It’s National Trails Day, and I finally act on my resolution to do some volunteer trail work.Doug and I show up at 9 am at the Soderberg Trailhead, sign a waiver, catch a ride to the work area, and start hauling rocks.We’re working on the final section of the Blue Sky Trail, which will run south for 16 miles from here with only one road crossing.

After clearing rocks we actually build some trail tread, carving it out of a slope with picks to a 3-foot wide 5-degree slope for drainage. I guess we each manage to build about 20 feet of trail. After lunch there isn’t much more to do, but we help fill a gully bottom with gravel before hiking back to the trailhead.

As I suspected the primary concern with making tread is how it will weather. We hit several different kinds of soil, from soft root-filled loam to rich brown dirt, and I’ll be interested to see how they hold up.