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Two landslides took out Juneau’s popular Auke Lake Trail in September, causing the City and Borough of Juneau to close it to the public. Now, as trail workers repair it, they say it’s an example of climate impacts on local trails they’ve been seeing more frequently in recent years.
On Monday, a trail coordinator used a chainsaw to rip through a fallen tree blocking the path along Auke Lake where landslides washed it out. The trail is flat and follows the contour of the lake next to the University of Alaska Southeast’s Juneau campus. The landslides occurred during an atmospheric river in late September and the trail has been closed since.
“We saw footsteps as we were going,” said Meghan Tabacek, the executive director of Trail Mix Inc. “People are already still using this trail.”
Trail Mix is a local nonprofit that maintains more than 200 miles of trails in Juneau, including those owned by the city.
“So our goal is now to make it, one: fully reopen so we can get the trail closed signs down; and two: at least passable,” Tabacek said. “Our first step to passability is using these chainsaws right here to clear all the logs.”
Later, they’ll push those logs into the lake, where much of the debris fell naturally.
Nick Marinelli is a trail coordinator for Trail Mix. He paced the length of both landslides, which are about 50 feet apart at the trail level, and estimates that about 150 feet of the trail washed out altogether. The slides appear to reach up the slope roughly 400 feet, where they’ve scoured the soil down to bedrock.
He said he has noticed landslides affecting popular Juneau trails more frequently in recent years, including on Perseverance Trail and Montana Creek Trail.
“It seems like with those heavier storm events that happen in September and October, there’s more material coming down,” Marinelli said.
Tabacek said that has factored into how Trail Mix plans maintenance.
“Especially over the past five years, as climate-related disturbances to trails become a little more frequent, we’ve just started having to budget our time a little bit different,” she said.
She said that Trail Mix now sets aside five to eight weeks each year to handle this extra work. That work has included things like restabilizing a bridge on Black Bear Trail where Montana Creek widened sooner than expected, redirecting water and clearing landslide debris.
Once the workers clear away the logs, Tabacek said they’ll rebuild damaged sections of Auke Lake Trail this week.
“A lot of that is just going to be pushing dirt around,” she said.
Then they’ll layer some gravel on top and build retaining walls. In the spring, she said they’ll probably come back and add moss to the bare soil on the lake-side of the trail. They might also plant blueberry and devil’s club starts on the upward slope.
“But honestly, Southeast kind of takes care of the re-veg(etation) pretty, pretty fast every year,” Tabacek said.
Although the slide chutes seem stable now, she said some trees are loosely attached and a storm could cause further slides.
“Especially on days where you’re getting more than half an inch or a full inch of rain,” she said.
Marc Wheeler, the city’s director of parks and recreation, said residents should always consider the hazards when heading outdoors.
“Like with all of our trails, we just have people use their best judgment,” Wheeler said. “You’re kind of using our trails at your own risk.”
Juneau recreators can fill out a damage report on the Trail Mix website if they encounter fallen trees or slides blocking trails.
The city hopes to reopen Auke Lake Trail at the end of this week.
Clarification: A previous version of this story said Trail Mix hopes to reopen the trail. The City and Borough of Juneau owns Auke Lake Trail.
