After the last workday of 2024 on Dec. 14th was literally blown away when Big Basin was closed due to high winds and the danger of falling trees, everyone was eager to get back on the trails after the Holidays as we had a record turnout of 28 crew members. Since our annual end of year Holiday lunch had been canceled along with the previous workday, we decided to make it a short day and have a 'New Year' lunch instead.

The Trail Crew's Nov. 16th workday on the north section of Sequoia Trail between N. Escape Rd and 236 was more of the same - in other words not as bad as it could be and a productive day!

Before the 2022 Santa Cruz Mountain Fire, there was a bridge on North Escape Road over the Opal Creek. The bridge burned leaving the steel beams and was replaced with a foot bridge allowing access to the north end of the Sequoia Trail.

When we started work on Sequoia Trail in January the initial goal was to clear it from the Jay Camp area to Huckleberry in anticipation of the campground being opened to visitors sometime in 2025. As we reached Huckleberry it was decided to push-on to nearby Wastahi Campground and then figured we might as well do the entire stretch to Sempervirens Falls and Slippery Rock. 

But as we're finishing the final couple of days at Slippery Rock, the question has become 'Now what'?

This workday was our first on the next stretch of Sequoia Trail between Hwy 236 and North Escape Rd and the only decision going into the day was which end to start from. Beginning at 236 would mean extremely limited parking for vehicles and an uphill climb at the end of the day when everyone is tired. Starting at N. Escape Rd would provide ample space for parking and a downhill hike out at the end. So the answer seemed simple - Begin at N. Escape Rd as it's always easier hiking downhill when tired!

As one of the crew said before the Oct. 19th trail work, 'A quiet day isn't a bad thing' and that's exactly what it turned out to be! The plan for the day was some final detail work on the stretch of Sequoia Trail between Sempervirens Falls and Slippery Rock as we get ready for our next assignment. 

When the Trail Crew began post fire work on Sequoia Trail back in mid-January the initial destination was the Huckleberry Campground which Big Basin hopes to reopen in mid-2025 as the first in park camping area for visitors. (It will be dry camping as no water is available in the park yet.)

The Sept. 7th workday brought our Sequoia Trail work close enough to Semperviren Falls that we were able to attack it from two different directions: Heading uphill from the basin floor as we've been doing for the past eight months and jumping ahead to the staircase that connects the falls to the trail and somehow survived the 2020 CZU fires.  

The 24th was an unusual Saturday in August for Boulder Creek in that there were puddles on the road from an unseasonal sprinkle of rain during the night.  It was a nice cool respite from the previous workday that spiked to 100F after lunch.  

The start of August marks the dog days of summer and the Trail Crew's first workday of the month on the 10th was appropriately warm, OK hot! We resumed work on Sequoia Trail less than five minutes from Sempervirens Falls and picked up where we left off in July. Half the crew continued the detail work on the previous workday's effort while the remainder of the crew plunged ahead to turn a very rough cut trail into something resembling a hiking trail. 

We had a break in the heat for our Saturday workday. The heavy fog rolling in from the coast caused a misting rain to settle on our cars at the Blooms Creek Campground parking lot while we waited for the rest of the crew to arrive.