Stewardship - Church Creek–Satsop Lakes

We will meet at 7:30 a.m. at Haggen’s Grocery located at 1313 Cooper Point Road Northwest, Olympia.  Meet on the left-hand side of the large parking lot (left while facing the storefront) over by a row of trees. 

We will arrange a car pool to the Church Creek Trail about 50 miles from Olympia.  A portion (12 miles) of the road access is not paved.  The last 3 miles has unusually deep water bars for drainage which requires that vehicles have  high clearance.  All vehicles taken on this trip will need high clearance. 

Meeting elsewhere can be arranged, but meeting at this unique trailhead is not an easy location to find.

UPDATE -- The last 3 miles of the access road must be cleared of down trees just to reach the trail head. The greatest portion of this project will be to remove - move down trees, estimated at between 40 to over 100 trees, most are 8" to 12" in diameter (some smaller and many larger).    Depending on the number of participants, trail maintenance will likely consist of;   (1) removing limbs and branches from down trees that have already been cut to a manageable length   (2)  removing or moving segments of fallen trees off the road surface and out of the drainage ditches to the nearest downhill site    (3) using Crosscut Saws to cut fallen trees into manageable sized for removal for the road surface  and  (4) if we are able to clear the road access we will hike a portion of the Church Creek Tail to identify and where possible, work on trail problems.   

BACKGROUND ----  Abandoned and almost forgotten, the Church Creek Trail was adopted and reopened by the Olympia Mountaineers, allowing hikers continued access to this multi-use trail in the southern portion of Olympic National Forest. From the trailhead, the path immediately enters a forest of giant silver fir, red cedar, and Douglas-fir, with lush vegetation at your feet.  In early June wildflowers are abundant and there are several waterfalls in deep canyons that intersect the trail. Wander among old-growth giants on this off-the-beaten-path trail on the southeastern side of the Olympics Forest (about 50 miles from Olympia