Cleanup along the Southwind Rail Trail, the hiking and biking corridor connecting Iola and Humboldt that sustained significant damage in last week’s wind storm, received quite a boost Wednesday.
A team of Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks workers offered up their services to assist with removing the mangled branches and uprooted trees that blocked the trail at several locations.
They came armed with chainsaws, pole saws, trimmers and rakes along with a Bobcat E35 mini-excavator to lead the way.
The excavator allowed crews to attack the tree damage from the top, rather than the bottom, making the project significantly safer for all involved.
Couple that with a hefty assist from B&W Trailer Hitches, which dispatched a crew of workers to cut apart an uprooted cottonwood tree near the Humboldt trailhead, and the Southwind corridor may reopen much sooner than originally anticipated.
“Christmas came early,” noted Jay Kretzmeier, one of the volunteers who oversees the Southwind route.
He and fellow volunteer David Fontaine already had made significant progress, clearing debris from the Iola trailhead south.
By midday Wednesday, the KDWP squad had already made it more than 2 miles northward from the Humboldt entrance.
The Southwind Rail Trail is a de facto extension of the Prairie Spirit Trail State Park, which extends from Iola to Ottawa. Both, in fact, follow the old Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe rail corridor.
In fact, many trail users don’t realize the Southwind and Prairie Spirit trails are separate, noted Trent McCown, who manages the Prairie Spirit Trail.
That made it an easy decision to dispatch Wildlife and Parks resources to Southwind to offer mutual aid, McCown said. “That’s what we’re equipped to do,” he said.
Indeed, crews made quick work of obstructions large or small, with crews using individual saws to clear an entry point for the mini excavator, which did much of the heavy lifting, by ripping down broken limbs and quickly moving the brush and debris safely off the trail.
Others followed along behind with loppers, hand saws and rakes to ensure the trail was cleared completely.
FONTAINE EXPECTS the trail to remain closed to the public for the next few days as cleanup continues. Even with the KDWP assistance to remove the major blockages, Fontaine and Kretzmeier want to haul away some of the downed brush that could pose hazardous to users.
“We’ll announce when it’s open again,” Fontaine said.
