For the last six weeks ACE has had crews out on Little Bear Trail in the Coconino National Forest, just outside of Flagstaff, in partnership with the Flagstaff Ranger District. The trail has been popular for mountain bikers, hikers and equestrians in the past. However, in the past years, wildfires and floods have kept the trail closed due to unsafe conditions on the trail.
Friday October 14th, was the last day of work on the ongoing six week project to rebuild the trail back into safe and usable condition. ACE has worked on different parts of this trail over the last several years. In 2011 crews worked on the bottom of the trail. However, major flood damage occurred in 2013 which buried the work that had been done. The project partners decided to let the mountain rest for some time before continuing to work on the trail to assess whether working on the trail would be beneficial or counterproductive with the past erosion.
Once the mountain was deemed safe to work on this project began to reroute the trail in areas where it had been blown out by the flood. ACE crews lead by Stephen Farmer and Trails Coordinator, Mark Loseth have been focusing on the top section of the trail. The work has consisted of rock and log work to rebuild the trails in 11 different areas in which the trail was blown out by the flood damage. The Flagstaff Bike Organization has also put together several volunteer groups that have worked on the bottom of the trail.
ACE is extremely proud of all of our staff, crews and corps members who have participated in the rehabilitation of this trail over the years. A thank you to our project partner, Coconino National Forest and the other organizations that have volunteered or donated to the maintenance of the Little Bear Trail.