Читать книгу Olympic Mountains Trail Guide - Robert Wood - Страница 23

At the present time, the Olympics have nearly 900 miles of trails, of which approximately 66 percent are in the national park. In times past, several paths within the park received such infrequent maintenance (or none at all) that they acquired the status of abandoned trails. Recently, though, park officials have adopted a policy that ensures some degree of maintenance for every trail within park boundaries. The bulk of the trails in this 600-mile network are in reasonably good shape, however, and receive some maintenance—although not as much as might be desirable because of cuts in the National Park Service’s budget.

The network of usable trails—approximately 85 percent of the total mileage—is heavily used by backpackers and equestrians. Beginning at various points on the spur roads, the paths follow the valleys through virgin forests, climb the foothills and ridges, then traverse high meadowlands to the barren rock, snow, and ice of the higher peaks and ridges. Although many routes are steep, the trails are safe, and healthy persons should experience no difficulty. Most trails have moderate grades, but they are narrow, usually no more than 2 feet across.

Trees in old-growth forests on the drier, northeastern side of the Olympic range are smaller than those on the southwestern side.

How did this trail system originate? Obviously, it has not always existed, but it is probable that most of today’s backpackers do not understand or appreciate the difficulties the pioneer explorers faced a hundred years ago, when game trails were the only routes in the Olympics. The first trails were the paths made by elk and deer during their wanderings, and most of them have been worn deep through centuries of use. They form a complex network which may still be in the process of creation. Usually they are best developed in rough terrain, where they collect together to follow one route—often the only possible way. However, where the landscape becomes more gentle, game paths tend to branch out and lose their continuity. This explains the “disappearing elk trail” so prevalent in the Olympics.

The first trails that resulted from human activity might be considered the equivalent of game trails. The paths were not built; they were tramped out, either by American Indians hunting in the foothills or by Western Europeans hunting and prospecting. The first trails built intentionally were the ones made by expeditions during the late nineteenth century. When reconnoitering the country, the explorers quickly discovered that every river bottom had game trails and that such routes were the best ones to travel. Accordingly, they improved and combined them with bits of trail they made themselves.

Most of the trails in the Olympics were constructed by the Forest Service when it had jurisdiction not only of the present national forest but also of what is now Olympic National Park. When the Forest Service built the trails, it followed the example set by the explorers and utilized elk trails whenever possible, linking them together for continuity. During the 1930s the Civilian Conservation Corps constructed a number of trails for the Forest Service.

When Olympic National Park was created in 1938, the National Park Service inherited a large percentage of the existing trail system. The agency then added several new trails, but the mileage was not extensive.

Trails in the Olympics have been lost as a result of the building of logging roads, being abandoned, or lack of maintenance. As roads have proliferated, the mileage available to users of recreational vehicles has steadily increased, but the trail mileage has significantly decreased. In addition to the hundreds of miles of roads where recreational vehicles may be driven, about half of the national forest’s trail mileage is also open to motorbike travel as well as to mountain bikes.

Numerous fragments of former trunk trails can be found today in the national forest. Logging roads frequently paralleled trunk trails and often severed their branches, separating one portion of a trail from another. Despite little or no maintenance, the fragments are often in surprisingly good condition. Although they provide an enjoyable hiking experience, they do not traverse wilderness terrain.

Trail mileage has been lost in both the national forest and the national park through lack of maintenance. Trails have become choked with brush, windfalls have not been cut out, the paths not regraded where they have been badly eroded or obliterated by slides. This has been due, at least in part, to lack of funds. Other trails have been lost because they have been abandoned or relocated.

In addition to constructed trails, the Olympics have numerous paths which came into existence simply because people walked that way, following routes that offered the least resistance. Such way trails, as they are called, can be found throughout the mountains wherever hunters, anglers, prospectors, climbers, and sightseers have followed streams and ridges or wandered from one makeshift camp to another. Although exceptions occur, such footpaths are generally inferior to constructed routes, having steeper gradients that provide rougher, less secure footing. The majority are not well defined, date from years ago, and often coincide in part with game trails. Many are unknown except to the locals, and others have become lost to everyone because they have been hidden by the undergrowth, which quickly conceals a path that is not used regularly.

Both the national park and the national forest have a few nature trails built especially for casual visitors. Usually located near ranger stations or campgrounds, they are the antithesis of way trails—broad, well marked, with easy grades, often graveled, at times paved.

When it built the trails years ago, the Forest Service constructed log-and-shake shelters at intervals of 8 to 10 miles, in both the low and high country, as housing for trail-maintenance crews. When not occupied, the shelters were open to the public and frequently used by backpackers. After the creation of Olympic National Park, the National Park Service maintained the shelters that were under its jurisdiction, repairing or replacing broken-down ones. However, use of the wilderness increased greatly after World War II, and several decades later the areas near the shelters revealed signs of overuse and deterioration. In fact, the shelters themselves have, for years, been considered fair game by the people who have stayed in them. On cold, rainy days they have torn shakes from the sides and roofs for fuel or, finding nothing else to do, have laboriously inscribed their names and initials on the logs, plus the dates of their visits.

After studying the matter, the National Park Service decided to remove the shelters because they tended to concentrate people in particular locations. Many backpackers objected, however, with the result that the agency modified its policy, removing or relocating certain shelters but retaining others (primarily in the forested valleys) as emergency huts where hikers can hole up during severe storms.