Trail work continues near Placid Lake

SEELEY LAKE - On Friday, July 24th, a ROCKS work party spent 50+ hours on the new “Lakeview” trail just north of Placid Lake State Park. This work-party improved drainage on the trails that ROCKS constructed last August-September and pulled weeds.

This is the second time this summer that the “Youth In Restoration” group associated with the Missoula County Weed District has helped ROCKS with the Lakeview trail. In June 25 volunteers from this same group pulled weeds along the trail.

Last fall ROCKS scheduled three different weed-spraying days along the trail, but all those plans were cancelled due to rain. Fall is the optimal time to spray knapweed so that you can kill the weeds, but protect the mostly-dormant native plants. Since spraying was not done last fall, we are pulling weeds this summer and again planning to spray in the fall.

ROCKS board members Darren Zellman and Jim Fulton supervised the work and Sawyer Meegan was the Youth in Restoration foreman. Allison Hurcomb, an intern with The Nature Conservancy, also helped. 

ROCKS has three active committees: The Trails Committee, The Community Ice Rink Committee, and the XC Ski & Yurt Committee. Obviously, the Trails Committee is most active during the summer months.

Last year the ROCKS trails committee raised $40,000 to construct the new “Lakeview” trail above Placid Lake. ROCKS raised another $25,000 to expand the trails north from Placid Lake to Tuppers Lake. ROCKS is also working with Summit Independent Living to construct an “All Abilities” trail immediately adjacent to the Placid Lake State Park.

When all the work is done this fall, ROCKS will have approximately 12-miles of multi-use trails stretching from near the Highway 83 and Placid Lake junction, to Placid Lake, and north to Tuppers Lake.

All the trails are on The Nature Conservancy land. TNC not only allows access to their land to build these trails, but also provides tremendous resources to help protect wildlife, and control weeds.