Did some trail maintenance and summited Mount Catherine for the first time as the last time I attempted (1.5 months ago), I was concerned about avalanche conditions. How quickly the snow has melted :/...
Road conditions are messy, like I remember from the last time I came up 2 years ago. The road's pretty washboard, with some large dips in sections, and is single lane for most of the road. I was surprised how many folks there were up top, but for most intents and purposes, the travelers all had SUVs and pickups. For the record, this is one of those roads that I travel very carefully and slowly on with my CrossTrek, since the drop off of the road is pretty sheer in sections and all it takes is a little nudge for it to happen.
The trail itself is in ok shape for the amount of traffic it receives, however, it needs a lot of brushing and the trail in the last 0.1 miles before the summit really needs to be clarified. I did my best to brush on the way up, widening the trail prism by clipping back shrubs and fir branches that had encroached over the trail. I was mostly successful in the first 0.5-1.0 miles (I widened the trail prism out from 1' to 2'). However, there's a lot of work beyond that until the summit that needs a larger crew of folks (there are chokepoints about 1'-1.5' in the last 0.5-1.0 mile before the summit). I tried to clarify the summit route by blocking a scramble that folks had been using (me included, before I realized my error), which was risky and eroding the trail. Following the switchback off to the right will help prevent the trail from eroding more in the social scramble section. That being said, both paths will erode based on use. It might be wise to build off the social scramble by putting in more rock work or steps with railroad ties.
The only blowdown up the trail was easy to duck under, but it probably wouldn't hurt to take it out. It's about 2' in diameter, located around 1.1 miles, and might be removable with a chainsaw (since it's not in a wilderness area IIRC).
Although the area doesn't require dogs be on leashes, I really appreciated everyone putting their pups on leashes and keeping track of them (I was unsure since there wasn't a bulletin board to check at the start, nor signage). The trail is narrow enough in areas and there were enough dogs that having dogs be off-leash wouldn't have been sustainable (dogs must be within 6' of their owners and be under voice command).
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