looks great for now.

Thanks to all for a great day out in the Wilderness!....Garrett

Thursday March 19th – Brian and Garrett returned to Horse Creek Trail on Thursday to finish logging out up to Separation jct. Weather was nice as we made the hike up to where we left off on Tuesday. We had several good logs on the side slope that could be slid off after cutting. Once we crossed Roney Creek and left the old burn area, the logs thinned out considerably. We made it to the jct, then worked down Separation Lake Trail 1/3 mile to Harvey Creek. Great to have this section done just in time for spring!!!..Garrett

Thursday March 19th – A large crew of 11 Scorpions headed back to Fall Creek on a beautiful sunny and eventually warm day. Today we started work from the road 1828 trail crossing and worked downstream. This section of the trail is a complete mess and unrecognizable in spots. The tread is mostly buried under piles of fire debris, branches, tenacious vines and many logs from 6” to 40” in diameter. We got two chainsaw teams moving down the trail to start bucking the many logs. Two power brushers got fired up to hack away vines and low growth. The brunt of the work was done with loppers and hand saws cutting through thick tangles of branches and clearing away burnt wood and bark. It was very slow going but we worked our way down the trail for almost a mile before calling it a day at about 2PM. As we all hiked back to our cars we all enjoyed seeing a real trail take shape again with great views of the river.

We will be back at it next week. There is about 1 mile of trail to recover before we reach the place where we worked upstream from Bedrock CG.

We hope to see you on the trail soon.

Next week's projects:
Monday March 23rd - Brice and Hardscrable logout in Umpqua NF
sign up link: https://bttr.im/8w4mf

Thursday March 26th - Fall Creek logout and corridor clearing
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/r46e2

Saturday March 28 - Rebel Creek XC logout
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/odttd

03/13/2026

Tuesday March 10th – A crew of 6 Scorpions continued work on the section of Fall Creek trail staring at Bedrock CG and working upstream for 1.6 miles. The previous week we logged out this section, so today’s mission was tread repair and brushing. We gathered our tread tools and proceeded up the trail through periods of light rain, light snow and some brief intermittent periods of sunshine. The first half mile climbs 500 ft up a series of switchbacks which were in remarkably good shape. After that our work began. The trail crosses some steep side slopes and the tread was mostly filled in with debris from the hillside. We rebenched the tread restoring the original width and appropriate out slope. The were several rootball craters that needed filling in and lots of poison oak growing aggressively. They look like dead sticks this time of year, but they are still potent. We hacked them back as best we could so they wouldn’t be reaching out into the trail corridor. By about noon we completed the 1.6 miles and started heading back since we were all getting pretty soggy. Next week we will head in from road 1828 and work downstream.

We hope to see you on the trail soon.

Next week's projects:
Tuesday March 17th - Horse Creek Trail Wilderness Logout
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/suxdk

Thursday March 19th - Fall Creek trail logout and brushing
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/gocp9

03/07/2026

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

Tuesday March 3rd – A crew of 10 Scorpions started work on the section of Fall Creek trail staring at Bedrock CG and working upstream. It was beautiful day for trail work with temperatures eventually rising into the know 50s’and ample sun. The primary mission of the day was to buck up about 30 logs some up to 38” in diameter with root balls and steep side slops to contend with. The first half mile of trail is up a series of switchbacks climbing about 500ft. We formed three saw teams with each assigned a separate half mile of trail so we wouldn’t have to leapfrog over each other and have just 1-saw team working the switchbacks.

The switchback saw team got to work right away since one complex 38” tree with root ball was chest high right at the TH. The root ball was fortunately just off the trail, but the Doug Fur extended several hundred feet up the hillside. They were going to spend some quality time with this log.

The rest of us climbed the switchbacks and saw team 2 starting work at the Jones trail junction. They had to immediately attend to a challenging jack straw set of logs and some large burnt logs on a steep side slope. Saw team three continued on another half mile and then started on another challenging log with root ball again on a steep side slope.

We all hammered away making lots of noise and sawdust until we all completed our assigned sections just before 2PM and headed back to the TH. Now that this section is logged out we will get back to do some much-needed repair and brushing.

Thursday March 5th – A hardy crew of 7 Scorpions sporting very stylish raingear continued tread restoration work at Fall Creek on the section of trail from road 1821 to Slick Creek. It was only supposed to rain .05” for a short period of time but we ended up working in a very light mist and occasional drizzle for most of the day. The sun attempted to make shadows occasionally, but never really succeeded. We hiked in and picked up where we left off previously over halfway to Slick Creek. It was actually a pretty good day to do tread and drainage work since you could see where the water was pooling and flowing. We found some evidence of long lost and clogged drainage ditches on the inside of the trail. We spent quite a bit of time digging them out and found 4 culverts connected to this ditch. We cleared the culverts of soil, rocks and debris and got them functioning again. Several sections of this trail have been significantly damaged by a slide. We restored those sections of trail as best we could, but it will most likely need to be rerouted. We will wait for USFS guidance before working on a sustainable solution.
Shortly after lunch we arrived at Slick Creek. The trail between Slick Creek and Bedrock CG is good shape so we called it a day and returned a little soggy back to the TH.

Thanks to both crews for some great work and progress on this popular trail.

We hope to see you on the trail soon.

Next projects:
Tuesday March 10 - Tread repair and brushing Fall Creek trail
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/3s8ui

Thursday March 12th - Brushing and chainsaw logout Fall Creek trail
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/x9lxc

Monday March 23rd - Chainsaw logout Crawfish and Trestle in Umpqua NF
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/8w4mf

02/20/2026

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

On Thursday February 19th a crew of 7 Scorpions continued working on the Fall Creek trail #3455. We have been working on the section between road 1821 (the end of the Dolly Varden trail section) and Bedrock CG. This trail was severely damaged by the 2023 Bedrock Fire. On previous trips we completed logging out the trail. Yesterday we completed bruising all the way to Bedrock CG 1.5 miles from the starting point. We also completed another quarter mile of tread restoration. We have another half mile of tread to restore before we get to Slick Creek. From Slick Creek to Bedrock CG the tread needs very little work. Weather permitting, will be back next week to continue on.

Hope to see you on the trail soon.

Next week's projects:
Tuesday Feb 24th - Fall Creek trail tread work
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/59e2x

Thursday Feb 26th - French Pete XC-logout
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/h5jyk

02/13/2026

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

Some brief, “where we have been”, catch up summaries plus last Thursday’s summary from Fall Creek trail work.

Thursday January 29th – A crew of 10 led by Mike S. brushed and logged out about 15 logs on the Winberry Tie trail.

Tuesday February 3rd – A crew of 2 brushed the South Willamette trail from high point (reached from Crale Creek Rd.) to Harper Creek.

Thursday February 5th – Another crew of 10 led by Mike S. continued brushing and logging out the South Willamette trail.

Thursday February 5th - A crew of 4 led by Steve D. returned to Clark Creek and completed building the puncheon.

Thursday February 12th – A large crew of 16 including three first time Scorpions returned to Fall Creek trail #3455. We started work on the next 1.5 mile section between road 1821 and Bedrock CG. There were about 20 charcoaled logs or so to buck up including some big ones >30” in diameter. Lots of brushing and debris to remove and at least 1 mile of tread to restore.

A crew of 5 tackled the logs with chain saws. Two headed downstream from Bedrock CG and 3 headed upstream from the 1821 TH. We planned to meet in the middle somewhere. Two crew members headed out ahead of the power brushing and swamping team of 4 to clear away limbs and debris to make the brushing more efficient. Of course, the brushers quickly passed them by since the limb and debris removal was slow going. The remainder of the crew gathered up a variety of tread tools and started restoring the tread inch by inch. It was heavily overgrown.

By about 2PM the chain saw teams met up having completed the logout. The brushing team made almost to slick Creek about a mile in and the tread crew did a super job on the first half mile. It looks like a trail again. We will be back again next week to continue.

Hope to see you on the trail soon.

Next week's project: Fall Creek trail #3455 - tread work and brushing
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/t4xyp

01/23/2026

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

Tuesday January 20th – A small crew of 2 (Doug and Sig) returned to Clark Creek trail to try and complete construction on series of steps heading up a steep grade. It was a cold icy morning, but we were soon warming up as the sun burned off the fog. One step was already completed from the previous workday. All the cedar boards were previously cut with lap joints for assembly of the remaining steps. So, we made rapid progress and got the remaining 5 additional steps in.

Thursday January 22nd – A big crew of 13 arrived at Fall Creek on a very cold and foggy morning. A crew of 5 gathered the power tools needed to work on Puncheon construction on the Clark Creek trail. The rest of us followed them up the trail with 8 more 4x6x5ft cedar deck planks in hand that were needed to complete the puncheon decking.

After hauling the deck planks up 8 of us returned to the cars leaving the puncheon crew on their own. Our task was to log out the Dolly Varden section of the Fall Creek trail. The windstorm last month brought down quite a few more trees on this 3.4-mile section. We split into two groups of 4. On crew started at the Dolly Varden TH and worked their way up stream. The rest of us started where we parked and worked downstream. We were also planning to restore some sections of tread that needed work. Unfortunately, the ground was so frozen that tread work was quite difficult. But the log out went smoothly, about 20 logs were bucked and the crews met roughly in the middle of the trail. We will have to come back to complete the tread work when the ground thaws.

Meanwhile the puncheon crew enjoyed working in full sunshine. They had to cut and transport several more cedars to complete the stringers and have enough material for the bull rails. They got everything leveled and squared, the stringers pinned with rebar and the decking laid out to be sure there was enough. Next time they need to spike down the decking attach the bull rails and the project will be complete.

Hope to see you on the trail soon.

Next week's projects:

Thursday January 29th - Winberry Tie logout and brushing
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/pbhxz

Thursday February 5th - South Willamette Trail brushing and logout
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/ee7zv

01/18/2026

Here is a copy of our Annual Trail Work Summary for 2025.

Link: https://1drv.ms/b/c/da70c8eac6c834bb/IQCyayRRLm8kQ6hXmJ_vyWh4AYfpgg18Ulys3q_CHxlkrro

01/17/2026

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

Saturday January 10th – A crew of 5 Scorpions joined forces with a 5 member Camas crew to logout Rebel Creek trail #3323. The recent wind event brought down numerous logs. Arriving at the TH there was a dusting of snow and downed logs were blocking the parking area. They got their chain saws buzzing and started bucking up logs. By the end of the day, they cleared all the way to the Wilderness boundary about 1 mile in.

Thursday January 15th – Another big crew of 13 Scorpions returned to Clark Creek. We had previously completed logout and tread recovery on the 1-mile loop trail damaged in the 2023 Bedrock Fire. Today we began rebuilding a 21ft long puncheon and a series of steps leading up a steep grade. A split off team of two worked on the Dolly Varden section of the Fall Creek trail to chip away at a rock wall to widen a narrow section of trail. We all arrived at the TH just as the thick fog was trying to lift and were looking forward to some sunshine.

There was a big load of tools to carry into the work sites, plus about 20 more 4x6x5ft cedar planks, rebar and 8” spikes that still need to be carried in. We loaded up and trudged to the work site with the tools and materials. It took a half dozen round trips to get everything where it needed to be. Luckily, the worksite was just a third of a mile from our parking spot.

We all helped haul previously cut cedar logs to the puncheon site which would be used as mud sills and stringers. We then split into a puncheon and a step construction team. Both teams had to first remove the remaining burnt pieces of the structures. Some pieces were very reluctant to be extracted. We cut off any old pieces of rebar and spikes and carried them out at the end of the day.

Following lunch in the sunshine, both crews commenced site preparation for the puncheon and steps. Considerable effort was required to properly level and square each area before the start of construction. By day's end, the first step had been installed and all mud sills for the puncheon were in position. The rock chipping crew successfully beat back the rock wall and gained another 8” or so of tread width. A great job by all and we will be back next week to continue.

Hope to see you on the trail soon.

Next week's projects:

Tuesday Jan 20th - Step construction at Clark Creek
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/z2gl7

Thursday Jan 22nd - Puncheon construction at Clark Creek and logout plus tread work on Dolly Varden
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/lkfd5

01/10/2026

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

Thursday January 8th – Fourteen super volunteers helped kick off the 2026 season for the Scorpion Trail Crew at Clark Creek. We had a little bit of everything today including a beautiful dusting of white snow that created a sharp contrast to the charcoal blackened logs left over from the 2023 Bedrock Fire.

We split into two groups. One group of 7 started work near the Clark Organizational Camp. There was about 200 yards of trail paralleling the road into Clark Camp that still needed to be cleared of logs, brush and then tread restoration. This trail segment was invisible when we first started working here, completely swallowed by blackberry and raspberry vines. We spotted traces of it a week earlier while working the trail loop higher up and found the junction where it intersects the main trail. Clearing this segment eliminates the need to walk on the short road leading to Clark Camp. One barrier to clearing this segment was a big ugly 40” log right across the trail in a drainage with seemingly nowhere to go. It was uphill on both sides of the log. More on that later. Several in this crew also split off to harvest about 100 ft of cedar for use in rebuilding the burnt puncheon (low to the ground bridge).

The second crew of 7 drove a few minutes further up the road in Fall Creek to where a short spur trail intersects the main Clark trail loop from Fall Creek trail #3455. We had a truck and trailer overloaded with 4”x6”x10ft cedar planks that will be used to rebuild the burnt puncheon. First, we had to cut them in half and transport them roughly a third of a mile climbing about 200ft to the puncheon work site. Two of us worked on cutting the planks to 5ft lengths while the others started restoring the tread on the spur trail. Once we had a good stack of planks ready several crew members dropped their tread tools to start playing mule and haul the planks in. The weight of the planks varied considerably but were probably between 60-70lbs on average. We all took turns playing mule and by the early afternoon all the planks had made it at least partially to the worksite and the tread on the spur trail was restored.

Some of us returned earlier to the other group to help with the tread and the big ugly log but mostly to get a break from hauling deck planks. We started work on the log originally intending to just cut a big notch in it to make a stepover. But as we cut from both sides using a 32” bar the anticipated strong end bind due to the slope did not materialize. We decided to try and cut all the way through it. We cut a wide notch about 2/3rds of the way through the log wide enough for the power head of the saw to fit in. We then gradually nibbled our way through the bottom third of the log trying to avoid getting the bar stuck if the end bind reared its ugly head. We started feeling some strong pinching in the last 6” of wood. But gradually finally got through and the log dropped. Now that the log was severed, we cut several small rounds off the remainder so we could move them up and then off the trail. This was a two tank of gas log.

We all returned to the cars at about 2PM. The sun tried to poke out a few times during the day but never quite made it. We had a few light drizzles, and the dusting of snow that greeted us in the morning was gone by the end of the day. Thanks to the great crew, especially for those impersonating mules, for making this a great way to start the 2026 trail-work season.

Happy New Year and we hope to see you on the trail soon.

Next week's project: Puncheon and step construction at Clark Creek - Thursday January 15th
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/1x0b4

01/03/2026

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

Tuesday December 30th – Another super crew of 11 Scorpions returned to Clark Creek trail #3456 for more post-fire trail recovery. This was our fourth trail workday there not counting scouting trips. With a large crew of 11 we made a great deal of progress and completed restoring every inch tread around the 1-mile loop. We also bucked up a few new logs that recently came down and identified a number of cedars that can be used in rebuilding the 21ft puncheon. The day started cold and foggy but that burned off by about 10:30 and we enjoyed a beautiful crisp sunny day. Next time we will start preparing to rebuild the fire destroyed puncheon and a series of 7-steps up a steep rise. There are also a few short trail spurs we still need to recover.

Wednesday December 31st - A large log that was very difficult to get around was reported down on Goodman Creek trail close to Eagles Rest Rd. After discussing it with the ranger it was decided we should quickly buck it up before a user trail gets established around the log on this trail. A Scorpion strike team of 2 headed up on New Years eve to deal with it. We drove up through very thick, cold valley fog but once we arrived at the Eagles Rest TH at 2600ft we were in bright sunshine. The log was less than a minute walk from the road. We got there to find it was buried under a huge pile of limbs and debris from neighboring trees it struck on its way down. It took over an hour just to clear our way into the it from both sides. The log was reported to be about 24” in diameter but was closer to 34” and it took some time to cut through it with our 20” bar. Once we got a segment bucked up we quickly realized we would have to cut it into smaller sections to move it off the trail. It was just too heavy and there was not enough slope to roll even with the log rails we carefully placed under it. After another 45 minutes of making saw dust and pushing the trail was clear once more.

These last two adventures will wrap up our 2025 trail work season. Notable achievements in 2025 include organizing 80 trail workdays, with participation from 75 unique volunteers who collectively contributed 5,242 hours of trail work to our National Forests. Altogether we worked 137 miles of trails including 45 miles in federally designated Wilderness Areas. We were also finally permitted to begin post-fire trail restoration in the Cedar Creek and Bedrock burn zones.

Hope to see you on the trail soon.

Next week's project: Clark Creek trail restoration - Thursday Jan 8th
Sign up link: https://bttr.im/u8bc2

Scorpions Trail Crew

04/03/2026

03/28/2026

03/20/2026

03/13/2026

03/07/2026

02/20/2026

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