Andrews Creek, Coleman Ridge — Saturday, Sep. 27, 2025

Maintenance run on Coleman Ridge #505, needed work left undone by my attention to Basin Creek #360 this year (five outings).

I started brushing the switchbacks up from Andrews Creek, choked with Ceanothus, clearing maybe 1/3 of the tread.  It's a slow-go, it dulls and loosens my loppers to the point where I'm snapping at the branches with them.  I'll make this a regular chore, clearing 3-4 switchbacks with each visit until the job is done.  Maybe there's a lopper with a blade I can change in the field.

My loppers had enough edge left to clean up the alders choking the perfect "oasis" further up the trail, reliable water well before the Ram Creek crossing.  At Ram Creek, I put one cut through the very large tree down there, a tree nearing the limits of what my Silky 650 saw can handle.  I need to branch the other side and cut it again (an hour), and a ton of wood will roll downhill, right off the trail.

I also took on the Great Logpile, a huge stack of logs with its origins in a freak windstorm that laid a number of trees on top of and parallel to each other.  I actually crawled under these logs two years ago with a dislocated shoulder, to make it out to my car.  There are cairns and a crude way around this pile, but the original path is best and can be restored. 

I sawed through the heart of the original pile, but Nature added even more trees a little lower down.  I may need to section these to remove them from the trail, tedious, but doable, maybe another 3-4 hours of work.  When finished, hikers will go through the heart of the pile, with big cut logs all around.

Looking ahead to the next stages of #505, to Vic Meadow, Fire Creek, point 6600, and Coleman Ridge proper, it's important that Meadow Lake remain a viable, enjoyable, weekend destination.  I'm seeing good signs of visitor traffic, the trail needs to be doable, wild and exciting, a trail that traverses the burn to reach a perfect alpine lake.