Give Back by Volunteering to Maintain Trails

Ask Henry Panter what is favorite trail is and he will tell you that the Hummocks, a 2.5 mile loop on the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument is close to the top. “It is constantly changing” he said. Panter was leading a group of 10 volunteers from the Washington Trails Association in making some repairs on the dramatically altered trail.

A large slide split this portion of the Hummocks trail in two.

For my part, it had been about a year since I had been on the trail as an employee of the U.S. Forest Service, and on this day, I didn’t even recognize large portions of the trail. In early 2007, myself and several others flagged a reroute that was designed after the November storms of 2006 blew out a key portion of the right of way. Another section slid away this year and a beaver has built a dam in the last year that submerged two other sections of the path.

A new beaver dam was displacing the trail with high water.

Because the beaver took out the trail with a rising level of water, a new 50 foot section of trail was constructed higher on the slope.

Washington Trails Association (WTA) along with other groups like the Lewis County Backcountry Horsemen volunteer thousands of hours each year to fix storm damage on state and federal trails each summer. Panter, a mechanic from Stevenson considers himself a “professional volunteer” and has put in nearly 200 days of volunteer time on trails over the last decade. The groups other leader, Kevin Koski from Port Orchard has contributed 87 days since 1999. WTA began volunteer trail work in 1993 with a little over 800 hours and in 2007, over 80,000 hours of time was donated to trails in the state.

The two guides volunteer in doing what used to be the jobs of seasonal workers for the U.S. Forest Service, but in this age of declining budgets, volunteers are being called upon to take care of trails on federal lands.

WTA set up numerous volunteer parties over the weekend of June 7th (National Trails Day) and 8th all over the state. On this morning, 8 strangers were brought together by Panter and Koski to solve issues created by the ever changing Hummocks Trail.

Kevin Koski (left) and Henry Panter introduce the basic tools of trail repair and maintenance to a team of volunteer workers on Sunday.

The team of volunteers were introduced to a handful of tools employed in trail maintenance and then shown some basic techniques in trail design. The first lesson was the design and use of water bars to prevent trails from becoming small creeks. After all, water is the number one enemy of a trail. Later the crew built a short reroute to elevate the trail above a rising beaver ponds and then a rock structure that allowed hikers to step over s small stream without getting their boots wet or damaging the wetland. The most basic action was “grubbing” or moving soil to allow for proper drainage off of the trail.

My son Jared (on the left) and Nalini Nadkami from Olympia "grub" to create a drainage bar.

My son Jared is one of the first to test out an elevated step-crossing of a small drainage.

Among the group of volunteers were two Evergreen State College Instructors, a long-time employee (34 years) of the National Park Service and two volunteers for the Mount. St. Helens institute not to mention myself and my hard working 10 year old son. It should be noted that almost to a person, there was almost no experience in building or maintaining trails outside of our two leaders.

For their troubles and time, each volunteer was given a free pass to use forest service recreation areas (worth $5). After two passes are collected, they can be traded in for a free annual pass (worth $30). After 5 days of volunteer work, WTA gives you your own personalized helmet to use on future projects. Seldom does a week go by in the summer when there are not several work parties occurring all over the state. If you are interested, check the WTA site, but hurry. Work party space is limited and it goes fast!

Our group of volunteers took a moment to take in the scenery of the Toutle River and the volcanic landscape.

I was motivated to join this group because in many places I have hiked this year, fresh work on the trails had been completed. Under my breath I have said "thank you", but it occurred to me that guilt was a feeling erased by effort. It struck me funny that there was no one from Lewis or Cowlitz County (besides myself and my son) to help maintain one of our backyard trails. Which leads me to ask, what are you doing next weekend? Care to grub a little?

The Lena Lake Experience

Historically, I have not been a fan of the Olympics. It is true that I took my family there in 2006 and spent three days exploring the “exterior” of the peninsula. We visited Hurricane Ridge, Sol Duc Falls and the Hoe Rain Forest, but the experience of looking out over the range never intrigued me to the point of saying “I have to go out there”.

Bring on the winter of 07-08 and the massive snows of which I have had a love/hate relationship and the desperation to find quality, early season, yet snow-free trails. For this purpose, I should mention that I follow a couple of websites, most notably Washington Trails Association and to a lesser extent, Northwest Hiker where participants post information and photos about the hikes that they have taken. Still being a newbie to Washington, I read with great interest and have map for assistance in finding those hidden spots close to Lewis County.


Late last week, I noticed a name that kept coming up. I read the “hike reports” and checked the map. It was going to be right on the edge of the 2 hour drive from the local area. I searched trip reports from years passed looking for photos. Not too impressive, but what choice did I have. The boys and I got up early, grabbed a friend and headed towards Lena Lake.

Getting to Lena Lake means driving north to Olympia and then taking Highway 101 by Shelton and Hoodsport. 14.2 miles north of Hoodsport, take a left on Forest Road #25 and drive for about 7.5 miles. It is a well used trailhead and marked visibly from Highway 101. You will need a Northwest Forest Pass to park at the trailhead.


The trail to the lake climbs about 1000 feet in the first 2 miles, but it is really a rather moderate hike. The last mile rises a net elevation of 300 feet as you reach the Lena Lake Basin. The trail was in excellent condition for an early season hike until you reach the northern end of the lake. From there, the elements still had the upper hand with downed trees and on this weekend, flooding.

A group of boy scouts from Issaquah reported that the water rose enough to have them move uphill from the lakeshore on Saturday night. When they got up the next morning, their former tent site was completely under water.

Just in the two hours we were there, the water level rose about 6 inches and covered the trail on the north side of the lake near the East Fork of Lena Creek where you can access the falls.

In this photo, salal growing at the base of a cedar is covered by the rising water level. I would say several to six feet based on locations of trees.


I looked all over the web and there was nary a reference to the falls! I can see where most of the day hikers stopped at the viewpoint of the lake on the southwest bluff, but I urge visitors to continue on to at least the East Fork of Lena Creek's confluence into the lake itself. What a great spot to end a great hike on a day when the water was roaring with snow melt.

Temperatures climbed rapidly and snows melted quickly in the higher elevations. Water in the lake was rising fast and covered the trail. The upper bridge crossing at Lena Creek resulted in wet shoes and boots just to access the bridge. The increased flow meant something very special at the confluence of the East Fork Lena Creek and the lake. At that location, the creek drops about 90 feet and empties into the lake. Next time I go back, it will probably be so mundane with less water flow!



The aforementioned photos that I had observed of Lena Lake were few and far between. More importantly, they didn’t do the lake justice. The lake and the basin is stunning. As we crossed a trail junction to Upper Lena Lake or stopped well short of “The Brothers”, it was all my boys could do to keep me from going farther. In my mind I couldn’t help but say to myself, “I’ll be back“!