Volunteers 'vacuum' 6 miles of fire-ravaged trail in Boundary Waters
Nearly six years after a wildfire scorched 145 square miles of the Boundary Waters, including a historic hiking trail, volunteers have finally managed to fully clear a portion of the trail of fallen timber — just in time for National Trails Day on June 3.
"We call it vacuum-cleaned, meaning there are no tree falls left except for the ones on the ground," said Martin Kubik, a 65-year old electrical engineer and founder of the Boundary Waters Advisory Committee, which organized the cleanup over three weekends in May.
The Powwow Trail is a 27-mile long loop trail in a remote section of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness that begins about 17 miles north of Isabella. It's a rarely used footpath in a part of the Superior National Forest most people visit via canoe. The trail travels past 12 lakes, many of which are not easily accessible by water. Kubik said that's "why the trail was really prized by hikers prior to the Pagami Creek Fire" in the summer of 2011.
Since the blaze thousands of blackened trees have fallen across the trail. Last spring Kubik said volunteers counted nearly 5,000 fallen trees over the trail.
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The Forest Service twice cleared it, first in 2012 and again in 2015. But each time more trees fell and new plants overgrew the trail.
But last month, volunteers, using only hand tools, succeeded in clearing the first six miles of the trail.
It's hard work, Kubik admitted, "but I think it's just too valuable to be left and abandoned," he said. "The people who hike it even today after the fire, they just love it."
He said young jack pines — whose cones burst open to regenerate in wildfires — are now four to six feet tall along the trail.
The Powwow trail was built in 1978, the same year the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness was created. It connected historic logging roads with a new hiking trail.
Kubik hopes to recruit more volunteers to clear the remaining 21 miles of trail in time for the 40th anniversary of the passage of the wilderness act next summer.
If they succeed, he plans to put the trail to use for years to come, he said. "I hope to be walking this trail with a walker someday."