Well we have definitely turned a corner as we progress down Fall Creek Trail towards the Lime Kilns. After several months we are within a day's work of reaching the historic Barrel Mill Site and the new trail reroute that was put in this year. All this progress means that we can use a different connector trail down to our work site that is a bit shorter, about a 20 minute hike. I think everyone will agree that we are over hiking the steep portion of the Big Ben Trail to get back to our cars.
Having done a scouting trip earlier in the week, it was clear that our current burn pile areas would need to accommodate more material from the quarter mile of trail on either side. These sections of trail are steep and close to the creek and offer no place to construct burn piles. We divided the crews up so they could tackle two tasks. The first was to rework the burn piles and make them larger so that they could accommodate more material and then to move the logs that we cut logging out some burned and fallen trees next to our work area.
There was a large pit on the creek side of the trail that Kile from State Parks said could be used to hold the logs and help prevent erosion. As you can tell from the pictures the ash pit crew perfectly arranged the logs into an interlocking log art installation.
The second crew headed west up the trail to start clearing, making piles and painstakingly haul the material down to the burn piles. Some ideas for hauling were better than others and clearly team Aaron, Jordan and Jeanette were the most productive. The weather was perfect, the creek side site was beautiful and as we where hiking out we got those awe inspiring views of the light filtering through the massive redwoods, highlighting just why we are there working so hard to keep these trails accessible so everyone can have that experience. Next timeout we will finish our trail cleanup on either side of the burn pile site and more than likely reach the Barrel Mill Site. BBVTC ever forward!
The crew put in 103 hours and thanks to Rory Brooks, John Collins, Michele Gelblum, Charles Jalgunas, Janie Leifhelm, Jordan McDaniel, Janette Mello, Chris Newport, Aaron Poulos, Devdutt Sheth, Chris Young and Howard Higley, for the effort.
by John C.
Photos by Chris Y. and Chris N.