OCT 2 - Boulder Creek Homestead Rescue
The BBVTC started October with a special workday on what used to be our standard first Saturday of the month to be out in the park. (We switched to the second Saturday of the month about 20 years ago to avoid conflicts with early month holidays like New Year's, July 4th and Labor Day.)
Over the years the Trail Crew has been fortunate to attract many long time volunteers and one of them, Chris Young, had asked for help in removing neighborhood debris from last summer's fire. The October 2nd workday allowed us to not only support a fellow Trail Crew member, but also give back to an area where all the houses but one were lost in the fire and we had a good turnout of 12 BBVTC members.
The work itself was much the same as what we've been doing since April in the Fall Creek section of Henry Cowell in cutting and removing all the burned vegetation from the area. The one exception from Fall Creek was we didn't need to build burn piles since Chris and the neighbors rented a chipper, which made quick work of the debris that was hauled up to them.
The effort illustrated again the dedication and support it takes for an organization to survive over 50 years and as Chris said later, "It really meant a lot to the neighbors to just have people show up, express caring, and take steps to make the place look nicer".
Editor’s Note: I asked the Crew for help in a move in 2001 and they stepped up. The most memorable part was when my wife asked the Crew to remove about 200 sqft of carpet when I was on a trip to move more stuff from our old home. The Crew responded only once “ARE YOU SURE” and with a YES the carpet was gone. I was very surprise when I walked in our new home to find the carpet gone: Surprise and then relieve that I didn’t have to do it the next day. A true power of People Power, which is always seen on workdays.
The crew put in 93 hrs and thanks to Jim Brooks, Rory Brooks, John Collins, Shyamal Kapadia, Janie Leifhelm, Alex Moore, Chris Newport, Mike Peasland, Aaron Poulos, Devdutt Sheth, Beth Wichman and Chris Young, from the Crew, Chris's wife Kim, residents Alan, Matt and Patrick, and Chris's two dogs, Batou and Pakkun, who acted as official greeters for the day!
OCT 9 - Fall Creek - Bonny Doon Area
For the second Saturday of the month, Oct. 9th, we were back in Fall Creek but worked on the opposite side of the canyon on the Lost Empire Trail below Bonny Doon. The work was a nice break from the debris removal-burn pile building that we had become accustomed to on the Fall Creek Trail, not to mention the steep uphill climb at the end of the day that no one missed!
The 10/9 work entailed scrapping off the existing layer of duff, evening out the trail tread, restoring the outslope and backslope and then we had everything looking like someone had put a lot of effort into it, we covered the work area with a light layer of duff to make it look as natural as possible and protect it a little from rainfall.
The crew put 83 hrs and thanks to Rory Brooks, John Collins, Dale Elliott, Tommy Ha, Jan Hill, Matt Kelsey, Janette Mello, Whitney Mitchell, Mike Peasland and Chris Young, for coming out on the last of three consecutive Saturday workdays (dating back to Sept).
OCT 23 - Boulder Creek Homestead Rescue
The last October workday was the 23rd and it required some last minute adjustments. We were initially scheduled to continue the trail restoration work begun on Oct. 9th, but due to a large rainstorm forecasted for the 24th and concerns of potential erosion if we disturbed the trail, two days before we cancelled that work and pivoted to return to Chris Young's neighborhood and assisting with preparations for the large storm. Look out the Super is coming.
The work was even less glamorous than our usual efforts but more urgent as we cleared drains, culverts, and road edges, to improve water flow. We filled and placed sandbags in several areas to prevent hillside erosion and road slippage.
Afterwards, we still had time to move firewood closer to Chris's house as he expected to lose power at some point during the storm.
Despite the last minute change in plans, we had a great turnout of 14. The crew put in 110 hrs and thanks to Rory Brooks, David Dunlop, Michele Gelblum, Jan Hill, Janie Leifhelm, Lisa Mauney, Jordan McDaniel, Janette Mello, Chris Newport, Mike Peasland, Dale Petersen, Aaron Poulos, Chris Young, Jo Thorogood, and of course Chris's dogs Batou and Pakkun who once again lent moral and supervising support.
The crew put in 286 hours in October and 1258 hours for the year, which put us less than 100 hours to our record (at least since the park centennial bridge work) of 1,351 hours despite being sidelined the first four months of 2021!
by Mike and Jeff
photos by Mike, Chris, Jan, and Aaron