On 7/24/25 a crew of 6 family members headed out to work on Whetstone Trail from the Rd 7020 Trailhead.
I backpacked there 7/7-9/25 down to Battle Ax Creek Crossing and found conditions challenging in some sections (thick brush, blowdown, debris from fires, etc).
We spent about 3 hrs. using rakes, clippers, hand saws, and some muscle to clear the trail up through the small tarn (which featured lots of newts). The first section of Whetstone Mountain Trail down to the "low point" is now in great shape. On the uphill section to the tarn we cleared several bad debris piles but left 2-3 of larger logs we couldn't do.
The next step would be to clear brush from the low point up to the ridge, and then head northerly to clear the ridge, which has a combination of fire-burned areas where the tread is gone (trail still followable if you look carefully), and a thick brushy section after leaving the burned area. The trail can still be followed through the brush. After that there is similar clearing work to do down to Battle Ax Creek, but again, its followable and doesn't involve rebuilding the trail, IMO.
I hope we can get this trail back from the brink!
That is AWESOME! Thank you for the hard work!
There is definitely interest in bringing this trail back. Plans had changed a bit last year when TKO had several work days scheduled which were cancelled due to the Sandstone fire.
The trial certainly deserves to survive post fire. As with most fire affected trails, the biggest issue is boots on the trail - with all the additional sunlight getting to the tread, it is hard to maintain it.