Work Area in Yellow
As we've worked on the lower stretch of the Sunset Trail between Dool and Middle Ridge Fire Rd. we've been careful not to make it obvious the trail is being cleared so to prevent visitors from wandering into the area before it is ready.
Rather than entering the trail from the Dool juncture in the morning, we access it from a nearby drainage and the upper end below Middle Ridge won't be cleared until the area is ready to be opened to the public.
But as we've reached the final stretch right below Middle Ridge, the trail is less than 50 yards below Gazos Creek Fire Rd so our work and sections of cleared trail became obvious to the passersby above us during our Nov. 12th workday.
Heading into the workday it looked like we had a good shot at completing the trail clearing effort and we came close, but not quite! We finished the previous workday about 100+ yards from the end point and things looked doable until we realized there were also 10 Tan oaks that needed to be removed from the very end of the work area which took unexpected time and created a lot more material to process into burn piles.
It was lunch before the the chainsaw crew could finish felling the trees while the remainder of the crew continued building burn piles lower on the trail and doing detail work to make the area ready for the public.
Lunch
After lunch we were able to move into the final stretch of trail to start clearing the down trees and building burn piles and while we made it to the end point there will be additional material to finish clearing next time along with final touchup to make everything visitor ready.
With a good crew of 24, the numbers for the day were 10 small-medium Tan oaks felled and bucked up, seven burn piles started and completed, one left in process at the end point along with final detail work.
Burn Piles on Sunset (Watercolor by Bruce Washburn)
The crew put in 175hrs and thanks to Daryn Bieri, Nan Bowman, Jim Brooks, Rory Brooks, Denis DeCeuster, Dale Elliott, Tommy Ha, Michael Klimushyn, Andrea Lee, Janie Leifhelm, John Martin, Janette Mello, Sean Miller, Joe Mitchell, Mike Peasland, Kiran Reddy, Chad Reynolds, Devdutt Sheth, Dave Signor, Cassie Sprenger, Bruce Washburn, Chris Young, Daniel Zichuhr and newcomer Deepak Mahudeswaran for another good workday.
by Mike and Jeff
photos by Bruce, Daryn, and Mike