There was a report of a large Fir blocking Sequoia Trail so a 4 person crew came out on July 2nd. On the regular workday 10 members came out and split into 2 crews one working along Skyline to the Sea (STTS) and Last Chance with the other working on Meteor and Creeping Forest.
Meet up at the BBVTC Tool Shed
JUL 2nd: Chris’ Crew on Sequoia and Creeping Forest
The June workday was behind us and we were back on task at keeping trails open and maintained. Then, in the 3rd week of June Mike emails us with reports of a three foot Doug Fir on Sequoia that is blocking the path. John Collins says 'It would be a really fun challenge! I have a saw big enough to cut it." And what he is referring to is a two person cross cut saw since we are squarely in the noise restriction period for the Marbled Murrelet. So he suggests: let's go out on an extra work day with Team Enthusiasm (aka Mike, John C, Devda and me) and deal with this obstruction.
We are all for it and we figure out that July 2nd works best. We rendezvous at the park, head to the tree (which was nicely cleaned of slash by docents) and then stand back and say 'Woah, boy..."
The tree is very close to four feet in diameter and the broken base of it is perched just above the trail, held up by the massive weight of the majority of the trunk downhill. Further, the tree struck a tan oak on the way down, snapping it in half and bound against the broken stump. A heaping helping of humble pie and we all readily admitted that there was no way we could deal with this in one day.
We used shovel, Pulaski and McLeod to clean out under the trunk of the tree and at least tried to make it a little nicer to crawl under. We plan to come back to this one in the Fall when noise restrictions are lifted.
John C’s crew on STTS Trail, Blooms Creek Trail and Last Chance Trail
We did a lot of hiking today, in fact we hoofed it everywhere we had to go, I would estimate that we walked about five miles. Most everyone who volunteers for the trail crew loves to hike and it is a great way to get to know each other. Our first assignment was to head up the Skyline To The Sea Trail, not far from headquarters, to finish bucking a good size redwood. Since it is in the noise restriction area we brought a few crosscut saws with us. Today we had the privilege to use a vintage Simonds 503 Royal Chinook, one of the high end saws made when logging was done by hand. Everyone had a chance to run the saw and the stoke was high, I even heard someone say "hey look, we are cutting noodles!" (referring to the noodle shaped strips of wood that the saw pulls out, the sign of a sharp saw).
We headed up to the Blooms Creek Trail to clean up another tree across the trail but someone had already beaten us to it. Since it was only noon I suggested that we drop off our tools at headquarters and hike up to Last Chance Trail for some much needed brushing. The Last Chance Trail meanders along East Waddell Creek for two miles until it terminates at the end of Last Chance Road. The trail passes beautiful pools along the river and a spectacular view of the cliff below Mt. McAbee Overlook. I never see anyone on the trail and it is definitely worth exploring. We cleaned up the first half of the trail, some volunteers peeled off and the last few of us took a break by the creek and then headed back to the tool shed for 3:30.
Huge thanks to the new crosscut sawyers and "brushers who don't complain", Devdutt Sheth, Jan Hill, Michele Gelblum, Peter Gelblum, Shyamal Kapadia.
Chris’ Crew on Meteor and Creeping Forest
Mike, John Martin, Aaron and I headed out to Meteor trail to clean up some work left over from work done on July 2nd.
Well, we were all there at the park with nothing to do so I say 'How about we deal with a smaller tree I had to leave on Meteor?" Same kind of deal actually. Janie and I had hiked out there in June and after looking at the two tan oaks that had fallen there decided we couldn't tackle it ourselves with the time and tools at hand. The others said 'sure', so off we went.
This tree had broken off near it's base and was resting on a second tan oak it had taken out on the way down. The broken base was completely off the ground and it didn't touch earth until the far side of Meteor trail. The plan was to cut off sections of the tan oak with a log choker attached so we could wrangle the rounds into position and prevent them from rolling down into Rogers Creek below.
Work progressed pretty well and we all got to practice our cross cut saw technique. Trying to keep the saw moving while balanced on a steep slope is quite the challenge. Nonetheless we cut a couple good sized sections off the tree and got them parked. We then started cutting rounds off the trunk small enough to drag up the slope behind a redwood for storage. The crosscut was working well but moving slowly at about twenty minutes a cut. I had brought the Zombi battery chainsaw but had left it in the truck. While the others carried on , I hiked back to get it.
When I made it back they were waiting for me and it was refreshing to make a bunch of small rounds in short order. With about six feet left of trunk to remove the Zombi was getting low on battery. I estimated I had enough juice for more one cut. So we used the crosscut to cut off a three foot section and then I made a cut closest to the ground to open the trail. The battery died just as the section gave way and John broke it free with his ax.
We left the two 3 foot sections and three rounds along the edge of the trail and I promised I would come back on the 11th to clean up.
So the 11th rolls around and Mike and I return to Meteor this time with Aaron and John Martin. One of the rounds we had set along the trail edge had been knocked down into the creek but we retrieved it. Aaron climbed down into the bed and put the round in a canvas bag while the rest of us stayed up top and helped pull it up with a line. Then I set Aaron straight to work splitting the rounds with a maul. The other three of us would not split a single piece. Aaron split all the wood for us, half of the time balanced up on the hill splitting the rounds we had stored behind the large Redwood. Mike and John carried the split pieces up the trail to a flat open spot and scattered them there. I used the Zombi to cut the larger pieces into smaller rounds for Aaron to split and also received bagfuls of split pieces that Aaron lowered down to the trail from above. The day was quite hot (91F back at our parked cars) and humid as well. This time I had a second battery for the Zombi which allowed for a full work day.
Mike did a fantastic job using branches and duff to hide the split pieces from hikers view and we positioned branches on the hillside to obscure the disturbance we had made from walking up and down the hillside.
We had lunch up on Meteor and then headed back to the cars parked on North Escape. Mike had to head out early but the other three of us went to the junction of Skyline to the Sea and Creeping Forest trails to remove a couple step overs.
I asked for a volunteer and Aaron accepted so he went and scouted the Creeping Forest Trail while John and I cleared STTS. This site was also one Janie and I had been to last month but didn't get to finish as the battery on the saw had run dry. This time I had a second battery! John and I cut and moved the pieces to the side pausing for hikers frequently. People have been out in droves to be in the park since it has reopened! In fact just as we removed the second tree a woman with a double seat baby stroller came through. Now that's service!
Aaron showed up just as we were moving the last of the pieces. He helped flip the last logs about and said he had found two step-over trees on Creeping Forest. He had scouted the whole trail even though I had said he only had to go about half a mile! We hiked up Creeping Forest, Aaron carrying the saw now as I was starting to feel fatigued. The two trees were easy to deal with. They were older trees that people had stepped over or gone around. Removing them definitely made the trails look much more inviting. Wonderfully the hike out was all downhill and we made it back to the tool shed by 4pm. A great day and great work done by all.
The July 2nd crew put in 28 hrs and thanks to Mike, Chris, John C., and Devda. The regular workday crew put in 85 hrs for a July total of 113 hrs and thanks to Chris, Mike, John M., John C., Jan, Peter, Michele, Devdutt, Shyamal, and Aaron.
by Chris, John C. and Jeff
photos by Jan, Chris, and Shyamal