Join us Saturday July 20 9:00AM at Barlow Pass for our second volunteer work party of 2024. Work on/near the bypass trails and river crossing will be our focus. There are also tasks to tend to in the townsite for anyone wanting to make that trip.

Weather will certainly be hot and dry – bring plenty of liquids. Bring your own trail work hand tools (clippers, shovels, rakes, saw, etc).

We’ll meet at Barlow Pass gate 9:00 AM; if you have your own key you can drive in and begin at any point. We’ll have someone at the gate at 9:00 either way to let others in.

Weather Report: snowing at Barlow Pass. Reports of snow on ground at Monte Cristo

A few of us took chainsaws up the Monte Cristo road and cleared ~10 windfalls from the road.

Clayslide is quite passable but there is a large slide mid-way that has almost taken out the trail.

Log crossing is nearly submerged, but the water channel diverts back to the main channel just downstream and leaves a very shallow crossing to the gravel bar just prior to the outhouse. From there it only takes a few steps to get back to the downstream end of the upper bride and back onto the roadway. A lot of water flow under the second bridge, although it is abruptly diverted due to a log jam just downstream. No signs of any further bridge abutment erosion.

Some photos of the logs cleared shown below.

Join us Saturday June 15 9:00AM at Barlow Pass for our first volunteer work party of 2024. Most of the day will be spent clearing debris and blowdowns from winter storms. There are many trees across the road/trail, so bring cutting equipment if you have it. Also had tools (shovels / rakes) for clearing debris from the road.

Unclear what the weather might do – but plan for some rain.

We’ll meet at Barlow Pass gate 9:00 AM; if you have your own key you can drive in and begin at any point. We’ll have someone at the gate at 9:00 either way to let others in. Bring food, drink and warm clothes!

The Mountain Loop Highway Deer Creek gate was opened [early] on April 19. This means you can now drive from Granite Falls to Barlow Pass. The MLH is still closed between Barlow Pass and Bedal.

Access to the townsite is open as well, a 4 mile hike from Barlow Pass.

You may have heard mention of the “crossing log” being swept away at twin bridges over the winter. Indeed it did move downstream a bit, and is no longer accessible from the west river bank. However, with the way the river channels have changed, there is an easy footpath to cross the rocky riverbed just downstream from the log. Turn left to the river just before the wooden outhouse, and walk up the riverbed to the location of the log, where you’ll again meet up with the trail. We’ll be flagging this area soon to guide visitors.

Also, the Barlow Pass gate was damaged by an automobile in November 2023. Our normal lock system is not operational and the gate is currently chained shut. We’ll post an update here when members will again be able to use their gate key to access the first mile of the Monte Cristo Road.

Fred Cruger of the Granite Falls Historical Society recently scanned 2600+ pages of correspondence between the mining corporation at Monte Cristo and their counterparts in Everett, WA and beyond. The letters were painstakingly reproduced by Forrest Johanson over a period of years, resulting in a renewed copy of the 100+ year old hand-typed originals. Browse through this content and re-live the day-to-day operations (and troubles, mostly) encountered in the Monte Cristo Mining Area.

Thanks Fred and Forrest for preserving and sharing this content!

tinyurl.com/MonteCristoLetterPressDocs

Some samples of the content you’ll find:

We had a great turnout for the winter social. About 40 persons in attendance, including some new and recently joined members. We had a great dinner and lots of conversation, followed by a short presentation of news and events relating to MCPA, followed by Louise Lindgren’s presentation on historical artifacts in the Monte Cristo Mining Area. I hope to be able to link to some of that content herein soon.Thanks to everyone who attended and hope to see everyone again soon.
We’ll be having our annual meeting and lunch in the June time frame. Watch here for details.

Come gather with MCPA members at Jennings Barn in Marysville on Saturday February 17.

We’ll have a potluck dinner starting at 5:30, then we have several topics of information to share beginning about 6:00.

We’ll discuss current news relating to MCPA and the Monte Cristo Area, and our work plans for the 2024 season. Louise Lindgren, founding MCPA Member, will be sharing a presentation on an exhaustive artifact study she completed in 2006.

Join us October 21 at 9:00 AM Barlow Pass Gate, WEATHER PERMITTING, for our final 2023 work party. Feel free to contact us as the date nears if the weather looks inclement. However, if skies are clear…we’ll plan to be there.

Work will likely include trail work on the bypass trails between the clayslide and twin bridges. Some of us may also venture into the townsite to complete work there.

Join us September 16 at 9:00 AM Barlow Pass Gate for our next 2023 work party.

As this could be the last work party of the year, we’ll be enjoying a group lunch at 12:00 at the MCPA Picnic Table at the snowslide area about 1/2 mile down the MCPA county road.

We’ll have a grill and salmon burgers, fixings and drinks available. Feel free to bring a side dish, snack or dessert to share.

Work will likely include trail work on the by[ass trails between the clayslide and twin bridges. Some of us may also venture into the townsite to complete work there.

Join us for our 3rd work party of 2023; Saturday August 19. Meet at Barlow Pass gate at 9:00AM – look for MCPA members in yellow vests.

We’ll be doing trail and road maintenance on the lower parts of the Monte Cristo Road, and also have some supplies that could be carried into town. Some may venture into the townsite to install additional interpretive signs on the MCPA lot. There is always brushing and trail work to be done around the townsite should you want to venture there.

We typically work until around 3:00 however you are welcome to stay however long you want to.