Durable Surfaces

So for those of you who like interesting stories about surmounting difficult terrain, this is going to be a different take on that concept. One of my big projects in 2011 was to make sure the Subway was within standard of no more than 2 trails on each side of the creek. This was a major undertaking that included both the top from Wildcat Canyon trailhead and the lower section. The funny part is that the interesting part of the Subway that everyone pays attention to is really actually in good shape. The problem areas are the entrance and exit routes. These areas are generally places where people are not quite paying attention to the scenery and just blazing through to get the job done. This project is ongoing and still morphing into something greater every time I go in the Subway. It started with a June trip with Becca from veg. She helped me realize just how much there is to do. We hiked the whole bottom and found over a dozen areas that were out of standard. Then I came back in there with Kelsey and Ian to get a whole ton of work done. Other people like Seth and Suri went in there to work, but I eventually realized that it was too tough for others to see my vision without me there. The lower half was doing better, so Kelsey and I went to the top section and did an overnight in Wildcat Canyon. We changed the focus entirely. We saw that the goal for the upper section was durable surfaces. Since there was a sufficient amount of slickrock out on the upper section, we decided that two trails was two too many. Slickrock itself can be a trail with a good enough system set up. So we bit the bullet and actually set up cairns. Of course, we knocked a whole bunch down, too, but we wanted to provide a majority slickrock trail into the Subway. The long term benefits are many, but the short term maintenance is going to be incredibly challenging. The erosion just has to stop and we want to get rid of all those ridiculous, unnecessary trails. The problem is that those trails will keep showing up as people will continue to follow the way they know. The major problem area I am sure will be the forested area. This is completely unnecessary. There is an easy slickrock ramp just to the right. This is the “easy” way though and I am sure it will take years to get people to use the slickrock, but we had to try. This was confirmed as Derrick and I came back one month later at the end of October to see how the route looked and to GPS the correct route to access the Subway. We were amazed to see how good it looked. Many of the areas that we blocked off were now in great shape. The only area that wasn’t was the forested area. This area Derrick and I increased the debris to a level that people would not mistake it for anything other than asking people to not use it for access. Will it stop anyone? Probably not in 2012, but by 2013, it should be gone.

Above is an accurate map of the correct Subway access route. This map as you can see, follows a large percentage of rock (white area). It would be interesting to compare it to the old route, but that rock provides long term erosion control. When there are 80 people a day with a significant lack of wilderness skills accessing this area each day in groups up to 12 people, a long term solution is only necessary. So for those of you looking for an interesting story about some way to enjoy the wilderness, I am sorry that instead you got something preachy from me. But I am so excited about this project. 10000 people enter the Subway every year and yet it is still supposed to keep its wilderness character. I love this part of wilderness management as there is always more that can be done to bring it closer and closer to wilderness. My goal is that someday, the top can be 75% slickrock hiking access and that the lower section only has one trail. This is still a dream, but every time I go in there to work, it looks better than it did when I was in there the time before. If a small staff of 3-8 people can erase a majority of the impact of 10000 people a year for decades in one year, I am interested to see how well we can do with another year to attack it. It just goes to show that you can make a difference as long as you have a goal in mind.

To be continued…