Easily accessible from Highway 20, this 6.5-mile trail boasts spectacular high alpine scenery at every turn and breathtaking 360-degree views of the North Cascades from the top of Maple Pass. High visitor use has led to significant damage to fragile high-elevation plants, including alpine heather communities that took as many as 10,000 years to establish themselves. Trail conditions have also deteriorated over the years: user-trails crisscross the area and mislead hikers off the main route, bridges have started to rot, and large potholes have begun to emerge on the small road to the trailhead and picnic area.

In other words, this exceptional place was slowly but surely being loved to death.

Last weekend a dozen volunteers from the surrounding communities showed up to begin nursing the much-loved trail back to health. Despite strong morning rains and an uncommon chill in the late July air, volunteers arrived at 9:00 am, donned their rain gear and huddled under the NFF’s pop-up tent. After a brief welcome by the NFF and ample hot coffee and breakfast snacks donated by Winthrop’s The Rocking Horse Bakery, the rain eased up and everybody went straight to work.

Over the next four hours, under the expert leadership of current and former Forest Service staff, we repaired a rotting mud-bridge, replaced broken handrails on a footbridge, hardened a notoriously muddy switchback, brushed nearly 2 miles of overgrown trail, and filled in innumerable pot-holes at the picnic and parking area.

A big thanks to the Forest Service staff who participated in the event, and to the North Cascades Institute (NCI). For the past two years, NCI has partnered with the NFF on our Maple Pass Loop restoration project, and this year we had the enthusiastic and excellent support of graduate student Chelsea Ernst both on the trail and off.

With initial trail repairs complete, we now look forward to the next phase of our restoration campaign: heading up to the higher trail elevations to begin replanting sensitive alpine plants, including both white and pink heather. To learn more about our volunteer planting weekend coming up on September 26 and 27 and to register for it, please go to: http://www.nff.wildapricot.org/event-2010584