Post Santa Cruz Lighting Complex Fire, trail work has meant many adjustments for the Big Basin Volunteer Trail Crew, the most obvious being we have yet to begin work in Big Basin due to ongoing dangers and fire re-ignitions. But our current work in the Fall Creek section of Henry Cowell brings it's own challenges, namely that it's about 8 degrees warmer in Fall Creek than at Big Basin.
It may not seem much, but it can be the difference between 80 degrees at Basin and upper 80's in a narrow ravine with little air circulation and a big uphill climb at the end of the day at Fall Creek.
Despite these challenges, we continue to have good turnouts with the Crew exhibiting dedication to the recovery of not only Big Basin, but the other Santa Cruz mountain State Parks that were damaged by last August's fires.
Our June 26th workday was another good turnout with 10 people and while the work was the same as previous Fall Creek days, it was fortunately cooler and not as humid as the June 12th workday, so much nicer! We picked up where we left off last time and were able to cut and clear debris from the trail, construct two burn piles and stage additional debris for future burn locations that will need to be scouted before the next workday.
The crew put in 79 hours and thanks to Rory Brooks, John Collins, Shyamal Kapadia, Janie Leifhelm, Janette Mello, Mike Peasland, Devdutt Sheth, Chris Young, Matt Kelsey and Chris Newport, for putting in the hard work.
by Mike and Jeff
photos by Mike
In my note before the June 12th workday, I mentioned that Chris Pereira said they recently borrowed a temporary steel bridge for the Gazos Creek fire road over the Opal Creek crossing and I wondered what happens when the bridge owner wants it back! Well, Bill Fjellbo wrote back saying they got a 'temporary' bridge near his place in Coarsegold in the early 1990's and it's still in use today! So I guess it all depends on your definition of temporary.