Saturday, March 26th, 2011

Good morning all of you hikers, horseback riders, bicyclists, and runners…

We’ve reviewed our trail trimming needs and decided to shift our focus for this Saturday’s trail work party.  We will be meeting at the Little Applegate Trailhead and hiking up to the very lovely by-pass to focus our efforts on trimming that section.  Anyone wanting to carpool, meet at Buncom (intersection of Sterling Creek and Little Applegate Road) no later than 8:45 AM this Saturday, March 26th.

Loppers, saws, raingear !!!! , sturdy shoes, gloves, water etc are recommended.  Should be some nice wildflowers coming out.

If you are coming on Saturday it would be great to know so we can plan the all important snacks and know who to be looking out for. If you haven’t already, please RSVP to Jim Reiland at:
jimrjoyr@wildblue.net or call 541-899-1091.

April 3rd Hike Postponed to April 17

Dear All,

Three items:

1.  APRIL 3rd HIKE POSTPONED:  Based on staring at a snow white Anderson Butte plus the weather forecast for the next few days, I’m reluctantly suggesting we cancel our planned hike up to the top of Anderson Butte via Goat Cabin Ridge.  I think it could be a slog through mud/snow or both.  Since this is supposed to be a fun , gorgeous hike and a picnic – doesn’t seem as though Sat will be prime weather for us to enjoy exploring this potential connecting trail between the Sterling Mine Ditch and the future Jack-Ash trail.

So how about April 17th, 9 AM - we’ll meet at the Little Applegate trailhead at the end of Little Applegate Road and hike up Goat Cabin Ridge.  We’ll leave a truck at the top to ferry us back down (assuming there isn’t snow up there still!! – with this weird weather who knows).

2.  Anderson Butte Clean-up:  The Clean Forest Project has scheduled a clean up of Anderson Butte the weekend April 10th for those of you interested in helping clean up trash on the mountain.  I believe its 9-12 noon.  It would be great for a group of us to show up and help.  Neal and I plan on being there.  For those interested:  see http://www.cleanforestproject.org/programsevents.html

3.  BLM Moving Forward on Sterling Mine Ditch Trail:  Just to let you know that all of our efforts working on the Sterling Mine Ditch Trail are paying off.  BLM is planning construction, trail clearing and repairs of the ditch with trail crews beginning sometime this spring if all goes well.  Thanks to your efforts and BLM’s the SMD trail will be in enormously improved shape by the end of the summer and probably open from Demming to the end of the trail.  Stay tuned to our website for upcoming opportunities to work with the BLM trail crews, learn how to construct bridges, do trail tread work and more.

Sorry to change our hike but the weather forecast just looks grim.

Enjoy the snow, rain or whatever is happening where you are.

Hope