KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. — A decaying bridge on one of the most popular trails leading to Mountain Lakes Wilderness is now safe for hikers and horse enthusiasts to travel on.
Friday and Saturday, more than a dozen volunteers from the High Desert Trail Riders of the Back Country Horsemen joined forces with the U.S. Forest Service to remove a deteriorated bridge on the Varney Creek trail and install a new one.
The bridge is in the Fremont-Winema National Forest.
Club members Dan and Betty Applebaker used horses and mules to pack in two 18-foot spruce logs and juniper decking material from the trailhead about 1.2 miles away.
According to Anthony Benedetti, a USFS recreation operations officer, the bridge was in need of serious repair.
One of the stringers — support logs that span the width of the creek — had the date 1984 and “Fremont-Winema Trail Crew” carved in it, indicating the damaged logs were set 31 years ago. He noted the stringers were broken and cracked.
“It was bad. It was all rotten. It was at the point it was considered dangerous,” Betty Applebaker said.
The Trail Riders purchased the bridge materials with money raised at the annual spring Packing and Wilderness Skills Clinic in Klamath Falls.
For the project, the Trail Riders spent about $500 on materials, such as decking. The USFS contributed $250 for other materials.
According to Benedetti, the new spruce supports should last 25 to 30 years.
Benedetti noted the 13 Trail Riders volunteers put in 207 hours of labor in two days.
“This work could not be done without the volunteer support,” Benedetti said. “The group effort is what makes this happen.”
