How To Clear A Trail In The Woods By Hand

Past Paul Gerald, Board President, Trailkeepers of Oregon

Almost every trail yous'll ever hike will take you past a sawed-off log. And while you are certainly aware that somebody sawed off that log, you lot probably accept no thought how complicated it might have been, nor how much piece of work.

I certainly didn't, until I joined a Trailkeepers of Oregon coiffure on Mount Hood's Old Vista Ridge Trail. In that location, under the expert leadership of crew leader Pat Keavney, my crewmates and I removed four logs from the trail—and learned a ton. I also had a blast.

Three people look at a log across a hiking trail.

TKO Crew Leader Pat Keavney and US Woods Service officials sizing up a ii-foot-thick log across the Erstwhile Vista Ridge Trail. (Photograph past Paul Gerald)

Logs on trails, aka "blowdown," are quite common, specially in leap and early summer, after winter storms take done their work. If it's in a wilderness expanse like Old Vista Ridge, blowdown has to be cutting out by mitt—no chainsaws are allowed in wilderness areas. Hither's how it works.

Commencement you assess the whole area for potential dangers, like something that might fall or roll on you while or after you cut. Assessing dangers is always a expert idea when out hiking, for your own safety and to alert TKO or the land managing director about work that needs to be washed.

Next yous have to clear the expanse so sawyers can get to the log. This involves earthworks, brushing, hauling, and manus-sawing branches. Then yous have to plan for where the sawed section volition go: Is information technology going to fall? Gyre? Head downhill to where it might hurt somebody? Precautions take to be taken to be certain the surface area is safety during and later on the piece of work.

You're virtually set to cut, simply you accept to anticipate which fashion the department of log will come out and and then work out the angles so that it does and then easily. In curt, this ways the lesser and downhill sides of the log need to be slightly wider than the top and uphill sides, and so it pops out when you're done cutting.

To prepare the log for cutting, you also need to remove the bark, which could accept clay in it—dirt that has mineral elements that would damage the saw blade. And i affair you'll learn on a saw coiffure is that sawyers honey their saws and really want to take good care of them. Getting i sharpened is a difficult and expensive process. And replacing one? Let's not think about information technology.

A man swings a hatchet into a log.

Immigration the bark from the log to fix it for the saw. (Photo by Paul Gerald)

Depending on the log's size, you may be using a one- or two-person crosscut saw, an iconic implement that requires ii people working in tandem. Get-go you lot "air saw" just in a higher place the log, pulling the blade back and forth a brusque distance and but above the surface of the log. Then you steadily lower it onto the log, starting your groove; in one case that is done, you settle into the archetype back-and-along motion (if you're doing it right) that has been seen and heard in these woods for 150 years.

It'southward a delicate process, with each person pulling the saw in a straight line and so that information technology glides easily through the log and, perhaps, "sings." Yous don't push, because that can bend (and potentially suspension) the saw and make your crew leader rather uptight. You too take to account for the possible "binding" of the saw, which occurs when the bract gets stuck in the log as the log settles. To avert this, you lot will hammer wedges into the cut higher up the blade, keeping the fissure—also known as the kerf —open.

A saw cutting a section of log where bark has been removed.

Getting the groove started after briefly air-sawing merely to a higher place the log. (Photograph by Paul Gerald)

Sawyers switch off regularly to avoid fatigue, and and then as the cut is nearing completion, information technology's fourth dimension to think about that thing coming out. Often the person on the downhill side will get out of the style, leaving the uphill sawyer to terminate the task alone.

Two workers on either side of a log hold their hands on a crosscut saw.

Pull, don't push: the delicate residue of team sawing. (Photo by Paul Gerald)

And that's just one cut! Some logs require several to remove. Just in the classic scene—a directly log lying right beyond the trail—two cuts are enough. At the stop of the second one, and over again if you're doing it correct, the cut section drops out and onto the trail. Yous will have placed something to keep information technology from rolling into a dangerous expanse, or perhaps you cleared out the area beneath to let information technology roll out of the way. Either style, it's a satisfying moment. If the cutting section needs to exist moved, y'all motility it with some combination of hands, feet, ropes, and pry bars—all the while taking great intendance to put it where yous want it. This part can be dirty, tiring, and exhilarating!

Plastic wedges protrude from a cut in a log.

Wedges are inserted to keep the log from closing down on peak of the saw and binding it. (Photograph by Paul Gerald)

And when all this is done, voilà ! There is now a nice, clear path through where in one case there was a log in the way. Previously, hikers had to stop or crawl over a log, merely now they can just stroll on through—all because of you, the TKO saw crew! Then, like a acquisition hero, you put a guard on the blades of your saw, sling information technology over your shoulder, and head off upwards the trail, looking for the next log to clear out. It's a very satisfying feeling!

A man sitting on the ground pushing his feet against the cut portion of a log.

After the section is cut, it often has to be removed—in this case with leg power. (Photo by Paul Gerald)

The side by side time y'all stroll past a sawed-off log, particularly in wilderness, take a moment to experience some gratitude for the saw crew that did it. See if yous can spot the piece they took out, and imagine what it took to get it there. As you now know, they put in a lot of time and effort, so you don't take to—it oft takes three or four hours to clear a trail of a 2-foot log across it! And perhaps come encounter us on a TKO trail crew some day to learn more than and become that sense of satisfaction for yourself.

A hiking trail with the cut ends of a log on either side.