This week, Dennis DeLapp, Christie Crowe and Frank Florence completed work on the new AC-DC Shelter Snowshoe Trail by installing junction signs and reassurance markers and trimming for marker visibility. This trail offers an out-n-back snowshoe route to the AC-DC Shelter and its views of Mt Bachelor. To get to the trail, one snowshoes 1 ½ miles to the west from Edison Sno-Park on the Tesla Snowshoe Trail to junction “E”. At the junction, turn right, and snowshoe 1-mile on this new trail to the shelter. The trail is rated as “most difficult” due to the 2 ½ mile distance to the shelter from the sno-park and an elevation gain of 500 feet; though none of it steep.

The history of the AC-DC Shelter Snowshoe Trail goes back to about 2009. Jim Davis, AKA Dr Snowshoe, and his group of volunteers proposed and flagged a route to the AC-DC Shelter from the Tesla Snowshoe Trail. Unfortunately, Jim couldn’t get approval for implementation of the . When Jim passed on the stewardship responsibility for the snowshoe trails in 2013, he included a map showing the proposed AC-DC Shelter route.

Fast forward to December 2020. With encouragement about getting new snowshoe trails approved, Chuck DelCambre and Dennis Delapp joined me to snowshoe Jim’s proposed route. Amazingly, we found a few bits of Jim’s flagging in the trees. With approval in October 2021 by the Forest Service of CONC’s request for new and re-routed Nordic and Snowshoe trails, Dennis DeLapp, Chuck DelCambre, Christie Crowe and I returned in February 2022 to detail flag the trail. The trail was 4th on the list for implementation in the fall of 2022. After completing the Long Loop re-route, followed by the Tesla Short Loop Snowshoe trail, we stashed the extension ladder along the trail, ready for use on the AC-DC snowshoe trail the following week. Unfortunately, snow came early and implementation of the trail was deferred to 2023. The extension ladder waited patiently along Tesla for our return this fall.

Earlier this month, Gary Evans and Dennis DeLapp helped with initial clearing. A week later, David Alward, Frank Florence, Christie Crowe, and Dennis DeLapp spent a long day clearing blowdown and brush. Work was completed this week with installation of junction signs and markers.