Popular Trail Receives Facelift

SEELEY LAKE - South Morrell Trail #30.1 is a popular destination for mountain bikers, trail runners and hikers. It starts from the first switchback of Pyramid Pass Road and runs about five miles down to Woodworth-Seeley Lake Road. Early this summer the trail received maintenance from the Forest Service.

According to Katie Knotek, the Seeley District trail manager, a small bridge on the trail was not up to Forest Service standards. Crews went in and replaced the old bridge near the start of the trail with a puncheon-a structure smaller than a bridge.

"It definitely was rotting out and rickety," said Knotek. "We made it a priority to improve that crossing."

With the addition of the new bridge, larger groups can use the trail. MTB Missoula plans to incorporate it into their race during this year's Bob Marshall Music Festival and the Bob Marshall 50k footrace will likely be routed across it as well.

Knotek said that with a constantly declining trails budget, maintaining the level of trail maintenance required for safe recreation is difficult. The Seeley Lake Ranger District has an annual operating budget of about $89,000 dollars but projects like bridge replacements are costly. The Morrell Trail didn't break the bank but others can.

In the Scapegoat Wilderness, two North Fork trail bridges need to be replaced. Each is a 100 plus foot long pack bridge, which span the Blackfoot River.

The price tag for each replacement? In the ball park of $300,000.

"Because it's wilderness, the cost of getting materials in and out is expensive," said Knotek. "Most Forest Service districts can't afford to replace a bridge like that with their annual allocation of funds."

For projects like this, the Forest Service looks for outside funding.

Knotek says funding has been requested through the Federal Lands Transfer Program and the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Project.

"We have to look for whatever sources we can and try to get creative," she said.

Those projects will hopefully start in 2019.

One reason the Forest Service can do as much work as they do is through the aid of groups. Counting herself, Knotek only has two full time employees who focus on trails. To get as much work done over a summer, groups like the Montana Conservation Corps and the Montana Conservation Youth Corps spend weeks or months helping with trail maintenance.

"We can't do it without the help of other people," said Knotek.

There are approximately 713 miles of trails in the district-including 312 snowmobile trails and 12 miles of cross country ski trails. The Forest Service partners with the Driftriders and Nordic Ski Club to maintain the winter trails, but with nearly 389 miles of non-winter trails left, it can be a challenge to figure out what areas need to be maintained first.

When choosing where to focus their efforts, Knotek said she looks at what trails are used most often and starts there.

"The push at the beginning of the summer is to get the trails opened up," said Knotek. "Then we usually end up doing smaller projects in late August and September."

Knotek estimates that last year the district maintained slightly more than 200 miles of trails, almost 75 percent of the total.

"Trails are a huge part of our program and we have a system of trails out there that we're responsible for maintaining for public access," she said. "We take that seriously and will continue to try to do the best we can."