Observing Generations of Trail Work at Castle in the Clouds

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RoySwkr

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Went out for a stroll in the nice weather. No other cars parked by gate, which was open presumably for the 2 tour buses that arrived shortly. First went to Bald Knob via cutoff, interesting sign along the way showing the base of some columnar basalt the top of which is on Turtleback. I hadn't been to Bald Knob this way before and the carriage road just before the summit is a spectacular sidehill cut. At the top is some sort of loading platform I didn't remember.

Bushwhacked to Turtleback then headed for Mt Shaw, saw bulldozer tracks in trail and some rocks that had been shoved aside. Came to parked Kubota U25 tracked backhoe with thumb and bulldozer blade which they'd used to clean a short section of ditch and seemed like overkill for this project. Higher up met 2 guys from state Trails Bureau with 2-seater ATV and power brush cutters, didn't ask why they were working here instead of their easement on other side.

Continued figure-8 loop over Shaw and Black Snout, there is a good foot trail cutting off switchbacks on Shaw and one on Black Snout that may actually be an animal trail judging from the large amount of bear scat along it. The LRCT has put up a lot of new metal trail signs to replace the decaying laminated paper ones but a lot of them either give wrong distances or are in the wrong place - both signs at High Ridge/Black Snout jct for example.

Returned to Castle via Oak Ridge cutoff and unofficial logging road, ATV tracks on cutoff particularly notable in muddy areas. Started to sprinkle halfway down, but getting out umbrella was enough to make it quit. Only other hiker I met was gorgeous blonde on Mt Shaw.
 
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