MAR 22 - Sequoia Trail - North Section

The great Crew turn out of 23 returned to the Sequoia North Section of the trail from the southern access on North Escape road.  There were some branches and smaller trees that had fallen across the trail in the last rain that fell the week before that needed clearing.

After that it was time to continue to compact and add to the three burn piles we had started two weeks earlier.   We significantly expanded the middle burn pile.  Chris and Andrea worked on cutting on burn piles while John and Rory worked towards the front of the crew.

A little before noon John and Rory reported that a large portion of the trail had been rendered impassable by a slide in a drainage ahead.  They left to work on clearing the trail from the opposite direction on upper 236 with Dale S. along to help.  

The rest of us investigated the slide and with some scrambling around on the fallen logs and branches discovered that a fair amount of the trail tread may still be intact.   After weighing the risks for a bit we decided it was worth some exploratory cutting to see if the trail could be opened enough to resume work from the bottom. The upper stretch just in from 236 is worthy of Mountain Goats with slides, rocks, missing foot bridge and a STEEP drop off if you misstep.


Tommy did great work using some loppers to cut back the new Redwood saplings and had great support from crew members who carried the cut sapling away to the burn piles.  After lunch Chris was able to use the crew’s chainsaw to untangle many of the logs and branches that had been wedged together in the slide and before 1 pm we had eager crew members crossing over to continue work past the obstruction.  

It was great when we got to see Rory, John and Dale working their way down the trail from up ahead and by 1:30pm we met in the middle to many cheers. It has been at least a year and three months working to open up this trail and the meeting was like the Union Pacific meeting the Central Pacific at Promontory Summit, well maybe not exactly like that but everyone was over the moon to have opened up the entire trail. There are still many spots along the trail that will need State Parks input and assistance to make the trail safe for visitors but it was a great feeling to make that connection.  

The feeling of making the connection must have felt like a good stopping point because folks called it a day right afterwards.  We tooled up and headed back to the Jay Camp crew stalls around 2:30pm.

The crew put in 168 hours and thanks to Chandra Allen, Fremont Bainbridge, Jim Brooks, Rory Brooks, Karen Cheeniyil, Santhosh Cheeniyil, John Collins, Drew Granzella, Ryan Granzella, Dale Elliott, Tommy Ha, Cammie Hunt, Norb Lazar, Andrea Lee, Janie Leifhelm, Salome Navarette, Aaron Shaw, Marc Shaw, Dale Stadelman, Brian Washburn, Chris Young, Daniel Zichuhr, and newcomer Jack Marshall.


by Chris, Mike, and Jeff

photos by Chris and Dale E.

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JAN 25 - Sequoia Trail - North Section

JAN 25 - Sequoia Trail - North Section

Our January 25th workday was the first full day in 10 weeks due to end of the year holidays along with a high wind park closure and we definitely felt it the day after with unusually sore muscles from the layoff. Despite only working about one-half mile from the trailhead, one person's GPS tracker said he walked six miles during the day and climbed the equivalent of 37 floors scrambling up and down hillsides to burn pile and debris hiding locations. 

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JAN 11 - Sequoia Trail - North Section

JAN 11 - Sequoia Trail - North Section

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.

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NOV 16 - Sequoia Trail - North Section

NOV 16 - Sequoia Trail - North Section

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.

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NOV 3 - What's Next for 2025

NOV 3 - What's Next for 2025

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'?

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NOV 2 - Sequoia Trail - North Section

NOV 2 - Sequoia Trail - North Section

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!

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