Downed trees quickly cleared from Soapstone and Melvin C Hazen trails

by Marlene Berlin

The deluges over a record seven consecutive days this month brought down more than buckets of rain. They brought down trees.

I found quite an obstacle on the Soapstone Valley trail on Sunday, May 20th. One tree had brought down multiple trees in one location which took a bit of finesse to get through.

Another tree, its large root system laid bare, took part of the trail with it.

The Rock Creek trail was easy by comparison.

I sent the photos to Bill Yeaman of the National Park Service, and he passed them on. By Wednesday, May 23rd, the Soapstone trail had been cleared by the Park Service tree crew. I emailed thanks to Bill.

The following Thursday, May 24th on the Melvin C Hazen trail, there were clear signs the tree crew had come through. Here, too, they cleared away trees that had fallen across the trail.

And on Saturday, May 26th, a group of volunteers from Potomac Appalachian Trail Club were out doing work on Soapstone trail. They shored up part of the trail that had been taken out by the upturned root system of a downed tree.

They plan to return on June 16th to do major work on the crossings.