The weather forecast for the Trail Crew's August 14th workday was in our favor - it was wrong! The forecast had called for a temperature of about 90 degrees and possible humidity from a monsoon storm out of the southwest desert, but it was only about 80. We also worked our way into a cooler section of the Fall Creek Trail closer to the creek, so it was downright pleasant compared to recent Fall Creek days but that didn’t mean there wasn’t sweating going on.
After canceling the July 10th workday because of a 103 degree heatwave and working at Rancho del Oso on July 24th, we began our first Fall Creek work in seven weeks with some cleanup work. We had left several piles of slash on the edge of the trail that needed to be moved to the proper location, so we cut and dragged everything to nearby burn piles where it was left as feeder piles when the actual burning takes place.
After the work was completed, we hiked 0.4 miles down the trail to the next area that was large enough to accommodate burn piles and it was the coolest section of trail we've worked so far in Fall Creek. Most of the crew went to work clearing the area and establishing two burn piles while several others worked on clearing a couple of two foot trees overhanging the trail.
The crew put in 78hrs and thanks to John Collins, Peter Gelblum, Matt Kelsey, Lisa Mauney, Mike Peasland, Devdutt Sheth, Chris Young, Charles Jalgunas and Whitney Mitchell, for another good and cooler than expected workday.
by Mike and Jeff
photos by Mike, Charles, and Lisa