The Trail Crew's March 7th workday was a surprise early spring like day after the previous workday in late February was almost washed out by six inches of rain in the days leading up to it. Although nice not to be concerned about rain, the first warm day since last fall took some getting used to as well.

The Trail Crew entered its Feb. 21st workday with one goal in mind, but several potential challenges were standing in the way. Since mid-November we had become bogged down with final detail work in the section of trail below Pine Mtn Fire Rd. The slow progress was partly due to the Thanksgiving and end of year Holidays, but regardless we really wanted to complete the work and move on to the next section of trail.

Heading into the Trail Crew's Feb. 7th workday and the final stretch of trail below Pine Mtn Fire Rd, everyone was ready to make the jump to the next section but there were varying thoughts on whether it was a one day job. Or more than one day.

After a listless, still recovering from the holidays type of workday to kick off the new year in early January, the Crew kicked into high gear for the Jan. 24th outing. 

The first workday of the new year was our first in a month and only the second since mid-November due to end of year holidays, so we hoped it would be a chance to catch up on things. After all there had been several weeks of wind and rain storms over the break that may have created new issues along with our standard post fire trail clearing work, so potentially a busy day.

The December 13th workday turned out a little different though. We still ended early for lunch as the Crew had put in 3,497 hours for the year and earned the break, but the weather was more spring like than mid-December with temperatures in the mid-60's.  Perfect weather for trail work!

The Trail Crew has been making good progress on Pine Mountain Trail and as the end of the year approaches we were hoping to punch through to the fire road crossing before the holidays settle in.  There was another record tying turnout of 29 so we were able to reach the fire road on the Nov. 15th workday!

With a large crew we initially split into two groups with one doing minor cleanup work as they hiked into where we left off on Oct. 18.  Nothing major, largely cutting back additional vegetation along the trail edge.  Meanwhile the second group hiked straight through to the work area and resumed new clearing work and by 11 the entire crew was back together.

The day started with a little cleanup on the top section of Pine Mtn Trail just before reaching the junction with East Ridge Trail, but the bulk of the work was spent opening the next section of trail between the intersection and Pine Mtn Fire Rd 0.6 miles ahead.

With large crews it is sometimes easy to relax and lose focus on the work thinking that we'll automatically make good progress while smaller crews require continual attention in order to make headway.