A fallen tree from a March storm damaged a section of boardwalk on the trail leading to Rainbow Falls. A Forest Service crew removed blockage and debris from the site and made the trail passable, but full restoration of the boardwalk can be expected later this summer.
The trails to Rainbow Falls and other popular Wrangell destinations will be seeing a number of improvements this season.
The Transportation Office of Wrangell Cooperative Association (WCAT) has reached a government-to-government cost sharing agreement with the United States Forest Service to resurface and brush along trails for maintenance.
The two entities have cooperated on similar projects over the past few years, with the transportation office undertaking restorative work on the Nemo Loop and McCormick Creek roads in 2014 and 2015. WCAT director Bill Willard explained this season's work will encompass 22 weeks, 12 of which will be spent on culvert restoration.
"Most of them are towards the end of their life," Wrangell Ranger Bob Dalrymple said. USFS will contribute expertise and materials, while WCAT will employ workers and provide them with safety gear, fuel
and hand tools needed for the work.
The other 10 weeks will be spent on a variety of trail renewal and clearing projects, beginning with the lower portion of Rainbow Falls Trail. WCAT began its project Monday, with rock delivered Tuesday at the trailhead.
Three-foot swathes will be brushed along the uphill and downhill sides of the trail, to a height of eight feet. Outside the agreement's scope, WCAT will coordinate with the Borough to install two lifts of gravel on the first segment of the Rainbow Falls Trail, to be completed after two weeks.
The 0.6 miles of boardwalk on the Long Lake Trail will be brushed over two or three days, while overgrowth, branches and other debris will be cleared from seven miles of the North Wrangell and Institute trails. This work will be undertaken over a week, using a combination of power brushers and hand tools.
Thoms Lake Trail has some erosion damage which
will need to be repaired, and what gravel can be reclaimed will be raked back onto the pathway. A new lift of gravel will be added to washed out areas, with USFS providing a power wheelbarrow and additional hand tools. The work will only extend from the trailhead to the State of Alaska property boundary and should take a week to complete.
The Nemo Saltwater Trail will be cleared, graveled and properly signed from the parking lot to its staircase, and hardware cloth will be installed along 0.6 miles of the Salamander Ridge Trail boardwalk.
Additional work repairing damaged boardwalk on the Rainbow Falls ascent will be undertaken by USFS later this summer. A tree knocked over a section during a particularly violent storm last month.
In all, Dalrymple said the work will make for better roads and trails and so a better experience for their user groups, residents and visitors. He expressed his appreciation to the Tribe for its role in the project, which helped make such work possible in light of ongoing budget cutbacks.
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