Field Program

For this hitch, our crew camped out at the Coyote Meadows trailhead and worked on 2 trails over the course of 7 days. For the first 3 days we mainly dug drains on a nearby trail. Unfortunately, it rained all day for that time which made our job hard but clear to why we needed to fix the drains. The trail had many areas that were flooded consistently and we were met with mud in every step we took. After our fourth day, we mostly focused on brushing trees and other plants off from the trail to make sure there was nothing in the way of hikers and horses. Also, because the trail was used by horses and other pack animals we had to cut the trail extra wide and tall in order to provide more room.

We used hand saws and loppers to take care of the low stuff but the rest required pole saws to cut the high branches that hung over the trail. After we finished with that trail we moved on to Hidden Lake trail where we did the same thing as well as cover social trails made from people cutting switchbacks over time. Finally, we fixed the drains on Hidden Lake trail and went back to camp to pack up and move campsites for our last day of work. The last night we camped in Teton Valley and headed up to Dry Ridge trail to clear about 20 trees that had fallen on the trail. We ended up finishing them ahead of schedule and hiked down. We said goodbye to our project partner and were on our back to Bozeman by 4. Overall the hitch was productive and went smoothly.