Hats off to Bill Miller, his volunteers and the state park crews for their work in prepping the cross-country trails for the winters skiing.  Here is Bills report:

We live in a beautiful area and a community where the teamwork between the Chelan County Community Forest system works well with the State Parks and our local community. (Thanks to Erin McKay-Forest Health and Open Space Program Manager, Chelan County Natural Resource Department.)

The heavy lifting for trail maintenance was performed by the State Parks crew with Ranger Trevor putting together a work plan to brush cut the Upper Manson Ridge trail system to the Warming Hut before the weather closed in. State Parks crew from Wenatchee and the surrounding area (Paul, Jack, Leroy and other phantom State Crew members) ) went to work in the following area:

  1. The connecting trails between the State Park and Kahler Glen – this will result in less  snow bombs on a warm day following a snow fall.
  2. Brush cutting parts of the Nason Ridge XC trail from Kahler Glen to the Powerlines

The local volunteers aided in the same two-mile section:

  1. Teams of locals first removed large rocks from near the trail – thanks to Joyce and Ken, Anne and Denis.
  2. Brush cutters included Denis, Dr. John and me as well as other phantom volunteers.

I’ve walked the trails between the Power lines and the State Park. The trails are now ready for snow.  When the snow arrives in sufficient amounts, the first grooming job will be to pack the trail and that will take a couple of days to make the trail ready for XC skiing. Packing the trail requires several off-set passes of the groomer so that the center section as well as the shoulders of the groomed trail are also PACKED down for our skate skiers.

The Chelan Community Forest working relationship with our local community is an example of a great community working together.

In a couple of years, we will have a bridge connecting the North State Park with the South State Park and that will allow XC skiing between those two trails systems. (And that completion will make ex-Ranger Rick an incredibly happy guy!)

Bill Miller, Volunteer — Nason Ridge Brush Cutters