Volunteers Revitalize S. Fork Skokomish Trails and LeBar Horse Camp

We held the 2025 version of our annual LeBar Horse Camp/S. Fork Skokomish R. Trail Regional Work Party May 2nd-4th under (mostly) sunny skies. It was a wonderful weekend to get work done and all in all it was a great success. The advance party arrived Thursday night and opened the gates for the other early arrivals. Friday morning the Peninsula Chapter/GrayWolf Trail Crew arrived and split into 4 crews to address the trail issues on both the Lower and Upper S. Fork Skokomish trails. Olympic Chapter’s Harold Weise had his pack string ready to go having arrived the night before. Buckhorn Range Chapter members Kris and Bob started working on cleaning up the debris in the campground left from the winter season’s storms and cutting back the season’s growth encroaching on the campsites and road. Rick King and Jim and Donna Hollatz of Peninsula Chapter soon arrived and started brushing and clearing the camp trails. The workload was light this year and we made great progress that first day. Camp cook Pat Cosner arrived midday and set up kitchen camp at the shelter in preparation for Saturday’s meals.

Saturday morning we started a new tradition by serving our hard-working volunteers a hardy hot breakfast to get their day started. GrayWolf leader Rebecca Wanagel and her trail crew discussed the day’s projects over breakfast (a big thank you! to Judith Hoyle and her “girls” for the farm-fresh Chimacum eggs).The trail crew split up into teams in preparation for another successful productive day. The only downside was watching the cloud cover descend to ground level as breakfast was being cooked, a steady misty drizzle, dropping the temperature 10 degrees. Hurray for the wonderful group shelter! The weather the rest of the day was off and on drizzle with occasional sunshine and a couple of torrential showers, including a 5-minute hailstorm that momentarily turned the ground white with dime-sized hail. Buckhorn Range and Peninsula Chapter members arrived throughout the day to help work on the campground. Our dutch oven queen Kim Merrick arrived at noon and joined Pat in preparing the evening’s meal.

Once everyone had gathered for dinner a surprise that had been kept since the BCHW Rendezvous in March was sprung on Rebecca when Peninsula Chapter President Theresa Percy presented her with the 2024 BCHW Trail Warrior Award (an axe with leather sheath embossed with her name). Dinner was delicious (although one of the dutch oven “pans” of brownies got a little overdone to the point of being set like concrete, and was dubbed “brownie jerky”). The weather cleared and everyone had a pleasant evening.

Sunday morning we fed the remaining volunteers a pancake breakfast and finished tidying up the last few tasks remaining before heading home, leaving LeBar Horse Camp open for the season and the trails open and ready for riding.

To read Rebecca’s report on the great trail work they did click here.