On Monday and Tuesday, the crew put their finishing touches on the Leigh Lake reroute. They are now completely finished and it looks wonderful! The YCP leaders are really proud of them for their strong effort on this project. Before, the trail passed directly through three campsites on the east shore of Leigh Lake, and campers constantly had hikers passing through their sites. The new trail is diverted slightly further east, away from the lakeshore and the campsites. YCP also built four new spur trails leading west from the new trail, one to each campsite and a fourth providing access to a day-use beach. The crew moved the old campsite signage to the new trail junctions and decompacted the old trail between the campsites for revegetation and regrowth. Hopefully going forward, campers will enjoy a bit more solitude in their sites while the general public can still enjoy the day-use beachfront.
On Wednesday, YCP had some time around the trail shop in the morning, largely peeling logs for an NPS crew's upcoming bridge project. The team loaded a number of these logs into trucks and brought them to the Lupine Meadows Trailhead where the crew got some practice hauling logs over longer distances; the staging area was roughly one half-mile from the trailhead. The NPS crews were very grateful for the help!
On Thursday, the group went to the National Elk Refuge in Jackson to have an education day and help them with some projects around the property. The Refuge is developing a new approach for visitor engagement and is planning to update some of their signage to make it more welcoming to the public. The YCP crew helped create a short trail leading to the sign and built a platform for a new bench. They also removed some invasive weeds and replanted native plants that were disrupted in the creation of the trail. After lunch, YCP toured the Elk Refuge and learned about the operation and purpose of the Refuge's effort to protect the elk population and other wildlife.
