The volunteers camped at the Spencer Hot Springs Friday night, and then continued on to the project site Saturday morning. The crew worked along the trail filling in severely washed out areas with rocks, brush, and dirt, pruning and lopping where the vegetation had crowded in the trail, and building rock walls where switchbacks were being cut and social paths were resulting in negative impacts on the wilderness resources. The crew began at the trailhead and worked about ¾ of a mile in to a point where the original trail had been completely submerged by the Barley Creek, due to a beaver dam that had flooded the area. A social path had already been formed along one side of the creek to avoid the flooded area, so the Friends volunteers concentrated on widening this path into the permanent tail, then joining back with the original path at a point where hikers and stock could easily cross the creek. The volunteers then blocked off the old section of the trail where access had been cut off due to the flooding and revegged this section so that it can eventually recover back into a natural setting.
After a long day of hard work, the crew successfully cleared the Barley Creek trail, filled in all the eroded washed out sections, and built a new trail around the flooded area and joining back with the original trail further down. The crew camped Saturday night outside the wilderness boundary, after enjoying a delicious veggie stir fry dinner provided by Friends, and then took off for the long drive back to Reno the following morning.
The weekend’s work produced very satisfying results. The Barley Creek trail is now restored and fully cleared of obstacles and brush. Thanks to the hard-working volunteers of Friends of Nevada Wilderness, visitors will now be able to enjoy this beautiful trail and appreciate a special part of Nevada’s public lands for many years.
* There were a total of 90 volunteer hours recorded for time spent on project and travel.
