March 30-31, 2017

A total of 89 trees were removed from the trail between northbound passage 23 mile 5.0 and Bear Spring over the course of this 2-day, 20 mile round trip backpacking work event. The work event was especially challenging due to a high winds and a low temperature of 27 degrees overnight; not to mention the snow flurries encountered during the entire 10 mile hike out. Longtime volunteer and previous segment 23a/23b trail steward, Joe Longbotham and new segment 22b trail steward, Tim Colby, joined segment steward, Roger Smith for this arduous work event.

The crew encountered four thru-hikers and one section hiker. Three of the thru-hikers were from Washington State. One thru-hiker camped near us, but left before we could learn where he was from. The section hiker was from Idaho and was hiking from the Sheep Bridge on the Verde River, up the Willow Springs Trail to the junction with the AZ Trail and south to Sunflower.