The Trail Crew's December workday looked to be a low turnout day due many regulars being out of town or busy with end of the year holidays, but we were fortunate to have five members of an Americorp crew come out unexpectedly so we ended up with a decent total of 13 for the day.
Annual Move of the Wood
The first task was to move the firewood we had split during our special November workday down to headquarters so the Sempervirens Room would have a good supply for the winter. This typically takes us until about noon to complete, but with a lot of young people helping out we had everything finished a little after 11.
John C’s crew on Creeping Forest Trail
After moving firewood the crew broke up into two groups, four of us were assigned number 43 off the Big Board in the rangers office, "3 trees down on Creeping Forest Trail, ~1 ft in diameter, passable". Looking at the map it would be about a two mile loop beginning at the Gazos Creek Road bridge. We took a small collection of tools including a four foot D-handle style crosscut saw.
Let me take a minute to compare a chainsaw to a crosscut saw for this type of trail work. I could carry a modest size chainsaw at 15 pounds, chaps, fuel, bar oil, extra chain and wrench or a one pound crosscut saw and a small bottle of De-Solv-It to lubricate while cutting. The chainsaw is loud, smelly and masks the sound the tree makes while cutting. Using a crosscut can be a one or two person job, you hear the saw singing through the wood, you only smell the freshly cut timber and citrus solvent and most importantly you can hear and see the feedback the tree is giving you while cutting. Don't get me wrong, there is a time and place for a chainsaw but in this case I would rather enjoy my hike than lug a chainsaw.
The first two trees were small and easy to clean up.
The last tree had a particular problem that Dale was the first to spot. When a tree falls to the ground and is deflected by another standing tree on it's way down, it is put under pressure.
When you cut and release the pressure, the tree reacts like releasing a catapult and is very dangerous, this is called a side bind. About a quarter of the way through the cut we could hear the cracking and popping as the kerf opened up wide, proving to us which way the tree was going to move, with a few more cuts we witnessed the dramatic snap of the tree and everyone let out a whoop of excitement. Check out the video below.
We finished cutting up the tree, each taking turns on each end of the saw.
We moved the logs off the trail and hiked out to the Gazos fire road and back to the car. Thanks to Dale Stadelman, John Martin and Devdutt Sheth.
Mike’s Crew on Meteor Trail
While most of the Crew took an early lunch in the Sempervirens Room, a couple of crew members made a quick trip up Gazos Creek Fire Rd to check on a large tree reported blocking the road near Middle Ridge to see if it was something we could handle. It was in fact a large tree, elevated off the road, and the decision was it was best handled by the State Crew and their heavy equipment.
The Meteor crew drove out North Escape to the trailhead and started up the almost one mile trail not certain exactly where the trees were located. We came upon the first tree, a 12-inch tan oak, after about five minutes of hiking and using the electric Zombie chainsaw we were carrying made a single cut and rolled the tree to the side of the trail where it made a nice border.
The second tree was an already decaying tan oak blocking the trail and easily moved while the final tree was an 18-inch tan oak that required several cuts before we could roll the sections off the trail. While we were dealing with the third tree, one of our regular distance runners took a quick jog up the remainder of the trail to Middle Ridge to confirm there was nothing else and we were done!
By the time we got back to the tool shed, the Creeping Forest crew was already there and we wrapped things up for the day.
Investigation of the Damage on Kirsch Connector Trail
Ranger Alex sent us a report that a tree fell that caused some damage to the Bob Kirsch Connector Trail. A madrone fell and smashed the railing as well as damaging the retaining wall. He marked the trail closed and he instructed his staff not to clear the down trees because they block people from walking on that section of trail which had been retained by the wall. He asked if we could take a look and yes it was a mess.
The crew put in 83 hours and topped the 2017 year 1312 hrs and with the Americorp group we ended the year with 1353 hrs for 2019. I don’t know how many hours the crew put in building the Bob Kirsch Trail and the Schultz Bridge in 2002 but we work every other weekend and every week in Aug and Sep to finish the bridge. It was sad to see the damage a Madrone did but there is always next year. Thanks to John Collins, John Martin, Steve Nagayama, Mike Peasland, Aaron Poulos, Devdutt Sheth, Dale Stadelman and Chris Young, for helping with the final workday of the year along with Americorp members Adam DaPrano, Collin Dazey, Kevin Finn, Hagay Haut and Megan Healey.
by John C., Mike, Range Alex, and Jeff
photos by Aaron, Range Alex, John M., and Mike