Back on the dry side of the Cascades we got the pleasant surprise of a nice dirt soaking for our trail work. Volunteers came out in force from our industry partners—most of our good natured crew were from Laird Superfood, Old Man Mountain, Robert Axle Project, and Trail Boss USA. We partnered with Sisters Trails Alliance to rework a set of 11 switchbacks on Black Butte and attempt to reclaim the Two Lakes trail from its voracious ceanothus jungle, a result of the 2003 B&B Complex wildfire. This section is not well known but used to be part of the Cache Mountain segment of the Bend Big Fat Tour (RIP). It took some major brushing and logging but it’s clear once again. Hopefully someday soon we can help reopen the full Cache Mountain Trail, it’s a perfect addition to the Deschutes Tier and would add views and eliminate a lot of road miles.
To cap our Saturday evening we invited tribal member, educator, historian, artist, and Ichiskín language preservationist Jefferson Greene to share history and stories about the land that we were working and riding on. The Ichiskín language was once spoken across most of the vast Columbia plateau, yet today Jefferson is only one of 45 fluent speakers.
Sisters’ Nugget Newspaper popped in on Sunday morning, check out the article here.
All told our volunteers logged over 400 hours valued at $12,000! Thanks again to our industry partners, these events wouldn’t happen without their support.
