My crew of 12 hiked up toward Marmot Rocks from The Monolith and then brushed the upper and middle trails out to Marmot's north side. Both of these are use-trails, having developed over many, many years of use. Both needed work; the middle trail especially had been completely obliterated by a fallen pine. We also used cut brush to obscure the "braided" alternates that had been developing. These trails are in great shape now.
We then moved down and around the north side of Yaks Wall. I've been using this approach to the north side of Yaks since the mid 1980s and don't ever recall this use-trail being so brushy. Now? It's as good as I've ever seen it.
The hillside south, along Yaks Wall, is mostly grass. We removed what brush needed removing while consolidating a series of braided trails into one.
From the saddle between Yaks and The Hanging Valley, we then cleared the trail through Hanging Valley, down past Kasperaks, to the creek, all the way to the point where we'd cleared that trail working upstream last year.
This was unquestionably one of the two physically hardest PCAD work days I've ever been on. Very satisfying.
Thanks to John, Kathy, Jon, Aaron, Caleb, Dina, and John of NPS (and others who were a little less directly involved) for keeping the momentum of this event going year after year.
